Lapa and botanical garden

I’ve survived one more week in the big city. Highlights of the past week were a night out in Lapa at Scenarium and today’s trip to the Botanical Garden. Somehow I manage to spend way too much time wandering about in the streets—that’s pretty much how I use up most of my time here in Rio outside of classes.

I went to Lapa the week before but we just wandered around in circles for 2 hours. This time we went with a few Brazilians to hear the band of one woman’s husband. Outstanding! The leading musician played the violin and the band ranged from samba to forro. The venue itself was beautiful. Like a restored old hotel lobby/saloon. It was filled with antiques and I was told that these antiques get changed frequently—either because they are rented or they get sold. The area is an antique district during the day.

Today I missed my program’s bus to Petropolis—a historic city in the mountains—like an idiot. So I stuck around town again and me and Patricia went to the Botanical Gardens. Its really a lovely place and maybe one of the nicest botanical gardens that I have been to—not because it has more diversity or infrastructure or anything. It just had a really good feeling and maybe I was really relieved to finally get away from all of the cars and the traffic. We even saw some wildlife (toucans, monkeys) which reminded me how close Rio is to some beautiful and rich forest.






View of the mountains and favela (?) outside of the gardens.