Brazil with Michael Palin (2012–…): Season 1, Episode 3 - The Road to Rio - full transcript

MICHAEL PALIN: I've been travelling
the world for the past 25 years.

I've met so many people
in so many countries

that everyone thinks of me
as the man who's been everywhere.

But in all these years, there's been
one big gap in my passport.

Nothing less than
the fifth largest country on Earth.

A country blessed with a melting pot of
peoples and an abundance of resources.

A country that's risen
almost out of nowhere

to become a 21st-century superpower.

It's the host of the next World Cup
and the next Olympic Games.

It's a country whose time has come.

How can I say I've seen the world
when I haven't seen Brazil?



Okay, waterfall. We defy you.

We defy you!

Modern Brazil was forged
in the northeast,

where the huge sugar plantations
created the country's first real wealth.

But by the 18th century,
the importance of sugar had declined.

The balance of power moved south

towards the mineral and coffee-rich
state of Minas Gerais

and the new capital of Rio de Janeiro.

I'm going to be following this trail
from the still immensely rich

mining area of Minas Gerais here

to what's become one of the most
famous cities in the world,

Rio de Janeiro.

(SAMBA MUSIC PLAYING)

(CHILDREN SHRIEKING)



Someone once described
this mineral-rich area

as having a breast of iron
and a heart of gala'.

I'm going straight to the heart,

courtesy of a British engine
installed in 7825.

It's not so comfortable
when you are high.

-For your legs.
-No, exactly.

-Tall miners, no good.
-Yeah.

And this looks like it's gonna
crash your head, but it's not danger.

Okay, all right.

Accompanied by Ícaro,
I'm about to enter a gold mine,

closed recently after 227 years
of production.

It was originally worked by slaves,

who'd often secrete
gold dust in their hair or clothing

in the hope of using it
to buy their freedom.

-Okay.
-So this was dynamited.

-Yes.
-This space was made by explosions.

Yeah, after the explosions,
they used by hand

to get rocks
and they put in the trolleys.

-So this is not a natural cave?
-It's not natural.

-Oh, wow!
-It's industrial.

PALIN: So you said the English
worked this mine for a while.

One hundred years. From 1827 to 1927.

-Really?
-Yes.

So most of the time,
in the life of the mine, the gold,

was that going straight back to England?

Yes, but it is not official

how many tonnes of gold
England take from here.

-Not official.
-Yeah.

Because nobody knows where it went.

-And what's that little sort of…
-Okay.

-She is Saint Barbara.
-What are those there?

They are lipstick, because she is vain.

-She's vain.
-Yeah.

-So she likes to look good.
-Yeah.

So you bring her something
to make her look better.

-That's it.
-Yeah, yeah.

-Were the miners very religious?
-Yes.

Because they were doing a dangerous job.

-Yes.
-They had to believe that someone

was looking after them.

And she works a lot.
In the Catholic religion,

she is protector of the miners,
storm, firemen…

-Yeah.
-A lot of jobs she has.

So Saint Barbara has
got a lot to look after here.

ÍCARO: Yes.

Where would gold have been found?
And what kind of…

The rock that there is gold inside
is all rocks near of the quartz.

-White quartz.
-Yes.

-Melanite, the black one.
-Melanite.

And some rock is shining, there is gold.

-Calcite, call it calcite.
-Right.

We don't have golden nuggets,
just golden powder.

-Later you separate.
-You've got to pan it.

So they don't come out
as blocks of gold.

-Yes, just in powder.
-Okay.

PALIN: The water there is very clear.
ÍCARO: Very clear.

But you cannot drink.

For that I kid it's very good to
get a bottle for mother-in-law,

because there is arsenic inside.

Mother-in-law jokes?
In a cave in Brazil?

Yes.

It was gold that paid
for the handsome buildings

of one of Brazil's most
picturesque cities,

Ouro Preto,

its streets almost unchanged
since the 18th century.

Churches built in gratitude
for nature's bounty

are everywhere in the town,

standing on conspicuous bluffs,

like precious objects set on shelves.

The current mayor
is at pains to point out

that the city's air of stability
and prosperity

was hard won.

MAYOR: Here, among these mountains,

would be the worst place
to build a city.

Tropical forests, Indians,
mountains, rivers, rains.

It was really very difficult.
A big challenge.

But it was the richest area
in black gold.

PALIN: Because Ouro Preto
means black gold.

-Black gold.
-Gold enclosed in…

-Enclosed in iron…
-Yes.

PALIN: So there was a gold rush?

MAYOR: Yes, a gold rush.

And they thought that
they were in El Dorado.

It was a heaven, it was a paradise.

PALIN: The city has rebranded itself

as an important
cultural and academic centre.

In a country where they're more proud
of the present than the past,

Ouro Preto is a dazzling exception.

The precious metals of Minas Gerais

lie beneath outstandingly
beautiful countryside.

And there's an ongoing struggle
to balance the claims of the environment

and the economy.

My journey takes me through
the Serra do Cipo National Park,

which exists to protect
30,000 square kilometres

of high plateau habitat,

with rare birds, mammals
and 2, 000 species of plants.

But as I'm to find out today,

mining is not the only threat
to the environment.

The rain belts down
as our vehicle

slithers along a sodden dirt track.

Yet the trees seem
to have been stripped by fire.

A minor cataclysm has
happened here,

as I discover when I reach a house
that only just survived.

Hello.

-Flick, is this your house?
-This is my house.

Flick Taylor,
a resourceful New Zealander,

has lived in the National Park
most of her adult life.

She's passionate about nature,
but only a day or two ago,

it very nearly killed her.

It was four days of fire

right around us.
And it was…

I can actually say it was the most
frightening experience of my life.

I actually spotted it
about 10 kilometres away,

sitting out there, on my veranda
with my computer.

And it was very, very hot.
Very, very dry.

It hadn't rained for two months.

And it just slowly came down.

And, so the next morning,

it was already here at my neighbour's.

And then it jumped the road
and it came roaring down.

It was a living hell.

I could see it coming
and what do I do?

So I got my little garden hose out
and I'm watering it down,

I'm saying,
thinking, going through my mind,

"What the hell am I doing?"

You know, I'm playing
with fire, basically.

And the reason I'm here is
to try to conserve nature.

And here I am,
a victim of it.

So there were all those
questions in my mind.

So you were actually
beginning to be a bit sort of defeatist.

You don't look like the sort
of person who gets easily…

I was those days.

But then I thought,
"No, I just love it so much."

Flick first came to Brazil
in the 1960s

as an exchange student.

She fell in love with the country

and shipped the family treasures
all the way from New Zealand

to create the most
elegant of log cabins.

Having survived the fire,
she's returned with renewed resolve

to the fight that
really matters to her.

FLICK: Our big problem is
the mining here.

They are building the biggest
duct in the world.

It goes to the port in Rio

and they're about to
bring in 9,000 men

into this little
historical city right close.

And it's changed everything overnight.

Socially, economically,
culturally, historically.

Because they're pulling down
old colonial farms and everything.

Flick has got a battle on her hands.

The gold may have run out,
but iron ore,

the black in which
the gold was first found,

now underpins Brazil's
economic boom.

(TRAIN HORN BLOWING)

And most of it is here
in Minas.

A series of huge, manmade craters

has been scoured
out of the surrounding plateau.

Like this one, dug by Vale,

the world's second largest
iron ore producer.

Everything here is larger than life,

including the trucks that carry
the excavated rocks up to the surface.

When I'm in the cab,
it's like being on the bridge of a ship.

Dagmar, my driver,

brings up 150-tonne loads of rock
each trip.

Twelve million tonnes of iron ore
were produced here last year,

much of it going to China.

Al' present, production goes on
24 hours a day, seven days a week.

But world demand
is beginning to wobble.

Another iron ore train
leaves for the coast.

But Brazil's mining industry
might soon have to start slowing down.

Away from the mining operations,

the Brazilian outback
remains delightfully eccentric.

I've been directed to
a small farm in the hills

to see something
rather remarkable.

I'm told one of your cows
has five legs.

Is this possible?

TRANSLATOR: Yes, it has five legs and
two reproductive and digestive systems.

Two places for peeing
and two for shitting.

(BOTH LAUGHING)

That's…

We would all like to have that.

Yeah, yes.

TRANSLATOR: When that calf was born,
all the neighbourhood knew about it.

It became famous.

Nobody had ever heard
anything like this in the area.

That's what I called her "Surprise".

(BOTH LAUGHING)

PALIN: The ever-cheerful owner
of the mutant cow

is Josair Branco.

Born and bred in this remote spot,

he's a subsistence farmer,

producing everything he needs,

from chickens to coffee
to milk and beef.

TRANSLATOR: Yes, my father built
the house you see in the back there,

where he then raised his family.

I only built
this house 10 years ago.

We all grew up
in the old house.

My father was
from a German family

and my mother
from an English family.

Did you go to school round here?

What sort of education did you have?

TRANSLATOR: I went to the school
round here for five years,

but to be honest,
I didn't learn much

and what I learned, I forgot.

I've worked on the farm
since I was eight,

working in the fields and stables.

All my life, I've provided
for my family by working on the farm.

I was never an employee,

I never had a boss
and never worked in the city.

I have an okay life now.

It's not full of riches,
but of tranquillity.

PALIN: Good man.

From the simplicity of Josair's farm,

I'm off to one of the
fastest growing cities in Brazil,

the state capital of Minas,
Belo Horizonte.

Reflecting the mineral and agricultural
abundance that surrounds it,

it's grown from provincial backwater to
the sixth biggest city in the country.

The huge central market is filled
with everything you could ever want

and lots of it.

Cheese.

Cheese, again.

A lot of cheese shops.

Actually, I have to say,

it's not a very interesting observation,
but I've never seen so many cheese shops

in one area in my entire life.

There's another one
there and there.

All looks a bit the same.
You know, kind of that rather whitey

cheese.

But I think they eat it here
with coffee and all sorts of stuff.

Coffee continues to be
a big money-earner for Brazil.

It's taken so seriously

that this city has its own
academy of coffee,

dedicated entirely to its
preparation and dispensation.

Its hyperactive owner
is Bruno Souza.

And this is from my family farm,
my dad's farm.

-Your dad's farm.
-Yeah.

We only produce
25 bags of this coffee a year.

This is the best,
as far as you're concerned.

Not just because it's your dad.

You know what? This is different.
They call this coffee "Sweet Tooth".

It's very sweet.

Like, my wife hates this coffee.

So coffee's really important
to Minas still.

BRUNO: Yes. It is the biggest,
the big…

Only before the iron.

PALIN: Right.
Only the iron ore is bigger. Yeah.

Now they are increasing,
because of the prices.

So high. I've never seen coffee
this price in my whole life.

Really? It's the highest at the moment
that it's ever been in the world market?

Can I ask you, Bruno, how many
cups of coffee do you drink a day?

Probably one and a half
litres a day.

-One and a half litres!
-Yes.

What, a litre, really?

Yes. Almost one of those a day.

About four or five espressos.

-To get you in the mood for the litre.
-Yes!

Do you sleep well?

Yes. Like a baby.

(SLURPS NOISILY)

Yeah, look.

-I thought they drank it.
-Look.

Here.

That's it.

Having qualified as a taster,
I'm now to be retrained as a barista.

This is how we call the Ferrari
of the espresso machine.

This is the La Marzocco,
Italian machine.

They have hundred and some
years already.

-La Marzocco.
-La Marzocco.

-Made in Florence.
-The Ferrari. Made in Florence.

This is better.
You can see by the colour.

Cheers.
Here's to my first proper espresso cup.

-Compared to the other?
-That's not bad.

PALIN: Oh, yes.

-BRUNO: There's a heart.
-A heart.

Not too frothy.

Creamy, adds a bit of richness to it.

Little bit of pomegranate, possibly.

Or is it guava?

I think a hint of guava.

Just got to know the words,
that's the thing.

Got to know the words.

-Thank you.
-You're welcome.

I won't be able to have coffee
anywhere in the world

-apart from this room now.
-(LAUGHS)

Bidding farewell to the streets
of Belo Horizonte,

I head south to the one
Brazilian city everybody knows.

A city of six and a half million,

Rio de Janeiro is celebrated
across the world

for the beauty of its setting.

In the early days, the Portuguese
narrowly defeated the French

for control of the city.
Their victory paid off.

Boosted by the export of gold from
the interior, Rio grew to become

for 125 years, one of the great
capital cities of the world.

Its wide bays, long beaches,
and forested slopes

make it a seductive playground,

which its inhabitants,
known as Cariocans,

modestly call, "Cidade Maravilhosa, "
"The Marvellous City."

The classic features of Rio
are the granite peaks that rise

from the heart of the city, too steep
and too sheer to build on.

Which is what they thought until
1931, when one of the most iconic

statues in the world was raised on
Corcovado, Hunchback Mountain.

It's known as "Cristo Redentor",
Christ the Redeemer.

Soon they'll be celebrating the 80th
anniversary of the triumphant unveiling

of what has become the symbol of Rio.

(BOTH LAUGHING)

I'm meeting up with Bel Noronha,
great-granddaughter of the man

in charge of designing and building
the statue, Heitor da Silva Costa.

-Was he a very religious man?
-No, no.

I think he was originally ate…

-PALIN: Atheist.
-Atheist, yes.

By the time he'd done the
Cristo Redentor, he was a bit…

Not Christian, but by the time
after Cristo Redentor,

he was totally Christian,
totally, totally.

PALIN: We take the train up Corcovado Mountain to see the Redento in close-up.

During its five-year construction, all
the materials had to be brought up

by mg railway.

And this always crowded two-car shuttle
is still the quickest

and most spectacular way
to get to the top.

It's amazing, it's very simple,

the lines are very clean and clear,
aren't they?

BEL: Simplicity, for me,
is the most important thing.

But the result is amazing.

And you said that just having
the head tilting forward

-cost a lot of extra money.
-Yes, yes.

PALIN: This is one
I really particularly like.

They'd just taken the scaffolding down,
I presume, and there's the Christ

almost sort of rising
out of the scaffold.

Now, what's happening here?
This is the…

-BEL: That's the inauguration.
-October, 1931 , yes.

BEL: The 12th of October,
so there you can see a lot of people.

There were the president of Brazil,
there were…

What did it do for the national spirit?

Was there a national attitude
towards it?

-Or was it just Cariocan?
-No, no, national, actually,

because the money to raise the Christ
came from all around Brazil.

Okay.

So there's people
from all around Brazil.

Bahia, Minas, even the Indians,
the Bororo Indians gave money for it.

So it was really made
by the whole Brazil.

PALIN: The figure has colossal
strength, but it's a strength

that lies in restraint.

With just the fall of the robe, the tilt
of the head, the long, shielding hands,

its makers have created
a study of compassion

that's both powerful
and universal.

The classic images of Brazil are
nearly all the classic images of Rio.

Sugarloaf Mountain, the Christ statue,
the beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema.

We're going to see these images
relentlessly replayed over the next

few years as Rio hosts
first the World Cup in 2014,

and then the Olympics in 2016.

And the image of Rio as a colourful,
glamorous, fun city,

not particularly on a day like today,
they're real enough.

But there's another side to it, and
that's the lawlessness and violence

that spills down from some
of the favelas, the shantytowns,

where over a million of the poorest
people in Rio live.

The big story in the city at the moment
is how to heal the divisions,

how to make the city one.

How to wrest power away
from the drug barons in the favelas,

and give it back to the
people who live there.

If this is successful,
it will have profound implications

for the future of the city.

MAN: It's a mixture of construction
and ruin at the same time.

-Yeah.
-But every time you come here,

you see construction
being done intensely.

-Yeah.
-And in Brazil…

PALIN: The latest project of
Vik Muniz, a Brazilian artist

with an international reputation,
is to set up an art school

in a beautiful location overlooking
Ipanema beach.

But there's a twist to the tale. This
hillside location is already occupied

by a rambling,
unpacified favela called Vidigal.

When I started coming to Rio,

you're like in Saint-Tropez

surrounded by Mogadishu from outside,
and then if you really…

To be in a place, you have to
be in the city as a whole.

It's one of the poorest areas, over here
looking down on one of the richest,

and usually it's the other way around.

Yeah, in Rio you have this geographic
inversion, where the rich live

on the lower part, near the beach,
and the poor people live,

occupy most of the hills
around the city.

It's interesting to think that most
people who live in the rich areas,

like Ipanema, Leblon, they've never seen
it from here, they never come up here.

If you go down to the south side and
ask all the rich people down there,

how many times they've been to
their maid's house or their nanny's,

they've never done it, you know,
they don't know where they live,

they don't know anything about them.
It's completely, it's very dogmatic

-how these two…
-So it's a big thing to break down,

though, isn't it?
It's going to take a long time.

The authorities are rushing toward
some kind of closure,

because of the Olympics
and the World Cup, but I think

what's happening right now in the next
six years, it would have taken

25 years to happen otherwise.

Most of the people who live
in the hills, they've been stigmatised

by the crime and the drug traffic.

The violence, the crime,

only comes from a tiny percentage
of the people who live here.

PA LIN: It's on the beaches of Rio,
where the various sides of the city meet

as equals, where the gap between
the favela and the favoured,

almost disappears.

We were up there, on that little
headland under the two peaks,

in the poor looking down on the rich,
and now we're in amongst the rich.

Now, this is the most expensive square
metre in the southern hemisphere.

It's Ipanema here and Leblon, okay.

Interesting is that even though this is
the richest area, is actually one area

where these two worlds collide,
the people come down to the beach,

the beach is like, even with cell
phones, if you don't come to the beach,

you don't know where to go
after you have to leave the beach.

Everything that happens in Rio
happens around the concept

of where you stay on the beach.

And the beach itself is kind of…

It's segregated in certain ways,
isn't it?

-Kind of areas of influence.
-Yeah.

It has a conventional map that shifts
and changes with time.

But here where we are,
we are at Arpoador,

this part here is
mostly visited by artists.

It's where I go to the beach, it's like
artists, actors, intellectuals, writers,

and if you drift a little bit south,
you get Posto 9, like Communists…

Before that, there's the gay area,
and this is the artists' area,

and the gay artists stay
sort of in between. There's gradients.

And the gay artist intellectual
Communists can stride the beach.

Oh, yeah, and after that is
the really good-looking people.

You know, like teenagers, and so on.

So every place, for people to know
where you are, and if you go inside

a conversation in a bar,
it basically starts like this,

"Where do you stay on the beach?"
That is very revealing.

-It tells a lot about you.
-That would say everything about you.

Who decides these things?
I mean, how do they…

I mean, supposing the Communists
wanted to move in

on the very,
very beautiful people's area?

They'll have to change their ideology.

PALIN: The policy of pacification,
designed to wrest control of the favelas

from criminal gangs, is spearheaded
by a crack paramilitary force

called BOPE,
the special operations battalion.

(YELLING)

They're trained to be very nasty,
and such is their reputation,

that the drug barons usually disappear
rather than take them on.

I'm here at their training base
to talk to Captain Melissa Neves,

one of only six women
in the elite squad.

PALIN: Captain, in the
pacification programme,

at what point do BOPE intervene?

(SPEAKING PORTUGUESE)

TRANSLATOR: BOPE is the first force
to go into the community.

It takes back the neighbourhood
and it gives it back to the state.

During this process, BOPE confiscates
drugs and guns from the gangsters

and makes the place free
from drug trafficking.

It tries to forge a relationship
with the local community.

It listens to the community, organises
events like football competitions,

and gets involved with them.
We try to make the community free again.

When you go into a favela with BOPE,
how are you received

by the people in the favela?
How do they react to you and BOPE?

(SPEAKING PORTUGUESE)

TRANSLATOR: When they see me and
other women members of BOPE,

people are really surprised.
They think there are no women in BOPE.

It's good to soften the tough,
aggressive image

people have of the force.

I think it's good for BOPE
to have female members.

It conveys a new image to the community.

It shows we work with the community,

we're not just about confronting them.
Also, the kids, they come running out

to us, it's heartening to see.

So there we are, the motto
of the special forces, "Vá e Vença!"

"Go and win!"
And that's what I intend to do.

(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING)

PALIN: The removal of the drug gangs
is only the first step.

What matters most is to
stop them returning.

There are many barriers to be broken
down before the people of the favela

can feel part of, not apart from,
the rest of the city.

In a favela called Tabajaras,
something unusual is happening.

A celebration is being held for the
opening of a community centre.

But here's the paradox, the building
they're using was once the centre

of the drug barons' operation.

As a symbol of how much has changed,
the police band has turned up

to kick off proceedings.

PALIN: The favelas have
a rather forbidding aspect,

and they have a fearsome reputation.

Bad places, places you don't go to,
a distinct feeling of us and them.

People like ourselves
wouldn't have been allowed in here

a few years ago, it would just have
been out of the question,

far too dangerous. But also to find that
the people we've met today

starting these projects, the way
they look at the people here is as,

"These are the people who live here."
The people in the favelas

are not social problems,
they're human beings.

And that must be the first step
on the way to any reconciliation.

(UPBEAT MUSIC CONTINUES)

PALIN: Here, in one of the largest
favelas in Rio,

the Complexo do Alemão,

were fought the fiercest battles between
drug gangs and police.

After pacification, the city poured
in funds to improve the infrastructure,

most notably in a cable car system.
This unites the favela,

and links it to the rest of the city
through colourful,

state-of-the-art stations.

Victor, from the mayor's office,
takes me for a ride.

How much difference does this make
in travel time to the people

who live up on the hill?

It's a huge difference,
because sometimes people could

take like 40 minutes to get to the top
of the hill.

-Forty minutes just to get up?
-Forty minutes, an hour,

depends on the person.
Now it's 10, 15 minutes at most.

VICTOR: The city hall has a huge project
in Complexo do Alemão.

We are building housing, we are bringing
asphalt to the streets,

we are bringing business,

we are also helping people
to establish new business,

of course, to develop employment here.
Sewage system, water system.

The idea is really to integrate the
favela, integrate Complexo do Alemão,

into the rest of the city.

Because Rio is a marvellous city,
but the favela is not.

So we want to make it
as marvellous as the city.

-It's a lot of work to do, isn't it?
-Look around.

PALIN: How much does it cost to use?

VICTOR: People who live in Complexo
do Alemão don't pay anything.

It's free for them, they can use the
cable car system, and then train system

twice a day, but people, tourists,
for example, have to pay,

but just very cheap.

PALIN: At one of the shiny new
stations, Victor introduces me to Raoul,

a young man who knew the bad times.

Raoul, what was life like in the
Complexo do Alemão before?

(SPEAKING PORTUGUESE)

TRANSLATOR: Life before pacification
was really hard.

We had to live between the guns,
drug dealers, and drug consumption.

All this is changing now. Which is not
saying that things are perfect,

but they seem to be heading
in the right direction.

People, overall, seem happy about these
changes. And the cable car is certainly

a welcome bonus for the community.

PALIN: I ask Raoul if he'd ever
carried a gun.

(SPEAKING PORTUGUESE)

TRANSLATOR: I wasn't a member
of the gangs proper.

In other words,
I wasn't on their payroll,

but I had close friends
with whom I hung out who were.

So, for instance, from time to time,
I would hold their guns for them.

PALIN: Are there any people here
who are frightened of the cable car?

You know, of going inside it?

TRANSLATOR: Kids and young people love
it, but older people are

a little bit more reluctant.
My mum says she's afraid of it,

and will never set foot on it.
But I think eventually

she'll warm to the idea.

PALIN: Money's being spent here,
and imaginatively, too.

But in the shadow of Alemão,
another big favela, Complexo da Maré,

still awaits pacification.

It's dangerous to walk
into unpacified favelas,

unless you're with someone
who knows the place.

Englishman Luke Dowdney
has worked in Maré for years,

pioneering his own special recipe

for dealing with the effects of drugs,
poverty, and violence.

LUKE: We still have
very active drug gangs here.

We have war-like death statistics
in this community.

We've recorded death statistics
of up to 600 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Anything over 100 is considered
to be a war situation.

It has got better in the last few years.
Erm…

But it continues to be a major issue.

We have young people
as young as 11 and 12

openly armed on the streets here.

It does have a police battalion
on the edge of it, behind us,

which, I believe,
it's Brazil's only favela

that has a police battalion
right on its side.

And the presence of a police battalion
means that it's an intensive area

in terms of gunfire.

PALIN: Is it encouraged,

the violence, in a way,
the presence of the police here,

-or change the way it manifests itself?
-I don't…

I think it might change the way
it manifests itself,

rather than necessarily encourage it.
But I think…

(EXPLOSIONS)

So those are fireworks, which means
that the police are moving around,

and they've been seen
by the drug traffickers

and they're letting off fireworks to say

we've seen that you're around
in the favela here.

It's an ongoing situation here.

Luke's project in Maré is a boxing club.

He's called it Luta pela Paz,
Fight for Peace.

LUKE: I boxed when I was younger.
I was an amateur boxer.

I certainly wasn't a world champion,
but it meant a lot to me.

PALIN: You were
a light middleweight champion.

I've moved around a bit. Only amateur.

And then after a while, I had to
stop boxing because of an injury.

And I found myself back in Brazil,
I'd been here before.

And I became very concerned with

the kids that were openly armed
in the favelas.

I was working for a Brazilian
development organisation.

And I saw these kids with guns,
and I didn't get it.

Having grown up in quite an affluent
part of West London, I didn't understand

how you could have a 12 or 13-year-old
holding a Kalashnikov.

These kids were not going into schools,

for whatever reason,
they weren't going to social programmes.

So I thought a boxing club
would be a great way,

because I knew that boxing clubs
are inherently social programmes.

You'll end up having
an amazing relationship

between your coach and the fighter.

And that's a quite special thing
when you're growing up,

and it can be life-changing.

PALIN: Kind of one of those traditional
things in London, weren't they?

In the East End of London, boxing clubs,

because it was about using
the fighting instincts,

but also discipline at the same time.

Very much discipline.
You channel your aggression.

You get discipline. You learn that
if you don't put something in,

you're not going to get something out.

You learn that hard work will
pay dividends and pay results.

And those are all lessons for life.

The success of Fight for Peace - one of
their boys is in the Olympic team -

has attracted international sponsors.

This has enabled them to offer
not just boxing and martial arts,

but also a commitment to education.

Luke's colleague, Gabriela, shows me
the new crèche and classrooms

attached to the gym.

This happens because
we provide formal education

for young people
from 16 to 29 years old.

Hello?

And we found out that if we didn't have
someone to watch the kids,

-they wouldn't be inside the class.
-Oh, they wouldn't go to school.

-Yeah .
-Okay.

-So the mothers are really pretty young?
-Yes.

GABRIELA: They have been out of school,
without work,

so what we do here
is provide them what they miss.

Yeah. Great. Hi!

-ALL: Hi.

Good, carry on.

Teach me something. I need to learn.

GABRIELA: We started this
with 75 people.

-Today we have 275…
-Students?

…students studying now.

PALIN: What are they doing today?

(GABRIELA SPEAKING PORTUGUESE)

-Physics.
-Physics?

-Yes.
-That's difficult.

-Yes, that was not my favourite.
-Wasn't my favourite, either. Yeah.

A world away from the ramshackle streets
of Maré,

is the cool, clean,
cavernous Rio Metro.

With only 25 stations,
as opposed to London's 270,

it's being rapidly extended
ahead of the 2016 Olympics.

But, compared to London, there's still
a luxurious feeling of space.

The system, blasted out of granite,

has been built within a series
of enormous chambers.

Walking through them is like being
in the belly of some great beast.

With the double-whammy of the World Cup
and Olympics ahead,

running Rio has to be
a considerable challenge.

I meet the city mayor, Eduardo Paes,

at a new high-tech control
and command centre.

He's just come out of a bit
of a cropper, opening a new cycle lane.

You're the mayor. You've got to run Rio.

What do you identify as the kind of
problems that are facing the city?

What are trying to sort of change?

When you come to a country like Brazil,
when you come to a city like Rio,

second largest in the country,

there's always the issue
of social differences.

The social differences brings a lot
of problems in the infrastructure,

in health, education.

So I would say that's the main
issue that we have to face every day.

But you know, I think Brazil has done
its homework in the past 20 years.

Democracy is consolidated.
Institutions are consolidated.

I mean, we suffered a lot,
but we learned.

Our bank system is much stronger
than if you go to European countries

or the United States system.

So we are very proud
of what we have achieved,

what we've been doing
the past few years.

We know there's a long way to go.

I mean, when you talk about a country
of 200 million people,

you're saying that 30 million people
you took from poverty

and they became middle class, I mean,
that's something to be proud of.

Sunshine and Rio seem so inextricably
linked in my fantasy world

that a series of Atlantic depressions
dumping wind and rain on the city

seem almost like a biblical plague.

To try and learn about how bad weather
affects the Cariocan psyche,

I've arranged to meet an American
who's written a very funny book

called How to Be a Carioca.

She's called Priscilla Ann Goslin

and she's made Rio her home
for more than 30 years.

Well, today, of course, it's raining,
wet everywhere, dripping.

What do Cariocans do when it rains?

What do Cariocans do in the rain?

They usually don't do much of anything.

They will evaporate from the street
pretty much.

If you had plans to do something,
you usually cancel them, if you can.

Do they get depressed?
Does it depress them?

No, they don't. No.

No, Cariocans never get depressed!

-Is that so?
-Yes.

It's going to be so much better

when the rain stops
and they go back to the beach.

They seem to be very keen here
just on good things, things being right,

as you say. They all see life as,
basically, happiness.

But how do they deal with the obvious
things that aren't right, like,

you know, poverty and all that?

I think pretty much
they just try to ignore it.

I don't even know if they try to
ignore it on a conscious level.

They just don't see it.
They don't focus on it.

"It's there. It's not good.

"Therefore, I won't focus."

And they'll change the subject.

They'll talk about soccer, the game.

It's remarkable how rare you see
an angry face, you know.

You know, there isn't this
sort of bottled-up stress,

which you might get in certain cities
when the trains are running late.

Is that something you'd see?

No, you don't see it, if you go on
the metro here, the subway system,

you don't see people
that are stressed and unhappy.

But Cariocans aren't always as open
as they appear to be.

It looks like a Rio stately home
or something.

But, actually,
it is something more than that.

Hello.

(MAN SPEAKS PORTUGUESE)

It's a love hotel.
They're very popular in Brazil.

In fact, I saw one down the street
called the Windsor Love Hotel.

And you come here
with a friend or friends

er, for sex,
and I'm going to find out…

(CHUCKLES)

…what happens.

-Luana?
-Hello!

-Michael. How nice of you to…
-Nice to meet you.

…welcome me
to your presidential suite.

-Yes.
-Yes, I'm pleased to meet you here.

We can't normally afford places
like this, not on BBC money.

-Do you like what you see?
-Yes.

PALIN: jacuzzi, pool.

-LUANA: Saunas.
-Sauna.

LUANA: Two of them.

I should just say at the outset that
this is a wholly professional liaison.

-Oh, yeah.
-We're both in the television business.

Yes, yes.

-You have a show.
-I have a show here

for almost three years, yes.

-Talking about sex.
-Yep.

It's a very open show.
Me and three girls

and we talk a lot.

-About anything to do with sex.
-About anything.

We have a theme.
Every day we have a different theme.

Like ménage or oral sex, or something,

or toys.

PALIN: I'm an English innocent.
I want to know…

-LUANA: You're an English innocent.
-Why do people come to a love hotel?

People come here to have sex,
to have a good time together.

PALIN: Have you ever been taken to
a love hotel?

LUANA: Yeah, yeah.
Even with boyfriends,

maybe you don't want to stay home,
you want to go to a different place,

to have a pool or something different
to do, you know.

When I came in, I noticed that

all these doors were very,
very sort of hidden.

-And the doors in front of…
-The cars.

…the carports come down to
obscure the car and all that.

So is secrecy a very important part
of a place like this?

Yeah, yeah.

-Always, because married…
-That's the appeal. Do you come…

Maybe some married guy comes here
with a girl that is not his wife.

And then if his wife comes with a guy,

or if she passes,
she doesn't see his car.

(BOTH LAUGHING)

-"He bought that for me last week."
-Yeah.

Talking of which…

-You were saying…
-It's an interesting thing.

This is room service. I thought
it might be, you know, biscuits,

chocolates, or some champagne.

-But clearly… No, no.
-Not biscuits, no.

-Rolls, possibly.
-It's like dildos, vibrators, and…

And do you just ring up and say,
"I'd like a Number 19 and a Number 4"?

Yeah, yeah.
You ring up and you tell the number.

They tell you the price
and then you buy it.

It's cheap here.

Does someone bring it up
in a nice little sort of box?

-Yeah! Someone brings it up.
-Discreetly.

And we have a separated room,

-and the guy leaves it on the table.
-0h, I see.

So he doesn't…
He puts it on the table…

He doesn't… He's not bringing it…

(DOORBELL RINGS)

-That's the one I ordered.
-That must be him.

Oh, dear. Um…

We probably better.
Oh, golly, it won't fit in the door.

We better stop. Stop, stop! Come on.

-I swear, I didn't ask for anything.
-Let's go, quick. Over here.

In contrast to the furtive world
of the love hotel

is the city's very open attitude
to the rights of sexual minorities.

Marjorie Marchi runs an office
in the state government

dedicated to defending Rio's
transvestites and transsexuals.

Marjorie was born a man,
but lives as a woman.

In her office, she explains
how she sees herself.

Marjorie, to get it clear,

what's the difference between
transvestite and transsexual?

Yeah.

-Can you see?
-Travesti sounds bad,

but I know what you mean.

In England,
"travesty" means something wrong,

but "transvestite", you're travesti.

Okay.

So a transsexual would have a
physical operation, medical operation.

Yeah? But you, you haven't.

Travesti maybe can operate, but…

Okay.

(DANCE MUSIC PLAYING)

Before I leave the Marvellous City,

I've been invited to a little gathering
on Copacabana beach.

It's the annual gay pride parade,

and Marjorie has asked me to join her
and her friends

on the transvestites
and transsexuals bus.

Here she tells me how things have
changed in little more than 20 years.

So, Marjorie, how many people

have turned out for the parade today?

-Two… Two million people.
-Two million.

When did these kind of, you know…

You've been really at the beginning
of these things,

when did they start?

How long ago was the first march?

-Right.
-Twenty years ago.

So people were throwing things
at the procession?

-Yeah.
-It was so different.

I've been told the parade's theme
is peace, and I'm to wear all white.

Which is why I end up looking like
a kidnapped deck chair attendant.

It's a great feeling to be part

of Brazil's new spirit
of sexual liberation.

But I have to say, as a 68-year-old
British heterosexual in khaki shorts,

I feel, to quote an Eric Idle line,

"like a lost lamb in an abattoir".

If travel is about looking and learning,
Brazil is not a bad place to start.

There's an impressive tolerance
at work here.