Caminito, Street museum in La Boca, Argentina

Caminito is a curved pedestrian lane about 150 metres long, running diagonally through a block bounded by Araoz de Lamadrid, Garibaldi, Magallanes and Del Valle Iberlucea streets. Its facades are painted in large blocks of green, white, red and yellow, with a blue balcony above a shop sign reading "HAVANNA" and "MINTO", barred windows, a small balconet and black wrought-iron street lamps in front.

The street emerged where Italian immigrants from Genoa built their homes next to the port in the late 1800s. In the 1950s, local artist Benito Quinquela Martín took the initiative to paint the run-down buildings with bright colors and establish the neighborhood as an artistic destination.

The name comes from the tango "Caminito", whose music Juan de Dios Filiberto composed in 1926 inspired by this lane; the lyrics by Gabino Coria Peñaloza instead describe a path in Olta, La Rioja. Today couples dance tango on the cobblestones, and an artisan market sells paintings, souvenirs, naive art and collages with images of La Boca.

The place is lively during the day and best explored on foot, taking time to notice the details of the houses and local artworks. Several restaurants and cafes offer spots to rest and sample traditional dishes, but arrive early or go in the afternoon to avoid large crowds.

The colours of the facades were defined by Benito Quinquela Martín, the La Boca painter who lived nearby and prepared the walls facing the abandoned lane from 1954. The 2022 restoration recovered his original palette using period photographs and images published in National Geographic in 1959.