DAY EIGHT
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2025
futurIST teaching and iconic beaching
This morning, on my last day in Rio, I slept in a bit before grabbing breakfast downstairs at the Fairmont, then taking an Uber to the Museu do Amanhã (Museum of Tomorrow), a science museum dedicated to the future of our planet and humankind. (I was a little groggy this morning so forgot to take pictures of the breakfast, but it was a pretty traditional hotel breakfast albeit a very robust one!)
After some confusion finding my ride 😅 (there are a few different driveways and streets that converge in front of my hotel), the drive there was picturesque itself, as we drove alongside Copacabana Beach and then past Sugar Loaf Mountain, making our way to the revitalized Porto Maravilha district.
Arriving at the Museu do Amanhã , you’re immediately struck by the architecture of the building. Designed by Santiago Calatrava (of the Puente de la Mujer Bridge on Day 2 in Buenos Aires / Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin / Oculus in Manhattan, now immediately recognizable to me), the whole thing is a modern cantilever that incorporates sustainable technologies like solar panels and rainwater harvesting systems, bringing in the museum’s mission to educate visitors about environmental challenges.
As I was about to walk in, I heard music in the plaza behind me so turned around to check out what was happening. Turns out there was a big flash mob performance and it was really entertaining! The local dancers were all ages, and you couldn’t help but smile at their enthusiasm.
I had no idea what the occasion was, but looked it up once I got home (based on what it said on their shirts), and it turns out it was part of the Viradão Gospel Rio festival, a two day celebration that “promotes 24 uninterrupted hours of music, culture and faith in several regions of the city.“ If I’m reading correctly, this was the first annual festival.
After the performance, I headed into the museum. It’s not a huge museum, but it’s really well designed (and mostly presented simultaneously in Portuguese, Spanish, and English), offering a number of different interactive exhibits that focus on sustainability, biodiversity, climate change. and our role in all of it. There are a bunch of different hands-on activities that allow you to see your own impact as well, though several of those were only in Portuguese, so I stuck with what I’d understand!
Lobby of the museum
Once you come in with your ticket, they give you this little card that you can use throughout the museum to pull up different information in your language of choice. They handed me an English one before I had even spoken! I guess I’m obvious haha.
Model of the museum on the way in to the exhibits
The main exhibition of the museum is called “From the Cosmos to Us” and is, per the museum website, ‘a multimedia narrative structured around five major moments – Cosmos, Earth, Anthropocene, Tomorrows, and Us – each one embodying the great questions that humanity has always asked itself – Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we? Where are we going? How do we want to go?’
“Earth” is a series of three cubes with animations on the outside, and interactive displays on the inside, representing the three dimensions of existence: Matter, Life and Thought.
Inside this first cube was a central circle almost like an air hockey table with two giant scarves that floated around with the help of wind gusts. Not entirely sure the point of this (an abstract representation of the world’s oceans?), but it was absolutely mesmerizing and I ended up standing there for a while just enjoying the beauty.
The second cube was all about Earth’s ecosystems, and featured these circles of all sizes that continually changed.
I really loved this next “thought” cube, that contained a bunch of columns representing all of the facets of humanity across Earth, from various religious and cultural traditions to our interactions with nature, arts & creativity, sports & competitions, different family dynamics, and more.
Uhhhhh not so good! Hoping some of this is just inevitable from living in a big city.
After the main permanent exhibit, I walked through a special exhibit on the Patanal, Brazil’s massive floodplain (the world’s largest), that’s been dealing with a string of climate adversities exacerbated by human activity, specifically the burning of fossil fuels, unsustainable agricultural practices, and mostly deforestation and accelerated degradation, especially in tropical regions.
The last exhibit I visited was “Carne da Terra,” a solo exhibition of mixed media artist Maria Antonia.
Finally, on the way out I of course swung through the gift shop, full of environmentally-related gifts and colorful Brazil souvenirs.
This museum was definitely worth the stop! I loved the creativity in the interactive exhibits, the building itself was gorgeous, and it was nice to visit a science museum that, while family-friendly, wasn’t aimed specifically at children.
On the drive back we passed the Copacabana Palace, a famous hotel in the area (and one that I had briefly looked at as a splurge for my last couple of nights) though it was a little… dusty and old for the exorbitant price! Not my kind of luxury.
Because my flight home wasn’t until 11pm, I had the rest of the day to relax and enjoy my surroundings. I picked up a coffee and sat on the balcony of my room for a little while, just taking in the beautiful view of Copacabana Beach and the Rio Harbor.
It was getting later in the afternoon and I was hungry, so headed down to check out the Fairmont infinity pool and grab some poolside lunch.
I got this “club sandwich” and fries. I didn’t realize that a club sandwich here involves hard boiled eggs (not my thing), but the fries were particularly good!
After spending some quality relaxation time by the pool, I wanted to spend my last few hours in Rio walking around the neighborhood and exploring the beaches – starting in Copacabana a little bit, but then heading to iconic nearby Ipanema Beach since I hadn’t really seen it.
This Great Dane insisted on being his family’s flip-flop carrier:
The Fairmont is situated right on the bend that marks the separation between Copacabana and Ipanema, so I figured it’d be easy enough to just… walk over from one to the other, but it really wasn’t! I ended up walking along the main street there (not on the beach) and knew I was walking the right direction, parallel to Ipanema, but kept waiting for some some sort of break in the stores and restaurants to be able to head over to the beach itself. I finally ended up walking into a playground, and who knows if it was the way you were actually supposed to go, but I kept making my way through and was happy to see that it eventually led me to what I was looking for. Yes, yes, I should’ve just looked at a map and would’ve seen that it’s not all connected haha.
Ipanema Beach was definitely worth the stop! The golden hour sun was illuminating the sand and water so it looked like the whole thing glowed, and it was so picturesque.
Adjacent to the beach is Arpoador Rock, a natural peninsula that’s a popular spot for watching the sunset and local surfers. And I can see why! I walked over to the rock and just took in the scene for a while, among tons of other people who were soaking in the beautiful day.
In college, my friends and I had the Lounge-a-Palooza CD —and specifically this cover of The Girl From Ipanema by the Pizzicato Five— on repeat. Loved it. And finally get to appropriately use it!
After enjoying the beautiful day and scenery, it was time to head back to the hotel to get myself packed and checked out before heading to the airport. I spent my last little bit of time sitting on the balcony to watch the sun go down… and also noticed that it was like a Hitchcock movie when I looked up, as the sky was absolutely swarming with birds. (Magnificent Frigatebirds, thank you Merlin Bird ID app.)
The drive to the airport was uneventful, and so was my flight. I flew overnight on American from Rio to Miami and then caught an early morning flight from Miami back to JFK. This trip absolutely flew by, but what an incredible collection of memorable sights and a really great Flash Pack group!
Loved this design element throughout the Rio airport that nods to the iconic scenery!
some final thoughts
I know I’m a broken record at this point, but Iguazú Falls/Foz do Iguaçu really is just magnificent. Pictures and video can’t really do it justice, and I know we didn’t even get its full majesty given the rainy weather. Before the trip I figured it’d be beautiful as most waterfalls are, but I really wasn’t prepared for the scale of it all, and just the sheer number of individual waterfalls that are part of the system. If you ever have the opportunity to visit, do not hesitate. I’ve been fortunate to see a lot of breathtaking natural wonders in the world… this might be #1.
I really loved the variety of this trip. Argentina and Brazil are neighbors, but the vibe couldn’t have been more different in Buenos Aires and Rio. Buenos Aires almost felt European to me in a lot of ways, while Rio is pure tropical and more what I’d instinctively think of with a lot of South America. Granted, these are obviously two cities out of many in both countries, so maybe others are more similar, but these two couldn’t have been more different.
As I’ve shared before in these pages, I like to get a taste of the local music where I can, so here are a few highlights I found:
Maria Becerra is a megastar in Argentina right now, bridging pop, R&B, and reggaeton. She just sang the Argentinian national anthem at the World Cup final.
Trueno from La Boca in Buenos Aires, he’s 90s-style hip-hop combined with modern trap, and more than a little ear-wormy.
Luis Alberto Spinetta - Considered the "father of Argentine rock", he pioneered the local progressive and psychedelic rock scenes with bands like Almendra, Pescado Rabioso, and Invisible.
Dora Morelenbaum is a popular new-ish singer from Rio, who combines traditional Brazilian bossa nova with jazz, pop, and MPB (Brazilian Popular Music). Very chill vibe, great for the background of something like a poolside cocktail party if you’re making a playlist.
Bebel Gilberto is the daughter of bossa nova pioneer João Gilberto, she continues to be a global ambassador for electronic-infused bossa nova, with more modern lounge tracks.
Zé Ibarra (from Sao Paolo) started with the band Dônica before taking Brazilian tradition and running with it in his solo work, which blends MPB, jazz, pop, and prog rock. Incidentally, he’s also tied to the group Bala Desejo (with Dora Morelenbaum).
I was so excited to get to see some toucans! Seems silly, it’s just a bird, but there’s something adorably cartoonish about them. That massive beak doesn’t look real.
This was a great group of fellow travelers, and also a great set of guides. I hadn’t really looked closely at this trip with Flash Pack (mainly because a 7-day trip covering two countries seemed so fast), but I’m so glad I decided to do it. Even though it felt like we barely scratched the surface of these countries, it was a great introduction and we managed to fit in some truly iconic best-of-the-world sights.