Favela Homestay, Military Policia... Rio

Lush green mountains, lethal caipriñas, never ending traffic, late night samba dancing, scary military police, insane bus drivers, derelict colonial mansions, yummy salgados and a whole lot of favelas dotted along the steep hills…

Here are a few words that just about describes our few days in Rio de Janiero.

Our arrival was probably the most interesting we've had so far. I'd done some research into accommodation, which all seemed to be ridiculously expensive. So, when I found a homestay within an area close to Lebnon (one of the nicest & safest parts of Rio) at such good value and with excelent ratings (97%), I was a bit dubious. Reading on, it turned out to be a hostel/B&B in a favela which aimed to provide you with an experience of the real Rio. Although very weary, Mark agreed that the reviews were good enough to at least give it a go, so we booked our stay at Vidigal Favela. The owners couldn't be more helpful. They emailed to give us instructions on how to get there, asked about our arrival time and also made us promise that we would call them (reverse charge) so that they could come and pick us up when we get to the entrance.

The bus from the airport took us on a long city tour, finally dropping us off outside our Favela, some 2 hours later. We were at first shocked to find an armoured tank and military police at the entrance with their automatic rifles pointing high at the sky, but then remembered that a fellow traveller had told us one of the favelas had recently been taken over by police. We had joked that it could be our favela, but with 1000 dotted all around Rio, we said the chances of that happening was slim to none. How wrong we were.

Tito, the Lithuanian owner was great on the phone and asked us to wait by the entrance so that he could come down to pick us up. So glad he did this as the maze that is Vidigal we would most likely be lost for hours if not days. When he arrived however, there was no way to hide the shock from my face as I realised that Tito was holding a motorcycle helmet, and had intended to pick us up on his bike. The 3 of us, plus 2 large backpacks and 2 day bags… I failed to see how this could possible work but followed him on. Within a few minutes I was on the back of his motorcycle, with my backpack balanced precariously on his helmet box, holding on for dear life as we started our climb up very steep hills into the heart of the favela at scary speeds, weaving in and out of traffic. Poor Mark had an even worse fate as he was now on the back of a moto-taxi, with no side handles to hold onto and with an even bigger backback, and had to pay a whole R$2 for the pleasure of this ridiculous and scary ride up to what would be home for the next few days...

It was a strange feeling walking into Tito's house. The living room had a 2-seater sofa, a bean bag and a basket with a few travel books. One corner had been turned into a small kitchen (sink, fridge and cooker, placed side by side and with no work surfaces or cupboards). The only other rooms in the house were the simple bathroom (shower with running hot water and a flushing toilet) and the bedroom, which had a thick mattress on the floor and an empty coat rack. They explained that we'd be having their bedroom (as we booked the double) and they'll be sleeping in the dorm downstairs.

Tito said that the police had arrived early Sunday morning. His exact words were "Oh man you came at the wrong time. Last weekend we had a massive party with tons of drugs and then the police came and took all the drugs away. You are too late, man". It seems before the police wouldn't enter the favela & the community just sort of looked after one another. He said all the druglords had left now, where before you could see the occasional ganster sitting by the side of the road. Apparently you could also walk into the supermarkets and buy some weed, along with your daily bread and milk. However with the Olympics and the 2014 world cup coming to Rio, the city felt they had to gain control of vast areas which overlook the wealthiest neighboorhoods of Lebnon and Ipanema. Tito said it was mostly a peaceful takeover, not a single gun shot was fired, but apparently the locals had poured tons of engine and cooking oil on the steep hills up into the favela. This did have the desired effect on most of the police vehicles but for the heavy armoured tank it was really no trouble, accept occasionally it must have veered off course, leaving in its path a number of crushed vehicles, which we could see later on as we walked down the hill and out of the favela to get what would be the first of many horribly busy and completely crazy buses into the city. You are never sure if there's enough space for you to get on but miraculously you are pushed on by the crowd that apprears behind you. Hopefully you manage to pay the fare before the bus leaves the stop. The drivers are serious adrenalin junkies. They must think they are driving racing cars, speeding up to each and every red traffic light, where you think we are never going to stop in time and as they slam on the breaks the bus stops abruply you are hurled from one end to the other, along with everybody else that is jam-packed around you. Not for the faint hearted! Well neither was our favela but we've managed to put up with both for the 3 whole days of our stay.

That first evening we got off the bus fairly quickly and decided to spend our first afternoon/evening around Ipanema, as we did a tasty pub crawl (suggested in one of the guidebooks) where we tried many of the local brews, a couple of fruit capriñas (my favourite being passion fruit) and some lovely local snacks (salgados) all the while discussing whether it was a good thing that our favela was now overtaken by the police or whether it would have been better if we had experienced it as it was a week ago. The locals were obviously not happy that the police had invaded their territory. Before, they could all steal their internet, electricity, water, sky channels. Now there were people installing meters, cutting the illegal lines and there were even door to door salesmen selling sky packages. Also, the slums of Rio were much more developed than we would have thought, in that, they had a fully working drains and sewage system, fresh running water, rubbish collection, primary schools, creches, restaurants, little drinking holes (full of locals even at 7am in the morning). We decided that although it was rather weird we would stay and try to enjoy our experience after all with the police presence the favelas had become so much safer for us gringoes.

I think the locals thought that we had the nerve to come to their favela now that the police had taken it over. This was true for many tourist who were now arriving in jeeps doing the favela tours, where as a week ago there were none. Taking photos, like these people are animals in a zoo. On our final day we were even approached by a guy wanting to sell us a tour of the favela which we had been staying in. With limited communication we indicated that this had been home for the last 3 days and we really did not require his services.

We enjoyed our few days in Rio. Visited all the tourist sites including the Sugar Loaf mountain, which we climbed up to the first cable car stop (makes it much more fun and slightly cheaper) and the obvious Christ the Redeemer which is best viewed just before sunset around 6-7pm. There are very few people there at this time and you nearly get the whole place to yourself. The towering statue of Christ was pretty special and the views were spectacular as the city's lights come on for the evening.

We went out for some food in Santa Teresa, which is still pretty run down. So many empty old colonial mansions that are derelict and grafiti at every corner, but with a pretty amazing view on top of the large hill it sits on. we also enjoyed the crazy night life in Lapa, samba dancing on the streets and far too many capriñas.

Unfortunately, the one thing we never got to do in Rio was to enjoy the stunning mile long beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. The weather was tempramental and we decided we would head out to Ilha Grande instead, praying for some sunshine so we could enjoy the 80+ beaches there...