Friday, June 15, 2018

Colourful La Boca, Empanadas and Tango

While on our tour of Buenos Aires city area I was excited to visit another of my bucket list items, the vibrant neighbourhood or barrio of La Boca. Situated on the Matanza-Riachuelo River La Boca is known for its colourful houses and zinc shacks, it's tango and of course, because we're in Argentina, it's football/soccer team, Boca Juniors. The actual touristy area is only a few blocks long, but outside this area it is a fairly poor working class area that has a fairly high crime rate.
I was mighty happy to check La Boca off my bucket list

Vibrant walls of Conventillo Historico de 1881

The vibrant colourful buildings were amazing
Since 2016 La Boca citizens has been threatened by the pollution of the Matanza-Riachuelo River as it said to contain high levels of arsenic and lead due to centuries of unstopped pollution. But as I stood looking out over the river I was comforted to see cleaning of any litter in the water being cleaned up.
The La Boca dock area of the Matanza-Riachuelo River
On the front of one of the colourful La Boca buildings is a quirky piece of art in honour of three well loved people by the Argentinians. Maradona for his football skills, Eva Peron for her gift to the people and Carlos Gardel a singer, songwriter and prominent figure in the history of Tango.

A quirky piece of art as a tribute to Maradona, Eva Peron and Carlos Gardel


After an afternoon recuperation nap, I was all set to head out to dinner and a Tango Show at El Querandi. Wow Wow Wow, what a great night it was. The Tango Show was fantastic. The band, the dancers and singers were absolutely amazing. There is so much emotion in the Tango - Love, Violence, Anger, Sensuality, Pain and so much more.





Tango is a partner dance which originated in the 1800's along the River Plate (Rio de Plata), the natural border between Argentina and Uruguay. The El Querandi Tango Show was a depiction of the history and evolvement of Tango. .

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