Our South America Adventure - Day 15 & 16 Rio walking tour and going home

It is hard to believe today is our final day in Brazil. It is a little bittersweet. We loved Rio. Of all of the places we visited on this trip, we want to visit again would be Rio de Janerio. Whenever we get to the end of a two-week trip we are pretty ready to come home. Two weeks is a long time to be gone. We are ready to go home. 

Today we went on a walking tour with Rafael. Marcelo picked us up from our hotel. Before we began the walking portion of the tour he drove us through the Santa Teresa neighborhood. He dropped us at our first stop Ruins Park. The park got its name after the ruins of an ancient mansion, former Palacete Murtinho Nobre. This was a beautiful park high up on a hill providing magnificent views of the city. 

We loved the street art all over Rio

Then Marcelo dropped us off downtown to begin our walking tour. He dropped us in the Centro district of Rio de Janeiro. We started in a nice square. This used to be surrounded by movie theaters, but they slowly closed as movie theaters moved to the suburbs. The last one closed recently due to covid. There were also a couple of beautiful buildings surrounding the square. We saw the National Library. There is a law in Brazil that any book published one copy has to be given to this library so it has a huge collection of Brazilian literature. We also saw the National Art Gallery. It was closed for renovations. City Hall is also in this area, as well as, Theatro Municipal, which is a stunningly beautiful theater. You can really see the European influence in the architecture of these buildings. 

There are interesting designs on the Portuguese stone walkways all over the city

Next, we walked over to the Confeitaria Colombo. On our way, we stopped by the Centro Cultural São Francisco da Penitência, which is one of the oldest churches in Rio. It was built in 1620. The Confeitaria Colombo is arguably the most famous coffeehouse in Rio. Many important people frequent this local establishment. It is quite beautiful. It was inspired by European cafes and given an Art Nouveau flair. We got a cappuccino and some pastries. It was a nice mid-morning stop. 

We continued our walking tour by heading toward the Imperial Palace. In this area, there are many churches and government buildings. One of the more impressive government buildings was the Palacio Tiradentes. This is the legislative building for the state of Rio de Janerio. It is quite beautiful. We toured the Imperial Palace and Rafael spent some time telling us more about Brazilian history. Some of these lessons rehashed things we had learned during our trip to Petropolis. We learned a lot about Brazilian history on this trip. 

Outside the Imperial Palace, there was a flea market. We walked through and did some people-watching. There was some really interesting old stuff for sale - old cameras, phones, etc. There were also some cool monuments in this area. 

Next, we visited Candelária Church and saw the Olympic torch, which was right by the church. 

Then we strayed from the beaten path to climb a hill up to a church that is really hidden away. It is the Monastery of São Bento. It is a Benedictine abbey. It has a stunning interior and great views of the city from up on the hill. 

We headed down the other side of the hill and into the Puerto Maravilha neighborhood. They have been trying to revitalize this area since before the Olympics. It is fairly nice but has had development issues due to financial crises and then Covid. 

We continued into the Saúde neighborhood. This area is famous for being the birthplace of Samba. It had great energy. In this neighborhood, we found a monument to Mercedes Baptista, a Brazilian ballet dancer, and composer, who helped to popularize samba. 

Our next stop was Valongo Wharf. This was a heavy place to visit. Nearly 1 million enslaved people came disembarked through this site. We sat and reflected on the suffering that was experienced here. Rafael pointed out that sometimes history can be ironic because next to this site there is a warehouse that was designed by the first black architect in Brazil. The world can be a better place when people are given opportunities and support. 

We ended our tour at some street art we saw on our first day in Rio. Since then we spent 4 pretty amazing days here. A walking tour was a great way to end our time in Rio. When you get out and walk in a city you get to know it differently because you see all kinds of people, buildings, and city life. Today we got to see a different side of Rio de Janerio. 

That was it for our time in Rio. Marcelo drove us to the airport. We caught a flight to Sao Paulo. There aren't many flights from Rio to the USA these days. We had a short layover in Sao Paulo and then we flew to JFK. It was good to be back in the US. We had a few hours before our flight to SLC so we passed them in the Skyclub. Not a bad way to spend a layover. Finally, we were on our final flight home. When we landed Blake and Debbie were waiting in the airport lobby with our dog Tex. We were so happy to see him. He is such a happy boy. It was hard to come home to a house without our CC cat. We are still mourning her. We walk into a room and kind of expect her to be there. This was one of the most difficult homecomings we have had after a trip, but time will ease the pain, and despite the challenges, we faced on this trip we had a great time in South America.