The latest craze in the Rio de Janeiro tourist industry is to take adventurous backpackers and travellers with guides into the heart of the favelas. Generally this is done by driving through Rocinha, the world's largest slum that even has a McDonald's outlet. It's thought they stop serving milkshakes when the military police start shoot outs with the cocaine bandits.
I went with the walking tour into a favela in Copocabana and got to meet the Brazilians that live there first hand. Favelas are usually on hilltops in Rio de Janeiro as the land is considered unsafe and the settlements are illegal. Whilst there are catastrophic landslides in bad weather the social phenomenon remains that this is the only place in the world where the poor get the sea views and breezes while the rich live in fear down below.
Everything the residents of the favelas own they've had to scrounge for themselves. The mayor now gives something resembling a sewage system and water but electric they steal by means of a 'cat' - a hook thrown onto an electric pole. The houses are simple concrete affairs and right angles are few and far between, not from any sense of modern art but because they build their own homes.
The favelas in Rio de Janeiro are run by the cocaine cartels but there is no crime within the community itself. The drug lords impose a martial law that no on may steal or harm anyone else within the favela without their say so. This protection often extends to the neighbouring areas close by and so sometimes it can actually be safer to live close to a favela than far away.
The cocaine cartels make sure no one goes hungry in the community but they're no saints. They employ the kids to push drugs in the streets and the young guys often become lookouts or soldiers for the coke lords. Alternative employment is thin on the ground when you don't have an education.
Those who do seek other jobs may work as cleaners and maids for the rich or else peddle cashew nuts or fake cd's on the street. Many guys turn to holding people or shops up with guns or knives and many of the girls can earn in one night as a prostitute what they'd earn in a month of scrubbing floors.
The people of the favelas are largely friendly and proud people though who have just seen a little too much too young. Reality bites in the favelas and watching your best friend get gunned down by the police for being black does a lot to form your character. Or seeing your grandma climbing the 1000 steep steps to her house that she shares with ten other family members.
No traveller should ever try to enter a favela without a guide who is known and respected by the locals. Someone who lives there could invite you and you'd also be safe but they aren't patient with curious backpackers or travellers looking to get stoned. In any case there are guards who would stop you entering but travellers have been shot before by mistake.
More travel info on favelas in Brazil can be found below:
The Favela Traveler Project Favelinha allows visitors to spend time in a favela and learn about conditions in Brazil's community squats all for themselves.
Stories from the favela This traveler spent time living in Rocinha, the most developed favela in Rio de Janeiro.