Puerto Madero Part 2

 

Yesterday I went to the HUGE natural reserve in Puerto Madero for the first time ever! I actually cannot believe that I had not been before, and I can also not believe that it is so big and refreshing and so close to crazy downtime Buenos Aires.

We walked all the way to the edge where the park becomes the Rio de La Plata river and like everybody else, sat on the grass and drank mate. It was like we had gone on a day-trip out of the capital, so quiet and natural. I think it´s going to be the perfect escape from the mid summer heat in January.

Puerto Madero

I have been to Puerto Madero more times in the past few days than in the past three and a half years.  I never really had a reason to go there before and I never really liked it much; it´s hard to access (which is not accidental), it´s expensive, touristy and there isn´t really anything there.  But I just started a new job that is based there, which has forced me to spend more time getting to know the neighbourhood.

In the space of one working week I have decided that infact I rather like Puerto Madero and it could possibly be the perfect place to work.  This is due to the following reasons:

1. There is so much space, giving you a break from the noise and the hustle and bustle of the city.
2. It is an easy bus ride straight down Avenida Belgrano and I have the choice of two buses to take.
3. My workplace provides a catered lunch for their employees, so the fact that it is an expensive neighbourhood becomes irrelevant.
4. Following on from #3, there are no shops around to spend your money in! (referring to mainly clothing stores, which was dangerous in my old office in the heart of Palermo).
5. For a neighbourhood that is seemingly empty there are a suprising number of facilites, such as banks and kiosks.

The thing that I still find strange about the place is this kind of feeling that you are walking around in an architectural model that has somehow been built on a human-sized scale.  These photos are from a park just behind my office that has been built in between two groups of huge skyscraper builidngs.  It´s such a surreal feeling standing in the middle of the park and looking at these futuristic buildings towering above you.  Even more so because the typical architecture of Buenos Aires is a mix of 18th, 19th and 20th Century buildings, but here its just these new super buildings.

Now I´m not saying that I want to live in Puerto Madero, or that I agree with the idea behind the neighbourhood and it´s inherent exclusivity, but I don´t mind having it as my 9 to 5 home from Monday to Friday. 

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