Rio, or the “Cidade Maravilhosa”  – The  “Marvelous city” in Portuguese is truly enchanting. We had been told to expect to be impressed by the beauty of the city when entering Rio. Coming from Cape Town we thought, ‘OK, bring it on!’ However sailing into the bay and viewing  the numerous tall mountains, the lush tropical forests surrounding the city, the art deco and modern buildings, the various bays, and the numerous beaches made us understand that a couple of days cannot do Rio justice.

We ascended Corcovado (the enormous Art Deco sculpture of Christ the Redeemer) by train with the locals.  The city is surrounded by tall mountains, forests and hiking trails throughout. The figure of Christ  with his open arms welcoming visitors to the city is huge and can be seen from all over the city. While His is not our faith, it is a remarkably impressive sculpture and clearly everyone in the huge crowd there wanted to get Instagram worthy shots of themselves in front of Him.

Today we were fortunate to do a Jewish tour with a guide Alberto Cordoso (+5521999976569 or albertojosecardoso@ hotmail.com) He has a font of information relating to the Jewish community of about 30 000 residing in Rio with the majority (of Jews – about 70 000 ) living in São Paulo. The familiarity of the Hebrew, the Judaic symbols , the menorot, the mezuzot on the doors, the prayer books in Portuguese and Hebrew made us feel connected.The Grande Templo Israelita Do Rio De Janeiro was the first building in Rio to be designed and built with the purpose of being a shul. From there we were taken to a Sepharadi ( Moroccan shul) To me the stand out image was the many, many brass hanging lamps that were donated in the name of family members who were deceased. The third shul was a Progressive Community shul. It was plain in comparison to the ornate decorations of the previous two shuls. Alberto told us that it was his shul and that he and his son had their Barmitzvah’s there. The reason that the shul is less ornate was the idea that it should resemble a tent, welcoming everyone. So the stain glass windows were simple with bright panes of glass.

We also passed a Yitzhak Rabin street that is in a park which is now in the process of being developed to build a Holocaust Memorial. Also, an anecdote: A wealthy  Jewish woman bought land in an upmarket  suburb opposite the German Embassy of Brazil. The idea was to build a Jewish School called the Anne Frank day school. It was duly built and is still operating as a school today. However, after many years of looking at the Anne Frank school directly opposite it, the German Embassy eventually moved elsewhere and their building is now empty. Apparently there are 5 Jewish Day schools all over Brazil which are all called the Anne Frank school.

On another note entirely, last night we were fortunate to watch an excellent Samba concert. With capoeira dancers, great men and women dancers including 5 young women who took part in the Rio carnival it was a truly exhilarating theatrical event. The energy and the music was pulsating and exciting. The stand out image l have experienced throughout our time in Brazil – (and Rio is the forth Brazilian  city we have visited) is yet again the body- positive images these Brazilian women possess!! The women who take part in the Rio Carnival  jive around in high boots, wearing elaborate head pieces with feathers and just a hint of nipple caps and throngs. No demure, quiet, reticent women were these!  What a treat it must be to not have our Calvinistic approach towards our female bodies and to rather feel  so good about yourself that you go to the beach, you walk around town, you can prance around the stage without a moment of shyness or embarrassment! I would love to return to see the Rio carnival and to spend time on Ipanema  beach or the 9 kilometer long  Copacabana  beach with its white sands and warm sea water and generally explore more of Rio.

Written by Sheryl