By Rachel Ricks
There’s a place in Buenos Aires that every visitor must go to say they’ve really been to Buenos Aires – and it happens to be in the middle of the city’s most dangerous neighbourhood.
It’s La Boca – the colourful port-side streets a-buzz with tango dancers, steak restaurants and arts and crafts stalls. Photos of the area convey to the whole world: this is Buenos Aires.
We had been in the city three weeks and still hadn’t made it to La Boca, somewhat put off by it being far from the central areas where we’d been staying. Then eventually, one Sunday afternoon, we decided to pluck up the courage and go.
We had planned a waterfront route that we could walk, but as we were leaving our San Telmo hostel and checked with the receptionist for her opinion on the route, she started shaking her head emphatically and said walking would be “muy peligroso” (very dangerous). Yikes. Instead, she pointed us to the bus stop on the other side of the street.
Always ones for the best information, when we stopped off at an empanada shop to fuel up for the journey, we talked with the shop assistant about the bus to La Boca, only for her to turn to her colleague and tell him where we were going. He began to chuckle, “They’ll rip your heads off!!” He said it laughingly, but I was beginning to get scared – what on earth is this place we’re heading into?
A 20-minute bus ride later and we were stepping out on a port-side cobbled street bustling with people browsing souvenir stalls and or relaxing at pavement cafés. A short stroll and we were among those legendary multi-coloured painted houses of El Caminito, the pedestrian street round which the tourist action of La Boca concentrated. The buildings were painted by a local artist, Benito Quinqela Martin, in the 1950s and have been a tourist haunt ever since.
On every corner, tango dancers displayed their flexibility and then tried to get us to have our photo taken with them in exotic poses. Enticing-looking restaurants spilled out onto the streets offering those famous Argentinean steaks.
Like a mini theme park, all the buildings were decorated with freaky papier mache models of porteños (typical residents of Buenos Aires) leaning out of fake balconies. And everyone was having a very nice time.
There were none of the dramatic scenes I had in my head of us fighting off or – more likely – running away from street gangs. In fact, maybe it all was a little bit too dull. I was glad I saw this other part of Buenos Aires, but then I’m also glad I saw all the other sides of this city of many faces.
How to do La Boca
Seriously, it can be dangerous round there, so be cautious, don’t flash any cash and don’t be tempted to stray off from the tourist streets.
Go earlier in the day and make sure you’re out of the area by 5pm at the latest.
Plenty of buses run between the city centre and La Boca, stopping on the port-side near the multi-coloured houses; or take a registered taxi.
Go at the weekend for the best atmosphere.
See my tips and other stories on Argentina on my blog: rtravels.wordpress.com