Buenos Aires is Flat

The title says it all. Buenos Aires is flat. Flatter than any city I’ve been in before. In fact, a large part of Argentina is flat. Just one more geographical tidbit that I’ve learned since I started traveling. Don’t get me started about how South American time zones relate to Toronto.

I noticed this phenomenon as I was on the inbound flight from Santiago. If you look at a map of South America, you’ll see that the path starts by crossing over the Andes. This passes over some of the highest peaks in the Andes. In fact, some of the highest peaks in the southern hemisphere. The first thirty minutes of the two-hour flight pass over jagged ridges, deep valleys, and snowy peaks. Stunning scenery.

Once you leave the eastern foothills that form the western border of Argentina, the rugged disappears. It’s not even gradual. The mountains just stop. 

While still almost 1000km from Buenos Aires, the strongest characteristic of the terrain is the complete lack of peaks and valleys. It’s like someone rolled a giant rolling pin over the entire eastern part of the country. A check of the topographical map shows that there are some mountains near San Luis in the middle of the country, but the route didn’t go that far north. And over that 1000km, the height drops from 750m above sea level to a mere 30m. You can do the math, but over that distance, it works out to be pretty flat.

My realization about the level of flat didn’t click in until we were on approach to the city. Buenos Aires is a pretty big city. Just under three million people in the city proper. Around fourteen million in the metropolitan area, which covers about 3800 square kilometers. So there was a good fifteen or twenty minutes spent flying across the city as we approached Jorge Newbery Airport. And for the entire time, I was looking for hills. Some geological feature that hints at tectonic activity. 

Nothing. The plain on which Buenos Aires sits has a maximum height of 45 meters above sea level. Not much, but even less when you consider that the Rio de la Plata, the river that provides to coast for BA, is 34 meters above sea level.

Flat. Completely flat. 

On the plus side, it makes walking and biking throughout the city a breeze. A three-hour bike ride through the southern portion of BA and there was only a city block’s length that required any pedaling effort. And don’t think that ‘up hill’ was anything more than a gentle rise. I’m okay with that trade-off.