Friday, May 8, 2009

May 7:
Buenos Aires is a large city. About 3.5-million reside in the immediate area, but the population doubles during working hours and people flood the city for business. Despite its size, the city is full of enormous and wonderful parks. They provide an escape from a hectic life. The biggest parks are in the neighborhood of Palmermo. We need an escape from the Brazilian Consulate this morning. After we finish our trip to the country in a few weeks, I will explain why. We taxi to the park and immediately head to the world-renowned rose gardens. Again, remember we are in the southern hemisphere and it is deep into fall here. Yet, the rose gardens are in full bloom – a most amazing sight. There are acres and acres of roses in several different colors with an army of workers tending to their every need. A short distance away is the “Haponese” Gardens. Again these Japanese Gardens are most extraordinary. Hundreds of carp fill the ponds, centering the gardens.
Later in the day we really escape the city. We leave downtown for the residential areas of San Isidro and El Tigre to the north. Wealthy residents live in San Isidro, some in gated communities, choosing the safety and cleaner environment the suburbs offer over the city centre. We have lunch in one gated community, at a private boating club, near the river that has several canals, natural and manmade, featuring waterfront homes complete with docks for yachts and sailboats. There are also tennis and rowing clubs, along with a golf club. It is patterned from communities in south Florida, and is similar as well to our Mexican home, Puerto Aventuras. Again we are served a massive lunch. Alana’s steak is six-inches in diameter and about two inches thick. She cannot eat it all. Surprisingly, the food at the club is very inexpensive. Our three-course meal with wine is less than CDN $30…in total…for the three of us.
A little further north is El Tigre. Here is a 21,000 sq. km. delta made up of more than 5000 waterways, the branches of three rivers. About 3000 residents dot the waterways that are connected only by boat. There are hundreds more homes for Argentineans who use the vacation properties to escape the heat in the summer. It is self-contained with super markets, schools and hospitals. Only 30 kms from the city centre, El Tigre is still largely undeveloped. We take an hour-long guided boat ride to explore just a fraction of the area.

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