Caminito La Boca: Buenos Aires

Caminito ("little walkway" or "little path" in Spanish) is a street museum and a traditional alley, located in La Boca, a neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. It is street museum comprising colorful painted houses typical of the immigrant dwellings that came to characterize the port area towards the end of the 19th century. The caminito followed the route of an old stream that once flowed into the Riachuelo, and later, after the river dried up, formed part of the route of a railroad. After the closure of the railroad, the street was abandoned, until in the 1950s, a group of neighbors decided to regenerate the area and local artist Benito Quinquela Martín began using the buildings as a canvas. Today, there are several works by Argentine artists incorporated as part of the street museum and the caminito has become a favorite with visitors to the city. Several restaurants offer tango and folk-dance shows. The buildings made of wood and sheet metal are typical of the conventillos, precarious, comunal dwellings built by Genoan immigrants in the 19th century. Many dwellings are built on raised foundations due to frequent flooding’s in the past.