The trip home and final thoughts (Wednesday, June 14)

We leave the zoo with a final embrace from this cheerful 'onça', the mascot of the Jungle Force

We get an Uber and make the driver stop at a Petz store, so we can get presents for our long-suffering dogs (they always check the suitcase for new toys). Then on to a last lunch at the fabulous Juma Opera, after which we get picked up at 1pm to go to the airport. The rest of the trip is a blur of waiting to be called to the gate (late) and crossing fingers for a timely arrival in São Paulo for our connection to Rio just after 10pm. We make it to the gate and get in line, when, after a while, it becomes clear that nothing is happening - apparently the crew didn't show! Meanwhile Victor has left the house to pick us up in Rio. We take off after midnight and land before 1am. Victor is waiting - hallelujah - and gets us into the car and offers water. But it's not over - the Rebouças tunnel is closed - and now well after 1pm, Victor has to navigate the empty (and perilous) downtown streets with Google Maps on his iPhone screen held up in his sightline as he drives. But we make it home to the delighted dogs, and by 2am we're in bed.

This Brazilian adventure may have started when I received a portable record player for my 14th birthday, along with money to buy one LP. I went to the record store in Hellerup, Copenhagen, where I lived. A wonderful jazzy tune was playing as I entered the store. I learnt it was Stan Getz and João Gilberto's 'Desafinado' on Verve and bought it - my very first 45, and a subtle entry to Brazil, where I would spend my life much later. Still in High School and familiar with the French cinema in vogue then, I watched "That Man from Rio" with a young Jean-Paul Belmondo and the fabulous and tragic François Dorleac, Catherine Denouve's older sister, who was killed in a car accident in 1967, when she was already a star and only 25. I retained an image of a chic party held at the MAM, the Museum of Modern Art in Rio, and of a muddy road being built in the Amazon forest. Once in Rio I had the good fortune to attend wonderful parties at the MAM, but I hadn't made it to the Amazon. It stayed a dream until Oswaldo, who's very good at these things, found an interesting lodge in the middle of the jungle. And the rest is history. We should maybe have done this trip when we were a little younger, but, as Victor says, it's good for you to get challenged at your age, and what remains is the beauty of the nature and all we learnt in our few days there, and how much we enjoyed experiencing this together.