Favella tour (Rocinha favella)

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So as I explained Favella is basically shanty town and Rio is over run by Favella´s. The day before I went on the tour I saw the film 'Cidade de Deus´ (City of Gods) which is basically a true story about the gang war that goes on in one of the bigger Favellas in Rio (If you haven’t seen it you must, even though it is all in subtitles it is wicked - and perfect preparation for my Favella tour).

The Favella we saw runs about 30% of Rio’s drugs and is estimated to turnover approximately US$ 5m per month and there is approximately 200,000 people living here. On the day we went there were certain parts that we could not go as there was a big massive funeral for a guy called Elloy who was a gang member shot dead during one of their turf wars. The majority of people does not pay taxes and tap into the local electric supply (See the pics)

The best way upto the Favella is by Moto taxi around lots of hair pin bends with buses coming towards you and often a bottle neck effect due to the shear volume of traffic.

While on the tour we are safe as the barons know that we are putting money back into their community but often we could not take photos as the people we saw were part of the drug gang and often we saw walkie talkies or guns depending on the persons positioning within the gang. (The film explains this perfectly but basically you start at the bottom being a look out and work your way up to being a top dog).

We saw the line of Death where certain groups will not pass and bullets in the walls from when every so often the police will decide to raid the area when there is often many lives (a % innocent) are lost.

Another ironic experience in Brazil as these Favellas are set in the hills and the people have the best view of the city.

While here you see there are community projects but it is hard to imagine how these people will ever get away from the corruptness and big drug problem around.

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Photos

Favella Tour
Bottle neck Motorbike ride on way to Favella......Buses and all to squeeze around

Favella Tour 2
The locals tapping in to the local electric supply

Favella Tour 3
One of the drug gangs graffiti - Eloy the 3rd down was the person shot dead after a turf war

Favella Tour 4
The line of Death - Where many a police riot and turf war has occured. You can see the bullets in the wall!

Favella Tour 5
View from the Favella