Flatter ranch-like countryside, abundant with cattle along the border with Uruguay provided the scenery as we woke at first light. Arrival at Retiro bus station was painless, and we navigated the way to the local bus to San Telmo with surprising ease and good fortune! The Sunday market lining all the streets was a fantastic, but tiring introduction to this vast city, and Liquado milkshakes of apple, along with a banana, honey and cinnamon version provided welcome respite.
We reached the Plaza de Mayo and remembered the “Disappeared” of an earlier regime, and Simon’s rosary that he bought from the San Telmo market was blessed after mass in the Metropolitan Cathedral, and we then reached the famous obelisk: is this the widest street in the world? Past hundreds of Parrilla restaurants, each looking better than the previous and along Calle Defensa we meet three corps of Candombe drummers. These rhythms are mind-blowing and hypnotic. We stood dancing Samba-style with one group for about twenty minutes, and then followed the parade of another along the narrow cobbled streets of San Telmo for quite some distance. And, of course, we just happened to stumble across some open air tango!
This city, at first glance so European and sophisticated, has suddenly come alive, pulsating with the exotic tropical rhythms of a whole, distant world. Finally it was time for a steak, some chips, black pudding and sausage, all washed down with an Argentinian Chardonnay. This Bife de Lomo was frankly the thickest and fattest, most succulent steak we’ve ever tasted!
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