We brought our dog Johny Cash aka "Cash" to Buenos Aires, knowing that the city was reportedly dog-friendly, but not knowing exactly what that would mean. Here is what we have found.
The city has literally MILES of parks that allow off-leash dogs. We are lucky enough to live within a mile of many of them. Here is a snippet of map on which I have highlighted some of the prime park area in green. The red line shows a route that we take a lot, and the one that Johnny Cash will show you today in this blog post.
First, we leave our apartment. This involves taking a tiny old elevator which Cashie is now an old hand at. He waits patiently for it to come...
...then enjoys the ride down.
Once outside there is always a quick pitstop and a lot of sniffing which we refer to as "Cash checking his pee-mail."
The next step is navigating some crowded and small city streets to get to the parks. These photos were taken at 8AM on a Saturday - not very crowded. But during the day it can be a real obstacle course.
One of the big obstacles is this gas station, which usually has dozens of taxis pulling in and out, plus metal grates that Cash refuses to walk on. Here, Cash gathers his courage for the crossing.
Another typical obstacle: a sidewalk cafe. At 8AM no-one is there. In an hour or two, the tables will be filled with people that will sit all day reading the paper, smoking, and nursing a single cafe cortado.
At last we get to this cafe, which is outside a cop station.
We are getting very close to the parks! But the most dangerous crossing of all is upon us: Avenida Santa Fe. This is a big cluster of multi-lane streets that come together in a traffic circle from hell. It includes subway and bus stops, the botanical garden and the zoo.
The first step is crossing Santa Fe itself. There is a crosswalk (which drivers ignore) but no stoplight. Instead we have to make sure most of the cars are stopped at another stoplight, then run for it.
Once across Santa Fe, we hit the botanical garden, which is free and very lovely. Dogs, however, are not allowed inside, so we have to stay on the sidewalk. Again, it is usually a lot more crowded than this.
There are tons of abandoned cats in the botanical garden for some reason. Here are two of them.
There are so many that these signs have been posted explaining to people that it's not nice to abandon your cats here. Contrary to appearances, this is not a cat Garden of Eden.
Only 3 more streets left to cross to reach the first off-leash area!! We have learned that the city buses are ruthless. While jaywalking in Buenos Aires is an art form, never try it in front of one of these monsters. (Here, the light has turned red, and the buses seem to be obeying it...for the moment.)
We arrive next in front of the Zoo.
It is closed.
Later on, it will be packed with kids, ponies, snack vendors, and so on, and look like this:
Sometimes we walk along the side of the zoo, where there is a walking/bike path.
However we have recently figured out that if we cross to the less scenic industrial side of this street (Avenida Sarmiento), we can take Cash off-leash here. He is very good about not running out into traffic.
We, meanwhile, take in the sights. The majestic flag of Argentina...
...the majestic cheeks of Punta del Este and Montevideo (note that this is THE preferred swimsuit cut for women in Argentina; butt cheeks must be a-flappin').
...and of course, the majestic...bikinis...of Carneval.
Slight digression: we have noticed on this particular billboard that the image was not photoshopped. The woman in the purple outfit has a very furry tummy!
Anyway, we are now at the first official park. I don't know what this park is called. ALL of the parks are referred to collectively as the "3 Febrero" park. This part of "3 feb" is one large square block.
The coolest part of this park is the little Greco-Roman "folly" (as the Brits might say) on the far corner. It brings out Cash's contemplative side.
One more shot to try to get across how massive this park is. And really, this is the smallest part of it.
Then it's on to the next part of the park. We walk past the US Embassy.
Across a street and past a statue with really nice graffiti improvements.
Past a choripan (hot dog) stand...
And finally to a large circular running and rollerblading path.
This path can get quite hot in the middle of the day, but it's very pretty. In the middle there is a rose garden (dogs not allowed there, either).
There is also a lake with charming white bridges.
Plus swans and paddle boats that you can rent.
This particular morning, there was some kind of group exercise activity going on.
Never fear, though. There are several snack stands conveniently located nearby.
There are open spaces all around the lake and running area where Cash can, again, go off-leash. We like to find sticks and throw them for him. Here is a good action shot - he's levitating!
And here, he happily surveys his domain.
A few more shots of some of the interesting and gorgeous trees around here.
And then it's home again, home again....picking up some medialunas (croissants) for breakfast on the way. We are so happy to have all of these amazing and dog-friendly parks to explore!
i like this very much! how much fun that would be to have parks like that! johnny cash is a beautiful dog.
xo molly
Posted by: molly andrae | January 26, 2009 at 05:46 PM