Babilonia favella

NB 5R = £1 (ish).

After 17 hours on 2 planes (via Madrid) with no inflight entertainment but plenty of empty seats, we arrived in Rio. The landing flight path is stunning, skimming across the lit up city, then descends across water and just when you think you're going to crash a runway appears.
Shuttle Rio met us and we battled through rush hour to get to Leme beach (R25). From the raised roads you can literally see through some of the poorer houses.
We were dropped off at the bottom of Babilonia favella and then it was a 10 min hike up a steep hill, lots of steps, several stops to ask for directions, some more steps (190 in total) to the top of the favella & our airbnb room (R70 per rm per night).
Our host Julio Cesar met us with a cold beer (Anna was instantly happy) and showed us around. Wifi yes, windows and hot water no. Using a mixture of our limited Portuguese / Julio's pidgin English we settled in.
Julio left us bread, honey and cheese, a flask full of super strong coffee and a toasty maker - he was now Anna's new best friend.
The favella seems completely safe...there is a police station at the bottom with ~10 policemen standing outside in the mornings (in fact a huge police presence everywhere in the city) and the residents are all very friendly. There is constant noise from dogs barking to neighbour's music to concerts but its completely charming rather than annoying.Read more