My friend Gillian recently moved to the barrio of San Telmo. It’s one of the oldest barrios in the city, and has retained all its historic charm even though modern life has encroached on it a bit. On Thursday Gillian and I spent a few hours exploring. I didn’t stop to sketch, but I did take quite a few photos to share with you.

I think I’ve mentioned this before, but in Buenos Aires you have to look up! Often there are quite mundane, or even ugly, storefronts at street level, but up above there can be beautiful buildings with the traditional wrought iron balcony railings.  I hope this selection of photos will give you an idea of what I mean.

We started off with brunch at a local bakery cafe, which was delicious. You can see the old display cases and furniture, which maintain the quaint old ambiance. That’s Gillian in line waiting to be served.

We only covered one section of the barrio, which is larger than it first appears, so we’ll do it again another time and check out a different area.