Stopping to Smell the Roses

On Valentine's Day, Matt and I took a long lunch and went to the Rosedal, a massive, immaculately landscaped rose garden located within Bosques de Palermo. (See my last post if you don't know what that is.) It's about a five-minute, $1.50 cab ride from our apartment.

The garden is surrounded by a meandering moat replete with ducks and swans (and even a few islands), and you have to cross one of two picturesque bridges to enter. At first sight, it's almost like a fantasy landscape. We took the experience in on foot while others rented rowboats and paddleboats to take it in by water.

Although many of the roses were past their peak (now that it's mid-summer), the garden was still incredibly beautiful and serene, with all sorts of shaded nooks for escaping the midday sun. People were picnicking near the groves of trees, and the breeze coming off the water and the various fountains made it quite pleasant.

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Here's the lovely, vine-covered promenade that hugs the moat and is one of the best ways to navigate the Rosedal. There was hardly a speck of trash anywhere, as you can see, and thanks to our mid-week timing, there wasn't a crowd to maneuver around.

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With tidy paths, freshly cut grass, good signage, abundant trash cans and nice restrooms, the Rosedal (free to the public) is a testimony to the city's emphasis on taking care of its parks. We were extremely impressed and could hardly believe we'd taken this long to check it out. In fact, as of this writing, I might rank it as my favorite spot in Buenos Aires.