City of God?

Had an insane day. Insania. Did the Favela tour - the slums which surround Rio (where the film City of God was filmed). Man, I have never seen anything like it...

Okay, so the tour kicked off on the back of a motorcycle taxi which, for the record, I HATED. I´ve never been on one, I´ve never wanted to, and I never want to again. The guide had told my driver to go slow as I was petrified (seriously, I´ve never held on to a man so tightly in my life, and that´s saying something), which he did until he got to a point where we could no longer see the guide, and goaded by his Brazilian biker pals - put his foot down. Horrid. Anyway.



Off the motorbike, shakey legged, we walked down through the filthy, winding, steep, rat-infested, corrupt slums. Insane. The guide (Luiz) walked upfront and every now and then would shout ¨no photos¨ - and then we´d pass the main drug dealers and gang members who were all carrying massive guns. Machine guns. Solid gold guns. Guns. Guns. Guns.







There are three main gangs that run the Favelas and there´s a guy who stands watch at the entrance all day, everyday - ready to let off a firework if the police invade to warn the drug barons. Often it ends in a shoot out, and people get shot. So yeah, I was pretty frightened (and have no photos of them, as I wanted to keep my life for just a little bit longer) but it was good to see. If good´s the right word. The poverty that these people live in was really moving and I left feeling pretty lucky.