laboca

I was told that people would have laughed at me if I leave Buenos Aires without seeing La Boca. So dutifully I went.

La Boca is a Bohemia district South of San Telmo. It used to be a wealthy neighborhood in the turn of the century with the immigrants mostly from Italy, until a plaque attacked the area. A lot of the residents moved Northwards since.

Today the district is still classified as a fringed neighborhood. Majority of the area is still in struggling in poverty. Large amount of buildings is built with corrugated tin sheathings, some of which were painted in various bright colors. It is this colorful image that was frequently being photographed for tourism promotion. When the tourists purchase postcards with that scenery, they can proudly report to their friends in homeland that alas, they have done it, seen it. I myself was guilty of sending such kind of postcards too.

Still having bad taste from the experience of almost being pickpocketed while I was walking alone in San Telmo, as much as I was curious about La Boca, I thought it would be prudent for me to travel with a group.

The tour bus hurled us into the main street, and allowed us to have 20 minutes to have piss stop, beverage stop and picture-taking stop.

I think the total 20-minute is a wisely calculated time, beyond which, the risk of the innocent tourists being robbed, or being fooled by the outrageously priced souvenir shops, may start to climb sharply.

The downtown of La Boca was like a stage set; it was artificially kept to be cute and safe. There were colorfully painted shop fronts, along the main streets that formed an intersection. The other side of the intersection faced the edge of the river. From there, tourists could see the famous metal raised bridge that was also featured in many tango pictures.

Behind the facades of the colorfully and chaotically arranged shops were series of decayed and neglected rowhouses. I could understand why Ed, a handsome American Tanguero who lives here, said that the building he lived for 5 pesos a day was almost built with cardboard. He said that the floor above him sounded like a bowling alley.

I was told that there were also policemen at each corner at these main streets, but with the same breath, I was advised never venture into the side street alone, and not to hang around in La Boca after 5pm, period.

One week prior, Rob and his friends were roaming South from San Telmo toward La Boca, taking pictures leisurely with their high tech digital cameras, when they were pulled aside by a shopkeeper. Rob was advised to take a taxi immediately, away from the area, to avoid potential encounter with robbers.

So in this trip, within the guarded 20 minutes, Linda, Rob and I took as much pictures. We all nodded to the ideal that we would return. I did not; not sure if they did. Not that La Boca is not interesting enough for us to revisit it, we just have to hire a team of body guards first.