A walk through San Telmo and more

Yesssss, it does look busy. There are a lot of people. But this isn't the usual BA. First off, it's Christmas time and the city is busy, and secondly, it's tourist season and this is the day of the street market at San Telmo. We met up with our friends Sonia and Noel who had already been in Argentina for weeks. It was hard to even take photos with people crossing in front of you and the risk of loosing things out of your bag. I'm glad I bought a new bag before leaving. It has a huge velcro front flap - easy for me to get into but not for anyone else. I modified it a bit though - what else does Cory do but construct things. My mom used to say I destroyed a lot of things, and grandpa always had to remind me that if it ain't broke don't fix it. Well, sometimes you have to take it apart to make it better. I'm getting pretty good at that. If it's not modified, it's probably not mine.

Back to the topic. This is the "main" street in San Telmo called Defensa. San Telmo is the south half of the centre most part of the city. But to be fair, the city centre is not really in the centre. When a city evolves on a coast, unlike my city of Calgary, it grows only 180 degrees of direction. But BA is even more constrained as the coast wraps around the north end. It can only grow about 110 degrees of direction.

The high end antique stores that line these streets are juxtaposed with the Sunday market which offers flealike wares, spotted with some genuine articles. It's a haven for handmade trinkets, orders of magnitude removed from the $20,000 antiques separated only by the glass windows of the stores. You could buy (if so inclined) Corinthian pillars from who knows where and fabulous chandeliers once imported from France.

Another thing I don't get is the natives wearing feather head dresses. I'm not totally sure but I don't think the local indians ever wore these. Perhaps he's just dressing up - like for Halloween. They play this flute thing everywhere though. And this guy couldn't even play in tune. He was playing Elvis or something and it was grating.


Many of the things here are still inexpensive for our standards though inflation is strong. We've noticed prices at least double in many things since two years ago. But some things are still very much the same. Of key importance is that beer is still cheap.

Ah Avenida Florida! Busy as hell all the time every day every year. It's a pretty cool place - kind of like going to the carnival. And some of the people are like carnies.

The Falabella chain owned by Chile. Considering the Argentines don't really like the Chileans, a lot of people still shop at their stores.....

And la piece de resistance. The Galeria Pacifico. Probably the nicest mall I've been in. You can't make a mall nicer than this. Ceilings are domed with unbelievable fresco's and the inside and outside walls are works of masonic art. The whole interior is covered by a glass ceiling. It has some of the most expensive designer labels.