Antarctica, Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil
Buenos Aires, Wandering through the Reserva Ecológica
In my last post, I mentioned that I was feeling pretty ragged from lack of sleep after the long trip to Buenos Aires. I got to the hotel well before noon and, with fingers crossed, checked in. Alas, I was told my room wasn't ready (I didn't expect it to be, but there's always a chance) and that they would text me when it was. And don't expect that to happen before 3:00. Ugh. They were more than polite about it, but Ugh! Well, if I can't sleep, what can I do to shake loose some cobwebs? For 3+ hours. Walk. Briskly. That'll do it.
So I checked my bags with the hotel and took off down the street. I walked for maybe 30 minutes looking at shops and restaurants and buildings and realized there was no way this would hold my interest for another 30 minutes, much less another couple of hours. Then it dawned on me that I had seen on Google Maps that there was a large nature preserve not too far a walk from the hotel. So I spun around and headed for the waterfront.
The Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur ("Southern Waterfront Ecological Preserve" in English) is 850 acres of undeveloped land between downtown Buenos Aires and the Rio de la Plata. It was originally reclaimed shallows that were intended to be used for near-downtown housing, brought above sea level with fill material from subway and highway construction. The reclamation effort started in 1960 and completed in 1976, but the land proved unstable, prone to flooding, and unsuitable for the envisioned residential projects. It was abandoned. So nature took it over. In 1986, the city agreed to protect the land from development and declared it a nature preserve.
Some 16K steps later, I was fully awake and had walked the perimeter of the Reserva (as the locals call it). And while no one had texted me, it was time to return to the hotel.
Back at the hotel, at about 3:30, there was still no room, but I casually mentioned that I had forgotten to mention to them that Mary and I have a Hilton Honors membership (that we seldom use, I didn't mention). Oh, since you're an Honors member, we can put you in an "Executive" room for very nearly the same price as the original booking plus the breakfast charge, which you wanted to add anyway, and the Executive room comes with breakfast. So, in other words, they upgraded me. Not bad. The room is great. Now, I had only mentioned the Honors membership because I wanted to get the points for it, but sometimes it's better to be lucky than smart. I'll take it!
Here are a few photos:
Buenos Aires is a city of skyscrapers. That was the plan for the Reserva, but nature had other ideas.
In the Reserva, this big guy ambled across my path, and I do mean big. I'd guess he was 4-5 feet long. He's a tegu, specifically an Argentine White and Black tegu, a species of reptile that fills the same ecological role as the monitor lizards of Asia (like a Komodo Dragon). They are aggressive predators, so I kept my distance. Just check out that huge claw on its back foot. They use it to tear their prey open. These tegus, I read, have the odd behavior of running on their back legs while flailing their forelimbs when they feel threatened. Now that would be something to see, but I'm totally okay that this guy didn't do that with me!
A good telephoto lens allowed me to take the tegu's portrait. He's a male because only males have jowls. Those jowls are there because of underlying jaw muscles that give it a very powerful bite. A well armed, formidable creature is this guy!
I was ⅔ of the way around the Reserva's perimeter when this powerplant came into view. It was just a bit jarring to see something so unnatural just across the canal from a nature preserve. It was built a decade after the Reserva was established. It's just too bad they built it so close to the Reserva.
Finally in my (upgraded!) room and I was treated to this view out my window. That's the Rio de la Plata on the horizon. Nice digs.