Backpacking South America

San Telmo is one of the original barrios of Buenos Aires. It is filled with buildings and houses in the colonial style with cobblestone streets. Located just off the center of town, San Telmo is known for its antiques shops. On our first foray into the neighborhood, we wandered through the streets and into large buildings and mansions that used to accommodate the wealthy porteños, but are now used for large indoor markets. We wandered into one market and it was so large that we found ourselves getting a bit disoriented. We were both amazed by the shear volume of old stuff this city seems to have collected. The main antique district takes up about a half mile on the main street with smaller shops down the side streets. It seems that every storefront on the street and inside the massive markets are all filled with antiques dealers.

However, a weekday in San Telmo is tranquil compared to Sunday’s madness. We had read about a weekly market in San Telmo held on Sunday’s, but thought it was isolated to Plaza Dorrego, a small square at one end of the neighborhood.  When we returned on Sunday, we expected a block or two of vendors at the most and we were surprised and slightly overwhelmed to see just how long and crowded the street fair was and how much stuff was out.    

The fair shut down most of a major street through San Telmo, Calle Defensa, and booths are set up selling crafts, antiques, art and clothes.   It stretches for nearly a mile and every inch is filled by booths, street performers and mobs of people.  As we wandered through, it just seemed to go on forever, all we could see were people in front and behind us and the endless booths selling china, watches, stereophones, antiques, junk, crafts and everything else. It was an experience not to be missed and a sight definitely worth seeing.

We escaped the market with only one minor casualty – we found a notebook that was perfectly suited for documenting our time and travels in Argentina.

Entire photo set in Flickr:

Background on San Telmo

The San Telmo barrio is one of the original portions of the Buenos Aires and was originally filled with wealthy colonists and their mansions and fancy buildings. However, the yellow fever outbreak in 1871 sent the wealthy residents out to the northern barrios (Palermo, Recoleta, etc.) The neighborhood then became a cheap, slightly dangerous neighborhood. Modernization and reconstruction skipped over San Telmo for decades, leaving the original buildings intact, if not in slightly dilapidated condition. Eventually, antique merchants began creeping into San Telmo and with the constant stream of tourists wandering the narrow cobblestone streets – the neighborhood is being revitalized/gentrified. San Telmo is a very touristy portion of town, but wandering the streets, it isn’t hard to imagine what life was like in Buenos Aires in its early day’s.

Sources:
Argentina, Footprint Guide, 2008 edition
Let’s Go Buenos Aires, 2009 edition