Correr - to run

In my daily spanish lessons i use the verb "correr" in many of my example sentences. I'm running about 4x per week in the beautiful parks that line the main artery of the city - Avenida Libertador. These pix are from the parks I run by and the lake I run around at least twice or more depending on my level of energy that day. on weekends the grassy areas surrounding the lakes are filled with picnicking familiies - drinking mate of course, roller bladers, runners and strollers. BA also has an activity program where they send aerobics instructors to public spaces to conduct free outdoor classes. people here love getting out as often as possible to enjoy the parks and each other.

yesterday I walked by our old apartment in Palermo and saw a for sale sign on a 3rd floor apt (see above) across the street. the location is perfect (2 blks from the parks) and the apartment is sunny, beautiful and has some interesting french architectual elements. unfortunately its priced pretty high for the size - $275k for 120 meters. in our current neighborhood we could get nearly double the space for the same price, but..............farther from the parks. so why is this topic so important? well, if i could change/improve one thing about buenos aires at this point, it would definitely be the air. It took me several weeks of living here to realize the irony in the cities name - literally translated "good air". well, i'm certain at some point in time it was pretty good but no more. not with the hundreds of buses barreling down the avenidas in plumes of unregulated exhaust. imagine running behind just one of those buses 4x a week for 60 minutes or more. nauseating at times - yes it is. so that's why i run a bit farther to enter the parks and get away from the city noise, pollution and lets just say, at times, interesting smells. living here longterm means having easy and close access to "buenos aires" in a city of a lot of "malos aires".