JTOG Day 99: Walk to Ipanema Beach & Fly Home to USA!

I woke up on Friday morning, January 17th one last time in Rio de Janeiro as the "Journey to Olympic Golf" was coming to an end. I was in my room I rented through airbnb in the Rue Vice Governador Rubens area on the east end of Gavea near the planetarium. I was staying in an apartment with a mother who spoke no English and a daughter who spoke English and acted as a concierge and tour guide for me during my 10 nights in Rio. I hope I can return there during the Olympics as it was a very convenient location, an easy walk down to Ipanema Beach and an easy bus ride 26 kilometers west to the Olympic Golf Course (OGC). I may even take the expanded and completed Metro Line 4 during the Olympics! It is quite a dramatic ride from where I stayed in Gavea to the Olympic Golf Course. Gavea sits below the National Park of Tijuca and in some places the mountains literally go right down to the South Atlantic Ocean. So much so that there are three tunnel passes through the rock formations on the way to the OGC and the Barra da Tijuca—Zuzu Angel, Pepino and Joa. Coming out of the Tunel Zuzu Angel is Rio's most populous fevela called Rocinha. I may be staying in Rocinha during the Olympics and would love to capture the humanitarian stories found there. Rocinha, with a population of 70,000 people has its own website! This final morning I will take the easy and beautiful 20-minute walk down to Ipanema Beach to catch the 2018 Bus to GIG, Rio's International Airport called Galeao, named after the nearby Galleon Beach. Down the elevator, out the gate, turn left then another left and walk along Rua Mario Ribeiro.  Past the Jockey Club Brasileiro, a racetrack in the shadow of Christ the Redeemer statue set high atop a mountain. Take a right onto Avenue Borges de Medeiros at the Lagoon Shopping Center and walk along the edge of the Lagoon Rodrigo de Freitas in a park like setting with skate parks and walking trails. Any right will then get you down to Ipanema Beach to catch the 2018 Bus which costs about 20 dollars. I enjoyed the ride along Copacabana Beach and then through Botafogo and Santa Theresa into the heart of Rio de Janeiro. On the way we also stopped at Santos Dumont, a smaller airport. It was a daylight ride with memories of seeing Sugarloaf at sunset with a full moon a few nights earlier. My 9-hour direct flight to Orlando left Rio at 2:35 pm and arrived in Orlando at 8:35 pm. That was a quick return of 4,352 miles versus the 14,000 plus miles and 99 days it took me to get to Rio! I am happy to be flying round trip out of JFK to GIG for the Olympics in August 2016! Here is my returning Facebook post and 138 picture memories of that walk to the beach, the sightseeing bus ride to the airport (note all the pre-Olympic construction in January 2014), and my time in the Rio airport: Catching flight in Rio for Orlando! Reentry to the USA in progress... new phone number... ... message me for the new number if u r in Orlando for the PGA Show... Safety for all travelers as Dad use to say... hopefully for this one too! WOW, 98 days and counting down to the last one on the "Journey to Olympic Golf!" (-:   (Facebook Post, Andy Reistetter, 1/17/14)