The Jardín Japonés (Japanese Garden) is located next to the Bosques de Palermo (Palermo Woods), as an extension of this green area inside the city of Buenos Aires. With almost 2 hectares, there are 150 species of plants, many of them brought from Japan, and a lake full of colorful carps. We can see other animals such as ducks, herons, different birds and fat Japanese (or sleepy) cats, all living in harmony and peace.
Sight of the lake with the arched bridge
It was created in 1967 by the Japanese community that lived in Buenos Aires and donated to the city by the Association of the Japanese Immigrants in 1979, as a gratitude symbol. In 1977, the landscaper Yasuo Inomata and the engineer Isakari redesigned the garden in the “Zen” style, as a traditional Japanese garden. An artificial lake, some bridges and islands, a cascade, a dry garden and a space for meditation were created. The most known bridge is an arched red bridge that leads to the Gods Island. Other attractions are a Monument to the Japanese Immigrant, homage to the founding community, and the Campanile of the Worldwide Peace, which bell is ringed every year on the celebration of the International Day of Peace.
Cascade
Campanile of the Worldwide Peace
In the Garden there is an arboretum where bonsais are sold along with some species of Japanese plants. There are also a house of tea, a restaurant and a library.
In its official website we can access the cultural and educative schedule and see if it is happening some exposition or activity, always tied with the Japanese culture. These days, during the winter vacations in Argentina, there are several activities for children as lessons of origami and film projection of Japanese animations.
The Japanese Garden is open every day, from 10am to 6pm.
Hungry carps
Heron in the lake
Where?
At the intersection of the Figueroa Alcorta and Casares Avenues | Tel: +54 (11) 4804-4922 / 4804-9141
sepphora | 9:30 am | Palermo | “0 Comments”
Last week a couple of friends from Brazil came to visit us and somewhere in a conversation they asked us if we would like to go to the Casino. We never had interest to go there, but we thought it could be amusing if we earned something.
The Casino Puerto Madero is inside two boats imported from New Orleans. It is a “floating casino” over the River La Plata waters, a way to be “inside the law”: the casino is placed in national territory, not Buenosairean, since by the Law 538 the private exploration of games of chance in the city of Buenos Aires is forbidden. In 1999 only one boat was inaugurated, the Estrella de la Fortuna, with 4 floors and 700 slot-machines, 130 gaming tables as roulettes and cards, bars and a restaurant called Sobreaguas.
In 2006 another boat called Princess was brought alongside as an ampliation of the casino: another 4 floors full of slot-machines and gaming tables, everything very well designed to seduce people with its blinking lights and to get the maximum of their money.
As my first time in a casino, I found everything very stupid. In first place, it is forbidden to enter the casino with cameras, so I only have these two external photos that are not of the best ones, I recognize. Secondly, there is a law in the city of Buenos Aires forbidding smoking in closed places, restaurants, etc. This is not respected on the casino, but since it is on “national territory” … Another thing, all the slot-machines are electronic, what make them extremely easy to be programmed to give any result but the winner one. We lost 20 pesos in these machines at an incredible speed. Thanks God we are self-controlled and this was our only bet in all the casino.
At the roulettes and card games floor many people lost innumerable chips, lots of stressed people, it was easy to notice their gambling addiction by their body language. We were there for one hour and in this time I only saw the roulettes tables earning much money and the slot-machines drinking the money as it was water in the desert.
It seems completely illogical to exist a place always crowded where the people are willing to lose their money. The most illogical is someone to find this amusing. It really didn’t please me and I don’t recommend this place. But if you still have some curiosity, you can visit the casino’s official website.
I encourage you to read the previous posts in this blog, certainty there are lots of other interesting destinations to go here in Buenos Aires.
Taxis in front of the casino
Where?
Elvira Rawson de Dellephiane s/n | Darsena Sur | Tel: +54 (11) 4363-3100
sepphora | 12:06 pm | Puerto Madero | “3 Comments”
El Rosedal is a rose garden in the middle of Bosques de Palermo (Palermo Woods). It has an area of 34000 m² where the roses are distributed according to the color harmony and contrast. More than 12000 roses blossom there every spring, in a profusion of colors and aromas. There are 1.189 species of roses catalogued in alphanumerically order; amongst them new species are represented as well as gorgeous and exotic units.
El Rosedal was created in the year of 1914, when the Dirección General de Paseos Públicos of Buenos Aires decided to be necessary to create a stroll as an exponent of good taste and culture and at the same time could represent the progress of the city.
It has two accesses, one of them a wooden white bridge over one of the lakes of the park, built in 1914 by the engineer Benito Carrasco. The Greek architecture of the bridge is decorated with plants and flowers. El Rosedal has other attractions: El Jardín de los poetas (The Poet’s Garden), decorated with busts of important writers of different countries; El Patio Andaluz, built in 1929 and offered as a gift from Sevilla to Buenos Aires; La Glorieta, an elegant gallery of Greek style at one side of the lake, covered by climbing plants and roses, with mosaic floor and staircases distributed systematically by the way, reaching a sculpture called Ofrenda Floral a Sarmiento, by Emile Peynot.
El Rosedal is open for public visitation everyday but Mondays:
- Summer: 8am to 8pm
- Winter: 9am to 6pm
More information here (in Spanish).
Access bridge of the Rosedal
Where?
Parque Tres de Febrero - Bosques de Palermo | Av. Adolfo Berro between Av. Sarmiento and Av. Casares | Tel: +54 (11) 4800-1135
sepphora | 12:34 pm | Palermo | “0 Comments”
Perito Moreno Glacier on the Peninsula of Magallanes
On the very next days the Perito Moreno Glacier will rupture, a phenomenon that has been happening each time sooner due to the global warming and for the first time, since 1917, will happen during the winter.
The Perito Moreno Glacier is one of the many glaciers existing on the South of Argentina. One year ago, in June 2007, we had the chance to travel to the small city of El Calafate, the nearest city to this glacier, and we could take this pictures. Unfortunately, no photograph can be compared to the impact of seeing it live, and be impressed by the beauty, the huge dimensions and the dinamic, unique and live nature.
Perito Moreno Glacier borns at the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, a huge extension of continental ice formed on the South of the Andes mountain range, on the border of Argentina and Chile. It has 25 km lenght since its origin, from where it advances slowly to the East and reaches the Canal de los Témpanos (Icebergs Channel) of Lago Argentino (Argentine Lake). There the glacier stretches out over the Brazo Sur (Southern Arm) with 5 km width and 60 meters high. It is inside a protection area called Parque Nacional Los Glaciares (Glaciers National Park), among other 300 glaciers.
The Perito Moreno Glacier has a speed of displacement up to 2 meters a day. When it reaches the Península de Magallanes, it forms a natural dam of the Brazo Rico waters from Lago Argentino and with the ice melting, the water level can rise by up to 30 meters. This way, the glacier’s walls are pressured and a tunnel for the water escape is formed, allowing the water to be drained to the other side of this ice barrier. Due to the water erosion, the tunnel opening is increased until the superior arch ruptures, creating a spectacle that happens from time to time.
Due to its advance and compression movement, the glacier generally allows to its visitors the possibility of seeing several “small” ruptures in all its extension, during all the year, leaving the lake in its front, full of icebergs of pure water. The Lago Argentino, in its totality, is formed by melted glacier waters and its color is blue turquoise.
Perito Moreno and Peninsula of Magallanes seen from Canal de los Témpanos
Perito Moreno’s “ice tongues” seen from Canal de los Témpanos
Video showing a “small” rupture of the Perito Moreno Glacier.
Where?
Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, 78 km from El Calafate, Santa Cruz, Argentina
sepphora | 3:39 pm | Outside Buenos Aires | “1 Comment”
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