Travel Log

Today I visited two favelas in Rio. A guide took me to a relatively small one called Vila Canoas, about 2.000 people living there and also the biggest one, 160.000 people, called Rocinha. These are typically not places you would go to as a tourist but chances of getting mugged or robbed as a tourist are probably smaller than outside of the favela as the favelas are under total control of druglords and the last thing they want is the police sniffing around because a Dutch tourist got into trouble (I am sure Balkenende himself would get involved). I visited a school where favela kids go to next to attending public school. Hopefully some of them will be able to one day escape life in the favela. As my guide told me that most foreigners think that all Brazilians are gifted football players, he told me that this is absolutely untrue as he himself would starve to death if he would have to depend on his football skills. So, like anywhere else, it is good to study and go to school. Even though my initial thoughts were that favelas were to be avoided I was glad I got the chance to visit as I learned that people just try to make ends meet, by living their lives.

Also interesting to know is that there would be no carnaval without the favelas, as most of the top samba schools are based in the favelas. Nice to see also that under whatever circumstances people live, art is always present. Kids painting and selling their paintings to the occasional tourist, I got a painting from a local kid called Alex, his representation of life in the favela, a painting of little dwellings full of bright colours.