While waiting in line, some tourists touch up their makeup to parade on the roof of a little house in the Favela Rocinhaposing for a zooming drone showing the aerial view of the hillside community.
With a catchy musical base, the video of this town has gone viral on social networks just when Rio is registering record numbers of tourists.
The success of the attraction is such that some visitors wait up to two hours to record themselves, for a price of at least $30.
Recently, there was even a marriage proposal.
But it has also generated some discomfort, with dozens of comments accusing visitors of romanticizing poverty and crime in a low-income community where drug traffickers operate.
“We are not romanticizing poverty. We want to change the prejudice that exists in people’s minds,” Renan Monteiro, founder of the company, denies to AFP. At Favela Tourism.
The video is the result of efforts to show tourists “the positive side of the favela,” he maintains.
Monteiro explains that they can only reach the rooftop to film themselves through a tour, in which they walk through a labyrinth of alleys, visit local artists or attend a capoeira show, while the neighbors continue with their daily lives.
Rocinha “has this image that it is something bad, dangerous… I thought it was really charming to see the atmosphere,” says Gabriel Pai, a 38-year-old Costa Rican, after posing for his drone shot.
Ingrid Oharaa Brazilian influencer with 12 million followers on Instagram and 20 million on TikTokhe didn’t want to miss the opportunity either.
She crosses the rooftop in a bathing cap and robe before taking it off to reveal a skimpy dress, spinning as the drone zooms away.
“These videos I make have a lot of views, and that’s why I wanted to make one in Rocinha, because it’s going viral all over the world,” he tells AFP.
The images “show our country, our Rio de Janeiro, this is part of our culture,” he adds.
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Tourism in Rocinha
Monteiro, who grew up in Rocinha, remembers the early days of tourism in the favela, when foreigners showed up in open jeeps.
Together with community leaders, he traced tourist routes and created an application to track the location of the guides.
If there is a police operation against drug traffickers, the guides communicate to cancel the visits in progress.
His company has trained 300 local guides and ten drone pilots.
Pilot Pedro Lucas, 19, said he had few prospects before this job “changed” his life.
“I earn a good amount of money and it would be good if more people in the favela had the same opportunity.”
The owners of 26 rooftops and terraces in Rocinha and neighboring Vidigal also charge to allow tourist visits.
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