Reserva Ecológica de Buenos Aires
Yesterday, we spent a beautiful day at the ecological reserve located between Puerto Madero and the RÃo de la Plata, smack dab in the middle of Buenos Aires.
When you hear the words “ecological” and “reserve” you picture a pristine wilderness preserved for its unique ecostystem. This one has a bit more of a checkered past than its name would imply as it is essentially landfill from the castoffs on a road construction project that built up over time and became a haven for wild guinea pigs and a wide variety of birds along the brown shores of the River Plate. Born from heavy construction trash…
The reserve is apparently being threatened by people who feel it is very valuable for real estate development and believe it to be a waste to leave it as it is, which leads me to my mixed feelings about Puerto Madero, as a whole. In my opinion, the redeveloped port is a well-conceived and executed port reclamation project in terms of design. However, whenever I go there, it feels like a playground built by the oligarchy, for the oligarchy. One of the only redeeming characteristics of the area for me is the reserve, which allows ordinary Porteño citizens to interact with and enjoy their river front, instead of securing it for the exclusive enjoyment of the rich and the powerful.
It was very crowded yesterday because it was a beautiful spring day, but I hear it is nearly empty during the week. People from all walks of life and all ages were enjoying the many km of paths. A note, if you are going to rent a bike, they don’t have any attachments/trailers for kids who don’t ride.
Photo by jmpznz’s photostream, under this creative commons license
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