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Buenos Aires, Argentina > Buenos Aires attractions > Caminito CaminitoLa Boca between the river & General Araoz de Lamadrid
Colorfully painted buildings are one of the main attractions in this popular tourist destination. Photo by Greg Roden. Caminito is compiled of three streets that join up along the river in La Boca - one of the more working-class neighborhoods in Buenos Aires, tucked away behind San Telmo and sitting on the filthy riachuelo. It is also one of the most high-traffic tourist zones in town. Here poverty is colored - literally. The corrugated tin, two and three story houses are painted brilliant colors while life-size caricatures sit on balconies, peek out of windows, and wave from steps. They mock tourists walking by who can’t help but snap photos. Meanwhile, the people behind the plaster figures sit and watch from their homes in this poor neighborhood hidden from and the wealth of the Buenos Aires that tourists enjoy. Neighborhoods like La Boca are where the heart beats, where the soul lives and comes alive after dark. Here is where tango was born, in this historically Italian neighborhood mixed with the Spanish other immigrants who did not have a place in wealthy Recoleta. Come to La Boca, walk through Caminito and, while fighting the urge to take iresistable, colorful photos, stroll through as if at home - its like a smoker deciding to quit while traveling through nicotine-ridden Latin America. Then walk away from the touristy restaurants, the people sticking flyers in your face while trying to seduce you in to dine or buy souvenirs. Resist the free tango shows with the consumption of a meal. Walk into the core of the neighborhood. Cross the train tracks. Go down the streets that might frighten you if it were dark. See what the city is about. Eat choripan from a hole-in-a-wall restaurant, taste the sweat of the beer bottles and the richness of the crusty bread. Let yourself love the smell of river, the dirt under the polished nails of the city. Stay as evening stretches into night with shared liters of Quilmes beer and cigarettes, then hit a corner milonga. Try to leave your northern resistance to sensuality and sexuality at home and let yourself feel the heat, the fear, the melancholic tension of the dance. Have shot of liquor and try experiencing the dance yourself. Get too close to strangers and love every minute of it. Walk home after the sun comes up. Sleep like the dead. Make love untiringly like the young. Live as if it didn’t matter, as if you had nothing to lose. Then, perhaps, you’ll understand where the colors of Caminito come from. —Caminito review by Gena Mavuli
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