A Walk On The Wild Side

I now retract my statement that I have a good sense of direction
OK, so it has been a source of much internal pride, that I have a good sense of direction, and don´t tend to get lost. However, today I managed to get myself well and truly lost (except that I ended up where I had intended to go in the first place, but then decided not to go to!) So perhaps my credibility is somewhat saved by the fact that I ended up where I was initially wanting to go???? I´ll stop being cryptic and tell the actual story!

I had decided to head down to La Boca- the neighbourhood in Buenos Aires where the brightly coloured houses and shops are located.. Having read up on it in the ol´ Lonely Planet, I knew that it was the dodgiest barrio in Buenos Aires, and to stick to the "well worn tourist path, during the daytime as well as at night" (quote, unquote). So I checked out the map, and found the route that looked to be via the most major streets, then headed off. Upon arriving at the street I thought would take me there, I found that it was kinda a freeway, and therefore that I couldn´t walk there! So I turned around to head back to San Telmo (where I´m staying), and to find out which buses would get me to La Boca.. Except that somewhere along the way, I turned right instead of left, and I ended up getting a touch lost.. So I thought I´d keep walking the way I THOUGHT was towards "home".... The streets started to get grottier looking, and I saw a big soccer stadium- I thought to myself "that CAN´T be La Boca´s stadium, it must be a different one"... Then I spotted a ´for sale´ sign in a window that had the word ´Boca´ on it, and it was THEN that I realised that it WAS La Boca.. So I kept trapsing along until I finally found the waterfront and realised that I was quite close to ´Caminito´.

Despite what was in the LP and on ´trip advisor´ websites, I had no issue with my walk through the dodgy streets- OK, so I don´t INTEND on doing it again, but the people there were all lovely. It possibly helps that I don´t exactly look like I´d be worth much!

All in all, it was a worthwhile jaunt- got some ´íconic´ snaps of the coloured buildings (which were initially painted in muliticolour because the people who lived there were too poor to buy paint, so they used to ask the ship builders for their left-overs and paint the houses in whatever colours were given to them). There are the usual touristy shops there, but also an artists´ market- some of the paintings were amazing, and I´m thinking of getting one when I come back to Buenos Aires.

Bits ´n Pieces
Right, now I´m about to re-open the debate that I started on the Caribbean cricket trip: Coke Light tastes like Pepsi Max, it DOES NOT taste like Diet Coke! I was RUBBISHED by some of the girls when I brought that up in Barbados, and I am now re-presenting the issue. It tastes nothing like Diet Coke!!!!!!!!! OK!!!!!!! To make sure it´s not just MY opinion, I shall bring some home, and do a taste test with Coke Light, Diet Coke and Pepsi Max. THEN we´ll see who´s right!!!!

I´ve also had my first couple of "strange places to hear Aussie music in" moments for this trip- the first was in what could only be described as Buenos Aires´ version of Target, when I heard Midnight Oil´s "Beds Are Burning" and saw a little Porteño girl dancing away to it.. So strange! The second was when I was heading out for a walk last night, and heard INXS´ "Original Sin" BLARING out of a car with a middle-aged Porteño bloke singing his heart out. Sensational!

Better head off to buy the bus tickets to Montevideo for Friday (not Saturday, as I´d written in the previous post).. I´m splashing out and paying an extra 10 pesos for a bus that has seats that fully recline!..