Rio de Janiero
Monday, August 10th, 2009Now Rio is a place that has alot of fame, people think of brazil they think of Football at the Maracana, they think of Beaches – name one beach in the world more famous than the Copacobana! They think of samba, hedonism, poverty, beauty, squalor… All of this and so so so much more is encompassed by mighty Rio. A good deal smaller than Sao Paulo it stands in complete contrast to the hard working much larger neighbour, the local joke is that the famous statue of Christ the Redeemer which graces every second post card is infact a fully mechanical automatic structure that claps his hands every time some one in the city does a days work.
That little nugget comes courtesy of marilyns good friend from montreal Hugo who was researching his masters in anthropology in Rochina, which is the largest and arguably the most famous favella/slum in south America. More on Rochina in a bit.
We met hugo at our hostel early and he took us out to see the local sites, it was warm and sunny. The first day of sun since hugo had been there so we were lucky. We walked up some hills to get a view of the city before taking the city tram down to the central business district where we sat ourselves down and began the serious business of drinking lots of beer.
The evening quickly turned into the night and we found ourselves walking around the streets of lapa. It was a Friday night and in Rio lapa is not a bad place to find yourself. The place is crawling with backpackers (gringos) but we didn’t let that get in the way of a good night. We drank and ate on the streets before finding a street party with a large band playing samba to a very enthusiastic street audience. The hawkers were selling 500 ml cans of beer for less than a euro a piece so everyone was happy. Eventually the overnight bus from the night before caught up on us and we retired to our beds in nearby catete.
On Saturday we made our way out to rochina to meet hugo, he was keen to show us around. To get there we took a collective which is a small van/bus. After some confusion we finally caught up with the man himself, after the niceties of hellos we found ourselves walking up towards rochina. I cannot tell you what an awesome sight this place is, no picture can give it justice. It is incredibly intimidating. At the edge of the favella you encounter some police men who are essentially military in brazil. For years there has been fights between military and the people who run the favellas, so much blood has been shed over the years. Once you passby this threshold you are in favella, its a microculture in itself.
The streets are tight, shoulder width in places. The electric wire is literally haywire, everywhere people are getting on with life. Tvs and radios are blaring, kids are playing football or skip rope, adults are buying and selling – the place is fascinating and engrossing. We stopped in for some quality nosh before visiting hugos house, when i say house it is just 2 rooms and a toilet. No kitchen he has to eat out on the streets, space is at such a premium most people do the same so it makes for a thriving street life. Across the street (which is less than one step in width) is an NGO which teaches kids English and generally acts as a place for them to hang out safely, read or just muck about. We went in there and met a few people and played with some of the kids briefly. One of the guys suggested that hugo takes us up to the viewing point. We all agreed that was a good strategy and so we took to climbing the height of the favella.
Man this walk was fascinating, walking so close to peoples homes through paths you could almost eat of their plates. I think what makes it so different from other slums I have encountered is the sheer vertical nature of the place, it hangs over you like a tidal wave of ramshackle brick and mortor. Onwards we made it to the top and rested a while taking in the breath taking views of Rochina and further afield to the great Rio De Janiero metropolis. It was up here we encountered the rather more unsavoury element of Rochina, the drug dealers. A few of them hung out with us and were to be honest a little annoying, Hugo is fluent in portugese and with him living there he knew exactly what the score was, so before too long we headed back to his house. While we waited on him to get changed we took some time to get some fruit juices from the vendors in the square near by. It being a Saturday night there was a stage being erected so it was obviously party time. 5 lads stood close to us as we waiting on hugo, each one of them had at least 1 assault rifle, huge guns and a pair of semi automatic pistols. Standing there joking around, I dunno if I will ever be able to not feel on edge when there is someone close by with a gun but I guess seeing as Rochina operate outside of common society and law this is how things work here. Its almost anarchic in a way but it works in a way.
Samba is the famous music of Rio, its world widely known as the music of the masses. In most major south American metropolises this is true in BA they have tango and in each case the music sprung from the lowest of the working classes, from the slums. Its kinda ironic that as these get more popular they become more associated with the middle class. In Rio there is a new kind of music called Baile Funk (no dad its not funky town) which is causing a stir in the slums. Every now and again there is a gathering somewhere in the favella usually in a massive shed which a ridiculous soundsystem and a joke of a toilet the young ones gather and shake their thing. These gatherings are notorious, usually run by the local drug runners the one staged before we got there had 2 killings. This is serious stuff!! Anyways our curiosity got the better of us and with Hugos reassurance the one we were going to was run by the local community and was not in any way dangerous we found ourselves at it. The kids here loved it, as tolerant of music as I am this was pure rubbish, maybe I am getting old. The place itself resembled the one that appears in the Movie City of God, the dance that goes with the music is a rather explicit effort which is more amusing to be honest than sensual. Gimme tango any day of the week.
We made it out alive and got back to catete and at an ungodly hour we made it to sleep. All in all we spent 6 nights in rio. We went out in lapa some more, we did the typical tourist things of swimming on the copacobana, watching football at the magnificent Maracana and visiting the domineering Christ the Redeemer statue. I have to say that I didn’t warm that greatly to Rio, my regret is that we didn’t opt to stay in favella itself and away from the other tourist traps. The favella, even with its inherent dangers is where Rio is at, if you want to see this citys heart you have to go there and see this place for the magnificent squalor that it is.
Phil Gill