Brazil Trip Report, Day 1: Rio de Janeiro, Jardim Botanico

We had a great time in Brazil and Argentina on a vacation in April 2012. I wanted to start on the South American tab before the year ended... so here goes...

This is a map of lovely Rio...pronounced heeyo in Portuguese,,,

Day 1, April 9, 2012 : 

We took the direct United airlines flight from Houston, reached Rio by 9 am, went thru immigration.

Caught the plush airport onibus 2018 and reached Hotel Atlantis in the famed Copacabana area before noon. With the hype online about the lawlessness in Rio, it was a challenge to look for a decent hotel in a good locality. For US$200, it was a bit overpriced...in a quiet residentail street just one block away from the famed beaches of Ipanema and Copacabana

Had a meal of puris, dry fruits, left the luggage at the reception for checkin after 3 PM. ... off on our Brazilian adventure....

We bought water from the supermercado Zona Sul just opposite our hotel and  started off on our Rio adventure.

Jardim Botanico (Botanical Gardens), Rio:

 We took bus 124 which dropped us right at the entrance of Jardim Botanico, Rio. Just R$6/person-- R$ is reals the currency of Brazil, pronounced hay-ice in Portuguese

Dom João VI, king of Portugal had moved with his royal family to his colony in Brazil in 1800 fearing the onslaught of Napoleon. He set about making Rio nice for his royal stay. , ordered the creation of this botanic garden in 1808.

He got these palm trees planted from one Palma MATER (palm  mother).

The royal family had a monopoly on this palm species and regularly burned the fruit of the tree as they did not want other gardens to have this tree. However, enterprising slaves climbed the tree at night, cut down some of the fruit, and sold it on the black market. Soon the fruit of this single palm tree created more imperial trees all over Rio de Janeiro and other parts of Brazil.

The very first Royal Palm lived over 140 years before being struck by lightning in 1972.

 Today the main avenue into the Botanical Garden ... imperial palms avenue... is lined on each side with many of these towering Royal Palm trees, some reaching over 125 feet in height. Most of them are well over 100 years old.

The Botanical Garden is both a park and a scientific laboratory. It's 54 hectares of natural, artistic and historical beauty

It contains a huge collection of plants from all over the world, not only tropical ones

There are more than 6500 species, some of them on the verge of extinction.

We had a great picnic in this jardim.

We were awestruck at the individuality of each tree. note the roots of this one...these are buttress roots...

These are Giant water lilies: Victoria Amazonica...Stunningly large Vitoria Regia water lilies, of the plant family Nymphaeaceae, with very large green leaves that float on the water's surface.

The flower weighs 25--45 kg. The legend goes:

An indian princess in love with the moon chased after him every night to become his play mate--a star. One night, she saw him in the pond and jumped right in...the next day there was a new beautiful plant with huge fragrant flowers that bloom only in the night greeting the moon.

The moon had made princess a star in the pond!

This is the Japanese Garden with bonsai trees, cherry trees,bamboo groves, ponds with carp and stones representing longevity.

Created in 1935, during the visit of the Japanese Economic Mission, was reopened by Princess Sayako, the daughter of the Emperor of Japan in November 1995.

This is abricó-de-macaco (cannonball) tree with fruits hanging from trunk

The abricó-de-macaco (apricot for monkey ), native of the Amazon has very fragrant flowers and round fruits that hang in clusters directly from the trunk. Its pulp is blue color and is gelatinous.

 Although edible, due to the very strong smell, it is only appreciated by animals.

Replica of an Amazon fisherman's thatched hut.

Here's a fish pond--it's good luck to look at these carp fish.

This is Pau mulato tree--it's iron wood, burns hard and slow and is used in boilers.

Almost extinct now.

The bark is so smooth, even monkeys can't climb this tree. So it is also called monkey slide

Parrot beak heliconia:



Though these leaves resemble Indian banana tree, this does not belong to banana family. the trunk is a slim stem

Amazing to see banana fruits coming up in these trees...

These are buttress (support) roots of andiruba tree--a tall rain forest tree that grows up to 40 m high.

It is in the same family as mahogany, and it has been called Brazilian mahogany...

This is Narcissus statue.

Here's Eco statue:

she tried to catch the attention of Narcissus, repeating whatever he said. Narcissus was obsessed with his own good looks and did not give attention to Eco. She vanished into thin air when her efforts proved in vain and now only her voice is heard in big spaces echoing people's words.

The no of lines/arcs on the tree trunk reflect the tree's age--one for each year... supposed to be more than 200... we did not count though.

ECO AND NARCISSUS again--statue by mestre Valentim, the renowned sculptor, son of a protuguese nobleman and a slave girl.Rio is full of masterpieces by this famous sculptor.

Here are jaca fruits hanging from the tree trunk...

The Moraceae — often called the mulberry family or fig family...

This is the Central fountain. "Fountain of the Muses": the 4 statues represent poetry, music, art and science...

This arch entrance has creepers from India...

Here's Xochipilli: god of art, games, beauty, dance, flowers, and music in Aztec mythology.

His name contains the Nahuatl words xochitl ("flower") and pilli (either "prince" or "child"), and hence means "flower prince.

These are orchids:

they have 3 sepals, 3 petals--one of which is the lip orchids are the most evolved plant species. prized for their beauty, fragrance and aphrodisiac properties.

Here are colorful Bromeliads... ornamental plants.

Music note statue here...

Rain started pelting at 5pm and we called it a day

http://adventuretrav.blogspot.com/2017/01/brazil-trip-report-day-2-christ.html
covers an awesome day with visits to Christ the Redeemer statue, Parque Lage and Sugar Loaf Mountain