Like a cross between a rock garden and a life-size terrarium. It was rainy and overcast much of the time we were there, but these very common indoor gardens kept us from feeling cooped up, ever.

More pictures after the jump

We saw some version of this kind of indoor garden all over Sao Paulo, usually situated in a nook at the side of a room, and underneath a skylight or open air shaft.

We're thinking about how we can mimic the effect, and the best we've come up with so far is to crack a window and line up a few plants and pebbles in front of it.