La Boca and San Delmo

After a deep tissue massage in the morning, we relaxed our sore butts and legs from horseback riding. Sunday is the day for street fairs and tango in the streets of La Boca and San Delmo.

La Boca is photographed as the symbol of BA in many travel magazines because of its colorful houses in El Caminito, the name of the colorful street of the neighborhood. The two blocks of houses in bright red, green, yellow, blue, and purple are the only areas safe enough for tourists. All guidebooks and our hotel staff warned us against going beyond those streets. If you simply read the guidebooks, it could easily sway a tourist to skip La Boca since it was most of the time described as the shanty town of BA and extremely unsafe. I was glad we went. Otherwise we would have missed this unique little corner of the town.

The cab dropped us right in front of the triangular house. Immediately we were attracted to a circle of people watching the street tango in full swing at the square.

Tango, the dance of passion, love and desires can be found everywhere in San Delmo and La Boca. We strolled along the two blocks of streets. Mike snapped a few quick jump shots of me in front of the brightly painted walls.

Local artists sold their crafts and paintings on the side of cobbled street. I bought two framed collages of day and night of La Boca, on which of course there were cats. I had to bring some cats back home. :)

Next stop is the Case Rosada. We were there the other day but they closed for tours. Today it was open for tours. Even though it was in Spanish, we followed the guides dressed in soldier uniform upstairs into this presidential house and its beautiful courtyard. There were pictures of the Peron family, historical photos of the revolutions and wars. I thought the house was bigger than the White House.

Granted it was a little difficult considering we did not understand much of anything from the tour but it was nice to be able to go upstairs, see the inside of hall and the pretty courtyard with fountain and palms.
San Delmo's Sunday market opens from 10 AM to 5 PM. It's a quick cab away from the Plaza de Mayo. We had a fast lunch then joined the hundreds thousands of people in the fair.

The main street is blocked on Sundays specifically to make room for the fair. All the way down the road, all we could see was sea of people. We saw lots of leather goods, handicrafts in glass, wood, stones, silver, weaved clothing and vantage clothes.

We saw a band of youngsters making music in the middle of the street. In South America, as if dancing and singing were a part of the birth right, we see people everywhere, young and old reacting to music and rhythm is in their blood. I found myself often jealous of them to be able to let go and let their hearts and limbs take them.


Tonight we are going to La Cabrera, another parrilla for steak. Steak is the main staple here, all twenty cuts or more on the menu, all juicy and delicious. Mike is in heaven...