Kristina Argentina

La Boca - Biking Buenos Aires South Tour (part 2)

After going through San Telmo, the Bike tour goes to La Boca, the original port town of Buenos Aires, and the oldest part of the city. Originally, the place was an immigrant haven dominated by men who worked in the shipping business and prostitutes who served them. 

Tango started here as a mix of European music (you will hear influences of Italian and Spanish Flamenco music), with a fusion of the local Rioplatense people, and African music. Traditionally it was a dance between men. It was also a working class dance, and none of the upper classes in Argentina bothered with it. It wasn’t until it became popular with the upper classes in French, (a time when the Argies also wanted to copy all things French) that the Argentinians began to reclaim their dance and it became all the rave in Argentina.  

Another characteristic of La Boca, is that it was and remains very poor. For that reason, many of the houses were built with whatever leftover shipping material that was strewn around. They would also paint the houses with whatever paint was leftover, giving it its famous multi-colored look, albeit very run down and ugly. Sometime in the mid-1900s, a local artist named Benito Quinquela Martín encouraged his fellow neighbors to clean up the neighborhood. He began to paint the houses strategically, with different shutters, and doors, and squares, and they began to look much prettier. 

The river in the La Boca is the Riachuela River, which runs into the Río de la Plata. It is extremely polluted, and stinks like high holy hell. However, no one wants to take responsibility for it, so it is not being cleaned. It is a disgrace if you ask me.

Finally, the other thing La Boca has - is La Bombonera, the Fútbol stadium for Club Atlético Boca Juniors - the top team in Argentina (but don’t say that to anyone who roots for their biggest rivals, Club Atlético River Plate). Historically the two clubs were both based in La Boca, but they realized it was not big enough for the both of them, so they decided to have an ultimate match to decide who would stay. CABJ won the match, so CARP had to skip town (relocating to Barrio Norte). They did get to take the red colors with them, so Boca said they would choose the colors off the first ship that came to port. It happend to be Swedish, thus the colors blue and yellow.

The legendary soccer player, Pele said that La Bombanera was the most intimidating stadium he had ever played at. The opposing team’s locker room is housed right beneath the hooligans - and the hooligans in Argentina are said to be the craziest in the world — and when they get going, the stadium feels like it is beating like a heart. I hope I get to go to a game soon!

Last thing to say about La Boca: it is also where much of the poor is concentrated in Argentina, so don’t go there at night!