More than 100 years ago, at Barrio La Boca's start, the residents painted their homes with bright paints given to them by the shipyards. The bright colors are still used today.

Journal by Chanda Baggarly

With little resistance, Nick, Todd and I broke away from the chains of the Ethernet and spent the afternoon in La Boca.

La Boca is one of Buenos Aires' best tourist attractions. In the 19th century, when scores of Italians immigrated to Buenos Aires, some settled in La Boca barrio (neighborhood) and began a colorful tradition that is still carried on today. La Boca is a port city and there are many fishing boats and ships. One hundred years ago, for economic reasons, the residents of La Boca used left over corregated metal from the ship yards to build their homes and also used the excess paint from the ship yards to paint them. The ship yards sold them many bright and colorful paints, all of which were used by the residents. The neighborhood quickly became one of the most colorful neighborhoods in the world. This tradition is still carried on today, and at some point La Boca become a major tourist spot. Being tourists, we we grabbed our tourist gear----cameras, sunblock, and map---and headed out to see La Boca.

We happened to visit the barrio on a soccer game day. La Boca has their own team and thousands of proud fans. We saw some of the more zealous fans on the streets as we entered neighborhood---it was easy to spot the decked out fans in blue and yellow Boca colors. The stadium is just two blocks from the touristy area where we were, so we could also hear the game's high and low points. Boca fans take the game very seriously and have been known to go a little crazy after a game. In fact, our afternoon in Boca was cut short when the soccer game ended. At 3:00 the shopkeepers, cafes, and restaurants closed up quickly around us minutes before the fans---defeated or victorious---flooded the streets. We were sitting at an outdoor café, enjoying a cup of coffee, when our waiter packed up all of the tables and chairs and offered us a cab ride home. We reluctantly took the cab offer. Would have loved to hang out there a little longer just to see what happened.

La Boca won, by the way.

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