Mi Bici

Dan: OK, I know what you’re going to say. The same thing I said when I first saw my new mode of transportation. Girl bike, right? Well, after having rode around this town for the past month or so, I know the value of a bike without a high crossbar. It is easier to jump on and off, to get up stairs or curbs or to stop quickly. I’m sure there are rules for cars and bikes and pedestrians, but you can’t count on them. I have to be a very alert bicyclist. My childhood years of training on north Minneapolis’ wide bike paths has helped me little on the sidewalks and streets of Mendoza. But I take it slowly, and I still get to work a lot earlier than when I had to walk or take the bus. As things warm up, I’m getting out and seeing more neighborhoods, though my friends tell me to be careful about what neighborhood I go through. Supposedly I make an even more prime target for theft, a gringo on a bright bike (btw that color is not pink. It is known as ‘light red’). But I’ve never felt threatened by anything but traffic. Anyway I’m glad I had a few months to learn the streets as a pedestrian.

Maybe my bicycle acquisition will afford me other employment opportunities:



As a postal carrier.





As a vendor of coffee and rolls to daytime workers downtown.


We’ve never had the camera with us when we’ve seen one of the guys who sharpens knives on the street using bicycle power. He lowers a belt and sharpening wheel over his tire, pedals away and sharpens blades for whoever brings him one. He probably doesn’t have to go to the gym after work.

Motorcycles and all kinds of scooters are very common forms of transportation for individuals and groups. I’m sure I’ve seen a family of four of a motorbike before.

We regularly see horses with carts on the streets too, mostly in the evening. People collect recycleable (read: sellable) materials from places where trash collects and throw in the the horse cart.

I usually choose to use the sidewalks, even though I believe it isn’t lawful. I’d rather run into a pedestrian than a car. At first when we got here it seemed that the drivers were nuts; completely unpredictible. But now I know their patterns, at least on my daily routes. As opposed to how in the states people speed up at the yellow light, stop on red, and go only when the light has turned green, the people here have a similar, but potentially dangerous situation if you don’t know the rules. Here, everyone stops when the yellow light comes on. They do this out of self preservation because they know that the cross traffic sees their yellow light and is already inching into the intersection, in anticipation of the green to come. Its pretty much the same thing we do in The States, only cheating at the beginning of the green instead of the end. Even knowing the rules, I’m a little surprised I haven’t gotten clobbered yet. Louann doesn’t want to ride a bike here. She won’t even go for a little spin on my bike. And she doesn’t want to know anything about any near-misses of mine.