After the Christ statue it was off to a favela. A favela is a kind of a slum where regular poor people live along side gangs and drug dealers. The movie "City of God" was about life in a favela. Many tour companies offer favela tours. I found the favela to be fascinating. It reminded me of parts of India. Lusi assured me that the favela was perfectly safe. There are drug dealers and “bad people” she said but they leave the tourists alone as long as they are with a guide. She said it is not allowed (by whom?) to rob tourists. The one caution she gave me was that I was to put my camera away when she told me to because these same “bad people” don’t like having there pictures taken and might decide to shoot you if they think you might be working the police. No problem! We went to the Rocinha favela, one of the largest in Rio.
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The main road in snakes up the side of the mountain affording the poor who live there million dollar views of the city. The way up for us was on the back of a motorcycle taxi. There was considerable discussion about me because they were worried about my weight but eventually one of the guys agreed to take me on. Now this really was a wild ride, weaving in and out of traffic, no helmet, winding up the road through the favela.
Take a look at these brief video clips...
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At the top we got off and a fellow wanted us to go look at his paintings which we did. I really liked them and bought one.
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The artist then kind of attached himself to us as our informal local guide. You couldn’t see a view of the city from street level so he led us through a back alleyway of the favela to a house with a spectacular view. The alley was a very narrow sidewalk but was teeming with life with lots of people and tiny stores open only to the alley...
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The first house we tried was locked with nobody home but the local guide found another family who was wiling to let us have a look at the view for a couple of dollars. We climbed a short, steep set of stairs and burst into this family's house. It had something like three floors, each a single room about 12' x 15' with a very narrow winding staircase in one corner leading from floor to floor. There was a TV a washing machine on one floor, a computer on another, a bedroom on the top floor, and then the roof with a ladder to climb to get to the very top.
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Like I said before, the view was a million dollar view with the city laid out at our feet.
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On our way back through the alley to the street I started to take a movie when Lusi suddenly turned and said "put that camera away". A bad guy.
We walked back down to the bottom without incident. I never did feel threatened but maybe that is a simple matter of luck and cluelessness. By absolute sheerest coincidence there was an small article in today's San Jose, California Mercury News newspaper that mentioned my favela...
One killed in Rio hotel shootout
By Felipe Dana, Associated Press
RIO DE JANEIRO - Heavily armed drug gang members engaged in an intense firefight with police, then fled into a luxury hotel popular with foreign tourists and held about 30 people hostage for three hours Saturday before surrendering.
The upscale, beachside neighborhood of Sao Conrado where the Intercontinental Hotel site was transformed into a war zone aw upward of 50 gunmen with high-caliber rifles, pistols and even hand grenades faced off with police.
A police spokesman said the gunbattle began when police spotted about 10 cars and vans leaving the Vidigal slum heading toward the nearby Rocinha slum, one of Latin America's largest.
Spent casings littered the streets around the hotel. One woman was killed, and four bystanders and three policemen were wounded.
The gang members were leaving an all-night party in Vidigal when they ran into the police patrol and began shooting.
Too bad I missed all the excitement. Some people just have no luck!
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