It’s a grey and dreary autumn day up here in the northern world. Much better then to imagine summer, now fast approaching in the southern hemisphere. I’m thinking back to an afternoon ambling among the warm, vivid colours of La Boca.
Genoese fishermen and La Boca’s colours
In one of Buenos Aires’ poorest barrios, you’ll find the most brilliant colours. Near the city’s old port, La Boca was settled by fishermen from Genoa in Italy. Houses were made of wood or corrugated zinc and painted in bright primary colours. Legend has it La Boca’s colours were the result of the fishermen using leftover paint from their boats on their homes.
These photos are from the pre-digital era. I spent an afternoon in La Boca long ago. Hardly anyone was about. Could have been lunch time. Or siesta. Sounds of tango music emitted from within and a few kids kicked a football about. I like to think one of those boys might be part of the famous footie team Boca Juniors now.
I’d love to return and play around with my current cameras and improved skills. I’d be sure to snap a few photos of kids with footballs, too, if any were about.
Though I hear La Boca is more crowded these days.
Have you been in La Boca’s recently? Was it busy?
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Those houses looks pretty cool. I love the brilliant access they have.
I think it’s a great place to live cos it looks lively to me.
Shane Curtis recently posted..Brisbane The Worlds Fastest Growing Mature City
The colours look lively at any rate.
Absolutely lovely Sophie. I have BA in my sights a year from December. That area looks like a photographer’s dream destination though wonder if I’d feel like an intruder.
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BA – Argentina in general, really – is a place I’d love to explore further.
Never been to Argentina, but I’ll be here if you stage another photo journey anytime. Those pictures made me smile.
ItalianNotes recently posted..Taranto and the pink candyfloss skies
Oh yes, let’s plan a photo journey to Buenos Aires, Mette. That would be such fun.
Indeed, it’s become a must-see for tourists. It’s always full of people. Your photos have an intimate air about them that makes the place look more like the working class neighbourhood it used to be than the tourist hotspot it is nowadays. Having said that, it’s still worth a visit if you happen to be in Buenos Aires.
Chau, che
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Yes, I hear it’s quite the tourist magnet these days. I’d be more than happy to revisit, crowds or not.
The Bright colors indicate that the La Boca people are optimistic and they believe in good times. It would had been more great if we could see some pics of the locale of La Boca.
You means locals, I think…? Yes, I don’t know why I didn’t snap photos of the boys playing football. Less shy about that now.
Beautiful colours in this series, Sophie, and that’s how I remember La Boca from my visit many years ago. This post of yours has reminded me of just how much I’d like to go back there, too. I’m sure I will within the next short while, and then I’ll post photos and give you that report on how busy it is, or not — unless you make it back there before me!
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Looking forward to that report and photos, Andrew
Those colors are a knock-out! Would love to explore this place sometime. There does seem to be a vibrancy, a feeling of life in those Latin American cultures that we don’t quite capture up north. Of course, its been pouring rain out of leaden clouds here all week, maybe these colors just seem to be so dynamic when viewed against this dull Pacific Northwest backdrop.
Jackie Smith recently posted..TPThursday: Travel Guilt or Gratitude?
Sounds like the Pacific Northwest is fairly similar to Norway at the moment.
Argentina is so far away, but we hope to get there one day. I love the bright colours.
jan recently posted..Portovenere
Yeah, I think it’s 14-15 hours from Sydney – and all over water.
Love those lively colours.
jan recently posted..Portovenere
Beautiful place
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I always love seeing photos of beautiful La Boca buildings!
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So lively and bright, aren’t they?
Those colors are really sure to brighten up anyone’s day! I would love to be there, I like seeing and taking pictures of unique buildings/houses.
Aleah | SolitaryWanderer.com recently posted..My Favorite Beers of Europe
So do I
Love those colors! Korea needs some houses using this color palette.
Nancie recently posted..#TPThursday — November 22, 2012 — Seoul Lantern Festival 2012
Yeah? Houses in Korea a bit drab, are they?
How nice that you have your colorful travels to warm you up on those dreary long days of northern winter! I have always thought that the hot colors used in Central and South America and in southern climes generally, would be more needed in the northern part of the northern hemisphere.
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I was in Svalbard earlier this week – and remember the houses in Longyearbyen are very colourful. I say remember, because of course, with 24 hour darkness, it was too dark to see the colours now.
Wonder if the fishermen used the same color combination on their homes as they use on their boats. I do love the colors — they put a smile on my face.
InsideJourneys recently posted..Happy Thanksgiving!
Oh, me too. Can’t have too much colour!
The bright colors on the houses are so festive and beautiful. If I tried to paint my house in Texas like this, the homeowner’s association would send me a warning letter about not using an approved color. They like things boring.
Michele @ Malaysian Meanders recently posted..One Thousand Gifts
I do remember lots of white and beige houses in Texas.
I like your description of La Boca hearing the tango music on a quiet afternoon. Great captures of color in the photos.
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Thanks, Cathy.
Beautiful photos, Sophie! I love how you captured all the colors but also their normal everyday living with the clothes hanging out. I haven’t been to South America yet but Buenos Aires is surely at the top of the first places I would visit.
Mary @ The World Is A Book recently posted..Mission La Purisima: A Step Back in Time
I wish I had seen La Boca before it became a tourist trap.
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Beautiful colours. If only other places would use a little more colour in their buildings grey days wouldn’t be quite so dreary!
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Hi Sophie,
My name is Homer and I’m writing from Travel News (http://tra.velne.ws/) a real time travel community of travel bloggers, travelers and people who like traveling in general. It’s a free and open community for anyone to participate, think of it as digg but dedicated to traveling.
We would really like your opinion on it and we would love if you could join the community. It is completely free and you can submit as many links as you want there is no limit and they show up in real time.
Some more info on Travel News; We started travel news as an application for our friends to share interesting links about traveling but became apparent that a lot of people liked the idea and started to share their links. After requests from users we have added lots of functionality like voting/commenting/mark as favorite/read later, many more will follow. Since August 2012 TN has done a great progress, grew 400% since when it started and we expect that growth to continue, more than 200.000 unique visitors every month with 550.000 page views.
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All in all we hope to make it a point of reference of finding the most relevant information about destinations and the experiences travelers have in those destination (removing all the noise).
I hope you join us.
Best,
Homer from Travel News Team
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Gorgeous! I went there a year and a half ago and was blown away. My friend’s local fiance though wouldn’t let us stay long — the second the sun started to set we were on our way home. Stunning photographs, Sophie!