La Boca and Caminito

La Boca is the barrio where the Riachuelo meets the Río de la Plata, and the place where modern Buenos Aires was born as an immigrant city. In the second half of the nineteenth century, waves of newcomers, many of them from Genoa, settled around the old port, working in the shipyards, warehouses and meat-salting plants and living in conventillos, crowded tenements built of timber and corrugated iron on stilts against the floods. Legend has it they painted their houses with leftover marine paint from the boatyards, a bit of one colour here and another there, and the result is the patchwork of reds, yellows, blues and greens that now appears on every postcard of Argentina. Caminito, a short, crooked pedestrian lane that follows the bed of an old stream and railway spur, became the symbol of the barrio in the 1950s thanks to the painter Benito Quinquela Martín, a foundling raised in La Boca who painted its port all his life and championed turning the lane into an open-air street museum. Its name comes from a famous tango of the 1920s. Today the lane and the surrounding blocks of Magallanes, Garibaldi and Del Valle Iberlucea are lined with brightly painted façades, balconies with life-size figures of Evita, Maradona and Carlos Gardel, souvenir stalls, artists selling paintings of the street, and restaurants where tango couples dance on the pavement and invite you to pose for a photograph, for a tip. It is undeniably touristy, but it is also cheerful, photogenic and rooted in a real history. Beyond the lane, La Boca has two cultural treasures: the Museo Benito Quinquela Martín, the painter's former school and home, with his vivid port scenes and a rooftop terrace, and Fundación Proa, a contemporary art centre on the riverside with world-class exhibitions and a rooftop café overlooking the old transporter bridge.

Staying safe and getting the most from it: La Boca is a working-class barrio with real social problems, and outside the small, well-policed tourist area around Caminito, the riverfront promenade, Fundación Proa and the Quinquela Martín museum, visitors are regularly advised not to wander, especially away from the main streets and later in the day. The tourist area itself is busy and generally fine by day, with a tourist assistance centre on Caminito, but pickpockets work the crowds and phones on display attract attention. The simple rules: go in daylight, ideally in the morning, arrive and leave by taxi, rideshare or on a tour or the hop-on hop-off bus rather than walking in from San Telmo, keep to the streets where other visitors are, and do not follow anyone offering to show you the real La Boca. If you visit La Bombonera, go directly there and back, and on match days avoid the area unless you are going to the game with an organised group.

What to do: walk Caminito and its side streets, stop for a coffee or a choripán in one of the restaurants with tango, browse the artists' stalls, and then visit Fundación Proa, which is the best reason to come back and is easily combined with a walk along the riverside promenade. Football fans should not miss La Bombonera, the steep, chocolate-box stadium of Boca Juniors, where the museum and stadium tour show off the club's trophies and the legend of Diego Maradona; tours can be booked in advance, including through Tiqets. The Quinquela Martín museum gives the barrio its artistic context. Allow two to three hours for the area, including lunch, and remember that most stalls and restaurants wind down by late afternoon.

Is it worth it? Opinions vary, and some guidebooks tell visitors to skip it in favour of San Telmo. For first-timers we think it is worth a morning for its colour, its immigrant history and Proa, as long as you treat it as a short visit rather than a neighbourhood to explore at random. Combine it with San Telmo, ten minutes away by taxi, for lunch and an afternoon in the antiques shops, or with the Colón Fábrica, the opera house's workshop exhibition space on the riverside. Photographers should come early, when the light is soft and the tango dancers are just setting up.