Argentina
Markets and Music and Mimes, Oh My!
Monday, September 19, 2005
At the time of it’s development the tango was a horizontal dance as well as a vertical one, having been born in the bordellos of the barrio of San Telmo. Today the tango has gained both popularity and respect and it is everywhere in this neighborhood. We spent all day Sunday roaming through the vast weekend market in San Telmo and La Boca.
If you combined the People«s Fair, the Cherry Creek Arts Festival, the Taste of Colorado, Cinco de Mayo, Buskerfest and Oktoberfest into one festival and then multiplied it by a few hundred and then strung it along miles of small cobbled streets you’d have something resembling these markets. They happen every Sunday. The San Telmo market is known for antiques, but it has it’s share of junk. It is more “flea market” than anything else. Yet, at every turn there are street performers that include mimes, musicians, puppeteers, acrobats and just about anything else you can imagine. After strolling the the vast San Tlemo market, we made our way toward La Boca, the neighborhood where we saw the soccer game. Even though these are two separate neighborhoods, the markets melded together. Between them is a huge triangular park, where a 12 man mariachi band gave a fabulous concert before hundreds. A small theater group tied a curtain to two trees and gave an amusing children’s play (although the adults seemed to enjoy it just as much).
La Boca is Buenos Aires« most colorful barrio ÷ both in paint and in character. La Boca is a working class neighborhood filled with kids playing soccer in the streets. All of them surely dream of being the next Diego Maradona inside the imposing stadium of La Bombonera. Life and commerce both revolve around the stadium and at every turn murals and grafiti speak about the glory of the game and the team. Inside the stadium shop you can buy Boca Juniors deodorant, hair gel, shampoo, shower curtains, thermoses, T-shirts, jerseys, key chains and even videos of the best goals ever scored. It went on and on. It’s entirely possible to have everything in your home emblazoned with the Boca Juniors insignia. Just down the street from the stadium is the area known as La Caminita and it is a lively place. It had the usual artisan stalls and street performers but the surroundings make even more colorful. Buildings are painted in vivid colors such as red, green, blue, purple, etc. It is as bright as the earthy smiles on every face.
Throughout the artisan markets, you tend to see a lot of the same stuff, confirming our theory that most of the worlds handicrafts are made in a huge factory in Taiwan. Once in awhile, though, you’d see something unique. One man used spoons and forks to create wonderful sculptures and charicatures. Another used a very fine hack saw to cut out the flat surfaces of coins from around the world. For example, a U.S. Quarter would only have the eagle and the lettering remaining. He even cut out the center of the o«s and a«s. We found yet another woman who used an Exacto knife to carve little figures from a matchstick. She then mounted them in small test tubes. We bought one depicting tango dancers. Finally, we found a man who folded used subway tickets into bowls and cups. They were quite colorful and surprisingly sturdy.
All in all, Buenos Aires is a wonderful place on the weekend, partly because of the awesome spectacle of the markets. These past two days were really the best time we had here. The warm weather had a big hand in that as well. As with all big cities, though, there comes a time when you’re more than ready to bail. We’re ready for that change of venue now and it comes tomorrow morning (Tuesday). We will fly to Puerto Iguazu in the far northeast of Argentina. The famous Iguazu Falls are here in a jungle setting bordering Brazil and Paraguay. We had originally planned to visit Uruguay while in Buenos Aires, but the boat fare is steep and multiple travelers have told us it isn’t really worth it for a day trip. After some discussion, we«ve decided not to spend the money just for that passport stamp. So, we’ll see you all in Puerto Iguazu!
The Boys