Botanical Garden

The Mexico City Jardín Botánico is pretty nice - big enough to spend a couple of hours, but not so big that you get lost.


There were many of these beds with multiples of the same species of cactus -- maybe to be transplanted elsewhere when they get big enough?


One of several ponds:

Nice agave planting:


Pond #2:

Finally!  A working greenhouse! First one I found out of all the botanical gardens I've visited:


It's mostly given over to orchids . . .

. . . but sadly only a couple were in bloom:

Beautiful sago palm:

This is Encyclia adenocaula (thanks Google Image!), an epiphytic (grows on trees) species native to Mexico:

Mexican-size mosquitos!



















 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First Impressons of Buenos Aires

Image
 1.  My hotel is in the city center, which is more upscale than the off-of-center I was staying in in Bogotá.  Think taller (but not too tall) buildings and wide avenues, etc.  BA is often described as having more of a European feel than most Latin American cities, and based on just a day I'd concur.  The obelisk, the "center" of BA: 2. The Hotel Avenida is very old-fashioned, so old-fashioned that it has the kind of elevator that requires you to close not only the interior but exterior doors before anything happens, and comes to a jolt when it gets to the requested floor.  And lets you curse the clueless who didn't shut the doors when the elevator doesn't come. It's the first time I've stayed in a hotel with one of these.  My feet have never been cleaner! 3. It was easy getting around in Bogotá, numbered Calles ran west to east and numbered Carreras ran north to south.  A typical address "Calle 18 #5 56" so that was on Calle 18 and nearest cross...
Read more

Another cathedral, another art gallery, another lunch

Image
 I went to the Cathedral da Sé, but I'm kinda done with cathedrals, even if this one is "the third largest Gothic cathedral in the world."  They are all (by design, I know) a bit samey, and I feel just a wee bit guilty impinging on anyone's expression of their faith, misguided as it may be (dismissive, moi?). Anyways . . .  The only thing interesting about cathedrals/churches is the odd bits, like this 3D (wax? plaster?) sleeping/dead Jesus from the church of Saint Efigênia: On to the Instituto Cultural Tomie Ohtake!  Who?  Japanese/Brazilian artist I had never heard of, and neither have you.  My second (after Buenos Aires) successful Subway Navigation (free for "idosos" - old people, yay!), and in a neighborhood of interesting buildings.  The building houses the Instituto in the first two floors and the rest are I dunno, offices or something.  It's hard to get a decent pic of the wonderful building, here's my best: And the sensuous metal curves o...
Read more

Colombian Food (updated again)

Image
 I was a bit unkind about Colombian food in previous posts, but that's partially because I didn't make much of an effort.  This time around, I'll pay better attention to the best of Colombian cuisine. #1. My first oblea! It's pretty simple, two crispy wafers spread with the fillings of your choice.  I had mora (blackberry), very traditional, plus cream and cheese. This was very good, the cheese balancing the sweetness of the blackberry, and the crispy wafers a nice contrast to the (very) oozy fillings. $1.50. #2. An "arepa" is just a fried round of cornmeal dough, often treated as a sandwich, so the fillings make it good or bad. The place is named "Areppology," which should be short for "Arepa apology," but read on . . . I ordered chicharrón (deep-fried pork) and salsa. Oh dear.  The pork meat was nice, but the (thick) skin was completely undercooked, like rubber and completely inedible, so I ended up spitting out half of the filling.  Also...
Read more