The Rocinha in Rio de Janeiro
Rocinha is a favela in the South Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Through a decree of June 1993, it acquired the official category of neighborhood. With an area of almost 865 thousand square meters, Rocinha was known for a long time as the largest favela in Brazil. However, that dubious privilege passed into the hands of Fazenda Coqueiro, in the West Zone of the city, with more than one million square meters.
Most of its inhabitants come from the Brazilian northeast in search of better opportunities. Currently, Rocinha continues with strong growth due to the strong flow of immigrants from other states, mainly from the Northeast Region of Brazil. In order to regulate its disorderly growth, the city authorities implemented an urban project in 2001.
At present, it has a large commercial apparatus installed in the favela itself, such as fast food networks, numerous cybercafes, banks, cable television service, and tourism companies that conduct guided tours of the neighborhood. Its proximity to the upper-class residences of the neighboring neighborhoods of Gávea and São Conrado marks a deep urban contrast in the landscape of the region.
What is the Rocinha? The favela of Rio de Janeiro
Most of the population comes from the northeast of the country that emigrated looking for better opportunities to live. For example, it is very common for cleaning services in hotels to be performed by Northeastern women. This continuous flow of people forced the authorities to implement an urban project in 2001 to control disorderly growth and currently Rocinha has shops, restaurants, schools, banks, regular bus lines and all kinds of services like any other neighborhood. Although 25% of its inhabitants still live below the poverty line.
Perhaps this contrasts a bit with the image of absolute poverty that is usually had of the favelas, but it must be taken into account that it has had some development. It has also had urban interventions from the government to improve habitability and infrastructure, but they are still insufficient because there are neighborhoods in Rocinha that still need a lot of help.
Its size, its proximity to the main tourist neighborhoods of Rio and its security since the pacification in 2011, make it the best option to visit a favela and get to know this other reality of the country.
A Rocinha: Is the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro?
The Rocinha occupies an area of 143.72 hectares and 48.29 percent corresponds to urbanized and / or altered areas. The neighborhood’s favela area occupies 864,479 square meters, which means that 60.15% of the neighborhood is occupied by irregular settlements.
According to a study by the Pereira Passos Municipal Institute of Urbanism, in 2009 Rocinha was no longer the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro. The Fazenda Coqueiro favela, in Senador Camará (in the West Zone) has 1,095,094 square meters, followed by Nova Cidade, in the Inhoaíba neighborhood (West Zone), with 933,162 square meters, moving Rocinha to third place
Why the Rocinha favela in Rio de Janeiro is so famous?
In general, a large part of international tourism has great interest and curiosity for these types of places. Although, from some point of view, this has no explanation, but it does occur and is an important part of visits to the city of Rio. It is important that before traveling to Rio de Janeiro you find out about the best way to visit a favela, to avoid inconvenience and get away from risks.
A guided excursion, they will make you move without any risk through some of its streets, and they will tell you heartbreaking stories and they will give you a review of the history that these neighborhoods contain.
What to see in the Rocinha?
Some interesting points of this Rocinha favela that you can know are the following.
- The different viewpoints that are in the upper part. The best known is the Puerta del Cielo or Porta do Ceu (rua 1) which is the roof of the house of a family in the community that for years has allowed tourists to enjoy those views of the Sao Conrado neighborhood for R $ 2The so-called Mirante do Laboriaux (rua Maria Do Carmo) has the advantage of being public as it is on the street itself and is oriented towards the north, that is, you can see the Rodrigo de Freitas lagoon, the Gávea neighborhood and Ipanema.
- The striking and arranged street 4 with its colorful houses, somewhat worn by the passage of time. They were built by the government to relocate very poor families and people with disabilities who found it very difficult to live in other less accessible parts of the favela.
- Via Ápia, which is the main commercial artery of the community. Here there are shops open 24 hours a day, plenty of restaurants and funk music parties, forró and pagode on weekends on the street itself. In the annexed alleys called travessas there are quite a few restaurants serving Japanese food, gastronomy that the local people like a lot (they are not touristy).
- The walkway designed by the architect Oscar Niemeyer over the highway at the entrance of the highway, which represents the ass of a Brazilian in a thong, is a copy of the Sambadrome and symbolizes that the people of the favela are also part of the Carnival.
- Acadêmicos da Rocinha samba school. The bloco that competes every year in the Rio de Janeiro Carnival. Their premises located on Bertha Lutz street is where they carry out the rehearsals that can usually be attended as a public
Where is The Rocinha located in Rio de Janeiro?
Located south of Rio de Janeiro, the Rocinha favela is one of the largest in Brazil, with between 50,000 and 120,000 inhabitants (depending on the source consulted). Its location between the rich neighborhoods of Gavea and São Conrado creates a very strong contrast that can be appreciated very well from some viewpoints that are located in the upper part of the community. Check our location map below
Is it safe to visit the Rocinha Favela in Rio de Janeiro?
It´s one of the most important questions. Is it safe to visit the Rocinha? Can I go and visit this place without risks? Well, the so-called pacification, the military and police operation that took control of the favela from drug traffickers, was carried out at the end of 2011 using even armored vehicles and helicopters, but luckily there were hardly any exchanges of fire.
Since then, the Rocinha favela has been considered controlled but not totally safe since shootings continue to occur very sporadically and it is known that drug trafficking continues in some areas of it, although in a much more discreet way. It is no longer common to find armed youths or sale of drugs in full view of everyone on the main streets as it used to be.
In general, walking around the Rocinha favela during the day is safe, regardless of whether it is done with a guide or not. The most important precautions to take is to avoid taking photos of people and not to go through the so-called mouths of smoke, when in doubt about which way to go in case you make this visit on your own, you can ask the local people who live there. Do not visit the Rocinha alone, book the visit with a local travel company.
Check activities available in Rio de Janeiro
We have a complete list of activities and excursions to enjoy Rio de Janeiro. One of these activities is the Jeep Tour to La Rocinha & Tijuca Forest
Other amazing activities in Rio de Janeiro
Enjoy our tours to visit Rio de Janeiro and other destinations in Brazil
Are you looking for tours to visit Rio de Janeiro and other destinations in Brazil? One of my favorites is the #453 – Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Iguazu Falls. Check more information by clicking in the image below
More tours to visit Rio de Janeiro and Brazil
We have a complete list of tours to visit Rio de Janeiro and other amazing destinations in Brazil. Check our complete list of tours for Brazil here
For more information, just contact us at info@ripioturismo.com
Thank you!
