We were pretty uncertain on whether we wanted to do a tour around a favela, it seemed as though it was be a great invasion of privacy and the residents would spite us for it. We had been in touch with Jungle Boy (found via TripAdvisor) who told us a little about what he would show us from the favela in which he lived, and broke down our hesitations.
We met him in General Osorio square and he walked us to the two favelas placed in the centre of Rio, whilst giving us some background about himself. He was originally from Belim (by the Amazon Jungle) and had moved to Rio shortly before going to South Korea for 4 years. On his return to Rio in 2011, he rented a bed in Copacabana for approximately R$600 a month. In the restaurant he managed, one of his employees suggested he move into her favela as she would be moving, and at rent for a one-bed, bathroom, kitchen and living room place for R$500 a month, he thought why not. He has been living in his favela since 2013, gave up his role at the restaurant and decided he wanted to make a difference for the people in the favelas by drawing attention to the conditions they lived in and the lack of support received from the Government.
He organised motorbikes to take us up to the entrance of the favela, an uphill climb that would have even the fittest of us, gasping for air, and then lead us past a large police station into the favela.
There had been a project of pacification of the favelas, and this included police removing gangs and taking control of the favelas. This generally made them safer places, but Alberto told us, more than once that the police weren't there to protect the people but to maintain a level of control.
Something about the police didn't sit right with Alberto. He soon went in to explain his reasoning. Often the police would enter favelas with guns in the pretence of finding drugs, this happened fairly regularly and unannounced, making living in the favela harder than when under gang control.
As we walked around this particular favela, Alberto stopped on many occasions to speak to other members of the community. They seemed tightly knit and I noted, happy. They enjoyed the freedom of where they lived, where you could claim any piece of land as your own and build a 2 bed favela for just R$50,000 - that's roughly £11,500. Imagine buying anything in the UK for that!
The purpose of the tour around the favela for Alberto, was to raise outside awareness of the conditions in the favela. The government has installed a cable car to go up and down the favela from 5am - 12 midnight and people were required to share this with rubbish that would be transported down for disposal. Fresh water was only pumped into the favela 3 times a week, and therefore the community had to save and use their water wisely, so as to ensure they had a sufficient amount for the week. Those living in the favela were very much a community, they worked together and looked out for one another.
The most interesting thing about this tour wasn't necessarily seeing how people in the favelas lived but more so Alberto as a character. He has strong political views on the way Brazil is run, in particular he is opposed to the amount of money spent other things such as preparing the Maracana stadium for 2014 World Cup for R$1bn, when the same sum could have changed the lives of thousands of Brazilian residents. He also has high ambitions, in his words to "become the President of Brazil" - whilst there are several favela tours available, I would recommend going with Jungle Boy, just to hear his strong opinions and explanations, as well as his dreams for the children of the favelas. It was really eye opening to speak to someone with so much local political knowledge, and made us see and understand Rio de Janeiro and Brazil from a different perspective.
For those of you interested - check out what Jungle Boy has to offer on: http://www.jungleboybrasil.com/en/
