5.30pm | Curiosities of San Telmo
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Walking along Peru, turn left into México. At México 564 is the Centro Nacional de la Música y la Danza, which hosts exhibitions and performances. The secret of this imposing building is that it previously housed Argentina's national library, which writer Jorge Luis Borges directed for a time.
Two blocks away is the house of Mafalda (Chile 371). This little girl was the star of a comic strip that defined an era in Argentina. The fictional character lived in the neighbourhood of San Telmo and the illustrator artist y Quino often drew her sitting in the entrance to this building, which now has a commemorative plaque. On Balcarce, close to Independencia, is Don Manolo's store, another site for many episodes in the comic strip.
Continue walking along the cobles of Calle Defensa, cross Pasaje San Lorenzo, and a few metres on, you'll find the Zanjón de Granados (Defensa 751), which houses the remains of an old colonial era home and an old tunnel that carried a stream - Tercero del Sur, also known as Granados - to the Río de la Plata. The stream was rediscovered 100 years on, and the building is now an exhibition space for items from the city's pre-history, including tools, bottles, flasks and more.
Two blocks on is San Telmo Market (Defensa 957), which was founded by European immigrants in 1897, and now sells everything from meat and vegetables to antiques and secondhand clothes. It's famous for its architecture and dome divided into eight parts. Certain names are longstanding fixtures on the market, the stalls having been passed down from one generation to the next, for example, the Amitrano family's poultry stall, and the Mutti family's cold cuts. Another curiosity of the area is the house opposite the market on Calle Bolivar, which is decorated with elaborate caryatid sculptures.
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If you're looking for somewhere to have a drink in the evening, from 7.00pm Museum (Perú 535) is one of the main venues for a post-office drink on weekdays, and a popular nightclub Thursday - Sunday. The building was originally a flour mill, with a facade designed by none other than Gustave Eiffel, the engineer behind the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris.
If you walk along Av. Paseo Colón, keep an eye open for the sculpture Canto al Trabajo (Ode to Work) at the corner of Av. Independencia. This pieces was created by Rogelio Yrurtia in 1927. Half a block away, is the imposing neoclassical building of the University of Buenos Aires' Faculty of Engineering. The building was originally intended to house the Fundación Eva Perón, but its use was changed following the 1955 military coup.
PERU y MEXICO
