HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Just about have my Photos of the Day loaded
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Hot walking around the markets
WORD OF THE DAY: I’m Hot – Kate said this a thousand times
I got a little bit of a sleep in till 7.30am this morning. Princess Kate was still sleeping, so I had a shower and made my way downstairs to the common room to keep plodding on with My Photos of the Day series. Once I start something I need to see it through to the end and it can’t wait a few days it is now, now, now. So I was on a mission this morning to create new Facebook Albums (which I am sure FB are cringing that I could possibly have more photos) and I am going to do the pictures in continents and I am literally picking a photo for every single day I have been away. So once the folders were done and I had uploaded them all into their respective series, I then, using my diary, worked out what days were missing a photo and I will need to go back to my SD cards and then pull out the missing days. All in all there are 36 days missing which isn’t too bad I don’t rekon. My SD cards are all labeled and looking at the day and what we did, I know where to find them, it is a matter of just scrolling through the 1600 pictures I have on each card. So needless to say that kept me busy till 11.30am. It’s nice to have the time to do it. Kate had come down and was watching the Australian Open tennis final with a bunch of other people and it was weird to hear the commentating in Spanish. How old is Rod Laver looking these days and what was with that blue bowtie?
Going from previous days a lot of the restaurants don’t start serving food/lunch till 12 noon. We were heading to the San Telmo markets to spend the afternoon down there and they didn’t start till 11am. We had to pass ‘our’ restaurant again to get to San Telmo so we planned on having lunch there, say hi to our mates and then keep walking to the markets. You can imagine our surprise when we came out of the hotel and the normally very busy pedestrian mall had 3 people in it. Obviously Buenos Aires is a day of rest on a Sunday with only a handful of shops open it was literally like a ghost town, it was just missing the tumble weeds. It was a little surreal after seeing the mall with hundreds of people each day to come out and find 3 people. Well there may have been more than 3, but hardly anyone compared to what there normally is. It’s a good thing that the group gets into town tomorrow, on a Monday, rather than arrive today to not much atmosphere. There wasn’t even much traffic on the roads and we could stand in the middle of the 8 lane street and get some great photos of the Casa Rosada (Pink Palace) and also the other end of the Obelisk. It was actually quite nice to be able to walk around and not having to worry about dodging people, people banging into you or people stopping right in front of you…..
The walk to the San Telmo markets, which are only on Sundays, was only a 15 minute walk from the hotel but boy it was a hot day today. They were predicting 36C and I rekon we were pretty close to that by 1.30pm. It is a dry heat though, so it could be a lot worse if you threw in humidity, so we were lucky there, but man it was hot and Kate kept reminding me every 10 minutes that she was hot. I told her I didn’t want to hear her complain as the first 2 months she has been saying she couldn’t wait for the warmer weather, well sister it’s here!! It was HOT though in Kate defence.
San Telmo is the oldest barrio (neighborhood) of Buenos Aires. It is a well-preserved area of the Argentine metropolis and is characterized by its colonial buildings. Cafes, tango parlors and antique shops that line the cobblestone streets, which are often filled with artists and dancers. Known for its bohemian charm, and slightly run down historic appeal, San Telmo is the neighborhood of Arts and Antiques, Tango and timelessness. San Telmo is energy-filled, quaint and funky on any day of the week, but on Sundays it truly comes to life. Centered around the Antiques Fair in Plaza Dorrego, and stretching down the cobblestone Calle Defensa.
Artisans, musicians, street performers, and elderly antiques vendors come from near and far to share their treasures and their talents with the public. Start at the antiques market, which overflows in the Plaza Dorrego. From jewelry and dresses, to army helmets and tango records, you could spend hours sorting through the plethora of ancient goods. Even if antiques aren’t your thing, exploring the market is like having a key to your grandmother’s attic, or a window into Argentina’s past. If you aren’t satisfied with what is on offer in the Plaza, stroll down Defensa and there are dozens of well-established and stylish Antique stores to cater to your desires. Calle Defensa, San Telmo’s main drag, becomes a pedestrian nightmare for most of the day on Sunday. You can take a long and mellow stroll down this classic street, and enjoy all that it has to offer in peace. Musicians and artists set up all along the avenue, from full scale Tango orchestras to solitary singers and everything in between. The traditional bevy of street artists are there to entertain, human statues painted in gold, clowns on stilts, and the most entertaining, the man caught in the storm, complete with blowing jacket and inverted umbrella.
Arts and crafts from local artisans are for sale up and down the strip and are fun to peruse. Dozens of artists set up on Humberto Primo, running west of Plaza Dorrego, selling every manner of Tango art, paintings, pictures, sculptures, etc. And in a warehouse space, off the corner of the plaza, you can find inexpensive and handmade clothes, great for updating your wardrobe with typical Argentine fashions.
It was pretty cool, the only bummer that there wasn’t any shade when on Calle Defensa so with the sun beating down and walking on the old cobblestones it was a mission to spend any length of time at any of the stalls. Even the merchandise, after sitting in the sun was too hot to touch with some of the jewelry when picked up was scorching. At one point we were on a little rise of the road and we could see all the way to the end of the street, like 1km away, and it was just packed with people! It was a pretty cool sight to see.
I bought a leather diary cover and I nearly bought a coin bracelet, but 60AUD was a little steep I thought, even though what he had done with the coins was amazing. The faces or pictures were cut out of the coin with the outside of the pictures removed. He had all types of country’s coins and he even had an Australian 50 cent piece with the Kangaroo and the Emu with the coat of arms cut, it looked pretty cool, but I said I would have a think about it and I never returned. So after spending nearly 2 hours at the markets we decided to toughen up and we walked back to the hotel to get out of the sun and with nothing else open it really was a day of rest for us as well.
We tried dinner at a different restaurant tonight and then it was back to the hotel for the night. The group arrives tomorrow, so it will be good to see them again. Kate and I feel refreshed and recharged to tackle the next 14 days till we get to Rio. It really was the best thing we could have done. It will be interesting to see how the guys went on that section and if missed out on anything. I hope not.
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