View of Sugar Loaf Mountain and Guanabara Bay from the Parque das Ruinas
I spent this afternoon exploring my hill top neighborhood of Santa Teresa and it really is a place of beauty. It’s one of Rio’s oldest neighborhoods and as such has a completely unique vibe; old Portuguese architecture engulfed in tropical flora, crooked cobblestone streets and the some of the illest, most colorful graffiti to help remind you just which epoch you are inhabiting.
I hiked up to the Parque das Ruínas to take in its nearly uninterrupted views of Rio and Guanabara Bay. I posted up in the garden next to it and sat quietly watching three small monkeys at play in the trees above. But it’s far from some utopia here. Don’t get it twisted.
While geographically close, Santa Teresa is a world removed from Copacabana, Ipanema and the more modern center of town…the asfalto, or flat lands. But at the same time it’s not a typical morro (hill side) community either, although it is surrounded by 5 to 7 favelas. Yeah, there’s no mistaking that fact.
My apartment over looks two favelas in the fore ground as well as a few others in the distance. Opposing criminal factions control the two closest favelas and each one would be more than happy to relieve the other of their turf. I know this because it is what I have heard (literally) and seen…the unmistakable POP POP POP along with occasional red, military grade tracers I can see whizzing back and forth at night.
The view, as you can see, really is quite nice. But, like a politician, a picture can offer a thousand words on a subject but still manage to avoid the whole truth.
The favelas, the criminal factions and their traficantes (traffickers), the general inhabitants of these hill side communities and, of course, the police will be explored in greater detail in future posts so…um…stay posted.
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