Journey through South America. Argentina. Buenos Aires. Crime district of La Boca.
Living in the center of the Argentinean capital of Buenos Aires, where tourists are robbed near hotels even during the day, despite my fears, I went and traveled around the whole city. I spent four months in South America, traveling the entire southern part of the continent to Tierra del Fuego, and I was not robbed anywhere, although I had read enough about the horrors.
La Boca district is called "The Mouth" in Russian. The area is big, gloomy, dirty and aggressive. When I was about to go to this famous criminal area, the hotel staff dissuaded me and frightened me with dangers, but I went. Which have not be avoided. Paradox: La Boca is one of the most famous sights of the city, being at the same time one of the most dangerous and prestigious areas! La Boca is the area. And the place where tourists are brought is a small patch of the La Boca district, which is called Caminito. It can be translated as "Track". This is a small patch exclusively for tourists. Caminito does not convey the atmosphere of the entire La Boca area at all. The residents of Buenos Aires themselves do not like this area, and try not to go there for walks and recreation. There are many brightly colored houses in the area. The area used to be a port area, and sailors, according to some unknown sailor tradition, tried to sheathe their houses with metal relief sheets and paint them with multi-colored paint. The usual souvenir set of Argentina. What is surprising is that Russian nesting dolls are always sold here. Matryoshka in Argentina has long been a national souvenir. Sold everywhere. At the start of Florida Street, there's even a couple of exclusively matryoshka vendors. Yes, the Argentines know that this is a "Russian doll", but here it is called "mamushka" (apparently, a matryoshka is hard to pronounce. . . )
I got to La Boca by city bus. I now travel by bus because I bought a ticket. This area of poverty borders on the rich and beautiful areas of Buenos Aires. A piece of this poverty has been turned into a tourist Mecca. I went all over the La Boca area. About 47.000 people live here. Dark and scary for sure. Even during the day, the streets are deserted, and abandoned houses frighten with their dullness and empty window openings. I expected an attack at any moment, but my feet were carried forward to a wealthy area, where it is more calm in regards to attacks. When I entered the neighboring area, I breathed a sigh of relief. The main thing in such cases is not to let anyone close to you, and look back more often. Pay attention to lonely guys in sports shoes, which are good to run away after a robbery. One thing is clear that the police will never find the thieves, but will pretend to be looking for. They are a copy of Russian cops.
