Our long bus ride had us arriving back in Buenos Aires at midday. We made our way to the hostel where Michaela and Lewis were staying, El Firulete located in the Micro center of the city. When we arrived, Michaela and Lewis were waiting for us in the lobby. We dropped off our bags and headed out. We were off to buy our tickets to the River Plate futbol match happening on Sunday. Now, here's the thing, everyone that you talk to about going to a futbol match talks about how the games can be dangerous and you need to be careful, etc. etc. We decided not to go with a tour group and "chance it" on our own. We started walking toward the general vicinity of the River Plate stadium. It was a pretty far walk and I think it would have been doable, but it was really hot out. We ended up taking a cab the rest of the way. We purchased 4 tickets in the "non hooligan" section of the stadium. Yay - our plans were secure for the game on Sunday. We started walking back and again, it was too far so we took the bus back toward the center of Buenos Aires. That night, was my first steak dinner in Argentina! Yum! Steak and red wine...ahhh!!!
The next day, the 4 of us decided to walk to the famous La Boca neighborhood of Buenos Aires. The neighborhood is called La Boca (the mouth) because it is at the mouth of the Riochuelo river and is where many immigrants, mostly from Italy, settled in the late 1800s and early 1900s. La Boca is home of the famous Boca Juniors futbol club. On our way there, we walked passed the stadium. There are some incredibly dedicated fans here! La Boca is also famous for Caminito street, which literally translated means little walkway or little road or maybe little pathway. And yes, it is little, but has big character! Caminito was recreated by a famous Argentine painter, Benito Quinquela Martin. He and his artist friends recreated the street to reflect the way the barrio as it was, an immigrant port neighborhood with Italian influence - colorful and built out of scrap metal.
We arrived at Caminito, found a restaurant with outdoor seating and we watched some tango dancing and other traditional dancers. Now, at this point, I am feeling rather relieved after a small incident that happened on the way to La Boca. Actually, I think we were already in La Boca when Lewis found a hair cut place and decided to get a haircut. He asked Patty and I to translate how he wanted his hair cut. Patty took it upon herself to translate (I was A-OK with that...whew!). As it turns out, there were a few "issues" with the haircut. The tension in that little hair salon was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. Long story short, Lewis was not at all happy with what this guy did to his hair and the guy was getting irritated too. I decided to wait outside before the big finale. I do have to say that I wish I had more gumption like Lewis. He wasn't happy and had no qualms about letting this guy know and the guy knew for sure he was not happy even though they didn't speak the same language! Ahh...can we all get a round of drinks now?
We left La Boca and headed to the San Telmo neighborhood, the oldest barrio of Buenos Aires. San Telmo is loaded with colonial buildings, cafes, tango parlors and antique shops. We did a little window shopping and stopped at a cafe for my favorite , a banana licuado. I was looking forward to coming back to San Telmo on Sunday for the big market.
That night, at the hostel, Patty borrowed my scissors and did some haircut damage control for Lewis. It all ended up ok!
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