The Weekend Artisan Markets

Sunday, 12/20/2009

Since it rained all of yesterday, today will be our last opportunity to go to the Recoleta feria and to the San Telmo feria. Next weekend we will be completely used up and unable to get out.

While we are enjoying ourselves in Buenos Aires, there is a parallel drama of standby airline tickets going on back home. Leah and Marcos are coming down on standby tickets if they can make it. By yesterday, Leah was effectively cut out of the picture, as the empty seat count dropped to about 11, with 31 on the waiting list.

Marcos, higher on the priority scale, was still in the game, but it was looking grim for him as well. He called us yesterday morning to change to plan B: he would fly to another South American airport, and transfer to Buenos Aires (EZE). But then the weather hit the northern US, and scores of flights were being cancelled. So many seats became available for the day prior to his planned departure, that he changed his plans and called us on our cell phone. “I've changed my hotel reservation, but I can't get through to the people who are picking me up from the airport,” he told us. We took on the task of advising them that he would be coming a day early. Leah was still out of the picture, though. Getting back from EZE would still be “touch and go” the following week.

We walked from our apartment the five blocks to the corner of Pueyrredon where the artisans were beginning to set up at about 11:00. We made our way slowly through the market, where much of the fare is quite nice. There were belts, purses, and other leatherwork, skirts, scarfs, and other textiles, paintings, caricatures, mate and materos of gourd and in silver, wooden sculpture and puzzles (even the very same artist from whom I had bought a violinist puzzle three years ago), hand-painted signs, jewelry of polished stones and silver, and sculpture of glass, of wire, and of silverware.

Before going to the other feria we had to go back to the apartment to unload all the loot we had picked up. We went out to wait for the colectivo (bus). Bus fare is based on distance traveled, but usually comes to $1.20 (US$0.32), subsidized by the government, as it states on the receipt you get when you have paid.

San Telmo has what is billed as an antiques market on Sundays. In fact, antiques are a small part of the feria. Around Plaza Dorrego are most of the antique stalls, but for the entire length of Calle Defensa – a length of more than a kilometer, artisans, performers, junk-sellers, and 21st century hippies sell their wares from blankets on the ground. You can buy small hardware like plug adapters, hand-painted signs, hair clips and adornments, wallets recycled from cereal boxes, leatherwork, woodwork, clothes, sandals, toys, and food hawked from the trays of wandering salespeople. Every block or so has its performing group – a puppeteer, a guitar player, a samba singer accompanying himself, a tango/milonga ensemble, one of which had a piano, 4 violins, a bass, and 4 Bandoneones (similar to a concertina).

Hey! There's a copy of that novel we bought yesterday. What are they charging? What? It's half the price we paid yesterday. How annoying is that? Maybe it's a used copy. Nope; it's new. And there are two copies for that price. The mobs that come out to these ferias can hardly be described.

We stopped for a sandwich at a cafe and sat at an outside table, watching the passersby. I ordered a Quilmes beer (the most popular local brand) on tap. We mused about the effort that the vendors must make to do these markets every week. The booth in front of us had hundreds of small ceramics. Each one must be wrapped individually to be stored from week to week. Week after week.

Gabriel called us mid-afternoon to see how we were doing. “We'll call you a little later to see where we can pick you up. We have just spent hours at the grocery buying food for the coming weeks when los chicos (the kids) are here.

Finally, they called at about 6:00 and ended up touring us around the architectural highlights of the city, particularly the buildings that are being or have been “recycled.” But they graciously dropped us off at our apartment early so that we could eat early and retire early.