Dos de Enero 2009, The Fourth Day of the Trip

So this was the fourth day of our trip, and our plan was to head to a neighborhood called La Boca, which is famous for a number or reasons, primarily the fact that is where the football (soccer) team Boca Juniors is from. This is the team Maradona played for. La Boca is also a bit sketchier than other parts of the city, or at least of the parts that tourists (travelers) should actually go to (it probably gets pretty sketchy in neighborhoods off the beat and path). Anyhow, after a visit to La Boca it was off to the Recoleta neighborhood to visit the famous cemetery there.


There are random perros all throughout the city, and country for that matter (probably the continent as well!). There is also a lot of poo on the sidewalks; Mark stepped in one like the 2nd day of our trip...never happened again though! Anyhow, this guy was in rough shape and we felt really bad, but there is nothing you can do.

First Argentine public bus experience...was a very pleasant ride on a very pleasant day. La Boca bound!

This is the start of the "Caminito", which is a very colorful, touristy area in La Boca. Originally the area was a bunch of bars and brothels for the sailors that came to the small harbor just to the left of the above building in the photo. It has since been turned into a network of small streets and buildings that have souvenir shops, outdoor cafes and restaurants, street vendors, and tango performers.

Shopping in Caminito. I think all we bought was a magnet.

Yep, you guessed it...more Caminito...

This is one of the entrances to the Boca Juniors football field. Unfortunately it was the off season, but we were able to wander around in the stands a bit, as you can see below.

Meg and the Boca Juniors football field.

Mark (and Meg) and the Boca Juniors football field.

Just the Boca Juniors football field. Lots of these photos...oh well, deal with it. Can't imagine watching a game here!

If you are at a Boca Juniors football game (or just taking a tour of the facilities) and you are a male, this is where you would do a number two. Can't imagine doing a number two here!

Another random perro. This one we wanted to take with us...

Random tienda (store) front; these folks are real hyped on the Boca Juniors football team!

Detail of the above photo...Maradona, numero diez. He is currently the head coach of the Argentina national team.

This photo shows two bridges, that look very similar. The closer bridge is the original La Boca bridge, which is real cool when viewed up close (pretty cool from far away as well). The other bridge is a sort of replica (kinda) of the original bridge. The original bridge does not function as a bridge anymore.

After the Caminito and football business, we were hungry, so we were off to locate this restaurant called El Obrero. Well, we found it, and we were really glad we did. The food was absolutely amazing, and the vibe was the same. If you go to La Boca, you must go to El Obrero.

The Recoleta cemetery is mahoosive. This photo shows just a couple of the graves, but there are thousands, and it would take days to go through the whole thing.

Eva Peron, or Evita (the woman Madonna played in the movie Evita) is buried here. Don't know the whole story about why she is so famous, but her grave is definitely a tourist attraction; so we had to put up the token Evita grave photo.

So the Dakar Rally was in Argentina (and Chile) while we were there, and it seemed as if it was following us around the country, or at least it was everywhere we looked. Rally is cool and all, but that wasn't the reason we were in Argentina, and we certainly weren't about to go out of our way to check it out. There will likely be Dakar references throughout the rest of the posts; it sorta became a theme of the trip. On our way back to our B&B, we came across a street closure where all the participants were parading, the day before the official start of the rally. Here is a photo of some cycle dudes.

This video shows some of the four-wheeler dudes doing their rally parade thing.