Day 43: San Telmo, again...

What can I say? As big as Buenos Aires may be, there are just not so many attractions which really interest me... Also my hayfever is back and I'm really tired most of the time. Ok, maybe I wouldn't have seen more even without hayfever.
Anyhow, Antoine told me that I should go to the market in San Telmo today. It's on "Defensa" street. I've not seen anything the like. I thought maybe a couple of hundred meters or so... Guess again. It streches all the way from Plaza de Mayo to "Cochabamba" street. That's one mile! You'll find everything from antiques, second hand stuff, China imports to hippies selling their handmade wares...

You only need to beware of pick pockets. Well, who can blame them?

Something that I always notice is that BA is to US-Americans what Barcelona is for Germans. I guess that half the tourists here are from the US. Next I guess are Australians, Frenchmen and of course Germans. I wasn't aware that BA was so popular with Germans. Then again, if you're looking for a "safe" country to travel to in South America, it is probably Argentina.

By the way, was tagging along an Australian today. She stayed at my hostel. Together we went to Puerto Madero after the market. This is a bit like Hamburg Harbor City just smaller. The rest of BA is slowly falling apart while here everything is new and shiny.

On the left side of the canal are old brick buildings, probably old storage houses. These have been converted to very attractive apartement buildings with shops. Many restaurants in these buildings are catering for the better off in BA.
On the right side of the canal many new office buildings and apartement complexes are build. What a difference to the rest of BA.

This brings me to the next topic. The rift between rich and poor. Here in Puerto Madero, in Palermo Soha and around Avenida 9 de Julio seems to be where the better of are living. You can see it in the shops, the hotels and the restaurants in these areas. Where I'm staying you can see people going through trash bins looking for anything useful. This goes as far as half the content lying on the street. Here you can see people sleeping on the sidewalk, with and without a mattrass.

Another thing that I notice, beside the crazy electrics, is the safety on construction sites. Here's a very fine example from Puerto Madero...

Metal frames and new wood for the covering, wow. They don't seem to care much for scafolding. In the rest of the city the metal frames are replaced by old wooden ones which are joint by nails and thick wire. The nice wood of the covering turns to old wood or rusted corrugated sheet metal.

So, I've had it with the big city!!! It is loud, soooo loud. The trash is being picket up at 11:00 p.m. Well wouldn't work any other way with the trafic. Also there is little to no cleaning of exhausts... To the clubs you don't go before 02:00 a.m. but then stay until 06:00 a.m. I want to get out of here... One more week, Friday I'll be on the bus to Iguazu.