This is a view of the hill that I walk up and down every day. It leads from the main drag with all the bus stops up to my apartment building. I have nicknamed it "Scary Hill" for 2 reasons. First of all, as you can see there really is no sidewalk. There is kind of a mini-one on the right side, but it is below a bunch of houses and people are known for dropping stuff out of the windows, spitting, etc and so you take your chances if you walk on that side. Plus it is the side that goes with traffic, so is not so safe if you try to walk just off the small sidewalk in an attempt to avoid being rained on by unknown objects from above.People drive like complete maniacs here and cars generally speed up and down the hill and take little or no notice of pedestrians. I have more than once had to kind of jump off to the side (there are parts of the hill where this is not an option as you are walking on the edge of a ledge!) in order to avoid being nailed by a speeding car, usually driven by someone who is talking on their cell phone and not paying attention.
The second reason that this hill is scary is that it borders a favela (slum). My apartment is actually in an upper-middle class neighborhood, but I am on the edge of this neighborhood which borders a favela. I was going to walk down this hill to take a picture of the favela, but there were a bunch of guys sitting at the top of the hill and I didn´t want them to see that I had a camera with me. So I will try to get a pic at a later date.
Here is a picture of the street that my building is on. So after you walk up the hill, you turn onto this street and my apartment is like 1/2 a block up on the right. I always breathe a sigh of relief when I get up to the top of the hill in one piece. My street is super quiet, super chill and I feel safe because there are security guys who work in most of the buildings keeping an eye on things. I could always ask to be let into a building if I needed to.
I thought you all might like to see a bit more about my day to day, and where I live is certainly a part of this! Enjoy :)
1 comment:
y are u scared of the favelas?
the people who live there are real people. they are not all criminals. matter of fact the people in the favelas are the cogs who keep Salvador running. the vast majority of them are very hard working people. they slave away and build Brazil up for the few who sit at the top looking down on them.
not that u are at the top looking down on them but u shouldn't be scared to walk by the favela. oh by the way I live in Salvador also...
this attitude is the same way white people act in the usa towards black neighborhoods. absolutely terrified to step foot in the "hood".
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