The next day we covered a lot of ground walking, going all the way from Recoleta in the northern part of the downtown core to San Telmo in the southern part. We took side streets, with no real destination in mind other than the direction towards the areas that looked interesting on the map. It was Sunday so most things were closed. The day started out hazy but became blistering hot. There is much more humidity here than, say, in Mendoza or Santiago.
We walked past some small parks and reached a square with a major theatre on one side. In the square there was a memorial to the people who disappeared during the dictatorship in the 1970s. You start to get the idea that politics is never far away, and this gets confirmed later. In fact, the following Monday is a holiday to commemorate the longest stretch of democracy in Argentina - 30 years since 1983.
Continuing on, we reached the main square of the city, with a huge cathedral on one side and the presidential palace on another. I think the cathedral is where the current pope was bishop. Inside the cathedral there is the tomb of General San Martin, and there is even a changing of the guards ceremony for the guards that stand beside it. San Martin liberated Argeninta, Chile, and Peru from the Spanish in 1810 and seems very highly revered.
We continued south, not expecting anything, really, and then stumbled onto the huge, famous San Telmo sunday market. I measured the length on the map based the streets it covered, and it is over 1 1/2 km long, and that does not include sidestreets. Absolutely incredible. Lots of tourist stuff as well as some art works and antiques. In fact the market started as an antiques market in a square at the south end, and expanded from that. It was the main place to be on Sunday and it was filled with people.
By the time we had walked through the market it was almost 6:00 pm and stalls were starting to back up. It looked the area had a lot of restaurants that opened later in the evening. We took a cab back to the hotel and had dinner near there.
We walked past some small parks and reached a square with a major theatre on one side. In the square there was a memorial to the people who disappeared during the dictatorship in the 1970s. You start to get the idea that politics is never far away, and this gets confirmed later. In fact, the following Monday is a holiday to commemorate the longest stretch of democracy in Argentina - 30 years since 1983.
Continuing on, we reached the main square of the city, with a huge cathedral on one side and the presidential palace on another. I think the cathedral is where the current pope was bishop. Inside the cathedral there is the tomb of General San Martin, and there is even a changing of the guards ceremony for the guards that stand beside it. San Martin liberated Argeninta, Chile, and Peru from the Spanish in 1810 and seems very highly revered.
We continued south, not expecting anything, really, and then stumbled onto the huge, famous San Telmo sunday market. I measured the length on the map based the streets it covered, and it is over 1 1/2 km long, and that does not include sidestreets. Absolutely incredible. Lots of tourist stuff as well as some art works and antiques. In fact the market started as an antiques market in a square at the south end, and expanded from that. It was the main place to be on Sunday and it was filled with people.
By the time we had walked through the market it was almost 6:00 pm and stalls were starting to back up. It looked the area had a lot of restaurants that opened later in the evening. We took a cab back to the hotel and had dinner near there.
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