San Telmo

Buen dia...So this morning (being 1pm for us), Lesley and I embarked on a mission to San Telmo. It is a neighborhood about 20 minutes away via el subte (public metro line) and the area is famous for its Sunday market.

I guess that describing the adventure on the subte is a story in itself. Ill try and make it short. Being our first time taking the underground metro, we had some doubt as we heard it wasn't the safest route to take, but seeing as we will be here 3 months, decided to go for it and become familiar riding it, sooner rather than later. Upon buying passes that are good for 10 rides, we swiped them through the machine, entered through the gate and then realized we were heading the wrong direction. Go team :D So...we left, crossed the street, re-entered and after explaining to the woman behind the counter that we had already paid but gone the wrong way, she understood and told us to pass...but the gate required our card to be swiped again.... So this random old man sees us looking somewhat confused and approaches. Explaining in a difficult/raspy/slang Spanish, he says we need to re-swipe our cards. We told him we had, yet he insisted we do it again...3 more times, actually. Hahahhaha! Basically he ran my card down from 10 trips to 7 trips in a matter of seconds until I realized what was happening and kindly told him I was capable of doing it myself. Lesley...well her card dropped a few trips also. Living and learning, it's what we do :D Then old man proceeded to follow us on the metro and appoint himself to be our tour-guide for the duration of the trip. Unfortunatley for him, we decided it was best to hop off a few stops before him and continue on our way. Sorry sketchy tour-guide, we're independent ladies :D Ok, so onto describing the Sunday Market...

So, this "Sunday market" is more like a 10 block festival that attracts people from all over the world. Vendors line the streets selling everything from shoes,dresses,hats and coats, to fresh-squeezed orange juice and mate (the countries famous tea) to their own personal possessions that they hope to sell. These items varied from used baby bottles and kitchen utensils, to small antique-looking knick-knacks to lamp shades. Basically, this market had anything and everything. I was impressed. Even better was that as we wandered around in a overwhelming state of awe, local musicians/street performers/people dancing the tango, etc., were surrounding us. Most impressive was a group of indigenous people that were dressed in traditional clothing and playing such beautiful music, that I got goosebumps. Yes, it was that good :) Our mission of exploring and sight seeing San Telmo took a good 7 hours and our feet were done for towards the end. We popped into mercado for some fresh veggies. The prices are ridiculously cheap and we have been living on caprese y otras cosas deliciosas :D If you made it through this long post...point for you. Ill try and keep em' short, but this is as much for me as you all...my "dear diary" if you will. ahhahaha! until next time, chao