Homeward Bound

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Geo: -22.9035, -43.2096

Day 16 – November 6

Homeward Bound!

This was somewhat of an odd day in terms of travel. The tour is over but most of us are ticketed out of Rio about 10 pm tonight. So it's a leisure day. We did breakfast in the hotel, I worked on my blog and we packed. Check out was at noon.

Murray had given us a list of things to see and do that we hadn't already covered. The Botanical Garden (Marti and Candace checked that out). The H Stern factory tour (not at ALL something Patrick was inclined to do). The natural history museum. The contemporary art museum. Beaching it at the Caesar Park section of Ipanema.

The five St. Louis ladies left Patrick behind and headed out on a short shopping excursion to SOBRAL. It was a store that I had spotted the day we dined at Colombo and there is a sister store in Forum Ipanema Mall near our hotel. It features hand-crafted resin jewelry from Brazil – in a rainbow of colors. I bought a stylized Christ the Redeemer necklace that will double as a Christmas ornament ... along with earrings and bracelet. Marti, Anne, Barcy bought items as well. And we then sent Josie, Beth, Pat and others to claim Brazilian treasures for themselves.

Following that, the crowd began to assemble in the hotel lobby. They played bridge. Read. Visited. Ready to go ... but logistics said they had to wait. There were actually two couples (Brannen and McDonald) who left after sightseeing last night. They missed the farewell dinner but they avoided the downtime today. Not a bad idea if you are still in the planning stages for this trip. They actually got one hotel night refunded.

At 6 pm, 26 of the 37 loaded into a bus with our local guide SiGi and headed to the airport. She pointed out some more sights ... the ride to the airport gave us a chance to see the poorer districts, the Olympic construction, etc. It kind of completed the perspective.

We bid our farewells to our new friends and headed to our various airlines. Tomorrow we would be back in our own beds, hugging our family members (including pets) and our adventure in South America would be a great memory.

Thanks for following me!

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Comments

[susan Fitzgerald]

Tommie, What a wonderful trip had!!. Thank you for all of your blogs. I am sure you are excited about being home, but what wonderful memories.

[Chuck Lee]

Thanks for the running commentary. I really enjoyed following you.

[Karen Kruse]

This has been a fabulous travelogue of a fabulous trip! Loved it all. I think I know the place between the falls where you got your necklace! I got a rainbow bracelet of various stones at a similar store there!

[Jan]

Thanks for taking me on your trip! It was fun reading.

[Debi]

Great blog. Thanks for letting me relive our memories of that tour.

[Kathie S]

Tauck should hire you! You make me REALLY want to sign up for this trip right now.

[Suzanne Y]

What a great trip this has been. I am sad it has come to an end. What a wonderful commentary along the way - of course that is the Cream on the top!

[Suzanne Kennedy]

So glad you all had a good time. And I enjoyed following your trip! Thanks for the pictures and commentary. Well done!!

[Jan]

Beautiful colors! Safe journey.

[Nancy]

Tommye, the best trip ever! Wish I was there. You are by far the greatest organizer and find the most wonderful trips. I always dreamed of South America after Amanda live there while filming for 3 months. Your blog was incredible and pi
ctures amazing. Annie should send the last day pic out as a Christmas card! Wow! Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed every day!!