Although we only stay in San Telmo for a couple of nights, we return on a number of occasions during our stay in BA. It’s a very pretty, artsy area and it's the home of the tango. They say the famous dance was invented right here on the cobble stone streets.
Every Sunday there is a huge street market that starts at the Plaza Dorrego and goes down a street called Defensa for 4-5 blocks. In the plaza they sell antiques and there are always tango dances to entertain the crowd. Sometimes they’re professionals and sometimes they are just locals and a few daring tourists. You can have a drink here and watch the dancing for hours.
As with all markets in BA, there are loads of street performers in addition to the numerous clothes/jewelry stalls. We are lucky because it’s close to carnival time, so there are a lot of samba bands and parades on the streets. We also saw old tango singers, a drummer who drummed manically for at least 30mins without a break, and a painter who throws paint on a large canvas until miraculously, famous faces appear.
Everything being sold in the market is of interest to Alicia and it always takes ages to get from one block to the next. It’s also at this market that we first come across the cool Argentinean signs. There’s a particular style of hand painted signs that originated out of Argentina and after scouting out the best artist, we finally succumb and buy one…among the other things that Alicia had to have.
