Diomita Maurer’s Blog

For my simploring tour on Mady, May 25th, I picked “A Favela” from scoop.it SL Destinations. There were two entries and I picked Maddy Gynoid’s blogpost “Simtipp: A Favela – a place in Rio de Janeiro” (in German) and read it before I went visiting myself.

A Favela was designed and created by Fred Hamilton (frecoi) and Lotus Mastroianni, who call themselves “Riosisco Productions”. Back in 2019 I visited their creations HoPe (read here) and Kun-Tei-Ner (read here). Both sims were very impressing and I do remember them very well. To say it right in the beginning, A Favela is also impressive and is another masterpiece. But this time a real place was the inspiration for A Favela. Although favelas are found in urban areas throughout Brazil, many of the more famous ones exist in Rio.

A Favela – overview

A Favela is build on a skyplatform and only consumes roughly 4,000 prims of an adult full region. You can see the general set-up of the sim in the overview. There is one road that leads up the mountain between the houses. At the beginning and at the end the road vanishes in tunnels. Fred and Lotus added a picture texture of Rio’s favelas with the Christo Redentor statue as background so that A Favela melts into this background.

Impressions of “A Favela” (1)

The visit to A Favela starts at the lowest point next to a tunnel where the road comes from. Often people uses motor bike taxis to go up the hill and you find them right next to the landing point, there’s also a juice bar and around the corner are steep stairs leading through the houses. In that alley you find a shop for cold beer, postcards and drinks as well as a snack stand with Asian food.

Impressions of “A Favela” (2)

Walking up the road there is a lot to discover, simple plastic stools in front of the houses or sofas, some flowers as well as garbage, cats, chicken and even a pig and many other details. The houses are not accessible but nonetheless you see furnished balconies and backyards or small patios in front of the houses.

Impressions of “A Favela” (3)

Another eye catcher are big and colourful paintings on some house walls. All these little details make A Favela that outstanding. You sense the poverity but you also sense a particular form of peace and even happiness.

Impressions of “A Favela” (4)

The infrastructure of the favelas in real life is a big issue, be it power supply or internet, be it gas for cooking or water. When I wrote this simploring report I looked up wikipedia. You find more background information and pictures there and I added one RL picture into this post. It shows the blue water storage tons, that are widely spread in real life as well as at A Favela. I found out about their usage in a travel report. In particular the higher parts of the favela often lack water supply. Therefore people take the opportunity to fill the tanks with water when there is power to operate the pumps. You can also see a total mess of cables on many pictures, they might be legal or illegal, people simply help themself to get power or internet access.

Impressions of “A Favela” (5)

When you visit the higher parts of A Favela you should try to get to the backyards and on the roofs, you find more hidden terraces and places to sit and watch and you have a great view from up there.

Impressions of “A Favela” (6) – upper left is a picture from Rio’s favelas

I enjoyed my visit to A Favela and the little research about the favelas – and I took many pictures again. A Favela is another great place to visit in Second Life and it is another opportunity to visit a place far away without any safety risk, and quick and environmentally sound in addition. Thank you Fred Hamilton (frecoi) and Lotus Mastroianni for providing this project to us all!

Landmark to A Favela
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/You%20and%20me/14/12/2002
flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/groups/riosisco/
Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Favela
Maddy Gynoid’s blogpost “Simtipp: A Favela – a place in Rio de Janeiro” (in German)
http://echtvirtuell.blogspot.com/2020/05/simtipp-favela-place-in-rio-de-janeiro.html