While walking down the central block full of outside restaurants with hosts sweet talking you to come in (think Mulberry Street in New York's Little Italy,) there are dancers on small stages out front of the restaurants dancing traditional Tango (the passionate dance originated in La Boca and now spread throughout the world) and Chacarera (the folklore dance more traditional to the rest of Argentina, but with almost always at least one song to be found at the end of a milonga in Buenos Aires.) While walking past, one of the sweet talkers told me that I should dance tango. He was surprised when I told him I did, and promptly told the professional on stage. I took of my bag and got up on stage and to dance with him, for the audience surrounding, and got myself a nice picture.




Boca Juniors Soccer Match in La Boca! Soccer here is huge, and Boca Juniors probably have the most loyal fans of them all. We saw a match between Boca and River Plate, posibly the most intense rivalry within Argentina. That smoke that you see: that would be fans setting off fireworks of their own in the stadium during the game. It was pretty intense, although Ohio State's stadium has thoroughly ruined any potential awe that most people would get from stadiums of La Boca's size.


More pictures in La Boca! I spent last Saturday in La Boca with a group of couch surfers that meets every two or so weekends in a different part of the city to take pictures. It's the perfect way to photograph the city: there are BA natives who a.) know where to go and b.) know intersting facts about each place! La Boca is one of BA's oldest barrios, initally filled with immigrants who had originally come hoping for land from much of Europe and mostly Italy. The traditional style of brightly colored buildings started when La Boca's residents were too poor to purchase fresh paint for their homes. Indtead, they would take scrap paint from boats coming in to port and paint their houses using the various colors of left-over scrap paint. Today, it has held through as tradition...and mostly for tourism. La Boca is a large barrio, but it has a very distinct tourist trap area with the prettyist colors, full of street artisans and tango dancers and tourist shops selling chinsy junk, usually catering to the tourist's enthrawlment with tango.


Boca Juniors Soccer Match in La Boca! Soccer here is huge, and Boca Juniors probably have the most loyal fans of them all. We saw a match between Boca and River Plate, posibly the most intense rivalry within Argentina. That smoke that you see: that would be fans setting off fireworks of their own in the stadium during the game. It was pretty intense, although Ohio State's stadium has thoroughly ruined any potential awe that most people would get from stadiums of La Boca's size.

View from San Telmo, a barrio of BA, by night.


A couple of saturdays ago I spent at the horse racing track with a group of couch surfers, before going to a cultural festival in the evening. The moment I arrived to the track my allergies skyrocketed, but luckily I was in the company of an allergetic English man, like myself, so with his allergy blockers and my Visine, we were a mean team. I really have no idea what happened at the event...horse racing is pretty far from my realm of wanting to decipher. Horse races are fairly lame themselves: every 35 minutes or so a new race begins, and you see a bunch of horses run past you once. Woohoo. I was the only one who didn´t bet (I figure there is no reason for an addictive personality to even begin,) but I definitely enjoyed the nice day in the sun with friends.