Barrio San Telmo Sunday 28 Deciember

Domingo 28 Deciembre Barrio San Telmo




We slept in Sunday AM after last night’s late dinner late….and I mean late. We decided to head for Barrio San Telmo, Between our Barrio Barracas and Barrio Monserrat where our school is located. Out the door by 11:00 AM and we rode the bus within a three block walk to Avenida Defensa where the street is closed of for 8 or 10 blocks. Lots of tourists and Porteños (Buenos Aires Residents), jugglers, street musicians, mime artists and Tango dancers all performing on a narrow cobblestone street lined with ornate buildings constructed in the late 1800’s. Amazing show and great talent. Below is a picture of Defensa on Sunday and Monday when it’s fairly empty.

Below is a mime that had the look of a frantic Porteño commuter.

                                  He stood like this forever until someone dropped money in his cup.

In the midst of all of this talent was my personal favorite, 2 blocks of street torn up for reconstruction. You can see the top of the water main, cast iron and maybe 30” in diameter with a foot of cover at the most. Lots of the services had been renewed, they are yellow plastic. Like most Latin countries, they don’t have main line pressure in the houses. Each service fills individual storage tanks on top of each building and the interior plumbing has static pressure according to how high each tank is. I think everybody drinks bottled water.

As we walked back home, this drum group walked slowly down the street with quite a following. Wish I would have filmed it a bit more.

Each side street in San Telmo has it’s own flavor. I don’t remember the street, but there were several cabarets in one area, most on the second floor with narrow winding stairs. A fire marshals nightmare. We saw the following Tango Show. Great stuff.

Back home to do our homework for Monday morning.  Click on the LOCATION link below.



Ciao