hollisandbeyond2015: A Walk in the Park

Yesterday morning we set out for a walk to General San Martín Park, a 400 hectare park designed by Carlos Thays, the same landscape architect who designed the 3rd of February Park in Buenos Aires. Mendoza's park is much larger and more lush than its Buenos Aires cousin with many more treed areas. This is a result of the same irrigation method used throughout Mendoza - stone-lined ditches through which water is released periodically to irrigate the area by gravity. This is a semi-arid region of Argentina, but the mountains and foothills provide a natural slope to allow the water from the Mendoza River to be released downhill to irrigate the farms, wineries, and trees which line every street in this city, often forming tree tunnels to provide welcome shade during hot, dry summer months. San Martín seems to be revered throughout Argentina, for this park is just one more place bearing the name of this heroic liberator. General San Martin Park is huge and houses many venues including a hippodrome, a zoo, a velodrome, a museum, theatre, and more, so we decided to follow the advice of the woman at the information centre who suggested we walk around the artificial lake beside the rose garden to see where the regattas are held. The park was a lovely, peaceful place with winding tree-lined roads and pathways. We took a wrong turn after circumnavagating the lake and almost got lost in the park, but the handy compass on my phone got us pointed in the right direction. All in all we probably walked well over 12 kilometres by the time we returned to our hotel.