The Mataderos Fair is a display of all things gaucho on the outskirts of Buenos Aires. It is a country fair, filled with all things gaucho. A band played traditional gaucho music. Men dressed up in boots and spurs, red scarves and gaucho cowboy hats. Women wore poofy floor grazing dresses and boots. The dressed up participants and random members of the crowd performed a traditonal partner dance where the men and women gave passionate looks to each other but never touch. There were stalls of food items like dulce de leche, alfajores (dulce de leche between two white cookies), choripan (chorizo sausage in a white bread bun) and vino patero (cheap sweet wine from the pitcher), empanadas (big chunks of beef and leeks in fried white shells), and yerba mate tea items. Walking through the stalls, the air was thick, sweet and smoky from the stalls grilling beef and sausage and the freshly fried empanadas, the fresh dulce de leche being made into treats, and the several stalls selling sweet, heavy incense sticks. Where the rows of stalls converged, miniature shetland ponies and tiny llamas no more than 4 feet tall were saddled up with ornate gaucho saddles for kids to saddle up and take pictures with.
To the side of the stalls, an area was set up for horsebackriding competitions. Each rider galloped at highest speed down the street. Half way down the street a small metal ring hung from a post and the riders would try to catch it on a small stick that looked a lot like a fat chopstick. Surprisingly, most of the riders could do it. They ranged in age from around 6 to 70 years old.
I was lucky enough to know Tom (husband of Maya, who I know through writing my unique educational history for part of her upcoming book The World is Your Campus), who brought me to the Mataderos Fair today with his friend Emily. Emily was on a mission today to buy a cowhide rug for her apartment here in BA. We found several stalls and stores around the fair to check out many different varieties of cowhides. If you ever wanted a cowhide floor covering, I assure you that Mataderos Fair is the place to get it.
