Back in November Jeff and I went to Rio, and on our first day we headed to the Botanical Gardens. Here’s a picture diary from the day…

At the entrance, before we’d stepped inside the gardens, we saw a group of people stopped by the side of the path snapping away. We didn’t know what they were looking at at first, but then we saw it – Cristo Redentor was visible through the clouds! Guys, we’re in Rio!

This was my first time in a truly tropical climate* (tropical svanana, to be specific), so I was excited that I’d not seen the majority of these plants in person in the ground before.

*The closest to a tropical climate I’ve been to before is the subtropical climate of Hangzhou in China.

Of course I’ve seen cacti before (there’s a tiny one in a pot on my desk at work!), but never growing from the ground!

And the pineapples were another highlight for me.

So many cacti!

And of course, I couldn’t help myself from taking a #fromwhereIstand style snap with the lillypads.

The Botanical Gardens are massive covering 54 hecatares, and includes something like 6,500 species of Brazillian and foreign flora.

With so much to see and the beautiful lay out, it was easy to spend the entire day wandering through.

And while we wandered we saw so many great and interesting things – like these leaves that reminded me of flamingos!

And monkeys eating jackfruit fresh from the tree!

Another highlight for me was this (incredibly Instagrammable) orchid room…

…which was filled with orchids of course!

And it smelled incredible.

After the orchid room we headed over to the Bromeliário, which houses some of the 15,000 species of bromeliads in the gardens.

The main greenhouse here honors the Brazillian artist and landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx.

The Bromeliad has about 530 species from the Brazilian Amazon, Atlantic Forest, South America and Central America – with an emphasis on endemic, rare and endangered species.

Running through the gardens are several rivers and streams, and if I remember correctly I think this one is the Rio dos Macacos. 

Next we walked down the Avenue of Royal Palms, which is lined with over 100 palm trees.

Along the Avenue of Royal Palms is the Fountain of the Muses. It originally adorned Largo da Lapa, and was brought to the Botanical Gardens in 1905.

Every now and again we’d spot our friend Cristo off in the distance from some of the higher points throughout the gardens.

Sometimes we’d spot a butterfly up close!

While we were in the Botanical Gardens I’d spotted a few fashion blogger types having their pictures taken in this collonade, so I figured I’d give it a go!

By the end of the day we were ready for a nap… just like this kitty we spotted in the cafe!