It’s spring in Buenos Aires and everyone spends Sunday with a leisurely lunch and then maté in the park – so we did the same. We found a buffet place for lunch (didn’t get the name) that had everything from passable sushi to traditional parrilla to generic Chinese food. It wasn’t bad. We then went to the supermarket to get a thermos so we could have maté in the park. Everyone in B.A. carries around a thermos of hot water, a maté gourd and bombilla , and loose mate; so we knew we would have no trouble finding a thermos at the grocery.

We spent about 15 minutes in the thermos section trying to figure out why they sold thermoses without lids. They all came with plastic tops, but not the screw-in lids to keep the water in the thermos. They did, however SELL two kinds of lids. We ended up opening a lid package to try it out on thermoses until we found one that fit. When we went to check out, the clerk said something in VERY rapid Spanish and put our lid off to the side. We had to tell her we didn’t understand and ask her to repeat herself, which she did, this time a little slower and with hand gestures. This was fabulous as many times people simply say the same thing twice at the same speed. It turns out that they keep the thermos lids at the customer service counter and you have to take your receipt up there to get one. Apparently thermos lids are a hot item to unscrew and drop in your pocket??

A brief stop at home to pick up the rest of the maté supplies, a few books, and fill the thermos and we were off to the park. We live very close many parks, but favor the large ones surrounding Recoleta Cemetery because there is a HUGE Sunday market and lots of entertainment. We arrived at the park, found a spot on one of the lawns and joined the thousands of Porteños enjoying the sun.

There were different entertainment groups at work – juggling, playing music, doing puppet shows, performing capoeira, doing acrobatics while hanging from silk fabric in the trees…there was no lack of things to look at.

It was, in fact, a bit like an amateur open air Cirque du Soleil mixed with an arts and crafts fair. Great way to spend the afternoon!