If you are in Buenos Aires on a Sunday, you must visit San Telmo's market, an open air antique market right at the hippie neighbourhood of San Telmo. It seems that the whole population was there with the tourists, of course.
You can find old things, as well as art pieces - photographs and paintings - artcrafts and clothes.
You can find old things, as well as art pieces - photographs and paintings - artcrafts and clothes.
Make sure you wear a good pair of shoes. You will certainly walk a lot. The market main street goes on for about 10 blocks!!!All the way to the Plaza Del Mayo.
FROM WIKIPEDIA: San Telmo ("Saint Pedro González Telmo") is the oldest barrio (neighborhood) of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is a well-preserved area of the Argentine metropolis and is characterized by its colonial buildings. Cafes, tango parlors and antique shops line the cobblestone streets, which are often filled with artists and dancers.
San Telmo's attractions include old churches (e.g. San Pedro Telmo), museums, antique stores and a semi-permanent antique fair (Feria de Antigüedades) in the main public square, Plaza Dorrego. Tango-related activities for both locals and tourists are in the area.
Sombreros= hats!
I love the characters that you find just hanging out there.
It was impressive to see the number of Brazilian tourists. They were speaking Portuguese everywhere, a real difference from 15 years ago when Argentineans used to come to Brazil for vacations. Our turn now! 
You can find pretty much everything there!
Me showing off my 4 and half months pregnant belly while enjoying the hot weather at the market. 
This lady was dancing tango, right there on the street.
It's a great place to take pictures, but we were warned many times to really be careful with our bags and cameras. 
Girls are selling home made empanadas on every corner.
We went in the San Telmo Market (an indoor one). There they sell antiques, clothes, art crafts and food. It's an old and almost ugly place. But because of its picturesque look, it turns into an original and fun little place.
Our waiter
making some meat empanadas.
They also sell fruits and vegetable like any other market.
Here Mike was trying to bargain, but they are tough! He walked away and the lady didn't want to settled at 5 pesos less, or less than 2 dollars.
This main street (Defensa street) is packed with people and hippies selling theit stuff on both side walks.
We went in the San Telmo Market (an indoor one). There they sell antiques, clothes, art crafts and food. It's an old and almost ugly place. But because of its picturesque look, it turns into an original and fun little place.
We decided to eat in the market. It's not the cleanest place, but for 20 pesos (about 6 dollars) we had a delicious meal with meat loaf and french fries.
Our waitermaking some meat empanadas.
They also sell fruits and vegetable like any other market.
Here Mike was trying to bargain, but they are tough! He walked away and the lady didn't want to settled at 5 pesos less, or less than 2 dollars.
This main street (Defensa street) is packed with people and hippies selling theit stuff on both side walks.Sometimes it's hard to move foward.
After hours of walking, we got to the Plaza Del Mayo and headed to another part of the city: the Recoleta neighbourhood.
FROM WIKIPEDIA: Recoleta is a downtown residential neighborhood in the city of Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina; it is an area of great historical and architectural interest, due, particularly to the Recoleta Cemetery located there. It is also an important tourist destination and cultural center of the city.
It is also considered one of the more affluent neighborhoods, and the cost per square meter/foot of real estate is one of the highest in the city.
The Recoleta is accessible by the “D Line” of the Buenos Aires Subway which passes through the neighborhood.
This place was also very busy with local families and tourists enjoying the sunny Sunday.
There are people walking dogs everywhere in the areas that we visited. The sad part is that I don't think people are used to cleaning up after their puppies. There is dog poopo all over the sidewalks. Watch out when you walk around!
We also visited the famous Recoleta Cemetery.
FROM WIKIPEDIA: La Recoleta Cemetery is a famous cemetery located in the exclusive Recoleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It contains the graves of some of the most important Argentines, including Eva Perón, Raúl Alfonsín, and several presidents of Argentina.
The monks of the Order of the Recoletos arrived in this area, then the outskirts of Buenos Aires, in the early eighteenth century. The cemetery is built around their convent and a church, Our Lady of Pilar, built in 1732. The order was disbanded in 1822, and the garden of the convent was converted into the first public cemetery in Buenos Aires. Those responsible for its creation were the then-Governor Martin Rodriguez (buried here) and government minister, Bernardino Rivadavia. The 1822 layout was done by city architect and civil engineer Próspero Catelin, who also designed the current facade of the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral.
During the 1870s, following the epidemic of yellow fever which ravaged the city, many upper-class Buenos Aires neighborhoods fled San Telmo and Montserrat and moved to the northern part of the city, Recoleta. By becoming a high class neighborhood, the cemetery became the final resting place of the families of greatest prestige and power of Buenos Aires.
The cemetery was remodeled in 1881, while Torcuato de Alvear was mayor of the city, by the Italian architect Juan Antonio Buschiazzo. The property contains room for about 4800 vaults, all above ground.
The entrance to the cemetery is through neo-classical gates with tall Greek columns. The cemetery contains many elaborate marble mausoleums, decorated with statues, in a wide variety of architectural styles. The entire cemetery is laid out in sections like city blocks, with wide tree-lined main walkways branching into sidewalks filled with mausoleums.
While many of the mausoleums are in fine shape and well-maintained, others have fallen into disrepair. Several can be found with broken glass and littered with rubbish. Among many memorials are works by notable Argentine sculptors. The tomb of Liliana Crociati de Szaszak is of special interest.
Each mausoleum bears the family name etched into the facade; brass or bronze plaques are added to the front for particular family members. La Recoleta is one of those cemeteries where the tradition of engraving a death date but no birth date has been maintained.
The cemetery was featured in the educational film Destinos as the final resting spot of a wife of the main character.
But the most visited tomb is by far the grave of Eva Peron, former first lady of Argentina, who died in 1952.
FROM WIKIPEDIA:
It was a busy and pleasant day. These two places (San Telmo and Recoleta) are places that any tourist should visit in Buenos Aires, for sure.
After hours of walking, we got to the Plaza Del Mayo and headed to another part of the city: the Recoleta neighbourhood.
FROM WIKIPEDIA: Recoleta is a downtown residential neighborhood in the city of Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, Argentina; it is an area of great historical and architectural interest, due, particularly to the Recoleta Cemetery located there. It is also an important tourist destination and cultural center of the city.It is also considered one of the more affluent neighborhoods, and the cost per square meter/foot of real estate is one of the highest in the city.
The Recoleta is accessible by the “D Line” of the Buenos Aires Subway which passes through the neighborhood.
This place was also very busy with local families and tourists enjoying the sunny Sunday.
There are people walking dogs everywhere in the areas that we visited. The sad part is that I don't think people are used to cleaning up after their puppies. There is dog poopo all over the sidewalks. Watch out when you walk around!
We also visited the famous Recoleta Cemetery.
FROM WIKIPEDIA: La Recoleta Cemetery is a famous cemetery located in the exclusive Recoleta neighbourhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It contains the graves of some of the most important Argentines, including Eva Perón, Raúl Alfonsín, and several presidents of Argentina.
The monks of the Order of the Recoletos arrived in this area, then the outskirts of Buenos Aires, in the early eighteenth century. The cemetery is built around their convent and a church, Our Lady of Pilar, built in 1732. The order was disbanded in 1822, and the garden of the convent was converted into the first public cemetery in Buenos Aires. Those responsible for its creation were the then-Governor Martin Rodriguez (buried here) and government minister, Bernardino Rivadavia. The 1822 layout was done by city architect and civil engineer Próspero Catelin, who also designed the current facade of the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Cathedral.During the 1870s, following the epidemic of yellow fever which ravaged the city, many upper-class Buenos Aires neighborhoods fled San Telmo and Montserrat and moved to the northern part of the city, Recoleta. By becoming a high class neighborhood, the cemetery became the final resting place of the families of greatest prestige and power of Buenos Aires.
The cemetery was remodeled in 1881, while Torcuato de Alvear was mayor of the city, by the Italian architect Juan Antonio Buschiazzo. The property contains room for about 4800 vaults, all above ground.
The entrance to the cemetery is through neo-classical gates with tall Greek columns. The cemetery contains many elaborate marble mausoleums, decorated with statues, in a wide variety of architectural styles. The entire cemetery is laid out in sections like city blocks, with wide tree-lined main walkways branching into sidewalks filled with mausoleums.While many of the mausoleums are in fine shape and well-maintained, others have fallen into disrepair. Several can be found with broken glass and littered with rubbish. Among many memorials are works by notable Argentine sculptors. The tomb of Liliana Crociati de Szaszak is of special interest.
Each mausoleum bears the family name etched into the facade; brass or bronze plaques are added to the front for particular family members. La Recoleta is one of those cemeteries where the tradition of engraving a death date but no birth date has been maintained.
The cemetery was featured in the educational film Destinos as the final resting spot of a wife of the main character.
But the most visited tomb is by far the grave of Eva Peron, former first lady of Argentina, who died in 1952.
FROM WIKIPEDIA:María Eva Duarte de Perón ( 7 May 1919 – 26 July 1952) was the second wife of President Juan Perón (1895–1974) and served as the First Lady of Argentina from 1946 until her death in 1952. She is often referred to as simply Eva Perón, or by the affectionate Spanish language diminutive Evita.
She was born out of wedlock in the village of Los Toldos in rural Argentina in 1919, the fourth of five children. In 1934, at the age of 15, she went to the nation's capital of Buenos Aires, where she pursued a career as a stage, radio, and film actress. Eva met Colonel Juan Perón on January 22, 1944, in Buenos Aires during a charity event at the Luna Park Stadium to benefit the victims of an earthquake in San Juan, Argentina. The two were married the following year. In 1946, Juan Perón was elected President of Argentina. Over the course of the next six years, Eva Perón became powerful within the pro-Peronist trade unions, primarily for speaking on behalf of labor rights. She also ran the Ministries of Labor and Health, founded and ran the charitable Eva Perón Foundation, championed women's suffrage in Argentina, and founded and ran the nation's first large-scale female political party, the Female Peronist Party.
In 1951, Eva Perón renounced the Peronist nomination for the office of Vice President of Argentina. In this bid, she received great support from the Peronist political base, low-income and working class Argentines who were referred to as descamisados or "shirtless ones". However, opposition from the nation's military and bourgeoisie, coupled with her declining health, ultimately forced her to withdraw her candidacy. In 1952 shortly before her death from cancer at the age of 33, Eva Perón was given the official title of "Spiritual Leader of the Nation" by the Argentine Congress. Eva Perón was given an official state funeral despite the fact that she was not an elected head of state.
Eva Perón has become a part of international popular culture, most famously as the subject of the musical Evita. Cristina Alvarez Rodriguez, Evita's great niece, claims that Evita has never left the collective conscience of Argentines. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the first female elected President of Argentina, claims that women of her generation owe a debt to Eva for "her example of passion and combativeness".
She was born out of wedlock in the village of Los Toldos in rural Argentina in 1919, the fourth of five children. In 1934, at the age of 15, she went to the nation's capital of Buenos Aires, where she pursued a career as a stage, radio, and film actress. Eva met Colonel Juan Perón on January 22, 1944, in Buenos Aires during a charity event at the Luna Park Stadium to benefit the victims of an earthquake in San Juan, Argentina. The two were married the following year. In 1946, Juan Perón was elected President of Argentina. Over the course of the next six years, Eva Perón became powerful within the pro-Peronist trade unions, primarily for speaking on behalf of labor rights. She also ran the Ministries of Labor and Health, founded and ran the charitable Eva Perón Foundation, championed women's suffrage in Argentina, and founded and ran the nation's first large-scale female political party, the Female Peronist Party.
In 1951, Eva Perón renounced the Peronist nomination for the office of Vice President of Argentina. In this bid, she received great support from the Peronist political base, low-income and working class Argentines who were referred to as descamisados or "shirtless ones". However, opposition from the nation's military and bourgeoisie, coupled with her declining health, ultimately forced her to withdraw her candidacy. In 1952 shortly before her death from cancer at the age of 33, Eva Perón was given the official title of "Spiritual Leader of the Nation" by the Argentine Congress. Eva Perón was given an official state funeral despite the fact that she was not an elected head of state.
Eva Perón has become a part of international popular culture, most famously as the subject of the musical Evita. Cristina Alvarez Rodriguez, Evita's great niece, claims that Evita has never left the collective conscience of Argentines. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the first female elected President of Argentina, claims that women of her generation owe a debt to Eva for "her example of passion and combativeness".
It was a busy and pleasant day. These two places (San Telmo and Recoleta) are places that any tourist should visit in Buenos Aires, for sure.
The day finished close to our hotel in a local restaurant with good food.
It's time to rest because tomorrow will be our last day here.
Awesome pics Gaby! I love San Telmo :) Checking on the web I found a quick guide to the different Buenos Aires neighborhoods blog with comprehensive information about the most toristic neighborhoods and their attractions.
ReplyDeleteSan Telmo has a special old charm, that for me defines the romantic, charming spirit of Buenos Aires. The neo-classical facades of antique buildings are crumbling, only becoming even more magical and beautiful, like the Hotels in San Telmo. The most vividly abstract and surreal graffiti art decorates cement walls like commissioned murals. It is ugly and beautiful and I love it.
ReplyDeleteSan Telmo is my favorite neighborhood of this city.