After having two days of long walks around the city, we were being a bit more lazy this morning and trying to decide what to do. We still hadn't decided by the time maid came to clean our room so we moved down to the lobby for a bit. We got chatting to a guy with quite a strong Johannesburg accent, but it turned out he was actually Chilean and just worked in South Africa (and learnt English there hence the accent). It was good to know that we had seen, done, eaten and drank everything he thought a foreigner to Chile should to experience the best of the country.

We finally decided that we would book a tango show for tomorrow evening and just have a walk through San Telmo today. San Pedro González Telmo, to use its proper name, is the oldest barrio (neighbourhood) in Buenos Aires and is characterised by its colonial buildings. Cafes, tango parlors and antique shops line the cobblestone streets, which are often filled with artists and dancers.

By the time we finally made it out of the hotel, late morning, the sun was high in sky and it was hot. We made our way slowly up the busy pedestrian street, Lavalle, crammed full with shops and cinemas before heading across to Plaza de Mayo. We continued our walk through the Monserrat barrio on Defensa and passed Manzana de las Luces (Illuminated Block), a mission established by The Society of Jesus in 1608.

As we neared San Telmo, more and more of the streets were cobbled and there were lots of antique shops and cafes as promised in the brochure. Plaza Dorrego was supposed to be a semipermanent antique fair, but a lot of the stalls seemed to be selling new nic-nacs.

Down the street from the plaza was an ornate Iglesia de San Pedro González Telmo, which was originally built by the Jesuits in 1734 under the name Iglesia Nuestra Señora de Belen (Church of Our Lady of Bethlehem), making it one of the oldest in Buenos Aires.

At the end of the block, we turned onto Balcarce, a street full of bars and restaurants. Cafe Rivas looked nice from the outside and there were plenty of people inside eating so we decided to give it a try. They had a lunch menu for 110 pesos for a main course and drink, in our case an enormous jug of limonada with a twist of fresh ginger. Maria went for beef and vegetable in teriyaki sauce while David opted for the big pork chop with roasted sweet potatoes, both were very good and big enough portions to skip dessert.

San Telmo has a 'Comic Book Walk', statues of the comic book characters have been placed around the streets with directions to the next/previous one. We found Mafalda, the main character in a comic strip, outside the former home of creator, the Argentinian cartoonist Quino.

We followed the 'Walk' for a few more characters before we detoured to Pasaje San Lorenzo to see the narrowest house in the city. Back to the 'Walk', we followed it through the streets all the way to the Puerto Madero district. They had obviously given the route a lot of thought because the pedestrian crossing across Avenida Paseo Colon had red and green cartoon cats instead of the usual men.

The last statue seemed to have vanished, we couldn't find it even though direction and distance were given at the last one. We continued further up the street until we reached the edge of the nature reserve. There was a lot of pollen in the air and Maria lost a contact lens when she was rubbing her eyes so we made our way back to the hotel on the most direct route, but it still took a while, it's a surprisingly big city.