We had a rockin' last night in Uruguay last night. Kacie hammed it up with some locals on the dancefloor at a bar near our hostel while I made some friends at the bar. We didn't sleep, but boarded a bus at 7 this morning to return to Buenos Aires.
Today we ventured into La Boca, one of the older neighborhoods in the city. We have been taking the different neighborhoods on foot, and although my legs are tired, I'm glad that we have been. Kacie walks at a very leisurely pace, and it gives us plenty of time to take everything in.
It's been interesting how much you can learn about a neighborhood by the art on the walls. In La Boca there was a lot of art dedicated to a certain teacher, and also a lot about fighting poverty. We were told by our Chilean friends that the neighborhood is a must-see, but to be careful. Walking down the street it looked like the neighborhood definitely has a drug presence, and I could see it being a big place for crime against tourists. We stopped for a chorizo sandwich and the vendor gave us some tips.
One of the most interesting parts of a huge city, in my opinion, is the variety of people you see. There are all sorts of very tanned, wrinkled poor people selling whatever they can on the side of the road. There are also plenty of bohemian/gypsies selling wares. Depending on the neighborhood, we have seen very wealthy people in designer clothes and private-school kids in uniforms. The most shocking for me was a family, including a small boy and girl under 6 years old living on the park-like median in the middle of the street that runs through the center of town. The kids didn't have shoes and appeared to be wearing burlap sacks. Another time we passed a mother carrying an infant and trailing a ways behind her was a girl, about 5 years old, leading her sister, maybe 3 years old. She stuck out her hand and asked "Una moneda, por favor?" I might have given her one, but I honestly didn't have any money with me.
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