May 14 Botanical Gardens

Today we went with Lu's mom to the historical area of downtown Rio. She was able to give us a great little walking tour of the area. Lots of the historic buildings have been turned into public spaces which are free to access. They have cafe's, meeting places, and art galleries in them and are huge beautiful buildings. I didnt take many images of these places since we were in the busy downtown core and many of the galleries of course dont allow images to be taken. We had a fantastic lunch in this amazing building with very old 30 foot mirrors linning the ceiling. It was great to see all the great history that the city has, mixed in with the modern buildings and the organized chaos of everyday business.

After this we did a 180 from the city centre and headed to the Botanical gardens again since we got rained out the last time we tried to go. This time the weather was perfect and we were able to see the elements of the park the way they were ment to be seen. Most of the trees there seemed to be older then Rio itself judging by their size. I will let the images speak for themselves. Remember to click on the image to see a bigger version.