October Vacation: Kisantu Botanical Gardens

Greetings to all - Sorry for my prolonged absence. School is, as usual, insane, and I am feeling like all the pictures I could take and comments I could make would just be the same as last year at this time... so no overly inspired. Please ask and I will try to work on posts more regularly.

This past weekend, the beginning of our October break, I traveled with two fellow teachers on a road trip south west of Kinshasa. Originally we had intended to go to the beach, but that started to seem far so we decided on some more nearby destinations. On Sunday morning, we headed out in a 2 car convoy to the Kisantu Botanical Gardens. Aside from one joker trying to scare our pants off by pulling out in front of us, we had a pleasant and lovely drive to Kisantu, about 2 hours away, maybe a little less. (It's a ways out past where you turn to go to the Bonobo Sanctuary that I wrote about last year)

We arrived, figured out our accommodations (part of the dormitories for students of the horticulture school located inside the gardens) and started walking. I was flabbergasted by the QUIET and incredibly beautiful sights. First, the lily pond at the entrance. Oh how lovely.

Then, the monkey arm branch trees with their super-cool long pine cones.

As was pointed out - we had now spent 10 minutes and been approximately 20 yards. Everything was so cool.

There were these really cool covered areas with roofs made from vines... and in them, some hanging gardens including this cool orange flower.

I loved these super spiky plants - you would think in a garden where everything was labeled, I would know their names... but it got a bit overwhelming... and I was still just completely blown away by the quiet!

We saw just GORGEOUS Eucalyptus trees - like impressionist-painted trees!

And these trees with roots that looked like sleeping dinosaurs to me!

We came to an Impatiens looking tree, as well as a pretty banana tree!

We also got transfixed for several minutes playing with the touch-me-not plants... it's addictive (though probably not nice to scare the plants like that!)

That's all the internet will upload for now (or all I have the patience for the internet to upload for right now) but I will post more. These pictures are only from like the first two hours!