Now I'm going to say, I didn't take these pictures. I took quite a few pictures while I was there this weekend, but I felt that they just weren't up to snuff. So here's some other pictures that better photographers than me have taken:
San Telmo is in the downtown area, and it's an area that has largely been preserved with much older buildings than the surrounding downtown. It's just beautiful. It's the oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires, and was originally a prosperous working class neighborhood. It later (in the late 19th century) became impoverished and grand houses became tenements. It eventually became a haven for bohemians and artists, and is also thought of as a birthplace of the Tango (though there are other places with that claim, including the Old City of Montevideo).
Today it's one of the most popular tourist locations, filled with hotels and youth hostels, and a lot of tourist attractions. The old stately houses that had become tenements have now become hotels or artist's markets.
The old San Telmo market has become a massive bazaar with a big focus on Antiques (along with many antique stores throughout the neighborhood).
Every Sunday the San Telmo street fair happens; it was originally centered around the Plaza Dorrego, but has now stretched out for blocks, getting longer and larger every year (to the chagrin of some local residents, but for the most part it's a huge economic boon to the place, and it's amazing to spend a Sunday afternoon wandering it).
On every day of the week, the neighborhood (and especially the Plaza Dorrego) is the best place to get a coffee in the entire city. Also the best place to sit and people watch, or meet with friends.
Anyways, I just figured I had to be fair and present some of the best of my second-favorite South American city. Hope you liked it.
RPGpundit
Currently Smoking: Lorenzetti Egg + Gawith's Navy Flake
Excellent! I visited most of those locations 13 years ago with my father, and I think we stayed in San Telmo. We loved that city. But be honest, after a while, don't you get a bit tired of those tango dancers everywhere?
ReplyDeleteI don't know. Some of them are amateur but most of them are really pretty good; and as a musical form lyrical tango is really good.
DeletePlus, it's not just them. In San Telmo you see all other kinds of street artists. Once I saw a pair of indians doing a dance while twirling literal bolas (solid stone rocks on a string); it was incredibly impressive, inasmuch as they didn't accidentally bash their own skulls in.