Rio Anniversary Trip: Day 2 - Part 2, Jardim Botânico and Parque Lage

After visiting the Christ Redeemer, we took a taxi to the Botanical Garden. We didn't take an Uber because we couldn't get our phones to access any international data plans, and we hadn't found anywhere to buy a Brazilian SIM card. As we approached the garden, we thought it looked a little empty. Sure enough, it is closed on Wednesdays, so we couldn't go in. Instead, we walked around the outside of it and took some pictures.

We thought Ian would enjoy seeing all of these turtles.

A Brazilian trash can. Oh, and a monkey climbing the tree behind it.

Looking into the Botanical Garden from the street.

We continued walking down the street toward Lage Park. It was about a mile away. The park is the former estate of the industrialist Enrique Lage. He built a mansion on the property and hired a landscape architect to beautify the rest of the property with a fountain, aquarium, and fake grotto. Today it is a public park, and the mansion is an art school and a fancy restaurant. We wandered around the park for a while and spent most of our time sitting in the cavern grotto.

Jackfruit growing in the tree

Lage Park Palace with the Christ Redeemer in the background

Glow-in-the-dark fish inside the aquarium

The grotto cavern seemed like an attraction out of Disneyland.

A big monkey accepted food from some picnickers.

We took another taxi back to the hotel from the park. Our taxi driver was very excited to talk to Erik about national politics. Basically, President Lula is a socialist who was elected back when Erik was on his mission. Since then, Lula has left office, gone to prison, and been re-elected president. The driver used a lot of slang and profanities to describe his disgust of the president. Needless to say, it was a memorable trip. We walked around the neighborhood of our hotel some more looking for food. We stopped in at a padaria (bakery) to try a coxinha (chicken pastry). Unfortunately, they were sold out, so we had some cashew fruit juice and a brigadeiro instead. The brigadeiro is a rich Brazilian dessert that tastes like chocolate frosting rolled in a ball over chocolate sprinkles.

Cashews are actually fruits with a nut growing at the bottom.

Farther down the street we found a little souvenir shop where we bought some Brazil t-shirts and spoke with the owner for a while. He spoke to me in English and to Erik in Portuguese. He said that most of the tourists this time of year are visiting from Chile since there is a new direct flight from Santiago. We were still hungry, so we stopped by a pastelaria (pastel maker). Pasteis (plural) are rectangular shaped pieces of deep fried dough filled with anything you want. We ordered chicken, ground beef and cheese, a dessert sampler, and a cup of cupuaҫu juice. When I asked what cupuaҫu was, the woman behind us said it's a tasty fruit from her hometown of Santarém. Erik got excited and told her that he lived in Santarém for 6 months on his mission. They spoke for a while about Santarém and its famous beach Alter do Chão. The woman said she moved to Belém for a while then came to Rio for college and has been here ever since. 

 

Cupuaҫu is not really edible, but it is tasty as a juice and in desserts

After eating our pasteis, we walked along the sidewalk across the street across from Copacabana beach back to our hotel. Lots of people were still out having fun, but we went to our room to get some sleep.

Plenty of people still playing footvolley, which originated in Rio.