Favela Pavãozinho

This is the window view from my friend Chris's new apartment. He's only got two days left in Brazil sadly, as all good things come to an end- though he's very happy to be returning and, I should say, has seen a LOT more of Brazil than I have. My own lovey-dovey view of it is really based on my appraisal of Vitória, which is a very charming city, but probably not representative of the rest of Brazil.

The strange thing about seeing a favela outside your window is that it is so many tiny houses that fill up the WHOLE frame- like a painting or picture. It's not like having just an apartment building to look at, because it changes throughout the day- you can see the people climbing up the never-ending stairs,the police cars idling through (this is a "pacified" favela), the kids playing with their toys, and the laundry flapping from the windows and uppermost floors of each building. It's a living painting, perhaps, though Chris tells me this painting has lots of loud parties every night and prevents him from sleeping.

Another strange thing is that despite it being so close, you have to walk quite far to get INSIDE this part of Rio. There's a forest and a giant wall that separate Chris's building from this conglomerate living space.