Zoo, Bootanical Garden & Japanese Garden

This is probably the last post about saying goodbye to my home town. I'm glad I've spent sometime visiting the most special places for me back in January, because it's sure I wouldn't have any time to do it now.

All these Gardens I mentioned in the title are, in fact, part of our Zoo. Honestly, it isn't one of my favourite places in the city, but my memories about the Zoo were, actually, pretty worse than the ones I have now, so the visit was worth. =)

The place I liked most was the Japanese Garden. However, there isn't a single bank or bench for you to sit down and you can only stay in for 15 minutes. It's not like you can enter and stay there to meditate or to brood over life.

Then you have the Bootanical Garden, which is small, but still the best place to meditate or to brood over life. =P The problem is that the greenhouses were all closed and there are some broken parts in the Garden. Anyway, I left it with one thousand of ideas about school field trips that I could do there... only I won't work here anymore. =(

I suppose most of people who go to the Zoo want to see the animals, special the wild animals. At least in our Zoo, I wish you LUCK. Probably your favourite animals will be taking a nap or having lunch hidden from you. That was the case with all the felines, with the elephants (my favourite ones!) and many other species. Here is a bit of what I could see:

Black lion tamarin

Other primates - I can't only remember which. Any idea?

Poor Rhino...

This one is obvious

At the end, the most interesting part for almost everyone are the exotic birds. Only it's so sad to see them all caged and I won't show these pics here in the blog.

There are loads of pics of the Zoo HERE - the birds inclusive. ;-)

Countdown

Today we start the countdown. In just 30 days and I'll be flying by this time. =)

Yesterday, the Waters of March came... in Bossa Nova's language that means: Summer is finally ending, rain started to fall.

And the riverbank talks

of the waters of March, 

It's the end of all strain, 

It's the joy in your heart. 

To celebrate this, Tom Jobim's Waters of March (yeah, he wrote English lyrics for the song as well).

Mangabeiras' Park

The day I visited Parque das Mangabeiras was perfect: cloudy but not rainy. Therefore, although it was holidays time, it was very quiet, just a few visitors. It was the ideal atmosphere for an introvert who was deadly tired and wanted some time by herself. ;-P

Mangabeiras is the name of a tree specie, which names the Park. The park is a green refugee and what makes it really special is the forest. There are some safe trails to walk amidst the forest... this is the kind of thing that really suits me fine. =)

The Water's Plaza: This is located near the main gate.

Little Waterfall: I just love the music of water falling.

Dreams Lake: it should be called a pond, actually. So small, that the fairies who inhabits the lake must be even tinier than the average fairy!

One of the trails:

Near the Park, there is the Pope's Plaza. Yeah, Pope John Paul came here to celebrate a mass, so the Plaza was named after him. In country where the majority of the population is Roman Catholic, that was a great honour!

Nowadays the Pope's Plaza is a place to held big events, such as rock concerts or festivals. It has a beautiful   panoramic view of the city.

Wanna check some other pics of the park and the plaza? Go HERE!