Page 83 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Argentina

PLAZA DE M A Y O AND MICROCENTRO  81

wife Eva, as well as photo
exhibitions of post-dictatorship
leaders including Raúl Alfonsín,
Carlos Menem, and the Kirchners.
One highlight is the automobile
collection, which includes a
vehicle that belonged to former
president Hipólito Yrigoyen.
The museum also hosts a
permanent display of artifacts
found during excavations,
including parts of the govern-
ment building, as well as A family of black-necked swans, Reserva Ecológica Costanera Sur
ceramics and animal bones.
be spotted at the ecological cargo ships, and between 1911
preserve, formally recognized and 1925 another port – Puerto
f Reserva as such in 1986. Well-marked Nuevo – was built a few miles
Ecológica footpaths wind through the north. For more than 50 years
Costanera Sur leafy park, drawing joggers, Puerto Madero was left to decay,
trekkers, and cyclists. Apart from but in the early 1990s the area
Ave Tristán Achaval Rodríguez 1550. the daily ranger walks, guides was rebuilt and a yacht club,
City Map 3 F4. Tel (011) 4893-1588. lead groups on tours by restaurants, and a boutique hotel
@ 99, 2. Open Apr−Oct: 8am− moonlight every month. soon followed. In August 1998,
6pm Tue−Sun; Nov−Mar: 8am− Puerto Madero became Buenos
7pm Tue–Sun. 8 10am & 2pm Aires’s 47th official barrio. It is
Sat & Sun (Spanish only). g Puerto Madero unique as the only neighborhood
∑ reservacostanera.com.ar in the city where all the streets
East of Microcentro. City Map 3 F5.
Tel (011) 4515-4600. @ 152, 111, 109. are named after women.
In the 1970s, there was an ∑ puertomadero.com Buque Some porteños have criticized
attempt to reclaim the bog lands Museo Fragata Presidente Sarmiento: the gentrification of Puerto
of the riverside Costanera Sur Open 10am–7pm daily. ∑ ara.mil.ar Madero as too elitist and lacking
using the Dutch polder system, Coleccion de Arte Amalia Lacroze de in cultural sites. Worth seeing,
which involves the draining and Fortabat: Open noon–8pm Tue−Sun. however, are Spanish architect
recovering of a water-covered & 8 3pm, 5pm. Santiago Calatrava’s Puente de
area. When the deve lopment ∑ coleccionfortabat.org.ar la Mujer (Woman’s Bridge), the
ran into difficulties, the land was Coleccion de Arte Amalia
colonized by tall pampas grass Built as a result of a competition Lacroze de Fortabat featuring
and four lakes were formed, held to design a new dock at Argentinian art, and the ship
creating an ideal wetland for Buenos Aires, Puerto Madero was Presidente Sarmiento, built in
the wading birds that migrate used to store grain and other Birkenhead – a British port town
to the Pampas region each perishables during the exports famous for its shipbuilding skills
spring. Southern screamers, boom of the late 19th century. – which is now a floating
southern lapwings, coots, wattled However, the narrow wharves in maritime museum named
jacanas, and flamingos are this red-brick dockland proved Buque Museo Fragata
among the 200 species that can unsuited to larger, more modern Presidente Sarmiento.

The elegant Puente de la Mujer bridge at the Puerto Madero docks

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