So. Theres this thing that i`m pretty good thats been dubbed a "locochimpo". The root of the name is a long and embarrasing story, but essentially to LOCO is where one royally put ones foot in ones mouth and through lack of thought unwittingly cause offence and / or provides the tinder and the flame to a potentially dangerous situation. (The Brothers Clark and Andy Mac may be able to provide a better description).
On Saturday last week I went to a barrio /district of Bs As called La Boca to meet some New Yorkers I`ve been hanging out with - Kelty and Rob. (In fact i had my first ever thanksgiving dinner in their flat the week before... tho we had steak and chorizo sausage rather than turkey... and some slight american chap managed to eat through half a cow. He had the meat sweats after that, alright).
La Boca is a fairly dodgy neighbourhood and apart from two or three blocks around a very colourful street called Caminto its fairly rough. I heard a story/ travellers myth about a Swedish guy who independently went to see a Boca Juniors game in La Boca and got mugged at gunpoint by some children clad in the blue and yellow of boca juniors. Cute. Its very weird. I`ve never been anywhere where the divide between safe and dangerous is so stark and obvious.
So, naturally, I decided to walk the 10/15 blocks along what i had been told were the "safe streets" from San Telmo to meet them in Caminto. My map reading skills let me down and i took a wrong turn a couple of blocks early. I kept my cool when i noticed my mistake, but still quicked my pace through a couple of quadras and started to sweat when (i thought) folk were giving me some funny looks.
Thankfully, I got there safe and sound, but when i sat and considered what i was wearing i was all the more grateful for still being alive....without thinking i had decided to wear the yellow and blue t-shirt here (this computers playing silly buggers and i can`t seem to paste it in)... it`s obviously no surprise that my beeches / death to boca juniors t-shirt could have caused a few eyebrows to be raised... but, thankfully, no guns.
