A Trip to La Boca

Today was our first actual day in Buenos Aires, and after all of the orientations, a bunch of us from the group wanted to grab lunch together. However, we did not realize it would take over an hour and a half to just receive our food, which was primarily because there were about 15 of us. We were starting to get really anxious because we had to meet with the group at a certain time, and it was getting to be pretty close to that time without our food even coming out. Finally with 15 minutes to spare, my roommate Alex and I ate our lunch in about five bites, so that we could run ahead to tell our professors in case the others were going to be late. Luckily everyone made it in time to load onto the bus for our city tour. On the bus, we drove around the city and had a verbal tour from our guide, and we ended up in the south part of Argentina called La Boca. We got to get off the bus and walk around the town. Let me just say, I have never seen any type of buildings like that anywhere at home. It's the part of the city that was developed by and for the immigrants to live in, but has now become a popular place for artists to show their art work. The buildings were every bright color possible, and it was not like the colors even went together. It was as though a five year old was the exterior color designer. I loved it! Caminita Street was lined with artist after artist showing their work on the sides, accompanied by the towns stray dogs and even some cats (my favorite). It was so funny to just walk around and try to be seduced by the male tango dancers. I literally had to like run away from one of them. The cafes all had tango dancers in front of the outdoor tables, and also had weird men asking to be our husbands. It was pretty entertaining to walk around the city, as long as you did not get too close to the stench of the port water, or until it started raining bullets. Then the bus finally picked us back up, and we had to drive through a really ghetto area of town. I hated to see the types of shacks that were falling apart and actually lived in with little kids outside. Luckily, we drove past it pretty quickly and finished up with the rest of the bus tour. But honestly, I am exhausted right now and cannot wait to take a little nap before we actually sit down and eat dinner after this crazy, long day.