We awake this morning and get ready for our favela
tour. We were to be picked up at 9am and
taken to a slum neighbourhood in Rio de Janeiro. We wait, wait and wait, and finally at 10am
our tour guide arrives. We go outside
and to our surprise he picks us up in his personal car. There were three of us from the hostel, an
Asian girl, Ann and myself. The guy asks
us what neighbourhood we want to go to and we say Richoleta, which is the
largest slum suburb in the world. As we
were driving to the slum’s, which was about half an hour away, the tour guide
was giving us a guide of the city and showing us important buildings and places
which was a bit of a bonus. Also getting
a trip through some parts of the city that we would have otherwise not have
seen was a bonus too. We arrived at a
neighbourhood which was the richest neighbourhood in Rio. We continue driving and we exit the rich part
of town, turn the corner and we are in the slums. “Welcome to Richoleta”, our guide Joel
proclaims. We were certainly in the
slums now, and what a contrast to around the corner in the rich neighbourhood! We parked the car close to the outskirts of
the suburb, fair enough, I would do the same thing, in fact I don’t think I
would park the car there at all! We had been informed and told by other
travellers that there was no danger at all in coming to the slums. The reason being the slums do not try and rob
the tourist as if this happens the tourists will not come and visit the
area. Also in exchange for the slums
good behaviour the tour guide pays them each time they visit. I’m more than happy with that. We parked the car outside a market area where
some pretty talented slums had done some paintings of the favelas and the
mountains surrounding. Here we also got
some history of the area including how the slum neighbourhood first arose. This came from back about 100 years ago when
the city was not as big and the most valuable land was on the flat and by the
beach. At this time this more valuable
land was rural where sugarcanes and coffee fields were located. Also being close to the beach would be a good
thing too. The cheapest land available
was on the mountainous land in the hills, so they bought the land and built
there. This land was dirt cheap as it
was not in the city and seen as unusable at the time. The land however has spectacular views of the
now city, beach and ocean and also has fantastic mountains surrounding the area
creating a fantastic location. Pity
about the residents and the dwellings!
In saying that the residents were no hassle at all, just a bit of
starring at the foreigners but they would see this every day. We then walked to a medical centre and the
water station. This water station
collects water from the hills and distributes it to residents for free. It is clean and drinkable water. As we were walking around the streets one noticeable
feature was the incredible amount of power lines hanging overhead, I wouldn’t want
to be an electrician in this area.
We walked up a hill, appreciating the fantastic views as we
ascended, and then went into one of the slums homes. This was an interesting experience (as if the
visit to the neighbourhood wasn’t an interesting enough experience!). We walked in and there was nothing on the
first floor apart from a pile of bricks and some washing on the line. It was effectively shelter. We climbed on the roof (via stairs) and once
again admired a great view. When on the
roof I realised how many homes had satellites on their roofs. How could these slums afford pay tv? I
decided to ask Joel our guide. Apparently
the pay tv network have a very good deal for the slums for pay tv. This keeps them busy and out of crime. If the crime rises, the deal expires.
We then walked into the ‘commercial hub’ of the suburb. Shops were selling the usual goods, fish and
meat were sold unpackaged on the street and there was just a generally dirty
smell and feel. We walked down an alley way,
here we got to see some shops and homes up close. Not the cleanest of conditions and I reckon
health and safety would have a field day!
We did come to a locals home and he let us on his roof for a look, for a
small fee. We continued down the alley
and came to some teenagers who wanted to play some music to us, using some tin
and an old paint can. Considering the
circumstances they did a good job, and there were two younger kids dancing
around while they were playing, they had smiles on their faces and were having
a great time so at least they appeared happy.
We continued walking and seeing the same old thing, a lot of poverty. We then walked back to the car, the tour was
over and we were driving ack into the city.
Obviously I would hate to live like this, I asked the guide if many
people made it out of the neighbourhood and worked and lived in the city. He said that people worked in the city but came
back to the slums to live, they enjoyed the life there too much. I can’t understand how, but I guess they don’t
know any different. One positive is that
there is no crime in the neighbourhood.
There is only one gang in the suburb and they are good to the locals. We got dropped off at the hostel and then caught the metro into the central city for a look around. We decide to get off the metro at a different stop to what we did yesterday. What a difference it made! Yesterday we got out of the metro station to find an old and bustling market while today we found a normal, bustling city full of professionals wandering the city. There are some very nice buildings in and amongst them too. We join everyone and take a wander through the city, which is very nice however nothing spectacular. We walk to the Santa Tereza Tram birdge which is in a relatively dodgy area of the city, so we scamper away pretty quickly. We then continue our walk and end up at the Candeleria church and have a look around. It is a pretty nice church, very simple but effective. We then walk to the market area we were in yesterday and have another look around, no purchases today however.
We head back to the hostel and cook another steak sandwich for dinner and had a couple of beers. As we were relaxing watching tv, our hostel managers came in and offered us some Brigadeiro that they had made for themselves and us. Brigadeiro is a traditional Brazilian dessert and is made of condensed milk, cocoa and butter. It was delicious and a really nice gesture by the hostel managers. So far this hostel has been good but I don’t want to put a jinx on it just yet. This hostel is very new, only opened last week. As we were researching a hostel in Rio, all other hostels had bad reviews on them so we decided to take a punt with this one as it had no reviews because it was new. So far, and I am saying so far, the punt has paid off.
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