La Rochina

Ten percent of the population of Rio live in a favela. La Rochina the biggest and most urbanised favela in Rio with near to 100,000 inhabitants. It was the first of over 300 favelas in the city to be pacified, this process has been sped up by the government due to the imminent UEFA World Cup and later the 2016 Olympics.

We went with an organised tour (although it is pacified you still cannot enter by yourself). Luckily our tour was more of a guided walk, there is a lot of controversy about visiting the favelas, but having been there it is good to see that places are developing and also that stigmas and stereotypes can be cast away. Obviously you need to remember that not all the favelas are as developed as La Rochina, and some are still under control of drug gangs.

The place is crazy with too many houses for street names or numbers, therefore the community is sectioned into numbers and you collect your post at your local post office normally a barber or a little shop. The streets are full of markets selling everything you could need and the skyline is full of satellite dishes (because the government gives 30% off to those in favelas).

      Although you don't pay taxes by living in the favelas you still have to pay for electricity. However, some people choose not to and pirate the street wires to their houses which often results to house fires, one of which we saw the aftermath of.

We were taken to one of the houses at the top of the hill in La Rochina, and from the roof we could see all across the hillside, jam packed little houses of all different colours. As we walked through the streets we saw normal life just like the other streets of Rio and across South America.