The Colours of Passion
Day 211
Buenos Aires is a huge city, over 13 million people and its a vast city with some very district neighbourhoods across is cityscape. We were staying in Palermo Viejo, in the north. A funky, somewhat bohemian ‘hood that is becoming very gentrified. Today we were heading to the south, not only the opposite end of the city but almost a complete opposite. La Boca in the south is a lot more gritty, working class and definitely not gentrified.
Jordana and I rode the subte south to constitucion station where we met up with Eli and Bronwen. As soon as we exited the station I could tell the south was different. A stiff wind blew clouds of dust across the mostly grass less square and litter was everywhere, neither a common sight in Buenos Aires. We hopped in a taxi for the short trip to the heart of La Boca, the Bombonera. The Bombonera or chocolate box is the home of Football club, Boca Juniors. Personally this was on my must see list for Buenos Aires. I had hoped to do a tour of the field today and somehow score tickets for tomorrows match. The taxi approached the tall blue and yellow stadium and dropped us at one of the entrances. Here is the Boca museum of passion, showing the history of the famous club and containing a statue of Maradonna which seemed to be by far the most popular attraction.
Jordana and I got ourselves on a tour of the stadium. We entered the seating and were able to walk through the first level of seats as our guide explained some history of the club and field. It really does feel like a box in here, the seats rise incredibly steep and seem to almost hang over the pitch. The highlight for myself was being able to walk on a small part of the pitch and being able to touch it. From here we were shown many other parts of the stadium, including the press room and even Boca Juniors lockerooms. The stadium and lockerooms were very basic. The stadium I expected to be basic, the lockerooms surprised me a bit. They didn’t look much different than a high school lockeroom back home.
From the stadium we explored the surrounding area of La Boca, a neighbourhood the considers itself so unique from the rest of Buenos Aires that they refer to the ‘hood as “Republica de Boca”. It sure is unique, houses and shops are painted bright colours. Many of the houses are painted the Boca Juniors blue and yellow colours. As nice and unique as the area is its only a few streets that hold any interest and they are pretty touristy. Outside of here Boca isn’t exactly the safest place around.
We were just about done with La Boca when I remembered we had to call the lady from tourist information. Now this may sound a bit sketchy, actually it is a bit sketchy. Jordana and I went to tourist info a few days ago asking where we could buy tickets for a Boca Juniors match. The kind lady informed us that since every seat was taken by “members” none were available unless you bought them through an expensive agency. Then she paused and said, “my friend in Boca can get tickets, I will talk to him. Here is my number, you call around 2pm Saturday and I will get you the tickets.” Sketchy? Maybe, but sounded good to me! So fast forward to 2pm today. I go to a phone office and give Fatima a call. She says she’s in Boca right now at a bar and we can come meet her. Wow, this sounded too easy, or were we about to get robbed. We tried to find the bar with the directions she had given me. I thought we were lost when miraculously this lady runs out of a bar. Somehow we had found her.
We settled at a table with Fatima in the small bar/restaurant that had Boca Junior posters covering every inch of the wall. We were introduced to the owner who was a friendly guy and the man who was getting us our 4 seats for tomorrows match. We had to wait till 4pm for the tickets to be fetched by one of his staff but we did eventually get the tickets. He was quite insistent that we come back tomorrow before the match so he could make sure we get in OK. I felt like an insider, getting this tickets from a local establishment just a block from the field. It also felt good to safe the ton of cash we would have spent through an agency for tickets. Maybe the most exciting or should it be scary part? Our seats were in the popular section. The second deck of terraces behind the goal. It promised to be an unbelievable experience.
Tags: Argentina, Boca Juniors, Football, La Boca
Michael Coroneos
Jords… without me and mom you to go shopping with you get dragged to the “football” stadiums sucker LOL!!! Just kidding… sounds like it was interesing.