hollisandbeyond2015: A Long Walk: Recoleta to the Japanese Garden in Palermo

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day and after our Spanish and tango lessons, we went for a long walk from our apartment in Recoleta to the Japanese Garden in the barrio (neighbourhood) of Palermo. We walked by the famous cemetery and through several plazas, past the Museum of Fine Art (which we will stop and visit another day) and stopped in the United Nations Plaza to have a look at the Floralis Generica, a sculpture of a giant flower made of steel and aluminum. Placed above a pool of water, the sculpture was designed to have the petals open in the morning and close in the evening. It does not open any more, but is nonetheless impressive. The flower is huge - 23 meters high and weighs 18 tons, and is supposed to symbolize hope being reborn every day.

On our outing we saw a number of unusual trees. One was a giant banyan (fig) with huge roots and massive branches. Outside the Iranian Embassy, we saw our first ever bottlebrush tree. A short time later, we passed a building where the balconies had been constructed to accommodate a tree already growing there. Flowering trees are coming to life in Buenos Aires as spring advances and we enjoyed seeing several on our city hike. The buildings in this part of Buenos Aires are very elegant as you can observe in the photo of one I particularly liked. Our walk continued on to the beautiful Japanese Gardens where we spent the rest of the afternoon.