Caminito: A street full of culture

With the rhythm of the voice of Gardel and the colorful houses, we enter Caminito. A magical place where the artistic and bohemian life are interlaced in a single street of only 100 meters. Its colorful restaurants that mixes tango with a long-lived soccer tradition make it a must on your travel bucket list.

This famous alley is in La Boca neighborhood. Originally, around the end of the 19th century, European immigrants disembarked in this place during two decades. They ended up modifying the culture, commerce, enriched the lands, and helped create the national music of Argentina, the Tango.

If you want to learn how to dance Tango, Caminito is the correct place where you can see, smell, and experience all about this singular music.

The immigrants that lived there also made colorful houses. They are built one next to the other in other to increase support and help them keep stand even after several years. They were usually decorated with the left-over paint from the shipyards meaning that they were usually ocher, grey, dark green, and red.

This historical place, which receives around 4 million tourists per year, has a unique, great story because in 1928 the train tracks that passed through these streets were abandoned turning the area IGNORE INTO a ghost town.
 
Years later, in the 1950’s, Benito Quinquela Martín, an Argentine painter who lived in this place decided to give the houses a makeover and, thusly, giving them a new opportunity.
 
Currently, you can visit the Bombonera stadium which is located 400 meters from Caminito. The tour includes a visit to the stands, the dressing rooms and La Pasión Boquense museum which commemorates emblematic soccer players of club Boca Junior like Diego Armando Maradona.
 
Also, stopping at Pedro Avellaneda Ferry Bridge is a must. It is one of the only eight ferry bridges in the world to have survived the passing of time becoming one of the most representative icons of the La Boca neighborhood.

 
After you’re done touring and are starting to feel a little bit hungry, you can eat in a very popular restaurant called La Perla. It is a place full of history which has been in service since 1882. You can find it at the beginning of Calle Caminito in an old building decorated with striking murals dedicated to famous Argentine tango composers such as Carlos Gardel and Aníbal Troilo.

LatinAmerican Post | Gabriela Cordoba
Copy edited by Susana Cicchetto