ipanema-jardim botanico

it's been two months since we've been home from brazil and i never finished writing about our trip. i kind of forgot until a friend said "you never blobbed ipanema''. it got me really excited to do it. but mostly, i adore when people refer to this as my "blob". it tickles me every time. i've never dreamed of calling it anything else, and i love that my friends oblige.

if you remember that far back, we weren't happy to leave buzios. we loved it there so much and were missing piper like crazy, so we weren't looking forward to returning to rio for the last 3 days. it worked out perfectly that we ended our vacation in ipanema, because it's much less touristy and more low key, which was what we needed. i mean, compared to copa...the food is better, the service is better, the beaches are less poluted (but equally crowded) and the area is just more catered to the locals.

the day was hot as sin. we looked at a map and realized we were less than a mile from this big reservoir in rio. known as the central park of rio. it is 5 miles around, so we rented bikes, made a few loops and got some sucos de maracuja, or maybe it was guarana. here i am cooling off in the misters. i loved these signs. the trash all weepy for not being thrown in the proper receptacle.

after that park (if i hadn't procrastinated so long, i might have remembered the name) we walked to the botanical gardens. the gardens were pretty empty, maybe because of the scorching temps, but otherwise i can't begin to guess why everyone in rio doesn't go every day. the gardens are unbelievable. completely. everything was so gigantic. sometimes i had to touch stuff to make sure it was real. i felt like a tiny garden fairy flickering about.

jake took all of these pictures if you can't tell. they are all pretty amazing.

be glad that you can't see my face in this one. because i'm looking at a big, fat, scaley and crusty lizard. it was huge. we ran down to get a closer look and he waddled off into some bushes.

the shade hardly helped. our water was bathtub temperature in 15 minutes.

i have no idea what these pillar things are, but there were tons of them. in fact, the picture of jardim botanico that i saw in my Wallpaper travel book had these and that was what sold us on wanting to check it out. they had aged in such a cool way. i love these pictures so much. if i were an artist or something, these pillars would have inspired me to create something amazing and worth millions. just trust me on that.

stunning. i can't believe this is a real place. i remember not being able to tear myself away from this vivid greenery and a giant white bird flew right towards me. it was an amazing sight. mostly because the bird decided at the last second not to poop on us.

the gardens have different sections with international themes. i loved the japanese section. but instead of feeling like a fairy, i felt like a giant person. in case you were wondering, i'm much more of a fairy type, i have never really cared for being scary and stompy.