Monkeys and orchids

... make for a pretty sweet combo on a visit to the Rio Botanical Gardens. The park itself is lovely, but the addition of monkeys puts it on another level - you don't see simians at Kew Gardens. I had no idea there were going to be monkeys at this place, but years ago in Guatemala I learned that if you're in a tropical environment and you hear something falling from a tall tree and it turns out to be a large green nut of some kind, then look up. Because you might well see a monkey. And happily, today that was the case.




It's winter here so there weren't many flowers in bloom, but the orchid house was open (featuring a variety of bizarro Amazonian plants) and the tree-lined paths were lush and empty of people. And did I mention there were monkeys? The pics below are especially for a certain Italian gangsta gardener of my acquaintance.





As ever, there's more at the Flickr set now labelled Trip do Brasil, which I'm updating as I go along.