My Green Haven

A couple of times a week I take refuge at the Botanical Garden down the street, armed with a few reais and my digital camera. I'm trying to escape the high decibel levels of this tropical metropolis and looking for clean air to breathe, but every leisurely walk comes with a bonus: monkeys up on the jackfruit trees, bromeliads galore, an occasional lizard. This particular morning I went in search of the abricó-de-macaco, a longtime favorite of mine. A native of the Amazon, this is one of the strangest and most beautiful trees in Brazil.

Dogs, of course, are an absolute no-no, unless they're leading a visually impaired person. I did come across this snoozing beauty, though, at the very back of the arboretum and concluded that he must belong to one of the homes there.