La Boca is a neighborhood of paradox; on one-hand it is proudly working class - celebrating the rough nature of the suburb, however, on the other, La Boca welcomes thousands of tourists into its tiny confines on a daily basis. Walking the streets of La Boca, you’ll be struck by the consistent reminders that you need to be wary for your personal safety here - yet be struck by the varicoloured hues of the houses in the famous artists street. Is this suburb dangerous or a tourist trap? In fact, it’s both.

Understand

The suburb of La Boca is situated at the mouth the Riachuelo river (La boca means ‘the mouth’ in English), and was originally established as a sort of port for Buenos Aires - in it’s early years, La Boca was dominated by shipyards and of the houses of people who worked in them. Ironically enough, despite giving La Boca it’s name, aresenic and lead pollution in the Matanza-Riachuelo River is currently a threat to long-term residents - meaning that ‘the mouth’ of this confusing little suburb is thoroughly unwell. The houses of La Boca were initially built with cast-off ship building materials, meaning that they were largely constructed of materials such as planks, sheet metal and corrugated iron.

Over the years, La Boca has been a centre for radical politics, having elected the first socialist member of the Argentine Congress in 1935 and was home to riots and demonstrations during the Argentinian crisis of 2001. Because of this, a huge amount of shopfronts in the neighbourhood sell t-shirts emblazoned with Che Guevara’s face (despite him having grown up in Alta Gracia) - cashing in on the suburbs vaguely socialist leanings.

Among sports fans, Boca is best known for being the home of world-renowned football club Boca Juniors. (Think Lionel Messi). The club plays their home matches in the La Bombonera stadium, centrally located within La Boca. La Boca is a hugely popular destination for tourists, with its colourful houses and pedestrian street, the Caminito, where tango artists perform and tango-related memorabilia is sold. Other attractions include the La Ribera theatre, many tango clubs and Italian taverns. The actual area visited by tourists is actually only a few blocks long and has been built up for tourism. Outside this tourist area however, the true La Boca lies - where petty crime is said to be rife.

HOW TO SEE IT

La Boca is located relative close to the main downtown area of Buenos Aires. However, it can also be reached by metro, you just need to get off at Plaza Constitution and walk towards the river, you’ll reach it in about 20 minutes. For most tourists visiting La Boca, they’ll probably check it out as part of a walking tour. It’s certainly what I did. The Millhouse Hostel has a weekly walking tour to the suburb, which cost about $5 USD per person back in 2014. However, Strawberry Tours are said to offer a fairly decent walking tour, which occurs daily at 11 am.

POINTS OF INTEREST

• La Boca Stadium: Costs about $5 USD to visit. Probably only relevant to sports fans. I did the tour and found it fairly boring, however, if you live and breathe football, definitely one worth doing for you.

• El Caminito: The colourful street that is the tourist heartland of La Boca. Certainly worth checking out, if only for the pretty coloured houses and road. However, there will also be the posing tango dancers lining the streets, which is absolutely a tourist trap.

• Transporter Bridge: A weird bridge on the waters edge, depicted below. Makes for a good photograph. Completely free to look at, but not hugely engaging overall.

• Conventilos: Colourful houses that line several of the streets in the neighbourhood. As above, great for photographs.

Is it a tourist trap?

To put it simply; yes. Yes, Boca as an activity is a massive, massive tourist trap. Largely built on our collective gullibility, our desire for ‘authenticity’, and our need to be constantly pointing at things, agog expressions on our face, as we snap away on our cameras. You’ll see all of the trappings of a tourist trap here. Staged Tango dancing. Over-priced pubs that claim to be ‘neighbourhood’ joints, though I doubt locals would frequent a joint with english menus and beer that cost as much as a meal elsewhere. There are, of course, pickpockets everywhere. You’ll see them, should you look closely enough. They’ll be young men or women, skulking around behind the tourists too busy watching the fake Tango dancers to notice them. There are, too, excessively priced walking tours, that will show you around a suburb that has little to recommend it. In short, La Boca is a tourist trap. In a city full of them, it possibly reigns supreme.

IS IT SAFE?

La Boca is probably as safe as anywhere in a Lain American megalopolis. Petty crime is rife throughout Buenos Aires, with crimes of opportunity such as pickpocketing and bag snatching fairly common. While nothing of mine got stolen in the few hours that I spent in the suburb, I did watch one tourist get pickpocketed by a gang of teenagers as he watched the tango dancers. You’ll see them; as soon as a tour group arrives on El Caminito, they’ll be skulking around, some of them concealing their hands beneath maps, books or bags, but they’re there, and they will definitely pick-pocket you, if possible.

While very unlikely to impact you, it does bear mentioning that that the la Boca side has one of the most passionate and violent supported bases in Latin America. When I was in Buenos Aires, La Boca played their great rival, River Plate. This match is known as the ‘superclasico,’ which is a very big deal for football fans in town. At any rate, while I can’t remember the match outcome in the 2014 season, several people were shot in La Boca that night, and I believe someone torched a building after the game, so, y’know, be careful out there - don’t talk smack about either team when in town.

THE VERDICT

In a town full of interesting things to do, see and eat, La Boca, in my opinion, isn’t the most exciting option for anyone visiting Buenos Aires. If you’re a massive, massive tango or soccer fan, then, by all means, go for a wander. However, for everyone else, the suburb is just another suburb in Buenos Aires, and I’d strongly encourage you to keep your visit here fairly brief. The cafes are over priced, the bars fairly average, and the pickpockets numerous. Whenever you’re doign an activit surroudne dby other tourists, you have to feel wary right?

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