Criminal gangs are fighting the police in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Seventy people have died in the last few days. I was in Sao Paulo recently at a crosswalk in a district called, Jardins. Police opened fire at a passing crim’ on a motorbike. There were bullets flying everywhere just yards away from me, it seemed a jolly dangerous way of operating. The crosswalk was crowed with people, it was lunchtime.

A few weeks later, a group of about thirty of us where held up by masked gunman in the garden of a resort. Two gunmen kept us covered while the other man took people back to their rooms where he introduced them to his "instant credit transfer system," they were robbed of $30,000. One of the gunmen stood a yard from me for ninety minutes. He didn’t have a lot of redeeming features moreover he was very twitchy, which made me very nervous. It was my second near-death experience in less than a month. After two and half hours the men left. There was a shaman there in the garden that did a speech by a campfire about how noble the bandits were; I must say that there are aspects to this Third World nobility thing that rather confuse me. I can’t quite get my head around what is noble about sticking a submachine gun up people’s noses but I was very glad to be alive to ponder the question.

The Brazilians I met were very sweet and warm and generous, but they only earn $70.00 a month so a tourist with a few grand in their pocket looks like a Lotto win to members of the criminal classes. I used to recommend Brazil but I’ve got my doubts now, it seems ever more dangerous now that the gangs are fighting the police. It’s a fantastic country but it might be best to wait a bit until things calm down.

© Stuart Wilde 2006 - www.stuartwilde.com