i knew i would be stopped it was kind of done
with intent you know there's a lot happening in Pariasopolis which you don't see that's
what Pariasopolis and favelas are about community this is something i'll remember for the rest
of my life
Good morning and welcome to brazil once again i've just spent the last few hours walking
around paraisopolis a favela in sao paulo brazil i've just come out the other end to
go to a car park to get some drone shots uninterrupted but i'm heading back into Pariasopolis now
to take a look around and talk about some of the things that i've seen and my impressions
things like that there's a guy going off in his car there we're heading just back into
the favela now um which is up in that direction yes i am a white foreigner going into a favela
by myself that's absolutely my choice i would absolutely not recommend you doing so if you're
in a similar position to me if you want to visit a favela in brazil i would recommend
doing a tour or if you know a local ask them to show you around
now we will be meeting up with some locals in a little bit i'll come on to that in a
bit but firstly let's have a bit of a walk around Pariasopolis with some various shots
that i've got this morning the first thing that you recognize is the absolute stark contrast
between Pariasopolis paradise city in comparison to the surrounding area of Morumbi which is
very much a luxury high-end affluent area with mansions with high-rise buildings with
swimming pools on every floor it's actually absolutely striking the difference in equality
in these areas Pariasopolis is home to between 80 000 and 100 000 people absolutely a humongous
number of people living in a relatively small area many people think that a favela is this
inherently bad awful terrible place full of crime drugs organized crime kidnappings and
murders i'm not denying that that isn't an issue when you get to a lower income area
like this you do find there is infrastructure there is running water there is electricity
there is banks pet shops hairdressers you name it
hello angel
hello
you walk the streets you see cats you see dogs you see people everyday people going
about their daily business doing what they have to do to get by in life as we all do
you know and there is this again misconception that people also in a in a lower income area
are inherently bad but they come from a background involved in crime and everything like that
but the people i've seen today are welcoming and polite i'm saying hello to old ladies
on the street i'm smiling at people they're smiling at me are people looking at me strangely
like you know what is this weird foreigner doing here they're not doing that um and and
that's something that has kind of astounded me i when i was in rio i went to Rocinha the
favela i was astounded by the infrastructure as i've mentioned bakeries there was an amazing
dolce de leche donut yes these pictures i'm showing you are from 2009 when i was 27 many
years ago there were schools everything in these areas which you wouldn't necessarily
expect unless you come to them look there are so many absolute beautiful fluffy angels
in Pariasopolis absolutely gorgeous
hello
okay fast forward a bit later i'm with Renata y Marie and that's Giva is over there and
we're at the social pavilion and favela express.
Is that the office?
Over here is the distribution area.
Bicycles and motorbikes are used.
Distribution area?
Yes.
Here's Giva?
The founder?
Yes!
Ah that's cool, G10 Favelas.
Cristiano he speaks English.
okay
oh okay okay i'm so glad i met these wonderful ladies Renata and marie and also Giva because
they brought me to a place and given me an understanding of Pariasopolis also cristiano
on the phone who spoke english and yeah here's one of the vans the favela brazil express
he told me so much amazing information they're planning to you know expand to other favelas
in brazil but not only brazil in other areas of latin america so the transport options
for the delivery guys from Pariasopolis they have like a tuk-tuk kind of thing um this
is so cool and they've also got like bikes with uh big containers on the back um they
deliver anything from food from um i've read gaming chairs as well you know um pretty much
anything that is available anywhere else in sao paulo and elsewhere in brazil can now
be delivered to a favela like Pariasopolis accessibility is the key so it is the 100th
birthday of Pariasopolis dating back to 1922 of course i think it was last year the guy
just told me it was september 2021.
i did read somewhere that supposedly there's there's disagreement with that it's actually
1950 um i think a community leader is more adamant that it's 1950 but you know this says
that it's 100 years happy anniversary oh gerson rodriguez okay oh okay okay oh okay national
president of favelas ah okay okay
gerson rodriguez okay this is um a like a kitchen a community kitchen for for you know
making meals for people actually in Pariasopolis another great cause you've got chefs working
away in there cooking big pots um this is uh this is where the um food is collected
so basically they there's a big long queue you can see the food that's prepared in that
kitchen is then collected kind of like a food bank for like sort of vulnerable people in
the area or people with uh you know limited funds um you know all these people going away
with uh with meals for the day you know there's a lot happening in Pariasopolis which you
know you don't see on the news you know so here we are okay so this cafe so salgados
like snacks and um sweets yeah cakes and things yeah drinks we've got sandwiches there and
oh cochina with chicken ah my favorite
look at this nice sunny community garden yeah oh wow
Be careful.
Super safe!
Strawberries!
Yes!
Lettuce, yes?
It's a hydroponic system
yeah so all these herbs and fruits and things i believe are all grown for that kitchen so
um ingredients and things for people's meals really indoor yeah so this newspaper they
do all of the um communication for all businesses like a media center um and um yeah all businesses
um in Pariasopolis or this area um have you know videos done things like that for social
media to let everyone know what's sort of going on um in Pariasopolis there are some
models from the favela so basically they make the clothing in there like a sewing center
you know it's a business clothing business from within the favela with locals as uh models
are they locals yes locals so local people from uh Pariasopolis modelling the clothes
that are made here very cool this is really amazing like you know proper street wear you
know modern clothing for people in Pariasopolis oh and there's more
okay oh so a great uh capacity in here yeah okay so sewing I learnt a new word!
see yeah the the uh very beautiful this is
nice isn't it happy anniversary
for Pariasopolis what really impresses me here is that Giva the guy the entrepreneur
who set this up who came up with this idea a real opportunity for people in this area
he's 21 or he was 21 when it was set up when i was 21 did i have the the foresight the
initiative the expertise to do something like that no i didn't yes i wasn't in a situation
in which it was necessary but you know it's astounding it's admirable it's exceptional
that there are people in the world in places like this that really see opportunities for
people and want to make their community better that's what Pariasopolis and favelas are about
community they're not about danger they're not about crime yes of course those things
exist but on the whole it is about that community feeling and people working together to improve
life because you know at the end of the day we all end up in the same place at the end
of the day we're all the same we're all people just because someone is from a favela doesn't
mean that they are inherently bad what an amazing experience okay we've left the pavilion
area and i'm heading out of the favela now but before i go i had to get some favela food
or should i say brazil food because this is a pastel and it is wonderful so here is a
pastel if i can get it out of the bag look at it it was freshly cooked in front of me
which as per the rest of today i couldn't really film um look at it it's golden it's
crispy and it's full of cheese the table is wobbling but just have a look at this look
at the the heat coming out of it okay it's difficult to do with my uh little camera but
let's see
oh my god it's just right light oh god there's the cheese light fluffy cheesy and full of
air they say like 50 of it is just air and 50 is the filling we've got cheese we've got
grease everything is good
so you can get these with a variety of fillings carne meat i had one with calabresa like ham
the other day and also frango chicken but this cheese is i don't know how i haven't
had it before because it is just divine okay the thing about those pastel is they're surprisingly
filling despite the fact that they're kind of full of air um but the good thing is i
can save that for later and once again a huge thank you to the ladies in Pariasopolis today
hmm
i'm on my way home now with my pastel in my bag well half of it anyway there is ayrton
senna there is his mclaren honda from 1991 if you haven't seen the previous video all
about the absolute legend that is senna then i suggest you watch it because it's a good
one okay before i go out to film the next video i wanted to end this video by saying
a few things firstly to reiterate do not do this if you are watching this thinking i want
to go and film a video in a favela don't do it or even just go to a favela by yourself
absolutely do not do it this is purely for youtube purposes and the fact that i'm a bit
of an idiot i wanted to say about the fact that there was something expected in this
video and also unexpected expected in terms of the fact i knew i would be stopped it was
kind of done with intent i'm not that naive to think that i can go to a favela and film
a regular video as normal without any kind of authorization even tour groups need authorization
from locals before they take foreigners into a favela i kind of didn't expect them to be
so accommodating and they were the guy that stopped me on the bike yeah there was a little
bit of rough and tumble and being kind of held captive for a little while but in terms
of how he responded and how we sort of conversed with each other it was great he was very helpful
believe it or not you know he understood why i was there of course these people you know
they might think that i'm a policeman or i'm a reporter of some kind that's absolutely
understandable what they would think that and they reacted in the right way i think
if i was in their position i would react to someone walking around filming in the same
way but he took me to marie and renata he didn't need to do that you know he took time
out of his day she both of those ladies took time out of their day to show me around that
favela express place which was the absolute intent of this video i only planned to talk
about that for a little bit but i was kind of hoping that i weirdly that i would get
stopped and i would have the opportunity to be taken to somewhere like that to show you
something absolutely amazing going on in a favela and to very much quash those misconceptions
that everyone in the favela is bad as i've described throughout the thing i would say
with this video is that if i wasn't able to speak i'm not gonna say speak spanish obviously
i wasn't speaking portuguese very much in this video things would have been very different
so i cannot emphasize the importance of language confidence in a language and i very much feel
quite proud of myself in relation to the language point i was having you know in-depth conversations
about um favorite places and food in mexico with a random guy that spoke spanish it just
rubbed off my tongue so you know if you're not in a position where you can at least string
a few sentences together in spanish or portuguese then you're gonna have a problem and and i
know you're probably gonna say at the end of this or in the comments you know you're
so stupid you're an idiot going into a favela thank you that is a compliment because i do
not want to stay safe if i hadn't put myself in this position i wouldn't have been able
to achieve what i did and meet the people i did in this video this is something i'll
remember for the rest of my life if i had just stayed home watching something on netflix
i'm not gonna remember that am i as they say you know no good stories come from eating
a salad brilliant i've really enjoyed making this video it's probably one of my favorites
of all time so thank you for watching don't forget to subscribe like comment because there
are about a million more videos coming from brazil over the next three months um hopefully
not involving riding on the back of some random guy's bike through a favela lovely um i'll
see you soon and i'll see you in the next video catch you later