Favela

A Favela is a slum in Brazil.  It is not the best representation of Brazil but it is what it is.  Most of the favela residents are from poor rural areas looking for economic opportunities in the big city.  They are poor and therefore cannot afford normal housing.  In spite of being close to the city, they get no essential services like water and sewer.  Shacks or shanties, whatever you call them, are built without any building code.  You find an open space and build however you want and whatever you want, based on what you can afford and not what the building code says.  It is a result of a government ignoring the plight of the poor and not doing anything about it.

Many Brazilians warned me not to visit a favela.  They are dangerous and often overrun by armed drug-traffickers.  If you get into trouble, nobody can help you.  So we went on a tour with a local company called "Be a Local."  Here is a link to their tour:  https://bealocal.com/tours/favela-tour/

Our tour guide was "Ed", who spoke excellent English and did a very thorough job of explaining about life in a favela.  We visited the Rocinha favela, built on a hillside within the city of Rio itself.  We started on the top and walked through a very narrow "No. 1 street", stopping at various places so that Ed can explain certain things.  We also stopped at a few businesses:  an art studio, a bakery, and a woman selling souvenirs.  It's our way to support the locals.

Since the "houses", if you can call them that, are built without building codes, they are built in the most ingenious or improvisational way.  Stairs twist here and there.  Wires are all over the place.  Plastic pipes showed up and disappeared into the concrete.  It's a nightmare for any repairman, not to mention a safety hazard for the residents.  We had to be careful not to step on feces, in the middle of the "street."  I think most of us were glad we don't live there and for the tour to end.

A favela at the bottom of Corcovado, where Christ the Redeemer is located

A cute boy

Artist that we visited

Group photo

Mass of wiring

Armed guards patrolling the neighborhood

Narrow stairway

Graffiti to brighten up the area

Taken from an upper level house.  The upscale condos are in the background

Visiting a bakery.  Our guide Ed, is the one with the sling

Discarded telephone wires are used to make the crafts

Which pipe is mine?  Plumbing nightmare

Picture of Bob Marley