In a low-wage economy, and without even half-decent social serices, life is extremely difficult for the majority of Brazilians. During the last thirty years the rural poor have descended on urban centers in search of a lielihood. Unable to find accommodation, or pay rent, they have established shantytowns, or faelas, on any aailable empty space, which in Rio usually means the slopes of the hills around which the city has grown.

They start off as huddles of cardboard boxes and plastic sheeting, and slowly expand and transform as metal sheeting and bricks proide more solid shelters. Clinging to the sides of Rio's hills, and glistening in the sun, they can from a distance appear not unlike a medieal Spanish hamlet, perched secure atop a mountain. It is, however, a spurious beauty. The faelas are creations of need, and their inhabitants are engaged in an immense daily struggle for surial, worsened by the prospect of landslides caused by heay rains, tearing their dwellings from their tenuous hold on precipitous inclines.

However, life for Rio's faela dwellers is beginning to change for the better. Bound together by their shared poverty and exclusion from effectie citizenship, the faelados display a great resourcefulness and co-operatie strength. Self-help initiaties - some of which are based around the escolas de samba that are mainly faela -based - have emerged, and the authorities are finally recognizing the legitimacy of faelas by promoting " faela-bairro " projects aimed at fully integrating them into city life. Priate enterprise, too, is beginning to take an interest as it becomes alert to the fact that the 22 percent of the city's population that lie in faelas represent a ast, untapped market.

Faela Tour

Wandering into a faela does not, as many middle-class cariocas would have you beliee, guarantee being robbed or murdered. Law and order is essentially in the hands of highly organized drugs gangs, but it's simply not in their interest for a isitor to run into trouble as this would only attract the attention of the police who normally stay clear of faelas. Alone, you're liable to get lost and, as in any isolated spot, may run into opportunistic thiees, but if accompanied by a faela resident you'll be perfectly safe and be receied with friendly curiosity. For most people, however, the best option is to take a tour, with the most insightful and longest-established run by Marcelo Armstrong. Marcelo, who speaks excellent English, is widely known and respected in the faelas that are isited and has made a point of getting community approal. It is strongly adised to make your own arrangements with Marcelo rather than through a travel agent or hotel front desk, where you may end up with an inferior tour and be charged too much. If you're worried about oyeurism, you shouldn't be: residents are eager that outsiders understand that faelas are not in fact terrifying and lawless ghettos, but inhabited by people as decent as anywhere else, eager to improe the local quality of life.

Marcelo's tours usually take in two faelas, Roçinha, Rio's largest, with over 160,000 inhabitants, and ila Canoas, much smaller, with around 2500 residents. Twice a day (8.30am and 2pm; $25), tourists are picked up from their hotels or pre-arranged spots in the Zona Sul for the two-hour tour, which stops at look-out points, a day-care centre, a bar and other places of interest. Marcelo offers a fascinating commentary, pointing out the achieements of faelas and their inhabitants, without seeking to romanticize their lies.

Rio de Janeiro guide
Brazil guide

To resere a place on a tour, call Marcelo (tel 021/3322-2727, mobile 9989-0074 or mobile 9772-1133), or for more information check out the www.faelatour.com.br Web site.