Antique Heaven

The cobbled streets of San Telmo are filled with hundreds of antiques stalls selling all kinds of memorbilia from gramaphones to postcards. The selection and quality is incredible, but of course, there´s always the tat as well. I suppose though, one man´s tat is another man´s treasure! Here´s a selection of some of the stalls.

A Sunday Stroll through San Telmo

Yesterday we went for a stroll through the cobbled streets and market vendors of San Telmo. The area is now famous for it´s antique market and tango dancers on this street. At every corner you turn, you´re confronted by tango bands, dancers, models dressed in tango regalia or street artists all vying for your attention. Mixed in with this is are old relics left over from the golden years of 30´s and 40´s that fill the antiques stalls and shops. It´s a real feast for the senses, the visual appeal of the stalls, dancers and colonial architecture, the sound of the music filling the air, the heat from the sun and the smell from the antiques on the stalls. It all combines together to creates a great vibe, that is special to this area.

If you take away the performers and the vendors, San Telmo is stripped back to reveal the grandiose, colonial buildings with intricate ironwork and pretty facades. Coupled with the cobbled streets and old tram lines, you get a glimpse of the what the grand Buenos Aires was like. Now though, that grandeur has gone, only to leave crumbling paint. The only new paint in this area is now graffiti.

I do like San Telmo. It offers a most pleasurable way to spend a Sunday. I think we´ll end up there a few more times before leave.

Perfect Pastries

We pop into our local panaderia, Confeteria La Campana, every day, whether for a small little sweet snack, a tarte for lunch or some bread rolls. I´m sure they think we´re mad as we´re always popping in. They´re really friendly and very chatty. It turns out that they make everything on the premises, including the chocolates, pastries and tartes - all of which are delicious.

The Women and Food in Buenos Aires

I have been in awe at the women here in BsAs. They are so thin and toned. Not only are they thin, but they´re generally very petite. After seeing what they eat I´m not surprised. Steak and salad. So without knowing it they´re all on Atkins! Even with this slim build, they´re looking after themselves as well. There are lots of toned women of all ages around - it´s such a contrast to the ever increasing waistline of Britain.

The women in the milongas are especially thin, mainly because they dance tango all night and don´t drink alcohol. The simple reason is that it´s almost impossible to dance after couple of drinks, so if you want to dance, you avoid the drinks and sip soft drinks or coffee.

The Argentines don´t just eat steak and salad. There´s lots of lovely pasta from the Italian heritage and they also do fabulous pastries and biscuits. The panaderies (bread shops) stock hundreds of different kinds of petit fours, tarts and cakes and they really are fabulous. But because they´re all so small, you can easily taste just one, without having to buy a dozen and then eat them all in one go! Alternatively, you can go for a coffee where they will provide a small glass of water and a couple of the petit fours as an accompaniment.

A couple of things they don´t do very well is fish and cheese. Firstly, fish. Because meat is such high quality and so cheap, fish doesn´t really get in a look in. And if you find fish on the menu, the restaurant often won´t have it in. If they do, then they don´t cook it very well or the quality isn´t great. This is true even on the coast. In Argentina meat rules. Secondly, cheese. They´ve got all these cows and then the European influence from Spain, Germany and Italy, but still the cheese isn´t that great. Their cheese shops double as delicatessens and these are often overrun with hundreds of varieties of sausages. Damn! Not that great for a fish eating vegetarian.

Moved into our Apartment

We´ve moved into our little apartment in San Cristobel, an area between Once and San Telmo. Once is great for local milongas and San Telmo is perfect for living and breathing tango (for tourists). It´s also only a few stops to the centre of town, so a perfect location all in all. It´s nice to have our own space, own kitchen and own sofa to chill out. We´ve found a language school a few blocks away, a great coffee shop, a fast, cheap internet shop and generally a lovely, little neighborhood. As you walk down the street, you can hear teh old classic tango songs coming from porteño´s radio. The locals sit on their door steps and watch the world go by as the smell of coffee shops and parillas (Argentine BBQ) fill the air.

It´s quite different to the UK. The set up is quite traditional with small shop keepers providing different services - from laundry shops, greengrocer, small supermarket and panaderia (special bread shop). Since they´re all close by, we´ve been shopping as we need it. We go into the same shops every day and so we´re building relationships with the owners. People smile, talk and have a conversation with us. It´s quite a leap from the unfriendly areas of London where the large supermarkets dominate in a huge cold and clinical warehouse (not a big fan of this - bring back local services!).

Our First Taste of a Milonga

In the evening of New Year´s Day we met with our soon-to-be landlord and Bridget and Leo, our tango teachers from London, in a lovely, traditional ´salon de tango´ in Once. Once is an area of Buenos Aires close to the centre. It´s a bit rough around the edges, but there are lots of milongas (tango nights) held around here. (Photo here by Carlos Alkim).

The tango salon was a traditional old tango hall with a four large marble columns supporting the ceiling which also marked out the edge of the dancefloor. Tables and chairs were laid out around the edge of the dancefloor and a waitress provided a slow, Argie style table service. The club was frequented by porteños (the term used for people who live in BsAs) and not for foreigners. As we arrived at the door, the organiser checked us out and offered us a table in the worst spot - at the back, against the wall and close to the door, so we would have been distracted and annoyed by the comings and goings of the club. As it happened, our porteños had reserved a table, on which we were included, so we informed the organiser and he allowed us to wander freely to find them. Throughout the night, he asked us three times if we found our friends, with a slight feeling of mistrust I think!

Our porteños had a great spot, right on the edge of the dancefloor and close to the bar. After greeting our friends we put on our shoes and took the dancefloor, whilst it was still not too busy. The music was all the old tango classics that we´re familiar with. After four songs, there is an intercession of 50´s rock and roll to denote the end of the session and to change partners.

By 1am, we´d had enough (New Year´s Eve catching up with us) so we headed back to our hostel and went to bed.

Stuart Little

The South Americans really seem to struggle with our names. For ease I call myself Nicole (Nicola is actually a man´s name over here - which is nice) and Stuart, well everyone knows his name. The other day, I had nipped off to get something and met Stuart in a clothes shop. He was in the changing room and so I asked the shop assistant if he was still here. He asked for his name and so I said "Stuart" and he replied, "Ah, Stuart Little". The children at Seeds of Hope all called him "Stuart Little" as well. So there, I´m married to a small hairy mouse - I never realised how popular that movie was!

Happy New Year!

Well, we were at a bit of a loss about what to do for New Year´s Eve. Thinking Buenos Aires was one of the party capitals of South America, it seems that NYE is family time and believe it or not, the bars close! Yes, you read that right. There are only two nights of the year that bars and many bistro type bars are closed - NYE and Christmas Eve. The Argies celebrate by eating late (as usual) with the family and then maybe wandering to a bar on the way home or perhaps a club - but the bars and clubs don´t open until 2am.

So where does that leave all the tourists? Mainly, stuck! You can´t get into a restaurant for love nor money, so a group of us from the hostel ended up down in the port on the waterfront. There was a small kiosk, which sold crappy wine and beer, so we chilled out and watched some fireworks. By 1.30am, we decided to go a club nearby - Opera Bay - which, I have to say is one of the coolest clubs I´ve ever been in. It´s kind of like a squashed Sydney Opera House and it looks over the port. There are five large rooms, stylish water features, a decked area outside and fabulous views over Puerto Madero. Great for summer, but I imagine it to be a little chilly in the winter!

Stu and I crawled home at about 5am - quite a strange night. Here´s us at the end of the night...

New Year´s Day

We spent New Year´s Day chilling out in the hostel as virtually all of BsAs was closed, except for a street called Lavalle where all the tourists eat, drink and generally hang out. It´s a bit like Soho, with naff, overpriced restaurants that aren´t very good. We managed to get some lunch in one of these restaurants with two of our other hosteleers. Stu was his usual monkey-self as he had hangover and managed to break a glass in the restaurant as we chatted with our companions about the explosion of the internet. One of the guys with us headed up a sales team at Google, so the conversation was fascinating.