One of the reasons Palermo is prized as a residential barrio is its proximity to a network of connected parks located 15 minutes from downtown. At the center of this network of public spaces is the Bosques de Palermo (Palermo Woods); which is connected to the Japanese Garden, a botanical garden, the City Zoo, the Planetarium, the Lakes of Palermo and Palermo's famous horse track. 


Inside the Bosques de Palermos is a circular loop of repurposed city streets that are now closed off for pedestrian use only.  This loop is exactly one mile around and nicely marked every 100 meters.  On the weekends this park is filled with people running/walking, riding bikes, playing sports (soccer, volleyball, street hockey, etc) or simply basking in the sun.  There are also a lot of private groups that utilize the park for their training.  Everyday we seem to see a new use for the park but so far we've seen rollerblade clubs, yoga clubs, wieghtlifting clubs, running clubs, and strangely enough group of people practicing their tight rope skills (2' above the ground between two trees).

At the center of all of this is one of our new personal favorite spaces, El Rosedal ("The Rose Garden"). I say new, because until today we had only made use of the parks running trails around it and never ventured inside. The Rosedal contains 15,000 rose bushes in over a thousand variates in every color of the rainbow (all of which were still in bloom), a number of water fountains, two picturesque bridges, an island and a trellised walking terrace along the water.  This portion of the park is in emasculate shape because it's maintained separately from the surrounding public park. 










The Rosedal forms a small oasis bursting with greenery amid the concrete jungle of the city.