Rio, from favela to Leblon

Another day, another must-do in Rio! ✅ Today we visited one of the favelas so that we can get to see both sides of Rio, not only the sunshine and beach. We got a contact from our guide from the walking tour and Gabriela ended up being our guide through the biggest and safest favela in Rio called Rocinha. Gabriela was amazing, she’s 22, she’s from Rocinha, and she showed us the favela inside and out. We first hopped on some mototaxis to ride up to the top of the hill with a great view over Rio and walked back down through the favela. Our first stop was a capoeira performance by a local community which is one of the many social projects aiming at improving life in Rocinha. Sadly, none of these projects are funded by the government, it’s solely locals who do everything in their power to provide a better future for their children. 🥹 The favelas were origianally established by former slaves in 1800s and they spread when workers arrived from mostly the North-East around 1960. The conditions of the favela (at least this one) is actually much better than the townships in Cape Town, I was happy to see that - poverty and safety are still huge issues. Gabriela explained us the Rocinha is so safe because they made rules/unwritten laws with the faction (basically the mobsters “guarding” the favela) such as no photos in certain areas where they deal drugs and so on. On the way down we stopped at a local restaurant for lunch and had the most amazing BBQ ever. 🤤 Once we got back to the hostel, we crashed, slept the big walk and experience out, and went for dinner in Leblon, which turned out to be the fanciest and richest neighbourhood of Rio. Seeing the massive gap between Rocinha and Leblon was very confronting, it was a lot to take in just in one day. We called it a night after dinner, a big walk, and an icecream - we’re making the most of Rio. 🤗Read more