Discovering Buenos Aires Day 2

We spent our second day in Buenos Aires exploring the San Telmo area, in search of the famous Sunday market.  This involved taking the Subte for the first time.  But, we had to find an open station first which proved challenging.  We went to the first station, “cerrado”.  We went to the second station, “cerrado”,  Hmmm.  What on earth did we miss?  We sat in the park and crammed through our guidebooks.  Nothing.  Is it a holiday?  Noooooo…… According to our sources, the Argentineans celebrate Columbus Day with a focus on Argentina but not until October 12^th.   Not helping.  Finally, we mustered the courage to ask a lovely couple and the gentleman pointed across the street, “this one is open”.   We clamored down the steps and purchased our tickets.  10 viajes (trips) for $2.78 US!  Now that’s cheap for $.28 per ride….GRACIAS!!  The Subte is very easy to travel and we must have looked like experienced riders because eventually someone stopped to ask us for directions.  All we could reply is “no hablo espanol”.  

We arrived at our station, walked a few blocks looking for this great tapas and wine bar, recommended by our guidebook, on San Lorenzo.  As we turned the corner of the street, we came across Che Guevera painted on the brick wall.  Awesome!  This next to half naked people drinking bottles of beer, sunning and resting on a mattress.  We kid not.  It was weird.  Grateful to find the address of the great tapas and wine bar, we ducked into the restaurant.  Except, the restaurant changed and is now an Irish pub.  Not terribly concerned, we stayed any way.  That was a mistake.  The beer was great but the food was terrible!  De nada.  It was cheap and fueled us enough to begin our exploration of the San Telmo markets!

Although the markets are crowded with people, both tourists and Argentineans, it was very cool.  Local artists had their work sprawled on the streets and in stalls.  There was something for everyone.  Mate bowls, scarves, jewelry, leather bags, animals made of wire, t-shirts, woven bracelets, and a really great representation of antiques.  We purchased black and white photographs of tango dancers and felt like we ripped the artist off:  5 photos for $20 US dollars.  The artist is a documentary photographer and writes for one of the local BA papers “Tiempo Argentina”. He had lots of photographs that displayed many of the demonstrations that are popular here and of the homeless in BA. We walked away thinking wow……he was very talented and should charge more.  

Eventually, we got to Plaza Dorrego, the second oldest square in the city.  Here, there were many vendors selling antiques.  It was incredibly cool.  Christie wanted to buy everything and we settled on an antique soda water bottle.  The bottles used to be on the counter tops of every bar in Buenos Aires, back in the day.  At some point, we heard a crowd clapping and joined in to see what was happening.  Tango!  We watched a couple do the Tango (video coming soon), the dance of Argentina.  It was lovely.  

We headed home to sit on our fabulous balcony, sipping champagne and watching the sunset….yeah we know….wish you were here too!

Ciao!

Drinks on the patio!  

Lucca learns about BA

Bar food - yech!

Traveling Gals in Subte!