Uru-Haul from Touruguay

I'll start with the highlights of the main purpose of the trip because I know that's what you want to hear about the most and if I don't share it now I may never get around to it.

It was a jam packed "Forced March Tour" of 3 countries in South America.

I spent countless hours (well, we could count them actually) on night buses and super long days of city walking in Santiago Chile, Buenos Aires Argentina and Montevideo Uruguay with side trips through Patagonia and up to Iguazu Falls to name a few. I hope to sort some more images and stories to share with you but getting to the meat of the matter here I am at the Tristan Narvaja Feria that Marina from fancifuldevices had told us about.

My man Cory loves the hunt for cool collectibles just as much as me but he's not as cheap as me and once he gets the idea that he wants a piece, it's pretty much a sure thing that it will make its way home with us.

Imagine street after street with displays such as this!

It made it easier for me to be discerning in my purchases because of the pricing.

South America is a bit more expensive than I thought so I limited  myself to under $5 a piece items primarily.

I was happiest when I found a jumbled up tin full of pieces like this that I could paw through and make piles and offers.

As promised I am going share my haul macro style.

These were a good deal. I ended up going back to this guys table after having a beer at the man-cave bar across the street. He was "mi amigo" by then.

Medallions about up the proverbial yin yang.

I only ended up with a few religious ones as it made it much easier to cull down my choices.

These masks fascinated me

Dude medallions

Once I learned that if you offered dollarses instead of pesos you got a better exchange rate than through the ATM, especially in Argentina. It made for better bargaining power, although I probably lost money after honey ran out of his dollarses and needed mine for his precioussessss.

A spot of color

The large one here I thought to be two hands over a mate cup ( if you look at it upside down) but then I saw it turned like this elsewhere and it obviously means something else...perhaps a military honor.

getting down to brass tags

I love the enameled numbers that they have on everything.

Did my best not to pilfer some big ones that were grave markers that I coveted.

That would have been really bad. I took photos instead.

These are small ones ( not grave markers)

the one on the right opens like a compact

a copper box

small random bits

and these

Hubs gave me the bottom one as a present to celebrate our first date 8 years ago on St. Patrick's day

And while the rusty skeleton keys abounded at every market I only picked up a few special ones.

We went to two markets in Montevideo as well as antique shops near our hotel and then more markets in Buenos Aires in the San Telmo district.

I still like picking up unusual ephemera

and some vintage ribbon rolls

and picking up a few choice vintage photos

Don't you just love this guy?

duuude!

How about this creepazoid mannequin to model your jewelry?

Seen at a market in Santiago Chile

And in the manner of AnvilArtifact's blog I'll end with a couple of animal photos.

This is a guanaco we spotted at Punta Tombo where the Magellanic penguinos live.

I got to get up close and personal with these cuties.

Penguino!

Punk Penguino