Scenes From San Telmo
Dorrego Square, Buenos Aires - Sun, 30 Dec 2018 - 3pm
Today we went to the San Telmo Street Fair, a big and well known event every Sunday in and around Dorrego Square in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires.
To get here we took the Subte (subway) again. Line C starts just across the park from our hotel, and there's a stop at Av. San Juan just 6 blocks from the edge of the fair. We could have taken a taxi to get there faster but at just 38 cents per ride the subway is a hard bargain to resist! Plus, we were morbidly curious to see if it's still as gross as it was Friday. Thankfully it was not.
From the subway stop we walked 6 blocks along Avenida San Juan to Defensa, turned, and saw the foot of the fair. It stretches along Defensa for several blocks.
Seemingly everyone who knows anything about Buenos Aires has assured me that seeing the San Telmo fair on Sundays is an absolute must-do. "The food is amazing," everyone people gushed. "Vendors everywhere, you can find anything you want."
Well, I'm not so demanding as to need amazing food. I'd be happy just with pizza that doesn't suck. Oops, no. Here's one of the first food vendors I saw:
Yes, it's Kentucky... pizza. It looks the same as nearly every other pizza I've seen in Argentina. Overly thick and (presumably) tasteless crust, too little sauce, mystery cheese, and too few toppings. Plus, an olive on every slice. Every single pizza I've seen in Argentina is served with a green olive on every slice as a garnish. It's like there's an Olive Mafia in Argentina.
What about the shopping? "Oh, there are so many antiques!" everyone assured me. "You'd be surprised what you'll find!"
Well, I was totally not surprised to find block after block of crap.
Look, just because something is old does not make it antique. At least, not a desirable antique. Sometimes old stuff is just old. Here's an example:
This booth has a handful of film cameras dating from the 1980s. And they're not even great cameras from the 1980s. Like that Nikon N8008 near the middle of the picture they're amateur level equipment. Now, throw a Nikon F4, a pro camera from that era, in the mix... it might be worth $100-200 (depending on condition) to a collector... though still a tiny fraction of its original price in the thousands!
And really, black-and-white prints of somebody else's kid and parents? What's the market for those? No, really, those aren't old pictures of someone famous, they're old pictures of some random family.
Many of the vendors were selling various kinds of stones and jewelry. Hawk enjoyed browsing those booths. As expected, many of the sellers were asking high prices. US/EU tourist prices. But some sellers deeper in the fair had good prices on jewelry stones, and Hawk made several purchases.
One booth that caught my eye first for familiarity and second for absurdity was this one, with war-gaming miniatures:
On display were 3x as many as minis as show in this photo, crafted and painted to represent different historical army forces. I looked first to appreciate the craft and skill that went into assembling this collection. Then I noticed something strange... the vendor was not, uh, vending. Nothing was for sale. He was just renting a booth at the street fair to show off his stuff.
Today we went to the San Telmo Street Fair, a big and well known event every Sunday in and around Dorrego Square in the San Telmo neighborhood of Buenos Aires.
To get here we took the Subte (subway) again. Line C starts just across the park from our hotel, and there's a stop at Av. San Juan just 6 blocks from the edge of the fair. We could have taken a taxi to get there faster but at just 38 cents per ride the subway is a hard bargain to resist! Plus, we were morbidly curious to see if it's still as gross as it was Friday. Thankfully it was not.
From the subway stop we walked 6 blocks along Avenida San Juan to Defensa, turned, and saw the foot of the fair. It stretches along Defensa for several blocks.
Seemingly everyone who knows anything about Buenos Aires has assured me that seeing the San Telmo fair on Sundays is an absolute must-do. "The food is amazing," everyone people gushed. "Vendors everywhere, you can find anything you want."
Well, I'm not so demanding as to need amazing food. I'd be happy just with pizza that doesn't suck. Oops, no. Here's one of the first food vendors I saw:
Yes, it's Kentucky... pizza. It looks the same as nearly every other pizza I've seen in Argentina. Overly thick and (presumably) tasteless crust, too little sauce, mystery cheese, and too few toppings. Plus, an olive on every slice. Every single pizza I've seen in Argentina is served with a green olive on every slice as a garnish. It's like there's an Olive Mafia in Argentina.
What about the shopping? "Oh, there are so many antiques!" everyone assured me. "You'd be surprised what you'll find!"
Well, I was totally not surprised to find block after block of crap.
Look, just because something is old does not make it antique. At least, not a desirable antique. Sometimes old stuff is just old. Here's an example:
This booth has a handful of film cameras dating from the 1980s. And they're not even great cameras from the 1980s. Like that Nikon N8008 near the middle of the picture they're amateur level equipment. Now, throw a Nikon F4, a pro camera from that era, in the mix... it might be worth $100-200 (depending on condition) to a collector... though still a tiny fraction of its original price in the thousands!
And really, black-and-white prints of somebody else's kid and parents? What's the market for those? No, really, those aren't old pictures of someone famous, they're old pictures of some random family.
Many of the vendors were selling various kinds of stones and jewelry. Hawk enjoyed browsing those booths. As expected, many of the sellers were asking high prices. US/EU tourist prices. But some sellers deeper in the fair had good prices on jewelry stones, and Hawk made several purchases.
One booth that caught my eye first for familiarity and second for absurdity was this one, with war-gaming miniatures:
On display were 3x as many as minis as show in this photo, crafted and painted to represent different historical army forces. I looked first to appreciate the craft and skill that went into assembling this collection. Then I noticed something strange... the vendor was not, uh, vending. Nothing was for sale. He was just renting a booth at the street fair to show off his stuff.