La Boca / Caminitos

In preparation for today's activities we were reviewing a travel book which describes the Caminito as a pedestrian walkway, named after a tango song about a rural village. The book describes it as an "obscene tourist trap with overpriced souvenir shops and constant harassment from people trying to hand flyers for mediocre restaurants". Well - - that's not a very good beginning (smile) but we decided it was a "must see" anyway.

A lengthy taxi drive to the area cost only 25 pesos and we enjoyed walking through the area. The artisans who sell their wares are actually artists who live in the area and we met many interesting people and saw some beautiful workmanship; mostly handbags, photographs, paintings and jewelry.

We ended at a street cafe which features guitar players and flamenco and tango dancing entertainment so we enjoyed empanadas and Malbec for lunch and had an enjoyable time. The buildings shown in the photos are corregated metal painted in every bright color imaginable and it was fun to enjoy the dynamics of the area.

I must tell you about the taxi drive which was a little like watching Salsa dancers swaying to and fro. We traveled both ways on the largest boulevard in the world with 14 lanes (7 in each direction). What we found, though is that the drivers think nothing of turning it into an 8 lane highway. Some cars straddle the lines so others just cozy in on the left or right and all of a sudden you have this crazy dance starting. The surprising thing is that no one brakes quickly and everyone just seems to drive with the flow of traffic. The important thing is that we made it back safely but there were a few tense moments.