La Boca is one of the poorer suburbs of Buenos Aires, although, despite it's lack of wealth it is a tourist hot spot. When the first migrants moved to this area they built their houses with any materials they could find, then to decorate their houses they used any left over paint they could get. The result was a very vibrant neighborhood, and as you can see is a tradition which is still continued to this day.
La Boca has two more claims to fame: futbòl and Tango. La Boca Juniors is the most famous football team in Argentina; the club of Maradona! To experience the Argentinian passion for football we decided to pay an exorbitant amount of pesos for tickets to the game between La Boca Juniors and the Newell Old Boys (NOB).
The tour company picked us up from our hostel and took us to someone's backyard for drinks and sausages, although, we were told not to drink too much as they breath test people on the way into the game. A few of us were talking when we looked up and realised that most of the people from our tour bus were not in the yard anymore - we'd been left behind by our tour guide.
Luckily there were quite a few of us who had been left behind and there was a scrambling tour guide who acknowledged us. It seemed that they hadn't bought enough tickets. Because of this, three of us go to go in on membership tickets. I got to be someone called Tamara Fini for the evening and sit in the upper class section of the stadium.
The game ended up being a bit one sided, along with the cheering, both in favour of Boca Juniors, but we definitely got a sense of the Argentinian passion for football. The stadium was alive with the pulsating drum beats and the closely packed sea of people gave the illusion the stands were moving!
