So today I had the fortune of getting to spend a day inside one of Rio de Janeiro's shanty towns, known locally as a favela. The favelas in Rio are all located in prime real estate, typically built up the side of the big hills, with views facing the ocean. Multi-million dollar views, and the real estate is occupied by the poorest people in society.

The experience was such an incredible one for me, I learnt a lot about the history of these fascinating places and it's people. I also managed to capture some incredible images, about 10 blog posts worth so I'll have to drip feed them to you!

The favela we traveled through has been part of a police project to clean up the neighbourhood, so it was relatively safe for tourist walk throughs. But others in Brazil are pretty much no go zones, as the residents reside with a law unto themselves. Even though these residents were happy to have us walk through their winding pathways, I couldn't help but feel like an obnoxious intruder... my massive camera equipment didn't help my cause either!

The laws around occupying a favela are unusual. You stay on the land for 5 years or more consecutively, and you own the space. You also could 'buy' a space, but it'd cost you approx $16,000US; but with the average wage less than $300US per month, this is unlikely. So most residents have space because they were born there and or married into it. You can build up as many storeys as you want, but not out (you can't knock down jungle). So most roofs are flat so people can keep adding levels. They're all builders. And buildings are made up of scrap materials, including tin cans. Up until very recently, the residents paid no water or electricity usage. Now it's pay per use - and they're not happy.

There's so much to say about Santa Marta. I'll post more with more highlights soon.