“Don’t flush if you only do a wee”, Zezinho tells me politely but firmly when I ask for the loo. “Water is rationed here – our building gets 1,000 litres a month, so we don’t like to waste it”, he explains pointedly while stroking a purring, lazy cat so large it makes his hand look tiny.
Welcome to Rocinha, the largest favela in Rio de Janeiro. The bus journey itself is a crash-course in the sociology of the Latin American giant. Route 546 starts its route in Leblon, Rio’s poshest neighbourhood, where the city’s well-heeled like to exhibit their gadgets, clothes and pets for all to see. Many a face has frozen in wealth, rejuvenated artificially with the aid of scalpels and syringes – like imported luxury cars, lapdogs and designer shades, plastic surgery is a status symbol to be proudly displayed.
With officially 70,000 inhabitants but probably 300,000…
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msamba 
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