Due to spending longer than planning in Sao Paulo I didn't have so much time to get to know Rio de Janeiro, well not as well as I would have liked. I really just saw the tourist side of Rio. We stayed in Copacabana, spent a few days at the beach, went to see Cristo Redentor, went to a street party in Lapa and a favela party. The days at the beach and the street party were pretty uneventful however the favela party was interesting and probably the most intimidating place that I've ever been.
We'd heard mixed reports about going to the favela, some people (the hostel owner mainly) said it was very dangerous and that we'd get killed or shot, others said it was fine. Some of the guys in the hostel had been there the previous week and they said it was fine and their only advice was to bring ear plugs. Lots of the hostels run tours to the favelas and some of them (not ours) even run mini buses to the favela parties. Personally I'd no interest in doing a tour of a favela, I didn't like the idea of it. It sounded like a safari tour except instead of looking out the window at animals you were looking at people.
So one night we decided to go to a favela party. An american girl who works in the hostel also volunteers in the favela had agreed to take us in. The plan was to meet her outside the favela and then she'd take us into the favela and into the party. There was a bus we could take which would drop us at the edge of the favela but by the time we were all ready we'd missed it so we needed a taxi. The problem was taxi drivers didn't want to go near the favela. We needed two taxis but we could only find one who'd take us. The rest of them were not interested in the fare to the favela, after about 5 taxis we eventually found someone who was willing to take us.
We met our friend and together we walked about 3 or 4 blocks into the favela to get to the party. We knew we were safe yet it was very intimidating. The favela reminded me of some of the small caotic back streets in Bangkok except more intimidating. Electrical cables hanging very low overhead, rats running around, the fumes from the large number of motorbikes whizzing by, lots of people living life on the street, drinking, eating, taking drugs, selling drugs and all mixed with the smell of food cooking on the curb.
The intimidating aspect of it reminded me of some of the scenes from the wire particularly as there appeared to be children acting as look outs everywhere. Our arrive and passage through the favela was known by everyone due to them whistling. We made it to the entrace to the party, here we were warned by our guide's boyfriend that it would be best not to initiate conversation with anyone in there. His English wasn't so good and we had no portuguese but the general idea was if we started talking to a girl who had a boyfriend (or vice versa) (s)he wouldn't be happy and he'd probably have a gun.
The party was in a club which was a massive warehouse, picture the opening scene from Blade minus the blood. Everyone was searched thoroughly for weapons on the way in. They security was pretty serious, no guns, no weapons and no drugs. As soon as we entered I understood why the guys in the hostel were adamant that we needed ear plugs. The sound was intense, even with ear plugs it was still ridiculously loud. I've never experienced anything like it before. The bar operated in a strange manner, there were a number of guys standing on barrels in the middle of the crowd. You bought a ticket from these and redeemed this for a drink at the bar. Strange but suprisingly it worked very well.
Generally in South America you buy a token at one bar and redeem it for a drink at another which most of the time means you have to queue twice. The only variation on this I saw was in Sao Paulo where you got a card when you entered and whenever you wanted at drink they swiped it and the drinks were added to your bill. At the time we thought this was a great system there were no queues at the bar, the problem was when you wanted to leave. Obviously could no leave until you had paid your bill but when everyone wants to leave around the same time you end up having a massive queue!
Back to the favela party, the music was a mixture of commercial hiphop (50-cent etc.) and brazilian hip hop. Everyone appeared to be enjoying themselves but still everyone seemed to be on edge. Its hard to describe, everyone seemed to be watching everyone and everyone moved in groups. It was an interesting to see the another side of Brazil, one that is very close to Copacabana yet so far away.
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| Cristo Redentor |
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| View of Rio from Cristo |
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| Rio de Janeiro Landscape |
We'd heard mixed reports about going to the favela, some people (the hostel owner mainly) said it was very dangerous and that we'd get killed or shot, others said it was fine. Some of the guys in the hostel had been there the previous week and they said it was fine and their only advice was to bring ear plugs. Lots of the hostels run tours to the favelas and some of them (not ours) even run mini buses to the favela parties. Personally I'd no interest in doing a tour of a favela, I didn't like the idea of it. It sounded like a safari tour except instead of looking out the window at animals you were looking at people.
So one night we decided to go to a favela party. An american girl who works in the hostel also volunteers in the favela had agreed to take us in. The plan was to meet her outside the favela and then she'd take us into the favela and into the party. There was a bus we could take which would drop us at the edge of the favela but by the time we were all ready we'd missed it so we needed a taxi. The problem was taxi drivers didn't want to go near the favela. We needed two taxis but we could only find one who'd take us. The rest of them were not interested in the fare to the favela, after about 5 taxis we eventually found someone who was willing to take us.
We met our friend and together we walked about 3 or 4 blocks into the favela to get to the party. We knew we were safe yet it was very intimidating. The favela reminded me of some of the small caotic back streets in Bangkok except more intimidating. Electrical cables hanging very low overhead, rats running around, the fumes from the large number of motorbikes whizzing by, lots of people living life on the street, drinking, eating, taking drugs, selling drugs and all mixed with the smell of food cooking on the curb.
The intimidating aspect of it reminded me of some of the scenes from the wire particularly as there appeared to be children acting as look outs everywhere. Our arrive and passage through the favela was known by everyone due to them whistling. We made it to the entrace to the party, here we were warned by our guide's boyfriend that it would be best not to initiate conversation with anyone in there. His English wasn't so good and we had no portuguese but the general idea was if we started talking to a girl who had a boyfriend (or vice versa) (s)he wouldn't be happy and he'd probably have a gun.
The party was in a club which was a massive warehouse, picture the opening scene from Blade minus the blood. Everyone was searched thoroughly for weapons on the way in. They security was pretty serious, no guns, no weapons and no drugs. As soon as we entered I understood why the guys in the hostel were adamant that we needed ear plugs. The sound was intense, even with ear plugs it was still ridiculously loud. I've never experienced anything like it before. The bar operated in a strange manner, there were a number of guys standing on barrels in the middle of the crowd. You bought a ticket from these and redeemed this for a drink at the bar. Strange but suprisingly it worked very well.
Generally in South America you buy a token at one bar and redeem it for a drink at another which most of the time means you have to queue twice. The only variation on this I saw was in Sao Paulo where you got a card when you entered and whenever you wanted at drink they swiped it and the drinks were added to your bill. At the time we thought this was a great system there were no queues at the bar, the problem was when you wanted to leave. Obviously could no leave until you had paid your bill but when everyone wants to leave around the same time you end up having a massive queue!
Back to the favela party, the music was a mixture of commercial hiphop (50-cent etc.) and brazilian hip hop. Everyone appeared to be enjoying themselves but still everyone seemed to be on edge. Its hard to describe, everyone seemed to be watching everyone and everyone moved in groups. It was an interesting to see the another side of Brazil, one that is very close to Copacabana yet so far away.
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