South America

Sun, Feb 19th: If you are planning a trip to Buenos Aires, make sure you are there on a Sunday. WOW! The San Telmo market is remarkable. San Telmo is the oldest neighborhood in Buenos Aires, so the architecture alone is a must see. It also hosts a large Sunday market where local artists sell artisan gifts. This is blocks and blocks long. It's remarkable! Great place to buy gifts for family and friends rather than cheap souvenir shops. The original market is actually indoors and is located on the corner of Carlos Calvo and Bolivar, which started in 1897; however more local artisans wanted in on the action, so they started setting up stands on the streets. Supposedly to get in the actual San Telmo Market you would need to wait generations as people don't give up their spaces. Think of how long it takes to get Packer Season tickets...it's like that. So unless you inherit it, forget it!

We grabbed lunch at Bar El Federal and tried something new other than steak and mashes potatoes and proveleta. We tried milanesa - which is an Italian dish but is also common in South America; it is breaded meat (mainly beef) that is pounded thinly. It was really good! We then walked through Plaza Dorrego, which had more stands but more specific to antiques but this is where you may see spontaneous tango dancing for tourists (which we did).

After all of that walking around and shopping, the heat got to us (86, sunny, and humid) so we opted to rest and relax by the pool - this was the first time on our trip we budgeted in rest. It was great!

We went out that night in the neighborhood and checked out Bluedog, a local tap room. Small, chill place which is exactly what we needed. They played a lot of 90s alternative music so Chad had to pull me away. :)Les mer