Favela tour in Rio de Janeiro

Rogean Rodríguez builds castles in the sand. For eleven years he has occupied a small piece of the coast in front of the luxurious hotels of the famous Copacabana beach in Rio. In this real estate field he creates fantasies by hand with sand and water. His exquisite palaces capture the light and the gaze of tourists strolling along the boulevard. Sometimes they contribute a few coins and photograph his masterpieces. At night, a vigilante watches over the kingdom as Rodríguez returns to the hillside “favela” where he lives. On the mountain above Copacabana beach is Pavao. The shanty town Rodriguez calls home is only a short drive but a world away from his fairytale castles. The “favelas” are the slums. Created by squatters, they are home to many of Rio’s six million inhabitants. It is the River that locals stay away from and tourists are warned to avoid. But these cities within a city are hidden and unique cultures worth exploring. With the advent of special guided tours, visitors can safely travel to the “favelas” for an eye-opening look at another Rio de Janeiro.

Andrés LeJerraga picks me up at the Copacabana Palace, one of the most splendid hotels on the homonymous beach. I join a van full of curious tourists for the ride to Rocinha, Rio’s most infamous favela. When designing the itinerary for my visit to Brazil, I decided that I wanted to personally witness the poverty that I had heard so much about. The point of the visit was not to be blown away or blown up, but to gain an authentic insight into how people live. I find out that there is actually a name for this type of tourism. It’s called “poverty” and it’s a fast-growing market taking off in cities like Rio, Mumbai, Nairobi and Johannesburg. Part of my interest, I must confess, stemmed from a bit of a challenge. I got tired of people telling me how dangerous Rio was. Don’t walk off the main streets, leave valuables in the hotel, beware of drug dealers, be careful who you talk to, be careful, be careful, be careful.

The massive, sprawling Rocinha can be seen on a hillside in Rio’s urban outskirts long before we arrive. Andrés tells us that some 200,000 people live in the favela. A Formula One circuit used to pass through here before Rocinha began to develop in the 1940s. Today, Rocinha’s main street is Cowboy Lane, a busy shopping center with 1,300 stores and three bus lines. Stone and brick houses with tin roofs are precariously packed and stacked on top of each other on the hillside. They were built by construction workers on solid rock. Many have stunning views. From a rooftop you can see the demarcation line between the poor and the rich who live in high-rise buildings across the road in an area called Sao Conrado. Because these settlements were created by squatters, refugees, and displaced people, the infrastructure was an afterthought. Many collect water in large blue tanks on their rooftops. There is a chaotic tangle of cables and wires criss-crossing the electricity highways. Samba music plays in the streets. From eye level, it appears similar to urban business districts in densely populated cities covered in graffiti, but there is much more at stake in “favelas” than meets the eye.

Spontaneous settlements originated when soldiers in the late 19th century were forced to camp on the slopes of large cities. Favelas erupted in the 1900s as people from the countryside flocked to industrialized areas in search of opportunity. These were the people who built the tourist meccas of Ipanema and Leblon. If you live in a big house in Rio, the woman who takes care of your children probably lives in a “favela”. If you’re staying in a hotel on Copacabana Beach, the workers who clean your room and take care of maintenance are likely to live in “favelas.” In the past, the authorities tried to close the favelas, but in the 1990s the government realized that they were here to stay and provided some basic services such as garbage collection, sewage, electricity and water. There are now some 750 “favelas” in Rio. It is estimated that up to a third of the city’s population lives in them. Brazil is one of the most economically unequal countries in the world with 34% of people living in poverty. Because of this, the population of the “favelas” is growing much faster than that of the surrounding areas.

Many “favelas” are well known as havens for drug trafficking and gang warfare. In fact, drug lords are alive and well in the back alleys of settlements. The police patrol the outskirts where marijuana and cocaine are bought and sold to the middle class. Experience has taught them not to enter. When they do, the clashes are often extremely violent. The criminal element is protected and isolated by the “favelas”. The police are shooting at drug lords and they don’t stand a chance outside the borders. Inside the “favelas” the traffickers are safe and strong. The drug lords maintain order in the favelas and in a strange moral code prohibit theft and prostitution. If outsiders feel unsafe in the favelas, they won’t come to buy drugs. At one point, Andrés tells us to put away our cameras. He doesn’t want us to accidentally photograph a drug deal. He also tells us to be on the lookout for kites that fly. Comets can be harbingers of drug activity. When a green kite flies, marijuana is coming. A white kite speaks of cocaine, a red kite means the police are closing in.

But to characterize “favelas” as mere dens of iniquity misses the point. In reality, less than 1% of the inhabitants of the favelas are involved in drug trafficking. Most of the people who live in Rocinha and other “favelas” are blue-collar workers who work hard and get by on less than $300 a month. The first Samba school was born in Rocinha and many of the Samba schools that animate during Carnival come from the “favelas”. The artisans along Cowboy Lane with their colorful paintings of famous Rio sights, purses made from beer labels, and beautiful embroidery hint at the talent that resides here. For tourists who enter the “favelas” this is the first impression.

Some criticize favelatour.com “favela” tours as voyeuristic and insensitive. I would say that the opportunity to interact with the residents of the “favelas”, to witness their entrepreneurial spirit and to be enlightened with the political, cultural and social context changes you. Ignoring poverty does not go away. In our small group we were able to ask Andrés, who lives in a favela called Tarejada, questions, watch favelado youth play, and go out on foot and explore. In Vila Caonoas, a small favela of about 2,000 people that translates to “canoe road,” we get an intimate look at how people live. Walking through the alleys we can smell the cooking of tortillas, hear the samba that flows from the crowded houses and see mothers and children through windows and doors. Here there is no privacy but there are generations of family and tradition. We receive a warm welcome and we can also witness the good work that organizations like the Rotary Club do to make sure that children receive education and health care. Before we leave, we have the opportunity to give back to the community by purchasing handicrafts.

I have witnessed poverty in other countries and by not walking away I think it adds to our compassion and humanity. Seeing how people live motivates us to action. Visiting the “favelas” allowed me to look beyond the beach and its beautiful people. Seeing the “favelas” with my own eyes gave me a much more complete picture of Rio de Janeiro and dispelled my fears. The trip made me appreciate the struggle people face in a city where there is a line in the sand between the haves and the have-nots. Most of all, it made me want to stop and talk to Rogean Rodriguez about the Pavao “favela” on the hill above Copacabana beach and his dreams of one day a future for himself and his family that is as magnificent as his castles on the sand.