Bookmark Collector

Harriet and I take at least one extended trip every year, and this last November we visited Argentina and Chile. Our trip was wonderful, and of course I collected bookmarks along the way. I’m not one for carefully tracking what I’ve acquired. Instead I tend to buy what catches my eye at the moment, and after the trip I gather the items together to see what categories they’ve fallen into. Over the next few weeks I’ll be posting images of the bookmarks from this trip, arranged into their groups.

Tango is the national dance of Argentina, and you get a flavor of that in these bookmarks. The two in the top image are tooled and painted leather. I bought them at different times, which is why I ended up with two leather bookmarks with similar themes. I think they’re both beautiful.

These two photos show the front and back of the same paper bookmark. I bought it at the airport on our way home from Argentina because I liked the description on the back as well as the photos. If you look carefully, all three bookmarks show the same oddly shaped building in the background with the sign or label Caminito. This refers to a small street in the La Boca district of Buenos Aires where Tango is rumored to have been started.

I don’t know about the accuracy of the rumor, but that romantic image is certainly reinforced for the tourists. We actually walked along those streets and saw that building. And, we also saw quite a few tango performances in the cafes lining those streets.