Today we decided to buy a 2 day bus ticket for the tourist 'hop on hop off' bus to give us a tour of the city – it is a big place and this seemed like the most efficient way to get around. The bus included headsets which told us about the main sites of the town (including the architect and date of what seemed like every single statue in the city) with a bit of jazz music inbetween each sight.
Half way round the tour we decided to get off in the Boca district and visit the Boca Juniors football Stadium. Players of Boca Juniors have included Carlos Tevez and Diego Maradona. The stadium is called La Bombonera which means 'Chocolate Box' because of its tightly tiered structure aimed at fitting as many fans in as possible (44,000). The stadium is in a poor part of town and the fans of Boca are renowned for their intimidation and chanting. The die hard fans are often involved in extra curricular heavy duties for the club management and in turn they influence matters such as player transfers and receive free match tickets. I was lucky to photograph one such barra brava fan.
Next we visited Caminito street in the Boca District. This was inhabited by Italian immigrants who set up home here. The ramshackle houses are all brightly painted in many different colours which was a past tradition of using up the paint from the ships that docked in the port. The street was really pretty but has been heavily exploited by tourism. You could have your picture taken with a tango dancer, with a Maradona look alike and even a man dressed as a rubber red fly??? I liked it here but didn't stay long and hopped back on the bus.
We then hopped off at Puerto Madero – a new area of recently renovated docks. It was really nice walking along the docks and over the new Puenta de la Mujer bridge which is meant to symbolise the outstretched leg of a tango dancer.
After this we walked to Plaza de Mayo and the Casa Rosada where Evita and her husband Peron addressed the crowds from the balcony in 1952 during the political uprising – from which balcony we are still not sure...
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Finally we caught the subway home. BA's subway is the oldest in the southern hemisphere and Line A still uses the original carriages from 1913 with wooden-framed interiors. It was like stepping back in time however I wouldn't recommend leaning on the doors !!
That night we were up for steak again and we headed to a restaurant recommended by the hotel. Again we had 'BIG' steaks with a bottle of Malbec ….and all for £50 !!
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