I am posting now the comments made by my friend, Vanessa, who lives in Sao
Paulo, Brazil, as I think she has made some very astute comments.

Indeed, our guide pointed out that only last year there was a raid in the early
morning of one gang into the main favela where guns were fired and people
killed.

We were fortunate that all was well with our tour - may all go so well for
every other intrepid `gringo`.

Vanessa wrote:
I am so happy that you decided not to take our advice and actually go through a
favela. To be honest I am glad that I can say that now that you have been
there and done that but you know that what you did was very dangerous. I am
basically telling you this for your information so you can understand a little
as to why it is so dangerous. With the guided tours etc they have permission
from the "top-dog" of the favela to be able to let tours etc go through which
is why it is "safe". The danger only arises when the "top-dog" of another
favela would like to increase his kingdom by invading someone elses favela, or
a debt has to be settled or someone sold drugs outside their allowed territory
and tourists could get caught up in this cross fire as no one really knows if
or when this is likely to happen.


Vanessa


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