“Little Slum Inn” Offers Priceless Views of Brazil

Breathtaking views high above Rio de Janeiro´s beaches and mountains can be yours for just a few dollars a day –if you skip pricey hotels and sleep in a slum.

Rio´s slums, or favelas, are infamous for drug and gang violence. But a new hostel called “The Little Slum Inn” is attracting adventurous tourists, mainly from Germany, France and the United States, who dare to live amid the grit and poverty.

“This place isn´t for wimps. If you are uptight, you can go stay at the Copacabana Palace,” said co-owner and shantytown dweller Andreia Martins, 31, referring to the luxury beachfront hotel where the Rolling Stones stayed last month when they played a free concert for more than 1 million people.

But the hostel owners say staying in the slum is safe. It has buried its violent past and gained a reputation as one of Rio´s calmest favelas since police killed a neighborhood drug lord in a shootout seven years ago. A police squad also trains there, so gangs avoid the slum.

Residents of most of Rio´s 600 shantytowns are not so lucky. Thugs employed by drug traffickers walk narrow streets with AK-47 assault rifles on their shoulders. Bloody clashes with police and rival gangs are common. Slum dwellers who work long hours for low pay as maids or gas station attendants then have to come home to a slum where they risk getting caught in gunfights.

A room with a double bed costs about $35 a night. It costs $15 a head to sleep in a large room for single backpackers.