Wow the Favela tour was excellent a real eye opener. We got picked up about 1,30pm and taken to the bottom of the Favela (Rocinha). This favela is built on a hill next to the Tijuca national forest and above the rich neighbourhood of Gavea. Apparently most favelas are built around the rich areas as a lot of the people living the the favelas can then go and work in the richer areas.

There were 10 of us on the tour and we each had to immediately jump on the back of a motorcycle and get ferried up to the top of the hill, which I´m so glad we didnt have to walk up as it was really steep and long!

Once at the top we got off the bikes and walked into the Favela from the main street which we´d just come up on which is wide enough to accomodate cars and has rubbish collections. Once inside the favela the walkways are only wide enough for 1 person to walk through, and theres a faint smell of sewerage all throughout. Theres kids running everywhere with no shoes on and rubbish littered all around.

Nobody inside the favela pays government tax on their houses so consequently there is no sewer system - just canals of raw sewage running down the hill. No rubbish collections - so bags overflowing and rubbish just littered around everywhere. The houses here just link themselves up to the electricity and dont pay anything and same for cable TV and running water, these companies know about it but have no way to control or restrict it.

We saw a small group of boys playing paint tins in their ´band´and some little girls who were just dying to have their photos taken. Girls here in the favela start having babies at about 14 yrs old as the more they can have the more money they will earn for her later on. Most of the men in the favel go out and work within the richer parts of Rio such as Ipanema and Copacobana and Gavena in hotels and bars etc.

We were also told about the drug gand that effectively run the favela and we saw the firework boys that sit at the entrances to the favela to set off fireworks to warn the gang of the polices presence. The Police do not police inside the favela - i get the feeling the drug gang do that, but they do come in to arrest people and when this happens theres a big shoot out - thankfully it didnt happen while we were there as they apparently last for hours.

We also got to see inside a daycare centre which is paid for by the company that run the tour we were on, the kids were really cute and its just a free daycare centre so the parents can go out and work.

The tour all in all was really eyeopening and a good insight Im really glad we did it, as we saw that its not all sun sea and cocktails in Rio.