Park It!

There's a saying that you can judge a city on the size and frequency of its public parks. If that's the case, cities in Argentina would rank pretty darn high. In the metropolis that is Buenos Aires, there is no shortage or acreage of parks. From the small plazas and parks sprinkled throughout each barrio, to the sprawling parks in Palemro, community open space is plentiful. Mendoza, with its five main plazas and the massive Parque San Martin, is the same. They are places of public art, and often have crafts fairs and festivals that pop up on the weekends.










The lovely thing is that the parks get used. Children rule the playgrounds, chess and card players dominate the tables, nappers and lovers occupy the benches. Dogs are everywhere (as are the dog turds, unfortunately). Folks spread out on the lawns (in between the aforementioned dog turds), and artists set up shop on the sidewalks. On New Year's Day in BsAs, when literally everything, and I mean everything, was closed and the streets were like ghost towns, the parks were the only place that had any activity at all. As it should be.