San Telmo v. Palermo

La Feria de San Telmo

Last month, my friends from Ohio Wesleyan lived in a two bedroom apartment in San Telmo. San Telmo is the bohemian barrio of Buenos Aires that is filled with backpackers, artists, students, and lots of people with dreads. It used to be the wealthy section of the city until a yellow fever epidemic pushed all of its residents northwest. Although San Telmo remains a charming area with cobbled streets and “faded elegance,” it is located only a few blocks from “La Boca” (the ghetto), making it somewhat dangerous at night. My friends learned this the hard way when they were walking back to their apartment one night and got robbed at gunpoint. They were only a block away from their apartment. Needless to say, they were eager to move out of San Telmo and into the more affluent neighborhoods of Palermo and Recoleta. Palermo is the largest and greenest barrio in the city. A couple of days after I arrived in the city, my “madre” took me out to the “hipódromo,” the racetrack in Palermo. On the way there, I was fascinated by all of the parks and gardens on the right side of the cab. They seemed to go on for miles until they finally fell into the shadows of luminous racing complex. Las Cañitas is the super trendy area of Palermo across from the Hipódromo and next to the polo fields. Although any part of Palermo would do, this was the area in which I wanted to live. Well, finding a cheap three-person apartment in Las Cañitas is not easy. My roommates and I spent hours in front of the computer searching various websites for apartments that could meet our needs. I still can’t believe that we managed to find one for under $1000 a month. It consists of two rooms and a kitchen. Sarah and Carly share the bedroom while I sleep on the sofa bed in the other room. Even though it seems like I got the shaft, I actually got first pick of beds because I found the apartment. Little did I know that all of the noise from tenants going in and out of the building would be channeled down the stone corridor to my room. The door to our apartment building is a heavy glass door that makes a loud clanking sound when it shuts. The tiled floors in the hallway are perfect for carrying the echo of the door slamming directly into my room. I need to buy earplugs. I already have to wear an eye mask because of how bright it is in my room (and I’m usually going to bed right when the sun is coming up!). Someone should be coming to fix the blinds this week. The reason my room is so bright is because it has two large sliding glass doors that open up onto the patio. Since we’re on the ground floor, we get to have a huge patio instead of just a standard balcony. This makes all of the difference in the world and I know that I could not live here without it. It is where we spend all of our time. It has a table with four chairs as well as a lounge chair for sun bathing! It’s walls are covered with ivy and there’s a few potted plants and palm trees, which has led to our calling it “La Selva,” the jungle. We all love the patio so much. It’s so refreshing to have private access to the outdoors in the middle of the city.