Los Colectivos

One thing that sucks about getting the proverbial short end of the "free trade/open markets" stick is that your country's infrastructure and public services have probably been sold off to the highest bidder. As far as I can tell, most public services in Argentina are owned and operated by private companies. Most of the nation's water supplies, electricity, garbage collection, telephones, trains, highways, and buses are run for profit. Even the street signs are sponsored by private enterprise, and each carries an ad above the name of the street. There's clearly much that's not good about this arrangement, and maybe some day when I have more time I'll write a whole post about free trade, Argentina, and the economic collapse of 2002, yada yada. For now, I just want to make one small point, which is that contrary to my previous knee-jerk negative opinion about this issue, I now must admit that privatized services can't always be all bad... because Buenos Aires' bus system is AMAZING!!!

Each line - and there are hundreds - is owned by a separate company, and although no one has given me a definitive answer yet, I'm guessing that these companies are collectives owned by the drivers and mechanics (um, this might be why the buses are called "colectivos" here). Each colectivo co. has its own distinctive color scheme and paint job, and among the individual vehicles of each line, drivers seem to have tremendous freedom to pimp their rides in the manner of their choosing.

So far, I've been witness to: plastic upholstery gone mad, disco fever complete with spotlight and disco ball, heavily mirrored interiors, a tastfully apportioned Led Zeppelin tribute bus, and, clearly the most popular form of adornment, super-flashy bling chrome fender decorations.
So many porteños use the system that on popular routes there are often 5 or 6 colectivos running one-after-the-next, yet unlike our beloved 22-Fillmore in SF, when this happens you only have to wait 2 minutes and another one comes rolling up the street. The route numbers go all the way up to 792, and most folks thus keep a well-thumbsed copy of the Bs. As. transit bible, "La Guia T," handy to figure out any trip that isn't part of their daily familiar routine. Oh, and a ride costs 80 centavos - about 27 cents. F%*"ing incredible.

One minor complaint: diesel stinks!