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| Me and Sue at San Telmo market. |
Palermo is BA's largest barrio. It's really beautiful and super trendy like Mission or Kensington in Calgary. It has tons of bars, restaurants, cafe's and shopping. People are sipping wine and coffee on terraces and it has a a young vibe. It is the place to party in the evenings we were told. Andy, our football game guide, told up that in BA from Thurs-Sat people generally eat dinner at 9-10pm, hang out at friend houses until 1-2am, when the bars open, then dance until 6-7am.
We pretty much just walked around and checked things out here the afternoon before going to the soccer game.
On Sunday we decided to check out the neighborhood of San Telmo, as they have a Sunday market that is supposed to be good. We discovered, while trying to take the train there, that the entire subway system was shutdown...never figured out why and the hotel staff seemed surprised as well, so we ended up taking a cab (thankfully, it was pretty cheap and not too far away).
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| My lunch! BBQ sausage on a fresh bun! yum! |
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| Tango performances on the street! |
San Telmo is the oldest barrio in Buenos Aires. It dates back to the 17th century, when it was first home to dockworkers and brick-makers, and later became an industrial area. San Telmo was a poor area, and one attempt to address this was the establishment of the Parish of San Pedro González Telmo in the area in 1806. ‘San Telmo’ is the patron saint of seafarers, and he is the namesake of the barrio today.
It is a well-preserved area filled with colonial buildings. Cafes, tango parlors and antique shops line the cobblestone streets that were filled with artists and dancers.
The market was fantastic! One of the better street markets I've been to...it was huge, and went on for so many blocks we walked for hours and never saw an end to it! The stalls were all unique and were selling amazing jewelry, art, crafts etc. We both bough some original art and some silver jewelry.
It is a well-preserved area filled with colonial buildings. Cafes, tango parlors and antique shops line the cobblestone streets that were filled with artists and dancers.
The market was fantastic! One of the better street markets I've been to...it was huge, and went on for so many blocks we walked for hours and never saw an end to it! The stalls were all unique and were selling amazing jewelry, art, crafts etc. We both bough some original art and some silver jewelry.
So, on Saturday, when we were chatting with the girl at the front desk of our hotel to arrange a car to take us to the airport Sunday for our flight to Mendoza. When we mentioned that we were returning to Buenos Aires on April 10th she said "You know about the strike right?"...We were all, "strike?"...
Apparently, all government workers in the entire country are going on an organized strike April 10 for one day...that includes airports, buses, banks, metro, taxis etc... She said the last time they did this was 6 years ago and while it is possible it will be cancelled she thought it was likely it would occur.
We have been asking around about it for the last few days trying to figure out what to do...we have plane tickets to fly from Mendoza to BA on the 10th and a bike tour booked for the 11th and a flight from BA to El Calafate on the 13th...
We were discussing it yesterday and decided to check LAN airlines to see if they were even still selling tickets on the 10th and what our flight options were for the 11th should things get cancelled. Flights for the 10th were not available to book at all and there were 5 flights at least on every other day which made us feel a bit nervous. What happens if there is a strike and we can't get out of here for several days? What if we miss our flight to El Calafate? It's a nice city we are in but I don't want to fly all the way to Argentina to just get trapped in Mendoza and miss all the other fun things we were planning to see.
We decided to be proactive and change our flight to the 11th. Luckily, there was a LAN office a couple blocks form our hotel and we got there 30 mins before they closed. Thank goodness we did! We got the last couple tickets left on the 11th for a 655 am flight... I think had we waited any longer we would have been trapped here for several days. They didn't even charge us a fee as it was due to the strike and I guess everyone was doing the dame thing. We scheduled our bike trip in BA from the 11th to the 12th and booked the hotel here for one more night.
We were discussing it yesterday and decided to check LAN airlines to see if they were even still selling tickets on the 10th and what our flight options were for the 11th should things get cancelled. Flights for the 10th were not available to book at all and there were 5 flights at least on every other day which made us feel a bit nervous. What happens if there is a strike and we can't get out of here for several days? What if we miss our flight to El Calafate? It's a nice city we are in but I don't want to fly all the way to Argentina to just get trapped in Mendoza and miss all the other fun things we were planning to see.
We decided to be proactive and change our flight to the 11th. Luckily, there was a LAN office a couple blocks form our hotel and we got there 30 mins before they closed. Thank goodness we did! We got the last couple tickets left on the 11th for a 655 am flight... I think had we waited any longer we would have been trapped here for several days. They didn't even charge us a fee as it was due to the strike and I guess everyone was doing the dame thing. We scheduled our bike trip in BA from the 11th to the 12th and booked the hotel here for one more night.
So a bit of a schedule change but at least we know we'll make it back to BA now!
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