Favela

The postcard image of Rio has traditionally been the lush, rolling, green hills, vast waters all blending together to become one of the disctinct urban landscapes to in the world. The 70 ft statue of Jesus perches over the city visable from nearly any spot you may walk. The beaches that stretch for miles laden with surfers, tanners and vendors selling nearly anything you could imagine. However in recent years that image has been tainted with the unorganized, precarious, sprawling favelas, or shanty towns. This reputation in no small part has been fueled by the massive international success of films such as Cidade de Deus, City of God. In Rio it is now possible to tour the favelas with a guide.
The biggest favela in Rio, and in Brazil is Rocinha; a towering, densly packed, city slum glued to the steep mountain hosting 300,000+ habitants and growing. Rocinha is one of the most visible and talked about and Ari,Thomas and I decided to get a tour. The company picked us up at our hostel and we packed into a van with 10 other tourists eager to see the other side of how Rio works, or maybe just to score some cheap pot. Our tour guide was a flirtatious, tatooed, energetic Carioca--A citizen from the city of Rio De Janeiro. She had been giving tours in the Favela for 6 years and got interested in the communities after seeing the film City of God. They escort the group to the bottom of the favela when the entire group is shuttled up to the top of the hill driven upon an individual motorcyle taxi. My driver was a mere 16-17 years old. He slomened around the well-worn roads, accelerating past buses, cars and pedestrians. He hurtled up the steepening roads, and shouldered into turns with little regard for the safety of the gringo who clung to the back of his motorcylce for dear life. ( let me just note that the one thing my Mom said she didn't want me to do this trip was get on the back of any motorcylces. Sorry mom, no choice.)
The group convened at the top of the hill and a few probably had to change their pants. The center of Rocinha is organized and commercial with a post office, a water company branch, clothing stores and moto-taxi hubs. There are massive electrical power sources overflowing with so many excess wires they resemble an urban pine tree. We entered the narrow alleys where people tried to pass around us carrying sacks of food, politely asking in English excuse me. The residents are used to seeing gringos on these tours so they speak enough English to be able to sell someone a box of cookies. We went to one of the higher points of the favela which is consequently the most expensive real estate. The reason the houses lower down are less expensive is because the sewage system runs down hill, trash is thrown obstructing the flow, when the heavy rains of March come, they flood the drain overflowing with trash and open sewage affecting the houses at the bottom the most. We trekked down the cramped walkways stopping to buy overpriced food and jewelery. How these particular vendors got the gringo contract must have been one of the fiercest bidding contracts in Favela history.
We passed through structures that had collapsed after their weak foundations were tested to the limit from story after story built ontop of the original structure of the home. The abandonded areas flooded with a thick, black sludge of trash where toddlers frocklicked about as if it were the sandbox in their backyard. There were kids who couldn't have been older than 10 smoking weed in back corners. However despite the destitute conditions the habitants of Rocinha live in the majority of the people passing by were jovial and cheerful. We finally got to the bottom of the 3 hour tour when the guide explained the economics of the drug trade within the favela. She said the gangs running this particular favela clear more than 4 million US dollars per month, most of the drugs being bought by upper middle class drug dealers who live in the city's wealthier neighborhoods. The residents of the favela starting popping up in hte 1930's when a great drought afflicted the Northeastern states of Brazil bringing them to cities such as São Paulo, Rio, and Porto Allegre amongst others. The populations have multiplied at an alarmingly unsustainable rate since. The favelas have formed due to the lack of job opportunities on the outskirts of the city. The residents of the favelas have moved to the hills because of the proximity to their employment.
The tour was meant to help break some of the notorious stereotypes about the favelas, however I feel the tour guide only reinforced some of the sexier images. It was an interesting experience to say the least and as we were leaving people were shouting Barack Obama! Barack Obama! as we piled into our van.