La Boca
Red and Green
servicio de lavanderia
La Boca, reportedly named for the colorful Genoese neighborhood Boccadasse is a neighborhood at the southeast tip of buenos aires. To get to La Boca take Bus 98 or better yet take a cab that will drop you off on the main street El Caminito (the little path). La Boca, spanish for mouth, churns with nervous, desperate energy of sharp-eyed street vendors, smiling European tourists and the tavern boys who try to lure them in with combination meals of asado, salad and cheap wine. Despite the colors, La Boca has a distinctively depraved stench to it. There is something hidden beneath all those garish colors.
My Argentine friend marked on my little map the area that was acceptable to visit. My cab driver again told me the streets that delineate the safe zone and asked me to leave before dusk.
Tango dancers prostitute their art on the streets of La Boca; for a few pesos they will look longingly into your eyes while they spread your hips and lift you up into the air. Your friends will snap a few photographs and then they will chase the next young girl. The men naturally get more business than the women because as one suave gentleman said : “what’s the point (with the woman), we can’t really advance from here?” The female tourists, on the other hand, are more than happy to get a brief moment of seductive attention.
For more photographs of La Boca, see La Mirada Argentina
