VILA CANOAS

WITH FAVELA TOURS

Vila Canoas is a small to medium favela above posh Sao Conrado in Zona Zul, Rio de Janeiro.

It is part of a two favela tour hosted by Favela Tours.

For 100 BRL (about $25 USD), Favela Tours picks you up in an air conditioned van at any Zona Zul hotel (mine was in the Lido section of Copacabana near Leme).

Less than a half hour later, you are in famed Rocinha http://urbantravelandaccessibility.blogspot.com/2016/03/favela-rocinha.html

Marcelo Armstrong, the founder of Favela Tours. He demystified them by taking dozens of visitors daily into the winding roads past makeshift hillside homes.  My host that day was a Brazilian woman of German heritage who spoke flawless English. She shocked me when she said she perfected her English as an exchange student in Peninsula, Ohio -- about a half hour's drive from Akron suburb I grew up in. Ah the joys of travel?

Favela tours show daily life without objectifying the people of the favelas. The tours prove that you're more likely to run into a teacher, laborer, hotel worker or sous chef than a dangerous gang member in a favela. In Rocinha, you get a chance to buy art -- I rarely do this, but picked up a cool original on cloth for 50 BRL (less than $13 USD).  In Vila Canoas, the first stop is a boteco, where you can get snacks and order a caipirinha (dirt cheap) to down at the end of the short tour, before boarding the van back to conclude the 3-hour tour.

We highly recommend first visting a favela through Favela Tours, then returning -- city buses go there -- for some additional safe, daytime exploring.
www.favelatour.com.br 

FAVELA ROCINHA

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL

BURSTING WITH URBAN LIFE

SAFER THAN YOU THINK

FAR FROM PERFECT

BUT THE FUTURE CERTAINLY IS BRIGHTER THAN THE PAST