Favela Tour in Rio - Rocinho

Probably my biggest highlight of Rio was the favela tour we took of the largest favela in Rio, Rocinho. It was an eye opening experience, educational, and also just fun. It started with our tour group of of 12 getting dropped along the street, where a line of motorcyles were waiting to cab us up to the top of the Rocinho favela. (Favelas are generally built into the hills of the city - the areas that were undeveloped by the city when they started. The poor have occupied them and really built them into their own cities with free/illegal access to tv, electricity, even internet! ) People in Rio drive crazy, and it was just as thrilling to fly up the curvy roads of a favela on the back of a bike, as it was to jump off a platform and hanglide. At the top we continued the tour from top to bottom of the favela, passing through a house, an artist gallery, a bakery shop, a day care center. The conditions of the ¨streets¨were amazing, all self made and developed as the favela has grown. Wires everywhere, dirty polluted water running through every crevice, no apparent garbage system, very close quarters. As you walk through the narrow pathways and you look in an open door or window, you´re practically in these people´s homes. I was worried this tour was going to be voyeristic, and uncomfortable but it wasn´t at all. People in the favelas generally like ¨gringo´s¨as one kid shouted at us - the tour guide told us they like getting their photos taken too, as they think they may become famous this way and become the next rich hollywood star. Another stigma that the tour set straight is the danger in the favelas. Yes, there is a drug trade going on, and its sad and horrible and dangerous to the parties involved, but its only 10% of the population in the favelas that are involved and they are mostly boys from 10-18 in age. The current ¨boss¨ of the favela is supposedly 23, but typically the boys don´t last that long in the business as they often die early. Anyway, the majority of the people there are very friendly, and are simply living there because they have no better option and not because they are bad or dangerous people. McLure and I dug it so much we would definitely go back. The Tour company, Be a Local, did a really good job of educating us on the situation in the favelas, and making sure we all walked away realizing that City of God, while realistic in depicting the drug situation in the favelas, doesn´t represent all that a favela is. The tour company owners also opened an NGO there, a free child day care center enabling parents to go out and find work.