“I don’t want to walk home today, it’s over 2 miles. I wish we had enough coins to take the bus. I mean, it’s only AR $2.40 for both us (that’s about $0.65 US), but we never seem to have enough coins. It shouldn’t be this difficult to ride the bus.” This routine day after day has definitely been the bane of our existence as well as a game we are learning to master.
The colectivos (buses) in Buenos Aires, only take coins. As we mentioned in our First Impressions post , it’s a racket. Everybody uses the colectivos to get around, to go to school, to go to work or run errands. They are always full, all the time. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of times I have actually gotten a seat.
People rely on coins to catch the bus to take them where they need to go. In fact, they hoard their coins so they can ride the colectivos, and the government doesn’t seem to create enough of them to meet the demand. As a result, the colectivos get all the coins, while merchants and people alike refuse to part with their coins.
Click to continue reading “Working the System, One Cent(avo) at a Time”
