Saturday Photo: Dancing Trees from São Paulo as Carnaval Begins

This picture was taken on a hazy day in Jardim da Luz, one of the oldest botanical gardens in the Western Hemisphere in the heart of São Paulo Brazil. Well, actually it isn't a botanical garden any more, but a lovely center city park that had been allowed to decline for a several decades. When I was there in 2005, it was considerably more respectable with the Pinocateca art gallery flourishing and the nearby train station Estação da Luz being refurbished as a commuter train-Metrô hub.

That work is finished, and I imagine there will be dancing in the streets this weekend as Carnaval begins in Brazil. The samba schools are unlikely to be any more lovely than this chorus line of trees, though.