Buenos Aires, Argentina

Well, it was a great first day in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I met up with my friend Jorge and his friend Mikey who would be traveling with us. I also re-met Jorge's sister, Celi, whom were staying with in BA. The first day, Jorge, Mikey and some of their other friends in BA and I went to a little area called Boca. This was an awesome area and most definitely my favorite spot in BA. Boca is on the water (which could stand to smell better) and was the landing spot for many Italians as they migrated to Argentina. The Italians were pore and used sheet metal to build their homes and places of business. This would naturally rust very quickly being on the water and therefore, every year, the Italians would paint their homes different colors. This has lead to a very colorful neighborhood (as you can see in the pics).The streets are live with music here. There were bands performing in the streets and couples dancing the beautiful tango. Besides being colorful, Boca was also the birth place for the TANGO (Jorge pictured with 2 tango dancers was in delight watching them perform in the streets)! It is a very interesting place, full of life and adventure, but don't leave the main touristy area, and don't get stuck there at night, and you should remain safe.


After a great day in Boca, we returned home where Celi was gearing up to teach a group Tango lesson. We all participated and had a joyous time trying not to trample all over each others feet! Here is Mikey and I trying our best to make our feet and bodies move across the floor without falling or running into anyone else. And here is a lovely pic of our new friend, host, and tango teacher Celi, who obviously thought we could do better :)

The next day we went to an Argentinian Futbal game (soccer for all you Americans). This was an adventure of its own kind all together. The game was Boca Juniors vs. Arsenal. We of course cheered for Boca seeing as we were there the day before and as it is Jorge's favorite team. I guess they usually don't loose, however they did loose this game :( It was crazy getting into this game. We heard tickets were sold out, or that you couldn't go to a normal ticket window anyway to purchase tickets. We had to get them in the street. We were instructed not to speak English and give ourselves away, or lord knows what could and would have happened to us. After speaking with different street scammers, we finally desided on which one to let help us in... the cop. Of all the street scammers in BA, it is the police who have the best chance of actually helping you for a nice small bribe. All though, they too, can be quick to take your money and leave you hanging. It turns out we selected (bribed) the right cop, who got us into the stadium and seated hours before the main crowd arrived. This was good as it allowed us to be the first ones there to try and get the safest seats in the house. I guess it is not unheard of at these games for people to get hurt or even killed by the wild fans! Eeeek! We stayed in the back, top of the stands, with our backs against the walls. This seemed to work out well. We did not get hurt and we did not see anyone else get hurt or into a fight. Interestingly enough, and very different from America culture, they do not serve alcohol at sporting events. I guess they figure they do not need to fuel the crowds tendency to be violent. On the other hand, they allow people to smoke joints in the stands and do not make any attempt to moderate it, I guess they figure this helps to calm the crowds in an effort to stop the violence before it stops. After all, there are cops with shotguns positioned on each side, of each row of bleachers (more like rows of cement), so if they wanted to do something about it, they could have. All in all, it was a great day in the sun, except of course for Boca loosing! (Pictured below with me is Celi's friend from California, Renee!)