El Jardin Botánico

I went to the Botanical Gardens here in Quito this weekend. Yeah yeah yeah, I know what you are thinking--whatever--a bunch of flowers. Wrong--there is so little you know! Ecuador is a MEGADIVERSE country when it comes to the botany and animals here. There are the Galapagos Islands, the Coast, the Mountains, and the Amazon all in a country the size of the state of Colorado. This creates great diversity in the plants and animals found here.

Ecuador is the most diverse country in the world per square mile (or kilometer) in relation to species and plants. So the botanical gardens hosted a wide variety of plants that I had never seen before. Although that is the case, I am in Ecuador and it is not kept up as well as the Botanical Gardens in Washington D.C. for example.

Here are a few pictures from the garden.--p.s.--the flowers are HUGE here. Roses and flowers both bigger than both of your fists.