When the going gets tough...

...the tough, er, ah, go shopping??!

OK, so things haven't exactly been tough, but I have had a bit of writer's block - feeling a bit, pedestrian as it were. Not to make a pun, but my niece put it well when she visited Paris and after a few days whined "oh, do we have to spend another day walking places and looking at things?" well, to be honest I haven't yet undertaken the truest gastronomic adventures (sorry Sean, and Peat&Amy its coming though so stay tuned) instead I have been, much like Emily walking about looking at things. And well, given the prevalence of great weekend markets here in BA, have done more than my fair share of shopping. I'd like to think my sisters would be proud.

First is Feria Artesanal - an arts fair, right in my backyard of Recoleta, much like the vendors on Telegraph in Berkeley - many hippies and all - except situated in a park, so a little nicer going
around.

Many vendors selling mate cups and straws (for those of you new to this Mate is a drink made from Yerba mate and in Argentina, and I think South America as a whole its drinken communally in turn, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mate_(beverage) ), woven shawls, leather goods, jewelry and cheap touristy items along with a handful of painters and photographers. Given the dearth of books in English, there's not much else for me to buy, so I had to buy some jewelry and a few rocks. What else is a geologist's daughter supposed to do?

Feeling tired and weary after a day of walking...and shopping...I decided to try the ice cream (more like gelato, a wonderful leftover from BA's Italian heritage). Licking my ice cream cone (chocolate and mint chip, of course), I sit watching the moon to the singing and guitar of Gardalito, who I call tango man. I passed him earlier, dancing tango and waltzes with an invisible partner to the delight of a string of old ladies sitting on the benches nearby. Now he has his guitar and is singing some slow sultry tango tune, and I find myself wishing (again) to know castellano so I could follow along on this, yet another beautiful summer evening, still light at 9pm.

Sunday I made my way to Feria de San Telmo - which to me is the grandaddy of BA's street fairs, if I do say so myself. Among the even more vendors - and hippies - selling their wares are street performers - mimes, I saw a fantastic Charlie Chaplin, who I watched for a long time trying to figure out what was off about him, only to realize it was because he was in color and I had only ever seen him in black and white. There were dancers doing tango -and a variety of tango musicians who would dance, play guitar and sing - and voila, I ran into tango man again. A couple corners have live band on them - one I remember passing and thinking, these guys would be out here on the stoop playing their guitars, drinking beers and singing along even if this street fair wasn't here, it was there thing to do.

The Feria San Telmo is billed as an antiques market - and true to this title the area it stretches passes many antique shops - and the epicenter of the market itself, Plaza Dorrego, was filled with the best seller, their booths overflowing with all manner of antique items that you would find at a really good estate sale or thrift store. Among my usual rock buying (yes, there were more rock vendors here - they have some beautiful rocks in Argentina - and yes, um, I bought more rocks...hey, one's bag doesn't need to be light when you check it on the way home! plus if I can't weigh down my bag with books I have to do the next best thing! right?!), I bought some old pins and buttons, a t-shirt, trinkets for friends back home and a beautiful old bike bell (watch out for it on Valencia when I get home! now I ring up a storm while riding in critical mass http://critical-mass.info/ when I'm back in SF!) brring, brrring!