Rio de Janeiro – Part 2 – Lover of Wine – Travel along on our adventures

Once we left the Tijuca National Park we headed towards the Botanical Gardens. As I may have mentioned in the past, whenever there is a Garden option for a tour, I have to sign us up as Janeen LOVES to visit gardens. This place did not disappoint.

Founded in the early 1800’s the garden was opened to the public in 1822. Covering about 350 acres, the park lies at the foot of the Corovado Mountain and contains more than 6,000 different species of tropical and subtropical plants and trees including 900 varieties of palm trees (no, I didn’t count all the ones we saw but we did see a lot of them). With all the plants, naturally there are a bunch of birds – some 140 species of birds call the place home.

Lovely shot of Christ the Redeemer and the fountain in the Park

Our guide seemed to know a lot about virtually everything in the Park and kept picking fruit off the various plants for us to sample.

Our guide, Alexandre Ristoff – also known by the affectionate nickname Anowi – enchanted us with his extensive knowledge about the natural wonders of the Tijuca Forest and the Botanical Garden. Even while driving along, he would turn in his seat and give us LOTS of information about the area we were passing through. Throughout the Park and the Botanical Gardens his depth of information was amazing and he made the entire adventure special.

Back in the jeep we headed towards the water and drove past some of the most famous beaches in the world. Sure, everyone has heard of Copacabana and Ipanema but there are several others of note – Joatinga, Barra da Tijuca and Flamengo to name a few.

Many areas of the beaches are blocked off by the Hotels across the street and have umbrella’s ready for their guests, plus of course services available. One of the interesting things we saw was the use of watering hoses to keep a pathway cool for walking from the pavement to the water.

While I don’t normally do this, I would suggest reaching out to his tour company Jeep Tour Brasil should you see yourself in Rio de Janeiro

Did you know that Rio de Janeiro has the largest number of companies that operate air taxis? Not something I would have thought.

Our time in Rio was limited but we packed a lot of sigh seeing into our day for sure. There is a good deal of wealth in the city but an equal amount of poverty too making the contrast between sections of the city very apparent. Given the opportunity we would certainly return to this place for more exploration.

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