Above are two boats that are similar to the one I'm on that will take me to the islands in the Delta.
You can see above that the boats are used to transport quite a bit of luggage along with the passengers. The group I go with brings food for the children and water for cooking and drinking.
The captain's chair -- he moves it forward once we start going, of course!I am really glad not to have a car right now, for a lot of reasons. Most of you know that I love public transportation in general, and it has been really nice to be in a city again (the biggest one I've ever lived in!). Without a car I don't have to worry about parking, insurance, etc. Also, people here are talking a lot about the latest statistics on January 2008 car fatalities, and there's talk of the police getting more serious about enforcing traffic laws. The US State Department's website notes that:
Traffic accidents are the primary threat to life and limb in Argentina. Pedestrians and drivers should exercise caution. Drivers frequently ignore traffic laws and vehicles often travel at excessive speeds. The rate and toll of traffic accidents has been a topic of much media attention over the past year....[D]rivers in Argentina tend to be very aggressive, especially in the capital city of Buenos Aires, and frequently ignore traffic regulations.
The Clarin (an Argentine paper) agrees -- there are double the traffic fatalities (percentage-wise) in Argentina compared to the U.S., and 2007 surpassed 2006. Most of the Argentines I know here are really frustrated by the situation. The upside of the death-talk is that compared to other South American countries the homicide rate here is much lower: 1/4 that of Venezuela and Columbia, 1/3 of Brazil, and 1/2 that of Ecuador.
So with that and many other reasons I am glad to use public transportation! One just has to be careful crossing the street, since despite the large numbers of pedestrians I see here, cars always have the right-of-way (de facto, at least).
A snapshot of my day, or how I got to a meeting: I walked five blocks to the bus stop, then waited for my bus until a woman came along and told us that the line was on strike today. (She'd waited 1 1/2 hours!) So, since I had no idea how else to get to my destination, I went to a telephone center and called the church. Thankfully, the woman who answered the phone lives near me and knew of three other bus lines. So, I walked 1/2 a block to another bus stop (stops in busy areas are for one or two bus lines only, and so each line's stop can be 30 feet apart or so from the previous one -- this works well since the buses run so frequently and several arrive at once). Then it was a quick 20-minute ride and a four block walk to the church office. And I was still 15 minutes early!
