Though I guess when in Rome... so I headed down to La Boca, the neighbourhood of Buenos Aires which is home to, yes you've guessed it, Boca Juniors.
I had a stroll round the Bombanero stadium, which is painted the blue and yellow of Boca, save for the Coca Cola logos which are in black and white - River Plate's colours are red and white, such is the animosity between the two teams.
Outside the stadium they have a walk of fame with foot casts of various ex-players, all of whose footprints are still visible. With the exception of El Diego's which has been worn smooth by infatuated Boca fans.
The nieghbourhood of La Boca is a pretty scummy place in fact, and tourists are advised to stick to the main drag which is actually very pretty. Apparently, the first immigrants to Buenos Aires (after the Spanish had set the city up) were Italians who worked the docks. They were so poor they couldn't afford to build houses so they nicked iron and paint from the shipyards and used them to build La Boca and its houses.
It's all very pretty, but the docks are so contaminated from industry that the air round there is really toxic. It's not your normal 'fishy/diesel' port smell, it's a really metallic choking smell.
The tango was invented in this neighbourhood (originally for two fellas) and there were alot of dancers around to keep the tourists entertained if we got bored of the Diego lookalike (Sorry for not getting a picture of him, but I couldn't bring myself to do it!). So here are the tango dancers instead. After a couple of hours though I was ready to get out as the smell was giving me a headache.
Well school's nearly over and I took a stroll down to the ferry and bus company to get everything booked for next week. I'm headin to Montevideo on Sunday, and then to Punta del Este for a few days on the beach. As cool as Buenos Aires is, I'm ready to escape the city and breath some clean air, it's really very polluted here, despite the clear blue skies.
While wandering I discovered this - Torre Ingles. In days gone by the British and the Argentinians were bosom buddies. So much so that the British residents of Buenos Aires built this tower as a thank you to the 'bueno gentile' of the city for being, well, so nice.
I was amazed it hadn't been demolished during the Falklands conflict, but after walking round it I saw a few smashed windows and paint stains so it may have been a target after all.
They are still a pretty political people. Even their grafitti is political. There's no tagging, it's all either giant colourful murals or this kind of thing.
I've seen three demonstrations already. One was about fifty people just strolling down the road with a banner just shouting. No police, but walking down the middle of the road holding up the traffic - if that was London they'd all have been nicked for something. Who lives in the authoritarian country, us or them?
They're pretty free about everything - there's no lane discipline on the roads, red lights are jumped, bikers don't wear helmets, mobiles are used at the wheel, people smoke in bars and restaurants despite it being illegal. It's chaos really, but you can't help but feel they value their freedom, both politically and socially, more highly than the rest of us - either because it's relatively new to them, or because they're just latino and don't give a shit.
Blimey, don't know what came over me then. Better redress the balance. Erm, I've never seen so many camel toes. It's like a mark of distinction for young and old alike, part of the fashion. Very disturbing.
