At the entrance to the Favela Tavares Bastos in Rio de Janeiro, Luis, our driver and guide, clicks on the automatic locking of the car doors.
"There is Europe in Rio and there is Africa in it," he tells us.
"Welcome to Africa".
To get to Africa Mario, you don't need to cross the ocean - just cross the road.
The favelas - the famous slums of the city - are scattered throughout its parts and literally touch its "normal" neighborhoods, and often the luxury neighborhoods as well.
But despite the easy accessibility, the favelas are beyond the reach of the local authorities and the Brazilian state.
These are ex-territories that the police do not enter, and they are conducted in a sort of distorted autonomy controlled by local crime lords.
Even the entry of tourists, except through an organized tour that takes place in cooperation with parties inside the favela, is not practically possible, since the chance of being robbed - or worse - is extremely high.
"In Rio there is Europe and there is Africa", the landscape Tabras Bastos in Rio, photo: Tamir Moorg
No one knows exactly how many people live in favelas, but most estimates speak of between two and three million of Rio's nearly seven million residents (not including the suburbs).
Most of them, at least in the southern and touristic part of the city, were built on the mountain sides in the second half of the 20th century, by villagers who came to Rio destitute, in search of work.
The comfortable areas in the valleys were already built, and thus the unique construction style of the favelas on the steep slopes of the surrounding mountains was created.
The well-known slums in Brazil, Tavares favela Bastos in Rio, photo: Tamir Morgue,
Favelas exist in most major cities in Brazil, but those of Rio are particularly famous.
The city is one of the most desirable and popular tourist destinations in the world, so its favelas receive more exposure.
In addition to that, the fact that they are not concentrated in the outskirts of Rio, but are also scattered in the heart of the tourist area on the edge of the bay, makes them a unique phenomenon and produces surreal landscape images, of the third world and the first world that are almost mixed into each other.
We enter Tavares Bastos in Luis's yellow cab.
"Many taxi drivers work as bouncers for the local drug dealers, so the chance that someone will try to rob us is low," he explains to us.
The transition from the close-knit neighborhood of Catata into the favela is very sharp, and in seconds we drive through narrow alleys of houses from Timim Lepil, in an urban landscape reminiscent of a refugee camp.
It is a weekday lunchtime, but only a few people are walking in the alleys.
It is possible that many of them are simply working outside the favela, since its residents are immersed in the life of the city and do not necessarily confine themselves to it.
One of the things that catches the eye is that white residents also live in the favela - not only blacks or mulattoes.
"Race doesn't separate people in Brazil," Luis explains to us, "only money. If you don't have it, it doesn't matter if you're white or black - you'll probably be forced to live in a favela."
Jorge's house
Luis stops the taxi near the house of Jorge, a personal friend of his who is our host.
The first thing that stands out to the eye is the amazing view of the bay and the city that can be seen from the street, and stands in stark contrast to the neglected facades of houses that were built in an improvised manner.
Jorge comes out to us and greets us with a smile.
He does not speak English (a phenomenon typical of the vast majority of Brazilians, even outside the favelas), and Luis acts as an interpreter.
Jorge's pub inside his house in the Tabras Bastos favela, photo: Tamir Morg,
We enter a house that looks almost completely normal inside, with the exception of the rather steep stairs without railings that connect the four narrow levels, each of which is relatively small.
Every level of the house on the side of the mountain has a balcony with an amazing view, and in one of them Jorge runs a pub from which he makes a living, and is used by the residents of the favela.
Thanks to their special economic structure, some of the residents of the favelas manage to live at an acceptable level, even though they earn meager amounts of money even in relation to the way in Brazil.
The residents of the favelas do not pay taxes to the municipality or the Brazilian government - if representatives of the income tax enter the neighborhood, it is likely that they will not leave it alive.
On the other hand, in the favela there is a thriving economy, with small workshops, garages, service providers and, as mentioned, even pubs and places of entertainment.
All of these business owners pay taxes to the boss of the favela, who usually lives in a mansion he built inside, and in many cases also owns a penthouse or a luxurious mansion elsewhere in the city.
The bay of Rio from Tabras Bastos, photo: Tamir Morg,
Certain service providers have a monopoly: for example, if you want to purchase gas for heating, you cannot do so through the known companies, but only through the "authorized" supplier of the favela who pays tax to the local boss.
The residents do not pay for electricity, since the favelas are connected to the municipal electricity network in a pirated manner, and no one disputes this.
The Brazilian police and security forces do not enter the favelas.
The parliament of the state of Rio even voted in favor of a proposed resolution that forbids the police to enter them.
The official reasoning was to "protect the local population from police violence", but it is clear to everyone that this is a corrupt deal between the bosses of the favelas and politicians, at least some of whom received bribes.
Every stranger in the favela is a legitimate target for robbery, but the internal code strictly forbids harming the residents of the neighborhood.
Whoever robbed one of the residents or hurt him without justification will give the judgment to the local bosses.
In some of the favelas there have been horrific cases of a phenomenon that has been nicknamed "microwave".
As part of it, residents who robbed their friends were punished by the local bosses by placing car tires in a pile around their bodies, and after pouring fuel on the tires - they set the victim on fire.
We wrote Tamir Morg from Tabras Pavelet in Stos, Photo: None
Ahead of the Olympics held in Rio in 2016, the Brazilian army entered the favelas in order to cleanse them and ensure the safety of the thousands of sports fans and athletes who flooded the city.
Real gunfights were held between the alleys, but the effect was short-lived - in the vast majority of favelas, reality returned to itself shortly after the end of the games.
However, in some of them the Brazilian state nevertheless managed to send the first buds of sovereignty, mainly in the form of public schools that were established there.
In the south of the city, where, as mentioned, many of the favelas enjoy an attractive location, some of them are even operated by foreign entrepreneurs promoting "clearance-construction" projects.
At the same time, since the favelas are huge and millions of people live in them, it does not seem that they will disappear in the foreseeable future.
We go up to the last level in Jorge's house.
This is the roof, from which there is a breathtaking view.
On the large concrete surface, one side of which faces the blue bay of Rio and the other side is adjacent to the mountainside, the next house will be built - of course in an improvised manner, without permits or any registration in the tabu.
This is how the favela grows up the mountains that overlook Rio, and continues to exist as a separate autonomy in the heart of this beautiful city, which mixes in an impossible way between eye-popping Western wealth and Third World poverty.
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