Rio's Botanical Gardens

The second part of today's excursion was our visit to Rio’s Botanical Gardens (also known as “Jardim Botanico”) that covers 350 acres. And I felt like we walked all 350 of them! It was obvious that our tour guide has a great interest in botany and he talked excitedly about every single tree we passed! And I have to admit they were quite impressive! 

I had expected to see many different kinds of flowers (we saw only a handful) but he told us about literally every tree that we passed – its history, scientific name, classification, genetics, etc. 

Supposedly, some 140 types of birds and monkeys live in the gardens. I was hoping to see more but the garden was actually peaceful and quiet. Ronnie did manage to get a decent photo of a toucan. The gardens also house an orchid nursery and insect-eating plant house. While it was nice to see someone with that much enthusiasm for their job, by the time we had walked through the entire gardens, I think everyone was worn out!

 

Fount of the Muses

Notice Ronnie is tucked into the tree's trunk

bamboo - see visitors to get perspective

Ronnie in front of bamboo forest

black billed toucan - see it?

some trees grow as tall as 180 feet! (photo credit: Ronnie)

water lilies ready to bloom

Victoria water lilies

our guide in front of a single tree trunk

“Avenue of Royal Palms”

Usually a guide is quiet on the last half of the trip when everyone is tired but ours continued to talk us all the way back to the ship, pointing out the landmarks and special buildings along the famous 2.5 mile Copacabana Beach. 

 

Copacabana Palace hosts many celebs

sunset on Copacabana Beach (photo credit: Ronnie)

Copacabana's iconic B&W tile wave pattern

And last but certainly not least, as we were riding the 2.5 mile stretch of beach and snapping photos from the back of the jeep, we turned around to see the sun setting on the top of Mount Corcovado.

Somehow our 4 hour excursion managed to turn into 6 hours and it was dark by the time we returned to the port. We left the jeeps in their specified place and walked the half mile or so back to the ship. All in all, it was a great day, but between the heat, the hiking, 4 wheel riding and walking we were feeling pretty whipped. I came back to our room, showered, washed and dried my hair and ordered room service!

 

clouds and moon over Copacabana Beach

Christ the Redeemer at sunset on Mount Cocorvado