Stephen's 2013 Summer Blog: Rio's brand new cable car system travels deep into one of the world's great slums

Teleferico do Alemao, Rio's new German cable car system travels deep into a recently pacified giant Favela.

I took a ride on what maybe one of the experiences of a life time. The current Brazilian government built this new cable car system that goes deep into a recently impenetrable giant Favela (slum) as part of its on-going urban pacification program.

Here is a classic Rio tune "Cidade Maravilhosa" The Marvelous City, for you to enjoy while you read this blog.

This just completed 3.5 kilometer cable car system uses German technology and takes local residents into places that before the recent pacification program (actually a war) were inaccessible. This Favela constitutes a city unto of its self. These pictures and videos cannot possibly convey the magnitude of this place.

Video from the cable car base station. Leaving the station traveling up into the Favela.

This area is still not really considered a tourist destination

yet. It resides in the vast "Northern Zone", An area not even shown on the tourist maps which concentrate on the southern part of the city. What made this adventure so wondrous is the unexpectedness of the whole experience.

I had glimpsed what I thought was a series of cable cars from the distance when traveling up to the mountains and Petropolis a few days earlier. You have to transverse along the edge of Rio's northern zone in order to leave the city.

I had heard of a similar system that was built in Colombia and they have recently proposed one for Round Rock to Austin (without much credibility). I had not heard one had been built in Rio and was incredulous. Then I saw a short piece on it on the local TV. Nothing however prepared me for the enormity of what I experienced. The vastness of the slum and the isolation of the people living in the center was truly overwhelming. The task of bringing some semblance of law and order to a no-mans land controlled by the drug gangs is an on going experiment. The shear size of the problems and the amount of people involved seemed insurmountable.

The trip along Botofogo beach passes the monument to Rio's founder.

Brazil's monument to its fallen troops in WWII in Botofogo.

The trip started out with a bus ride through the ares I have been accustomed to. The trip traversed from the wealthiest to the poorest. The trip goes past Botofogo and the more recently constructed "Founder's Monument".

Rio City Hall with huge banner. In Brazil they use LGBTT, Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transvestites and Transsexuals.

After traveling through the beach areas and downtown, we passed the tall Rio City Hall with a huge banner promoting "Rio without homophobia". Interesting how they continue to openly promote it in the face of the pope's visit (he fought a vigorous battle against Argentina's recent legalization of same sex marriage while still the archbishop of Buenos Aries).

Rio's port which stays very busy now serving the off-shore oil rigs.

We cross the port area and the surroundings begin to get increasing bleak and unattended to. We final reach the area which abuts the vast Favela. This Favela until very recently was a literal no-mans land where the police had no presence and the drug gangs with huge armies of heavily armed children ruled the neighborhoods.

Clean doesn't even properly describe it. You feel you're in Germany.

The Cable Car system begins in a poorer class working neighborhood. The Favela almost begins immediately. The Base station is a real shock. Right out of Europe. Clean and modern, you could eat off the floor. This is something quite unusual in grimy Rio.

They even have a Britto piece on Carmen Miranda.

The system consists of 152 gondolas operating through six hill top stations stretching across 3.5 kilometers in length.

The whole complex is a testament to German engineering.

My fellow passengers for the beginning of the trip consisted of young screaming tourists as well as some mildly irritated favela residents.

Some of my fellow passengers thought they were in Disney World.

The police have built modern versions of the old wild west frontier army posts at each hill top station. These police are heavily armed, with even huge "Bowie" type knives. Clearly the cable car system and the pacification of this vast favela are tied together.

These hill top police stations were obviously designed to withstand major drug gang assaults. Note the louvered terraces running around the perimeter.

These guys were even more armed then the troops in Iraq. These police are the pacification teams. The troops that took the favelas first under control were called BOPE.

A short official video of those elite forces is at the bottom of this post.

View from last station on top.