Rio Favela Tour

The Rocinha favela has some of the most spectacular views in Rio that I saw while joining the Inside Rio Tour Co. After picking me up at the hostel, we started walking from the top down through the neighborhood of shanties cobbled together in a community that is very close-knit where neighbors look out for each other.

While drug trade still occurs as shown by this recent graffiti advertising the Columbia-Brazil connection, the drug gangs no longer control this favela. Instead, there is frequent police presence and children are paid to attend school rather than work for the drug dealers.

As we walk down these topsy-turvey paths, we can look into the many homes with open doors. few people lock their doors, because everyone watches for one another. if a thief is caught, he is handled severely with vigilante justice.

Only now are residents beginning to pay for their utilities such as water, satellite TV, and electricity. you can see from the maze of electrical wires that residents have just tapped into electrical wires as they needed to.

The government has recently built this Olympic Sports stadium at the bottom of the favela to encourage the Rocinha youth to practice with the hope that some may be Olympic contenders in the 2016 Olympics hosted by Brazil.

We ended our tour by taking an exciting ride to the top on the back of a moto-taxi.

With the rain, it is now on to a bus to Paraty.