Ten Days in Rio: days 6-7

Lets start with Day 6: Shabbos.  After spending most of Friday working and buying the kid's presents (which is apparently a required activity for those who travel), about an hour and half before shabbos I hopped in a cab and headed over to Lubavitch Barra.  The cab driver who had waze, called someone and asked for directions anyway.  I'm not sure why.  The chabad from the outside is a wall with 2 metal doors.

Once I was inside the Portuguese security guard (and I discovered later, the everything man) showed me the shul and my sleeping arrangements.  If you want to know how to say "where do i sleep?" in Portugese, don't ask me.  But if you want to know how to mime sleeping, apparently he understand what I needed.  He took me up to the room.  A small one window room, with shutters permanantly closed, a single bunk bed and shared space with miscellaneous Lubavitcher clutter - apparently its also a storage room.  The one issue I had with the free arrangements was that the toilet was missing a toilet seat.  Apparently the phrase: "Gentleman, lift the seat" was misunderstood.  (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kd_hZ-u7GVQ).  But still, I'm not one to complain.  So I placed my stuff down and headed back down to the shul to wait for Mincha.  The Lubavitch Barra headquarters is a sugya in bava kamma.  Its a large courtyard seperated into smaller courtyards and structures.  The entrance has two doors (extra security) and then opens to a small patio.  The shul is right in front, and then behind the shul is a kitchen, more bathrooms, and the Rav's familys' living quarters.  There is also a small soccer court and a child's playground.  Its a cute little setup, if you're into feeling like you're living in the Alamo.  The Rav, who speaks Hebrew and Portuguese, is very kind and asked if I wanted coffee and cake.  I said no thank you, and sat down and blogged away.  About five minutes later he brought me four pieces of cake and some "Brazilian coffee" which I was to drink and enjoy.  (Apparently my no thank you was not accepted as truth).  In truth, the coffee wasn't bad.  The fact that my bathroom had no toilet seat was bad.
All in all Shabbos was nice and quiet.  Like every shul this shul had its cast of characters, albeit in Portuguese.  The old men who walk around the shul saying good shabbos to everyone.  The ones who come Friday excited and raving about Shabbos, but are nowhere to be found on Shabbos morning. The guy who thinks he's Jewish, but he's not.  I commented to the Rav that its like all small communities around the world.  "Yea" he said, "its all the same nation."  That was true.  A kiddush followed the Friday night davening, so we didn't finally eat until about 10pm.  There I spoke Hebrew to the Rav and Rebbetzin, they spoke Portugese to each other and the 2 kids at the table and we discovered the grandmother knew English, so she and I spoke English.  It was wonderful to be able to eat real food again, and the kugels and chicken and salads were very welcome.  We ended at 1145pm, and though my AC kept waking me up during the night, the starting time 10am shachris allowed me to make up on sleep.  I meandered down around 9, and learned.  The Rav informed me that 10 is "suggested" and in fact a minyan had not arrived until close to 1045am.  I was asked to say maftir, and then was told to do Mussaf as well.  This was the first time I lained a haftorah with my name in it, and the first time I davened for a minyan where the only shared language between us was the words we were davening during mussaf!  After davening everyone ate together in the shul, which was quite lovely.  A few people spoke English and made conversation.  Following lunch we davened Mincha and then I hit my high bed sack for several hours.  Once again, Maariv was suggested 805, and we finally scrambled a minyan together at about 9pm.  Before high-tailing it out of there, I asked the Rav if he could suggest a restaurant in Copacabana to eat the next day.  He said (in hebrew of course): "Yes, Shelanu!"  "Oh very nice" I said, "so what's the name of it?"  He said: "Shelanu!"  I said: "Its yours?  or Chabad's or...?"  He said: "No, the name of it is Shelanu!".  Oh!  we laughed.  That's a silly name.  Sunday was to be a lot more fun.

Sunday morning I woke up and went to work.  I wanted to finish early so I could go out and see the city.  Eventually I planned out the day, and the front desk told me if i get a cab to Copacabana I can catch Anthony at IndianaJungle Tours in a jeep ride around the city.  Fun!  I took a cab, and as I walked up to the hotel, Anthony pulled up.  It was an open back jeep, with Kate and Hillary from Florida and California respectively.  I buckled up which consisted of pulling down the roller coaster seatbelt bar.  We drove around the city.
First stop was a stunning view of Sugar Loaf mountain and whale mountain.  Apparently when you cook sugar cane, it goes in a large iron dome.  The sugar cooks, and you turn the dome over, and take it off.  You end up with a sugar loaf that looks a lot like the mountain.  Kate and Hillary bought coconuts and drank their coconut juice, and we were on our way.  We drove around downtown.  He explained that half the city used to be covered in water, but years of cutting down mountains and filling the water with the rocks and dirt, stretched out the cities edges.  Our next stop was the Brazilian Historical museum. However, for some reason it wasn't open until 2pm, and we were there 2 hours early.  Who would have thought they opened so early?

 So we moved on, and came back to the museum later.  Out next stop was the famous Rio steps.  An artist decided to tile a series of steps in old Rio with mosaics.  Its become a big tourist trap.  People from around the world have sent their own mosaics and the artist glued them to the wall as well.  Its cute.  Not much more to say about it than that.  Back in the jeep we drove around downtown.  There is modern architecture mixed with some very impressive and old architecture.

 The Opera house was stunning with various touches from both Peter II and more modern leaders.  We also saw the ancient aqueduct which used to be the edge of the city, filled with water underneath and now sits somewhere in the middle of downtown.  We drove up and around cobble stoned streets with various views.  Eventually when we made our way back to the museum, where Anthony offered us the cliff notes version of the museum.  Indeed, we did it in about a half hour, but was thoroughly fascinating.  The museum is housed in a former Portuguese fort, and contains artifacts and information dating back from before the Portuguese arrived to present day.  We went through the history, and discussed Pedro I and his son Pedro II.  The dynasty was short-lived though.  Pedro II's daughter, Isabelle, freed the slaves in 1889.  In 1890, wealthy plantation owners feared the kingdom would move to the French with Isabelle's husband being french, and Pedro II getting old.  So they "offered" the family to move back to Portugal so they can initiate a free and new democratic state.  And there you have it.  End of museum tour.  Anthony dropped off the girls somewhere.  He also asked me to pay him there in the museum, rather than out on the street and he asked me where I want to go. I said: "To the forest!"  So we drove up and up into and onto one of the local peaks, and made a few stops to see the rain forest.  This was really spectacular.  If I have one regret from my time here, its not spending more time in these forests.  I will be trying to go on a hike tomorrow, but it was raining tonight, so they may not let me.  We'll see tomorrow morning.

Anthony told me about the local raccoons, (we saw one), how the monkeys eat pineapple plants and throw them on the floor, he showed me resin from the trees, and how you can use it to protect your skin, or help strengthen your voice.  We took about a minute and listened to the forest.  It was spectacular.  Then we headed back down the mountain, picked up a family who's mother insisted they go one way... the wrong way.  He drove them back to their car.  Then he dropped me off at a large mall who was celebrating Oktoberfest.  Thousands of people were lined up at various booths drinking as much beer as they could.  I was ridiculed by a family because i didn't speak Portuguese, and decided I was starving so I got a cab and headed back into town to eat at Shelanu.  I arrived at 650pm, and they told me they don't open till 7, but I could wait.  They finally took my order at 710.  I was starving and over ordered.  The pitas were gross, the "fried chicken fingers" were not fried at all. But the burger was fantastic!  I would go back just to get another burger like that.  On my way out I asked the owner if I should head back, or walk around Copacabana a little.  He suggested I head over to the beach, so I took his advice.  That was wonderful.  The weather was stunning, but there was also action all over the beach.  Each little eating spot had someone playing live music.  I stood for about a half hour watching someone play popular English and american music and he was spectacular.  The ambiance was awesome.  Then I walked over to a local tourist trap and picked up some shirts for the kids.  I hoped in a cab and went back to the New York shopping mall to catch a late flick, but it was sold out, so I went home and caught a flick on the tube.  All in all, it was an amazing day.
Today was much less exciting.  I finished up my work today, with a one hour break to the mall for some final gifts and shopping.  I do hope tomorrow will be exciting.  Flight home is set for 8pm.