Today I met Margarita and some of her friends from her former school at a place near the city center called "La Boca". I had read about this area of town in my Buenos Aires travel book, and the author had talked about it being very touristy and hardly worth the time or trouble to visit...but I was curious, and because Margarita and her friends were excited about spending the day there, I was all for it!
We arrived at "La Boca", and the first thing I noticed was a building painted in bright colors off to the side of the street. At the top there was a rod-iron balcony with what appeared to be someone looking out...After a closer look, I realized that it was some sort of paper machier-type statue.
We met up with Margarita's friends and found the plaza where a special performance was supposed to take place. The show began (all in Spanish), and there were several actors dressed in old-fashioned clothes. The scenery behind was made to look like a ship, and the actors began to tell the story of how European immigrants made the journey to South America and to Argentina. This play really helped me to understand the history of Argentina and Buenos Aires and to have a more clear picture of why there is such a European influence (Spanish and Italian in particular) here.
It started to rain and the show ended, so we went into a shop to look around. After a while we decided to brave it and head out into the streets, even though it was still sprinkling a little bit. We walked down the cobblestone paths and looked at the brightly colored buildings. I was really enjoying this place, and even though it was kind of "touristy", like my travel book said, it was such a fun place to visit, and I'm so glad we came here.
We found a cafe with a covered tent to sit under and decided to have some lunch. There was a stage right by our table where dancers performed different types of dances like "foclorico" and "tango". We ate and watched the show, and we were even able to go on stage and have our pictures made with the dancers. It was kind of "cheesy"...but it was fun.
We spent about two or more hours there eating and watching the dancers perform. Finally we decided to get up and walk around some more. We saw more brightly colored buildings with balconies and statues placed in each...There was a statue of the Argentine soccer coach "Maradona" and one of Evita Peron.
We stayed there until late in the afternoon, and then we took a bus to another area of town known as "San Telmo". This was an outdoor market with stalls set up where people were selling antiques. We spent some time walking around the market, and because it was pretty late in the afternoon now, the vendors started to take down their stalls and close up for the night.
We walked down the street and found a cafe and had some coffee...We could hear cheers in the street as Spain scored the first and only goal against Holland in the finals of the World Cup. I think most Argentinans wanted Spain to win, but there were some who said that Spanish people tend to "pick on" the Argentine soccer team, and so for that reason, some Aregentinans were routing for Holland. From where we were sitting, it sounded like most people were happy with the outcome, as we continued to hear more screams and cheers as the game ended.
The sun was going down, and it was starting to get a lot colder. We headed towards the part of town where Margarita and her husband lived, and there we met up with Mercedes and Andrea and her husband. We ate dinner at a restaurant and had a good time. We were there until about 11:30 in the evening, and then finally it was time to go home and go to bed. The day was so much fun...but just like every other day so far, I was so tired and ready for bed!
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