Some time ago, Venetia and I signed up for a tour of Caballito, a barrio neither of us knows very well. It included a ride on a vintage tram, which is what we both were really interested in. Yesterday was the day, so off we went, using a combination of buses and quite a bit of walking, and eventually we found the tour.

The first part, and for me the best, was a visit to La Época, a very old barber shop that has been converted into a museum of barbering. Yeah, I know. We all filed into its very narrow interior and were immediately fascinated by the artifacts, all connected in some way to the art and business of barbering.

Then the star of the show arrived. He was Barnes Miguel Angel, who owns the museum as well as the barber shop, which still serves customers today. He was a real showman, and he gave us a great, funny history of barbering, right from the days when the barber not only cut hair but also pulled teeth and performed minor surgery!

He explained that the red and white stripes in the barber shop sign represents white for the sheets and red for the blood — I’ll bet you didn’t know that either!

Here I am sitting outside the shop, waiting for the tour to begin, and this is the old sign above the shop door.

Then we walked around a very ritzy area of the barrio, with some amazing homes is a variety of styles. I took just a couple of photos of some of the ones I liked best — and I loved this old mailbox!

Finally, we arrived at the tram. They only have two, and the trip takes almost half an hour, so we had quite a wait, but it was a fun experience in the end.

Thanks to Mara, a young woman we met in the line, who helped us understand when our Spanish failed us.

On the way to the tour, we both noticed that there are some interesting looking shops in Caballito, so we will definitely go back by ourselves to check those out, and we are looking forward to meeting up with Mara again for a coffee sometime soon.