I still have non-Brazilian friends who think São Paulo is fine to visit We hired a great Uber driver to drive us to Florianopolis, like a 3 hour trip, cause was easier than flying then, very nice guy While driving I sat in the back talking a bit with him and practicing my Portuguese Then I noticed he didn't wear a seatbelt so I asked why He said "so I can draw my gun quickly" I said "desculpa the fuck what gun" Then he showed he was wearing a holster on his right side with a gun it which he carried for safety because he said drive into and out of São Paulo often So being a funny naive Dutch guy I asked "so did you ever kill someone?" He said "yes I killed a guy last year who came at me and who tried steal my car in São Paulo" And then he told me he was in a judicial trial about it and being prosecuted for it I asked him again in the naive Dutch guy perspective "did you get like therapy after? like must be intense right, do you feel bad about that? He said "no why? If I didn't kill him he would have killed me" ☠️ Foreigners especially Europeans have no clue how violent São Paulo and Rio are, it's just not in their mental framework to be able to understand the danger, Brazilians themselves are surprisingly honest and realistic about it There a reason I stay the F out of São Paulo I mpstly stick to South Brazil, it's safe, not as safe as Europe but mostly very safe and not really violent. The violence and crime there seems mostly isolated between gangs and in the few favelas there About that too I asked Brazilians "why is South Brazil so safe?" And they mostly agreed when a guy told me "because the police here shoot to kill" while in São Paulo and Rio the police is too scared to get prosecuted for killing people