Brazil - a country of contrast

Discussion in 'Off-Topic Discussion' started by shiney, Mar 27, 2014.

  1. shiney

    shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

    Joined:
    Jul 3, 2006
    Messages:
    67,288
    Gender:
    Male
    Occupation:
    Retired - Last Century!!!
    Location:
    Herts/Essex border. Zone 8b
    Ratings:
    +134,170
    Another thing that is alive and well are bookshops. They were really interesting to walk round and there were plenty of books in English.

    This bookshops had a very nice, and popular, bistro style restaurant upstairs. We ate there a couple of times.
    P1180183.JPG

    P1180184.JPG

    The buses in Rio were of very good standard and unlike those in some of the other S. American countries.
    P1180002.JPG

    One interesting thing that is quite traditional in the big towns in Brazil is what they do with houseplants. The plants that are in smaller pots are tied to trees on the pavement outside the houses (and some shops) and are quite well looked after.
    I was very remiss :noidea: in not taking any photos in daylight but I've found this out of focus one taken at night. On some trees they were tied all the way up the trunk.
    P1180034.JPG
     
    • Like Like x 7
    • Jenny namaste

      Jenny namaste Total Gardener

      Joined:
      Mar 11, 2012
      Messages:
      18,904
      Gender:
      Female
      Occupation:
      retired- blissfully retired......
      Location:
      Battle, East Sussex
      Ratings:
      +34,584
      Lovely pictures Mr Shiney. I must say, it all looks very affluent and healthy. Such a stark contrast to Nepal
      Thank you for these today.
      Jenny
       
      • Like Like x 1
      • shiney

        shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

        Joined:
        Jul 3, 2006
        Messages:
        67,288
        Gender:
        Male
        Occupation:
        Retired - Last Century!!!
        Location:
        Herts/Essex border. Zone 8b
        Ratings:
        +134,170
        Jenny, although there's quite a lot of poverty in Brazil it's not abject poverty as seen in a lot of Asian countries. As a country, it's quite affluent. A good way of measuring that is by the amount, and price, of restaurants.
         
        • Like Like x 1
        • Agree Agree x 1
        • shiney

          shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

          Joined:
          Jul 3, 2006
          Messages:
          67,288
          Gender:
          Male
          Occupation:
          Retired - Last Century!!!
          Location:
          Herts/Essex border. Zone 8b
          Ratings:
          +134,170
          You can't go to Rio without having a look at the Botanical Gardens. They're not really the way we think of botanical gardens, with lots of flowers. Most of the garden are more like a tropical arboretum with little in the way of flowers, apart from flowering trees. A lot of the flowers on the trees had already finished.

          The Gardens are 200 years old and very cheap to visit - about £1.70. They are mainly trees, water features, and statues but they have a well renowned research department. They are quite obviously spending money on renovating parts of the garden that had been rather neglected. I guess this is because of the World Cup and the Olympics. The orchid house is, currently non-existent and the bromeliads are being worked on.

          Even the way the place is at the moment it's worth half a day's visit. There's an impressive view when you enter them. It's Avenue of Royal Palms. This is almost half a mile long!
          P1170802.JPG

          The gardens have a very impressive collection of bamboo with dozens of giant clumps setting of the views.

          This clump (technical term :heehee:) doesn't seem to have changed since I took a photo of Mrs Shiney beside it 30 years ago.
          P1190396.JPG

          P1190636.JPG

          There was still quite a bit of colour in the gardens. This is the flower of the Sausage Tree (Kigelia Africana) and it has giant fruit the size of a whole salami.
          P1190624.JPG

          P1190620.JPG

          P1190634.JPG
           
          • Like Like x 8
          • Lea

            Lea Super Gardener

            Joined:
            Feb 14, 2011
            Messages:
            914
            Gender:
            Female
            Location:
            Bucks
            Ratings:
            +1,067
            Loving this thread! Thank you. :)
             
            • Agree Agree x 1
            • shiney

              shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

              Joined:
              Jul 3, 2006
              Messages:
              67,288
              Gender:
              Male
              Occupation:
              Retired - Last Century!!!
              Location:
              Herts/Essex border. Zone 8b
              Ratings:
              +134,170
              This is a rather unusual tree. It's known as the Monkey's Apricot Tree or the Cannonball Tree (Couroupita guianensis).

              The flowers are large
              P1180117.JPG

              P1180122.JPG

              It's very pretty in bunches
              P1190607.JPG

              They grow straight out from the trunk of the tree on little stems - a bit peculiar for such a large flower. They then develop into the Cannonball fruit. The tree can develop a whole string of the flowers on one stem and the stem needs to be very strong to support the fruit.

              Some trees can be completely covered in the flowers and produce lots of fruit.
              P1190602.JPG

              In many countries the fruit is fed to livestock but many parts of the tree, flowers and fruit are used for human medicinal purposes. It's also used for mange on dogs. To Hindus it's a sacred tree and grown around the temples.

              The flowers growing on the trunk
              P1190603.JPG

              P1190604.JPG
               
              • Like Like x 8
              • shiney

                shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

                Joined:
                Jul 3, 2006
                Messages:
                67,288
                Gender:
                Male
                Occupation:
                Retired - Last Century!!!
                Location:
                Herts/Essex border. Zone 8b
                Ratings:
                +134,170
                Just a few more shots in the Botanic Garden

                A lot of plants didn't have nameplates so we're racking our brains. Actually, I'm sitting back and leaving it to Mrs Shiney :heehee:
                P1170804.JPG

                Tibouchina
                P1170811.JPG

                P1170810.JPG

                P1170823.JPG

                Plumeria
                P1190618.JPG


                Jackfruit
                P1180207.JPG
                 
                • Like Like x 8
                • shiney

                  shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

                  Joined:
                  Jul 3, 2006
                  Messages:
                  67,288
                  Gender:
                  Male
                  Occupation:
                  Retired - Last Century!!!
                  Location:
                  Herts/Essex border. Zone 8b
                  Ratings:
                  +134,170
                  Some more without names.

                  At first glance I thought this was a pleached line of trees. On closer inspection it, very much, gave that effect but the trees were growing from long shoots and not standard trunks.
                  P1190621.JPG

                  There was more than one variety of tree and this was a fruit growing from one of them
                  P1190622.JPG

                  P1190627.JPG

                  This bird was marching along and ignoring us. It was definitely a bird with a mission!
                  P1190629.JPG

                  These are roots (shoots) of the Swamp Cypress (Taxodium distichum) a deciduous conifer that likes swamps and damp places. The tree was about 40ft high.
                  P1190631.JPG

                  P1190638.JPG
                   
                  • Like Like x 9
                  • Jenny namaste

                    Jenny namaste Total Gardener

                    Joined:
                    Mar 11, 2012
                    Messages:
                    18,904
                    Gender:
                    Female
                    Occupation:
                    retired- blissfully retired......
                    Location:
                    Battle, East Sussex
                    Ratings:
                    +34,584
                    Such interesting flora and fauna Mr Shiney,
                    thank you,
                    Jenny
                     
                    • Agree Agree x 1
                    • strongylodon

                      strongylodon Old Member

                      Joined:
                      Feb 12, 2006
                      Messages:
                      15,383
                      Gender:
                      Male
                      Occupation:
                      Retired
                      Location:
                      Wareham, Dorset
                      Ratings:
                      +32,507
                      Great thread, keep them coming.:dbgrtmb:
                      Little birdie is a Great Kiskadee.
                       
                      • Informative Informative x 2
                      • Like Like x 1
                      • shiney

                        shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

                        Joined:
                        Jul 3, 2006
                        Messages:
                        67,288
                        Gender:
                        Male
                        Occupation:
                        Retired - Last Century!!!
                        Location:
                        Herts/Essex border. Zone 8b
                        Ratings:
                        +134,170
                        Moving on through the town to the industrial suburbs where they have a commercial fruit and veg market. We had to be careful not to be run over by giant artics and men running with hand carts. They were all very polite but in a rush all the time. I found it exhausting just watching them run around in the oppressive heat of the day, dragging enormous loads on hand carts!

                        Although everything was sold in bulk they would sell individual items - at a price! It was still a lot cheaper than the retail markets.

                        P1180010.JPG

                        P1180015.JPG

                        P1180009.JPG

                        P1180018.JPG

                        P1180020.JPG
                         
                        • Like Like x 8
                        • shiney

                          shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

                          Joined:
                          Jul 3, 2006
                          Messages:
                          67,288
                          Gender:
                          Male
                          Occupation:
                          Retired - Last Century!!!
                          Location:
                          Herts/Essex border. Zone 8b
                          Ratings:
                          +134,170
                          There were dozens of the covered warehouses, with open sides, and each one was a minimum of an acre.

                          P1180024.JPG

                          P1180025.JPG

                          P1180027.JPG

                          P1180031.JPG

                          P1180033.JPG
                           
                          • Like Like x 7
                          • Fern4

                            Fern4 Total Gardener

                            Joined:
                            Jan 30, 2013
                            Messages:
                            16,335
                            Gender:
                            Female
                            Occupation:
                            The gardener of the house!
                            Location:
                            Liverpool
                            Ratings:
                            +7,491
                            Very interesting and enjoyable Shiney.....thank you. :)
                             
                            • Agree Agree x 1
                            • shiney

                              shiney President, Grumpy Old Men's Club Staff Member

                              Joined:
                              Jul 3, 2006
                              Messages:
                              67,288
                              Gender:
                              Male
                              Occupation:
                              Retired - Last Century!!!
                              Location:
                              Herts/Essex border. Zone 8b
                              Ratings:
                              +134,170
                              Thanks strongy :blue thumb: For a moment I thought you were doing an impression of W.C. Fields :heehee:
                               
                              • Funny Funny x 1
                              • Freddy

                                Freddy Miserable git, well known for it

                                Joined:
                                Jul 15, 2007
                                Messages:
                                9,466
                                Gender:
                                Male
                                Occupation:
                                Retired - yay!
                                Location:
                                Bristol
                                Ratings:
                                +12,519
                                Brilliant Mr Shiney, thanks for sharing your experience:blue thumb:
                                 
                              Loading...

                              Share This Page

                              1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
                                By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
                                Dismiss Notice