Rochina Favela

Went on a tour to the largest favela in Rio on Sunday (around 200,000 people live here). Was taken around by an organised tour group called ¨be a local¨ and would highly recommend them as the tour was excellent (they didn´t even need to bribe us to say that). We parked at the bottom of the hill and then took a motorbike taxi to the top of the favela to start the tour. Tip for the girlies - don´t wear a tight skirt when planning to go on the Favela tour (difficult to negotiate hopping on and off the bike) and also don´t wear flip flops (not too hygienic given that the streets are full of open sewage) - still Andyb wouldn´t listen....

The tour guides are really knowledgable and seem to know EVERYBODY in the Favela. It´s quite a well organised community - loads of shops and bars. The houses that we saw inside (forever the nosey northerners) were quite well equiped; a few of them were watching the Grand Prix on very nice large screen tellys - though I´m sure they´re not all like that. Could´ve settled myself down for the afternoon....

Got taken to a very nice bakery - where Lisa had the best banana cake she has ever eaten - belly very happy after that detour.

Towards the end of the tour, the guide was explaining the drug trade within the Favela to us - and as if on cue - a drug baron passed with a grenade on his right hip and a hand gun on his left. Lovely man - not at all scary. Weren´t allowed to take photos of this man (for obvious reasons) and as the tour guide noticed this man´s arrival he warned "this man´s packing juice" which is code for "don´t take a picture if you rather like your face free from blood".

We actually felt very safe inside the Favela (certainly no more dangerous than walking the streets of hassi on a Saturday night) and apparently there´s very little trouble inside the Favela (courtesy of the men with guns and bombs). If you have limited budget and are thinking of what to miss out in Rio - don`t miss the Favela tour - it was one of our best experiences so far (the banana cake clinched it).