Live music performances seem to be everywhere in BA, this musician was singing his heart out at a small cafe in the La Boca district

Continuing our Sunday walk of over 15,000 steps according to Bryna’s FitBit, we found our way to the La Boca district by late afternoon. La Boca means “the mouth”, referring to it’s location on the mouth of the Rio Riachuelo which flows through the southern part of BA into the vast Rio De La Plata. La Boca was the old port district of BA and was where many immigrant laborers worked and lived back in it’s heyday. It was here at around the end of the nineteenth century that the sensuous and infamous dance, the tango, originated in the bordellos and bars of this working class community, to later become the national dance of Argentina. Although the present day La Boca is not quite the seedy and dangerous neighborhood of legend, it is still a bit rough around the edges, enough so that we were told by several well meaning locals to not stick around when night falls as there were too many malos chicos roaming the streets. During our first visit to BA in ’78, Shelley and I also made our way here and it was where I made the B&W photos of the “Tango Man” that I posted on the first blog of this series. Obviously a lot has changed since then, primarily it is more touristy than ever. I remember it as being a bit more drab and run down, as an old port neighborhood should be, but this time many of the buildings were freshly painted in a colorful style. Now there are street cafes, a small crafts market as well as an outdoor stage that is set up by the now unused docks, and there are plenty of clubs with tango shows keeping the tradition alive. Here’s a few images I made during our evening there.

The brightly colored Caminito building, a famous landmark in La Boca

Back in it's rough-neck days, one can imagine this to be a colorful house of ill-repute

And then again, maybe not all that much has changed..... 

There is still a lively street life protected by the tourist police in their fluorescent vests

The friendly owners of the Conviento Rosada where we stopped for a drink.

The image of the legendary tango singer Carlos Gardel greets visitors to this colorful La Boca establishment

A very funny period comedy performed in this open air theater next to the river front in La Boca

As night falls the unmistakable rhythms of tango music is heard on the streets....

and the last tango in La Boca begins