LaBoca

The LaBoca district of Buenos Aries is the poorest neighbourhood yet it's found a unique way to attract tourists. All the houses are painted in vibrant hues, many are decorated with carved figures & elaborately hand painted signs. It's possibly the most colourful neighbourhood in the world!




Diego Maradona grew up in this area & it's home to the Boca Juniors football team & their stadium.

These pathetic critters were hanging on the wall of a LaBoca restaurant that we ate in. Meanwhile a couple danced the tango on the street outside for money.



Teaching the tango

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is an enormous urban sprawl, one of the biggest cities on Earth. Population: 13 million. It' was high summer when we visited & sweltering hot. We stayed at the Hotel Goya on Suipacha St. The room is small, very stuffy & cockroaches come up through the bathroom floor!








Argentina is renowned for its beef & we made sure we found a traditional steak-house to sample the meat.

The trip

In January 2005 my Dad & I visited South America on a 3 week trip to Argentina & Peru. It all came about after an invite from a friend to attend his wedding in Buenos Aires. I wanted to combine this with a trip to Peru to see Macchu Pichu, the famous Inca city in the clouds. When I told my Dad about my plans he said he'd always wanted to see Macchu Pichu too so we agreed to go together.
We both took hundreds of photos & I kept a sketchbook of the entire journey. This blog will be a selection of photos & drawings that show the highlights of our South American odyssey.
We leave London Heathrow at 7.15pm on January 4th, 2005. The flight to Buenos Aires goes via Madrid. We depart Madrid at 11pm & cross the Atlantic through the night.
Wednesday morning we fly in over Paraguay & the Tigre Delta into Buenos Aires Airport, Ezeiza.