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Published: February 16th 2009
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Okay, this tour i wasnt so sure about. Prancing around with cameras taking pictures of people less fortunate didnt really appeal to me. It seemed to be some sort of human safari, taking pictures of locals in their natural habitat. We met 2 English lads who did the tour the previous day and highly recommened it. If it wasnt for this recommendation, i dont think i would have gone on the tour.
The tour was of Rocinha favela, one of the biggest favelas in Rio de Janerio. The word Rocinha literally translates to small ranch, which gives you an indication of the conditions that these people are living in. It is built on a step hill (like all favelas) around 1km from the beach. In the Favelas if there is a space of land, with nothing there, you can claim it. If you build a house on a plot of land, you can sell the space above, i.e. the roof for people to build another house on... and so on and so on. It is estimated around 150,000 people live in this favela with the number constantly growing. Although this is one of the most developed favelas in Brazil (with
movies such as the incredible Hulk and City of men being filmed there) it certainly isnt clean with only the most basic sanitation.
The tour started at the bottom of the favela, where our guide layed down the do's and donts... She said, on entrance to the favelas, you will see guys with walkie-talkies. DO NOT take pictures of them as they work for drug lords and dont like any exposure at all. They patrol all the entrances to the favelas, to watch out for police. The police do not enter the favelas and only come in on occasion if needs be.
It started to get real...Started to question wheather this was a good idea or not. Went through the entrance which was a little alley (around 1 metre wide) and saw these "patrollers" with guns in their belts and walkie-talkies. On the tour there must have been about 10 of us "gringos" and just her the guide. She told us that she had been doing this tour for 5 years and knew most of the people so not to worry... still... cant help but.
After passing the entrance we could now take photos of the children
and some of the locals if we had their blessing. The kids loved having their photo taken, they demanded that you show them the picture... and if they wernt happy... then you would have to take another one. The kids think that by having their picture taken, it would be magically shown on TV or the internet and they would be made famous. If you ask these kids what they would like to be when they grow up, the answers are nearly always the same.. 1. Footballer, 2. Model or 3. Drug lord... a bit distrubing. They see this as an easy way out of the slums that they live in.
My fear quickly escaped me as the children and people were more than friendly. You get the occasional odd look, but most were happy to have a laugh. We stopped off at a grafitti art gallery in the favelas. 3 artists live there and sell thier pieces to passing tourists as an honest means of work. Some of the paintings were amazing, but we wernt allowed to take photos so i have none to show you. Only of thier studio where they made thier work.
Our next
stop was a school which the tour operaters helped build. The cost of the tour was 65 reais (about 20 quid), which is pretty pricey, but we discovered that 60%!o(MISSING)f that goes back into the favelas as donations such as the school.
We then walked down and passed out of the favela. Again no photos were allowed as the patrollers were standing guard. It makes you apriciate how lucky we are, and how different each one of us could have been if our circumstances were similar to the kids in the favela´s.
MARACANA
The day after we saw that Fluminense were playing a game against Resende in the Maracana... The Maracana used to be the biggest stadium in the world, housing around 180,000 people. Following the death of some supporters due to a stand collapsing, the stadiums capacity was greatly reduced to an all seater stadium of around 95,000.
There are a few teams in rio that play in this stadium, Fluminense and Flamengo. The game we witnessed between Fluminense and Resende was no where near full capacity. I estimate around 20,000 to 30,000 if
that were at the game. But still the atmosphere was amazing, imagine if it was a full crowd.
The hostel was charging around 65 reais to go and see the game, a bit pricey, but this also covered security. This was too expensive for our blood, so we decided to do it on our own. We got the train down which was 2.60 reais each way and payed 30 reais for entry into the stadium. We made our way to were the fans were to try and get a true flavour of this samba lifestyle. Even with such a small crowd, the drums at a constant beat, the fans would not stop chanting to spur on thier team.
Fluminense ended up wining the game 3-0 and with ten men. The standard was not as good as i hoped, but they are a second division team. Imagine that, a championship team playing in a stadium like that....
The backdrop of the stadium was awesome, mountins and the sunset that lit up the night sky. The clowds started to form, lighting and pouring rain did not stop the party atmosphere as the fans chanted and ran from one end
of the stadium to the other picking up people along the way.
All in all a great game and a great experience.. Think i might have to be a Fluminense fan now.. cant help who you love...
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