Week 2: Cerrado trail and Useful plants

We hiked along a paved trail that brought us through a part of the gardens that preserved the scrubby plants of the Cerrado. It looked a lot like an area from the desert-side of a mountain in Utah or California, but different. One of the differences are these huge termite/ant mounds. Usually they rise like organic towers from the ground, but they can also be found in trees.

As we entered this trail, there was a series of photographs of Brazilian wildlife: spiders, ants, birds, fish, and snakes. None of which we saw on this trail, but Abby was convinced that because the pictures showed snakes, there were definitely going to be snakes along the trail. I told her that as long as we stayed on the trail, we would probably be safe from snakes. She reluctantly agreed to go on the trail, worried about snakes every step of the way, until we saw the monkeys.

There is also a children's area in the Botanical Gardens that included a raised planters with useful plants. My forehead really could have used some of that aloe after being out in the sun all day on the Brazilian Independence Day.