BA: Color me Caminito

In from the second day of the BA journey. It has been suggested to me that I upload photos of the areas I am describing, as it were, I am still forced to use the hotel lobby computer, so that won't be happening, at least not yet.

A packed day. I started off taking the subte (subway, remember?) back to the Plaza de Mayo, first to get a decent map from the tourist office located there, then to take a closer look at the area. Now, the subway in in the summer, early on a weekday, is not a great place to be. It was like a sardine-can in there (I swear I think it was more packed then the subways in Beijing, and those at least had air-conditioning) and I really didn't enjoy having the sweaty fat dude next to be pressing me against the door. That combined with the stiffling heat made for an uncomfortable ride. But hey, its makes for some blog fodder.

One of the buildings I passed by yesterday at the Plaza de Mayo is the Casa Rosada. I thought it was a muesuem of some sort, but closer reading revealed it to be the Argentinian Presidential Palace. Whoops. I did it some justice by taking some more photos, including of the balcony Eva Peron gave speeches from. Afterwards I walked back down La Defensa, which was now void of trinket-selling booths and tourists and was now open to vehicles. Apparently Sunday is the day for the sellers and the road is closed to traffic. Regardless, I kept on down this street, which takes one into San Telmo, supposedly the oldest neighborhood in the city. The guidebook (Lonely Planet's Encounter: Buenos Aires. I mention this as part of my campaign to earn advertisment money, so far to no avail) talks it up a bit, but I wasn't all that taken in by it. Perhaps it was too early in the day, the cafes are probably more lively in the evening. The architecture didn't seem all that spectacular to me either, but the cobbled streets of the area do give it a more charming feel. La Defensa took me down to Parque Lezama, a huge park at the bottom of the neighborhood. Right near the park is a Russian Orthodox church with really neat blue-colored onion-domes.

After my brief exploration of San Telmo I was ready to enter La Boca (literally "the mouth", for those who took French in high school), the barrio bordering San Telmo to the south. La Boca is the working class barrio of BA, and is the location of Caminito (more on that in a minute), one of the most famous streets in the city. However, everywhere I have read says that this barrio is the most dangerous part of the city, and walking around anywhere outside of Caminito even during the day is advised against.

So, with this in mind I hailed a cab. Now, there are two kinds of cabs in BA: regular cabs, and "radio taxis". The drivers of regular cabs are not know for being very scrupulous, having been reported to give counterfeit notes as change and taking the long way to destinations, there have also been reports of kidnappings taking place with these cabs (yeep!). The radio taxis are more official and always use the meter. I hailed a radio taxi.

I understood when the driver asked me where I was from and what I was doing here (business or travel) when he immediately started talking in rapid Spanish, but after that I was lost. He kept on trying to tell me something, probably something interesting about the city. I told him "no entiendo" (I don't understand) but he still insisted on trying to tell me whatever he had on his mind. I just nodded my agreement. He was delighted with the two peso tip I gave him (muchas gracias mi amore. Really, they say that to dudes too). I appreciated what he had to say.

Caminito is a cool place. It is known as BA's lone outdoor, open-air musuem. Caminito is where a large number of Italian immigrants, mainly from Genoa, settled. They built their homes using corrugated tin. In order to make the homes easier on the eye, residents would acquire left-over boat-painting paint from the nearby docks. The homes were never done in one single color, thus creating a wildly-colored neighborhood. Caminito is also in the area that Tango has its origins. Now the place is teeming with tourists, restaurants with waiters hawking pamplets, and stores selling over-priced tourist crap have moved into the buildings. Despite this, it is a really cool place to see just because of the way the buildings are colored. Some craftspeople have also taken up residence there, selling their wares. A number of tango dancers also occupy the streets, appealing to tourists to take some photos for a fee. I have to say, one of the ladies had one of the best sets of legs I have ever seen (does my girlfriend read this blog?). Despite selling its soul to tourism, I found Caminito to be really neat and rife with good photo ops.

From the looks of it, the area surrounding Caminito did look pretty rough. I did want to go the La Bombenera (the chocolate box) home to the local football (soccer) team, Boca Juniors, but had to settle from just seeing part of it from the safety of the tourist area.

The guidebook recommended taking Bus 29 from Caminito, so I did, and the bus does drive past many of the main sites in the San Telmo and Congresso and Tribunales barrios.

After a brief rest I set out once again, this time for Puerto Madero, the port area near the Rio Plata. I first bought my ticket to go to Colonia, Uruguay (a UNESCO World Heritage site!) on Saturday by boat (be sure to come here for the after-action report!). I took some time strolling around the Port, which is becoming a very very nice place. There are a number of construction projects taking place there, all in an effort to turn the area into a Canary Wharf-like place. Some nice restaurants and hotels already line the water. The highlight for we was the Puente de la Mujer (the Woman's Bridge) a futuristic-looking bridge designed by the Chilean architect Santiago Calatrava, whom my fellow architect enthusiasts have probably heard of. The bridge is supposed to depict a tango-dancing couple.

The day was winding to an end, I decided to end it off walking along Florida Street, an oppsolutely jam-packed pedestrian walkway with shops, street music and hawkers. I have just gotten back after taking the subte from there.

I know this makes for a long read, I try to avoid it, but I have been packing a lot in here in BA. The only thing today lacked was ladies throwing random liquids and me and then trying to tell me I have a problem.

Back with more manana. Cheers, from your humble correspondent.