Argentina (Buenos Aires)
Palermo
North of Recoleta is Buenos Aires’ biggest and greenest barrio, Palermo (reached by numerous buses including #12 and #60). On sunny weekends, it sometimes feels like everyone has taken up residence in its parks, which encompass everything from a polo ground to a Japanese garden. The aerobics classes and cycle paths are popular, but there are plenty of people indulging in the gentler activities of sunbathing or drinking mate (Argentina’s national drink, a herbal infusion sipped from a gourd through a metal straw). 
One of the area’s nicest spots is the Jardin Botánico (Avenida Santa Fe 3951; 8am-6pm daily), elegantly tucked alongside Buenos Aires’ smartest shopping street, and containing a fantastic collection of plants from Asia and Africa as well as Argentina. Near the entrance look out for the fine specimen of one of Argentina’s most idiosyncratic trees, the palo borracho (literally "drunken stick") with its characteristic swollen trunk.