Caminito, the Colorful Street of La Boca, Buenos Aires

Caminito (meaning “little path” in Spanish) is a historic pedestrian street in the La Boca neighborhood of Buenos Aires. This colorful open-air museum is lined with brightly painted houses. Less than 100 meters long, it is not entirely authentic but rather a recreation of what La Boca looked like in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Between 1880 and 1930, more than six million immigrants arrived in Argentina. Many were Italians, including large numbers from the port city of Genoa. They settled in the port neighborhood of La Boca, bringing their traditions and customs. One of these traditions was painting the exteriors of their houses with leftover paint from the shipyards, giving the neighborhood its distinctive colorful appearance.

By the late 1950s, La Boca had changed considerably. Many of its old, colorful houses had disappeared, replaced by apartment buildings.

Benito Quinquela Martín, an orphan adopted by a couple of Genoese immigrants, had become one of Argentina’s most celebrated painters, known especially for his depictions of the port of La Boca. In 1959, Quinquela Martín and a group of fellow artists transformed the street now known as Caminito into an open-air museum, recreating the colorful atmosphere of old La Boca.

Although Caminito today is a recreation of the neighborhood’s past rather than a perfectly preserved piece of history, it remains one of Buenos Aires’s most colorful spots. It is the perfect place to walk around, admire the vibrant buildings, and capture some amazing photos.