The Favela

Our second day in Rio the weather still looked overcast with the clouds low enough to obscure the views of the Christ Redeemer and Pao de Acucar. Therefore we spent the morning walking around Copacabana where the beach was mostly deserted. I'm the afternoon we went on a favela tour, which at first sounded a pretty uncomfortable- going through a favela (shanty town) as if it were a zoo. However, it turned out to be one of the coolest and eye opening learning experiences.
Our guide picked us up and drove a small group of us through Ipanema and Leblon, which were just as empty of people. The cloudy, rainy weather really puts a damper on Rio. We stopped at Rocinho, the largest favela in Latin America with an estimated count of 250,000 people living there. The favela is located on a steep hillside over Sao Conrado, an upper middle class neighborhood of high-rises. The backside stretches over the saddle of the mountain and down to the top portions of Leblon, probably Rio's most expensive neighborhood. The proximity of the favela with the high-rises is one of the first things we noticed. Employers in Brazil pay for transportation, therefore they have an incentive to hire people whose commute costs the least. Thus, the closer the favela is to the restaurant, store, hotel etc... The closer that resident is to their job and more hirable they are. It is a catch 22 in a way because as we learned and saw many residents in the favelas make enough to support a family and own tvs and play stations and upholstered furniture sets, but if they lived elsewhere they would be in danger of loosing their jobs. Thus they put up with the poor or lack of infrastructure for sewage, trash, running water, electricity, mail delivery, healthcare, police and fire service, schools and more that we rake for granted.
The tour started at the top of the favela. On foot we entered and walked down one of the main roads. The favela is un taxed land. They are essentially squatters. It had expanded to the point where there is nowhere to build but up so it is getting more dense and more dangerous as people build homes on top of poorly built structures of concrete, wood and in many cases found construction material. About a quarter of the way down we stopped at an artist studio. The tour company we were with has fostered a relationship with the favela over the past 15 years. In that time they have worked to develop an artist community, entrepanuerialism, and a daycare center. So our stops to interact with local residents was somewhat staged as the residents see people like us daily. Nonetheless it was a unique and a very nice experience to speak with them. Whenever we could see beyond a building, the views of the favela were mindboggoling. The buildings are so crammed together that the main "streets" are 4 or 5 feet wide with three or four storey buildings making canyons out of them. The locals even get lost, which is why the drug lords like to live in the favela. The police can't really enter and navigate through the favela in an organized way. Therefore beginning in the 70's and 80's as the drug trade increased drug lords started taking refuge in the favelas. The favela residents as we understood it don't want the drugs in the favela, but the don't have a choice as the drug lords have money, guns and power. They live in a kind of parasitic harmony with the drug lords using the favela as a hideout and the favela benefitting from the trickledown of money. It is a shame because the drugs really create a bad reputation and for most brasilians favelas=drugs. From our perspective after the tour, the drugs are a side show and favelas= super tight communities of really resourceful people. People who could afford to move out do not because of the warm community aspect.
With the favela the residents have established infrastructure to get water and electricity. The most desirable places to live are near the bottom for electricity and water because you can tap into the grid, the electric company even manages to run a meter for each house. At the bottom you are also closer to mass transit and in many cases the community where you work. However, the bottom is also where all the trash and sewage piles up. And as we said because of their streets and the fact that the land is untaxed there is no way for the government to supply trash pickup or sewer lines. There is a movement to start providing services and building schools and hospitals, but this means knocking down houses, relocating residents and coming to terms with the drug lords. At Rocinho there are plans to build a tram line and more whoops and health clinics. Currently for the 250,000+ residents there is one health clinic and 4 schools. Most of the children are undocumented as they are bit born in hospitals. What was a rainy day plan and sounded a little morally awkward at first was in fact a very interesting and humbling experience.

After the favela we went to the supermarket to pick up some groceries. We made curry ramen with watercress and chicken for dinner before we were given a demonstration of capoeira, or Brazilian martial arts by a group of people from the same favela we visited. Afterwards, a group of us from the hostel made our way to Lapa where there is a block party every Friday night. Cars are blocked from entering the streets and the restaurants sell food and drinks on the sidewalks while the clubs blare music out their windows. We hung out there for a few hours before we all decided to go home. Before getting on the bus, we all had hot dogs with ketchup, mustard, mayo, egg, potato sticks, and corn. It was an interesting mix--one we probably won´t try again.