Don't cry for me Argentina.....Part Cuatro

So, why is the La Boca barrio famous? Because it is one of the oldest, most colourful and authentic neighbourhood in BsAs. Apparently the neighbourhood was built by Italian immigrants who settled there to work in the warehouses and meatpacking plants in the area. However, it is considered a rough neighbourhood so tourists are not advised to venture out of the main streets.

Anyway, if I’m not mistaken, La Boca is the barrio where Tango originated from.

We were only given 20 minutes to explore La Boca .So, what did I see within that 20 minutes? I saw this place (which is also one of the reasons why La Boca is famous) :

La Bombonera stadium



...or better known as the home of Boca Juniors



So non footie fans may ask, “What’s so great about Boca Jrs.?” ( yeah, that’s what I asked myself upon seeing the stadium).....it’s because (Mi Amor, I wouldn’t be surprised if you know this) this dude used to play for Boca Jrs. :

The Legendary Diego Maradona



Maradona in 1981 when he first joined Boca Jrs. and they won the league



Apparently he supports Boca Jrs. and has his own executive box in the stadium. So naturally, walking around La Boca, I came across random walls with paintings of Maradona :

best one so far

The tour guide did ask if we wanted to take a tour of the stadium (additional payment of course) but I said no thank you (I’d rather keep whatever money I had left for shopping). Thank God, Mi Amor wasn’t with me or I’m pretty sure I’d be dragged into the stadium ( after all, I was dragged into Anfield and San Siro!)

On the concrete pavement outside and stretching around the stadium were shoe (boot?) imprints with names and dates of which I’m guessing are former Boca Jrs. players ( something like the Hollywood Walk of Fame concept). Tried looking for Maradona’s (coz I don’t know any of the other players) but gave up after a while.

We then proceeded to Caminito, (meaning “little walkway” or “little path”) which is a short street within La Boca and also a mainstream tourist hotspot (I know some people don’t like to do things or go to places that are too touristy...well, good thing I’m not one of em’).

The buildings and walls along Caminito are painted with extremely bright colours (lucky I was wearing my sunglasses….so I got to shield my eyes from the dazzling sun and colours!). From the lil’ history research I did, apparently a famous Argentinean painter named Benito Quinquela Martin (he became famous for his dramatic paintings of La Boca) who at an early age was an abandoned orphan before being adopted by an immigrant couple in La Boca, felt that he owed the barrio something in return for providing him with family, friends, shelter and inspiration. So he decided to paint a small portion of La Boca (i.e. Caminito) with vibrant colours, to remind people of the colourful immigrant history of La Boca.

In fact, it was also Martin who came up with the idea of calling the street Caminito. The name Caminito was in fact first famous for a very popular 1926 Tango, by a famous La Boca musician and resident named Juan de Dios Filiberto. Martin felt that it was appropriate to name the colourful street after a tango, what more one by a famous local resident.

Some of the walls along the street had paintings depicting the olden days (the port life) of the barrio and you can also hear Tango music drifting all around Caminito (what a feast of sight and sound!). Walking along Caminito we came across various souvenir stalls, tango dancers, bars and restaurants (most offering free tango show with lunch).

I can't remember the name of this building, but I think it's called Immigrant house? Caricature statues of famous Argentinean figures on the balcony, from left, Maradona, Evita and Mr. X (I can’t remember who he is though I’m guessing a musician)



Mi Madre...I bet she doesn’t know that’s suppose to be Maradona

 

Inviting audience up to join in (this is when I stopped taking pics and ran off!)

Since there were a lot of cafes and restaurants along the street, there were many people competing to promote their place by handing out flyers to entice diners. I say the best way to attract attention is to get a cute guy to hand them out. Apparently one cafe must have done its homework coz after I politely rejected a flyer from someone (without even looking at the person handing it out...there were just too many!) and walked away, Mi Madre said, “Eh, but that is such a sweet looking boy!” to which I stopped and turned around to have a good look at him and agreed with her, though I didn’t care much for his dressing :P

Then she said, “Go and take a picture with him!”

I was like, “WHAT?!? Tak naklah...malu! I know what, I’ll try and pretend I’m taking your pic, with him in the background”



Wondering which one he is? The guy on Mi Madre’s left in jeans and grey t-shirt



Then Mi Madre was like , “Ok my turn” and tried to take my pic with him in the background

.....and another one...by this time I was already making a face and telling Mi Madre to hurry up because it was getting embarrassing and I think he noticed

Next thing I know, he approached us and started to promote his cafe...with whatever lil’ Spanish I know (since the guy’s English was prolly as good as my Spanish), I started asking him questions like what time are they open, what do they serve, etc., (not that I intended to eat there...we were leaving in a few minutes). Believe it or not, we could actually understand each other. Then Mi Madre also wanted in on part of the action (haha) and asked him if he’s ever been to Malaysia? That’s when he called another guy over and when we told the guy we were from Malaysia, he said, “Malaysia? Saya suka Malaysia!” Apparently this guy could speak some Malay! How cool is that?! His Malay vocab wasn’t bad coz he knew the important words and phrases like ‘selamat datang’, ‘terima kasih’, ‘makanan sedap’ and most importantly ‘awak sangat cantik’ ( yes, flattery will get you everywhere...if only I had more time, would definitely have eaten in your cafe).

Anyway, after conversing with him in Malay for a bit, I said, “I must take a picture with you....the first Argentinean I’ve met who can speak Malay! Oh and invite your friend too for a pic” A’ha...see what I did there? Smooth if I must say so myself...hahah

Ok so I know the cute guy doesn’t look so cute in this pic....either it’s a bad pic or he’s not photogenic..but I swear he is cute in person! In fact, when I saw him, he reminded me of a younger Mario Lopez (whom I love!)

By 1.30pm we headed back to the tour van as instructed by the tour guide. Thank God we made it back on time because 2 people from the tour were nowhere to be seen and the guide said that since they were not back yet by the designated time, they would have to be left  behind....like seriously! (I mean, I wouldn’t have minded staying a bit longer in Caminito).

On the way back to the hotel, the guide asked us if we had fun and did we enjoy doing the Tango to which all of us answered “YES!” to the first question but none of us did the Tango. That’s when she said, “You must have forgotten!” and suddenly the guy who went around taking pictures in the van earlier in the morning (remember?) got up from the front seat and started passing something around to each of us.....look what I got:

I knew I smelt something fishy! This is only part of the pic coz it actually is quite big. This is prolly the closest I’ll get to doing the Tango!

Wish I could post Mi Madre’s pic here coz it is HILARIOUS (she has her leg wrapped around some guy’s waist...and the guy’s face has been replaced with my Malaysian colleague’s who was also with us on the tour (they thought he was her husband!)...not to mention she has major cleavage showing! Talk about a Kodak moment! I crack up everytime I look at the pic ( hell, I crack up just thinking about the pic!)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH ( I can bet my money you'll laugh just as hard if not harder....but my mum made me swear not to post the pic!). I keep telling her she should use it as her fb profile pic....HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

OK, gotta calm myself down.......

Later that night we went to watch a Tango show since Mi Madre had not been to one. This time we went to a bigger, fancier place. We walked all the way from our hotel to the place (which is prolly around a 20- 30 minute walk)



Camwhoring on the way





Oh God, we look so alike it's freakin' scary!



Show was over by 12am and even at that time, it still felt safe walking back to the hotel. There were still a lot of people walking around the city and eating/drinking in cafes (I heard that they don't sleep till 3am! That explains why the traffic outside my hotel balcony goes on till the wee hours of the morning). All in all it was a good day.... : D