San Telmo

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As we headed out across the bridge, there was a dog leading its owner around by the leash; actually the dog was carrying the leash and the owner had a bag in her hand and we can all guess what was in the bag. This dog was well trained, and he looked like he had a regular beat.
San Telmo is not far from Puerto Madero, so we go to our destination just after 11:00. Our destination was the Sunday antiques fair. Now this is a fair that makes the Bushkill Flea Market look small; it is very crowded and it seems to go on forever. Some of it is outdoors and a lot of it is indoors. As you can see by the shots of the streets, there are tons of people here. You can buy anything here, they have more junk that anyone would know what to do with - need a dash for your 1959 Ford Falcon; you can get one here.
In addition to all of the junk (antique) shopping, there is also the normal fair stuff - paintings, clothes, shoes, woodwork, and jewelry - Charlie & Max, we found your silver blue stone necklace. We also noted that the weekday performers, such as the Mime, also show up here on Sunday - so it looks like this is the big Sunday event in Buenos Aires. Speaking of big, there was a nice young lady wearing stilts handing out paper to get you a discount at some store or other - good idea, at least she can see over the crowd to pick her targets.
Moving down the streets I noticed that the power panels for the buildings are all wrapped in plastic - I am sure they would not meet code in the US, but they seemed to be working here even though you could see all of the wires. I guess 240-volt power keeps prying eyes from playing with them? Just past the power panels there was the usual jugo de naranja sales people - we noted that the price of orange juice went down as we walked further away from the core market.
Anyway, it was getting close to lunchtime and Jo had picked a restaurant out of the travel guide. It was an old French restaurant down at the bottom end of San Telmo, called the Brasserie Petanque. From the outside it didn’t look like much, but on the inside it was a totally different story. We were seated next to a couple of Brits who were also here on holiday, and boy were they enjoying the exchange rate. They had also been to Santiago, Chile and their comment was that the food was much better in Buenos Aires. They were a lovely young couple and we really enjoyed talking to them. Anyway, we both ordered lunch - I had a filet mignon with French fries; this was good, but the best part of the meal was dessert. I had ice cream - this is absolutely the best ice cream I have ever had in my life. The presentation on the plate was also very nice.
So, after a delightful lunch, we finished our tour of the market and headed back to the apartment. On the way there we went past the Juan Fangio Park, where I had my photo taken with Juan. For those of you who don’t know who I am talking about, Juan Fangio is one of the all time greats in car racing - he drove a Mercedes - it is interesting that the park is just across the street from a Mercedes dealership???
So this was our last full day in Buenos Aires. We thought that we would celebrate our time here with one last nice bottle of champagne.

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