Buenos Aires, La Boca and The Opera, opposite ends of the scale

I went for a tour of La Boca. It is the original docking area and where many of the immigrants to Argentina came expecting a new life but ended up here working in the docks and warehouse, the tanneries, meat processing plants.

Yellow fever broke out and those with money moved north to what are now Palermo and Recoleta suburbs and built some of the fantastic palacios that are still to be seen today. In the 1895 census 30% of the Argentine population were born abroad and in BA, it was 50%. The docks also moved north in due course but La Boca was the original landing and living place for those first settlers.

The area today is renowned as a colourful tourist must see area. The residents moved into the abandoned residences of the wealthy who had moved out and thus there is a run down but revitalised kitsch feeling about the pace.

 The main man who helped to make it what it is today is Benito Quinquela Martin and there is a statue of him along the waterfront.

He was single and had no children but took up painting and became a benefactor of the poor working class people of the area. These were the most disadvantaged immigrants who arrived with nothing and had to work in appalling conditions just to make ends meet. And he helped to set up this primary school in the area and was a generous benefactor for the poor of the area.

The trade mark of the area is a sort of jerry built area using whatever was to hand, rough planks, and corrugated iron to build whatever they needed. It was a poor area and anything  and everything  was used to make life a little bit better. And to make it colourful they used spare primary coloured paints to make it attractive. Almost anything was acceptable to the poor immigrants who arrived here and were looking for a new start and so a new sort of life evolved.

Today it is colourful and a tourist trap of souvenir shops. restaurants, artists selling their wares and of course plenty of authentically dressed dancers ready to tango or at least pose with tourists as this was where the tango and the music to go with it were invented.

Even some of the back streets were interesting and colourful.

There are still railway tracks running through the area as goods have to be moved between the warehouses on the waterfront and the distant farms and factories.

 And in the midst of all this was a major football stadium for CABJs, the Baco Juniors. I am not interested in football but many people come here just to see the stadium.

 The significance of the stadium was lost on me but many people come just to see the stadium but then I am no football aficionado.

 And at the other  end of the scale is the opera house, built by the families who benefitted from the sweat and labour of the immigrants and built their grand mansions nd many fine public buildings including the opera house that I viewed the day before but didn't have a chance to walk around the inside. But on my return from La Boca, I took a tour of the inside of the Teatro Colon with its magnificent entrance for the wealthy who held boxes in the best positions.

 The entrance was fantastic and all of the architecture based on 19th century French or European styles although it was built at the turn of the century and not finished until 1912.

 No expense was spared and there are spectacular stained glass domes...

 intricate Ionian column heads...

 and halls...

with more stained glassed foods...

 and delicate carvings...

 and very ornamental French style reception areas...it might look 19th century or even earlier but it was completed in 1908.

 with ornate roofs...

 and finally the inside of the dome above the main auditorium...

 and a great view of the main area, a view of the tiers of private boxes. The best position to watch from the position central and low down to the stage. The president and mayor had boxes low down txt down to the stage and so very always very visible but had a poor view of the stage. In contrast the music was best  up towards the Gods  where tickets were cheapest as people there would be out of sight.

 A view from the orchestra pit upwards towards the best viewing seats and of course the most expensive.