During my first week in Buenos Aires, my partner took me to see this beautiful street museum. I've seen this place several times in other hivers' posts, and I knew right away that it's the place I definitely want to see while in Buenos Aires. Even by looking at their pictures, I feel cheered up, so I'm sure it would be amazing to see it up close.
According to my partner, Camino is a part of the old quarter in La Boca and it's nearby the older harbour close to the end of La Plata river. It is the part of town that has been restored recently for cultural and artistic purposes. In general, the surrounding neighbourhood is run down and rather poor. It's like an oasis in that neighbourhood.
As you can see in this photo, Caminito is just a few colourful blocks
View looking over a habour
Caminito was restored by painting most of its walls with colourful tone and creating many different businesses to attract tourists, artists and some craft businesses. There are many atteliers (painters and artist workshops) all around inside the old buildings. Most of the themes are about Buenos Aires cityscape, tango and other Argentinian pop culture.
Look at these walls, they look like the ones from cartoon movies
There are also many stalls and street vendors offering paintings, drawings, hand-crafted items. Many of them are authentic and unique but there are also regular gift shops. At first we wanted to get some painting for friends but then I couldn't decide which one and how to bring them home. In the end, we just got some small items like tea towels with Argentina symbols.
Mafalda - my partner bought this series in English for me and I love reading this children comic book
For regular tourists, it might be difficult to get to Caminoto by yourself. It's always easy to book a tour for people who are not familiar with the public transport in Buenos Aires. Lucky for me, my partner is a local so we took buses to visit. I am glad we did that because I could take a wee nap during the trip. Since the lifestyle there was so different from what I was used to, I think I suffered from jetlag for almost ten days during my visit. Since having late dinner and staying up until 2 or 3 pm wasn't in my dictionary before, it messed with my body clock.
Around lunch time, we stopped by one of the several restaurants to have luch. Actually it was my first time experience with Parrilla * in Buenos Aires. Parrilla is basically the Agetinian kind of BBQ that served on a stove with amber inside to keep the food hot and the name of it is Parrillada*. I was impressed with the amount of food that brought out. It was an interesting experience but to be honest, I am not big fan of Parrilla as I am not a big meat eater.
During the meal, there was tango dance performances. They are professional dancers dressing with traditional tango customers. I am not so sure that I have seen this kind of dance before but I am so happy to have this experience in Buenos Aires because Tango is a big part of Buenos Aires culture.
There are also museums nearby and artistic centres. We chose to visit the Benito Quinquela museum. You need to pay for an entrance ticket but I recall it was realy cheap like 1 USD per person. This museum is decidated to the artist with the same name who is famous for painting scenes from around that part of town, mostly related to people working in the habour.
There are three floors in total and one of them featuring his houses and stuff that he uses. I remember taking photos insides but not sure why I couldn't find them now. Anyway if you happen to visit this place, make sure to check it out.
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I don't usually blog while on vacation, so it's been over a month since I visited the place, and now I think I should share it with you. I prefer this way since I can pay my full attention to my family and enjoy my holiday at the same time. Additionally, blogging lets me re-visit the place for a second time, which I find works so well for me. I used to feel bad whenever my holiday was over but since joining Hive and writing about my holiday experiences, I know there are fun parts that are still waiting for me to do.
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