"Now there are rules," says Allan Barroso, 21, organizer of the Social dos Atores party. New at this game, he tries to be up-to-date with all the local ordinances from the police and fire department.
A few days ago, the party made it through two blackouts. The venue was full of people when rain started flooding the streets and made the "landslide alert" siren ring from 4 to 6 a.m.
"Down with the UPP," shouted 14-year-old Verme upon seeing a police car driving by. The nephew of a former drug kingpin, he got into several fights until he was kicked out from the party at 3 a.m.
"Before UPP, this was Sodom and Gomorrah", says Bibi, refering to the Biblical towns destroyed by their immorality.
In October 2012, Bibi says she was taken to the police station because of loud sound at her birthday party. "Police's intolerance is partly due to the people who live here and call them all the time for no reason."
Father Dito, from the Nossa Senhora da Boa Viagem church, says he can now feel that he is "no longer living in a lawless world." He believes criminals have abandoned the mentality of doing whatever they want.
"The party's over, thank God," adds Zilda Ameida, 44, a housekeeper and member of Brazil's Worldwide Church of God's Power.
Major Edson says the "drug dealers' widows" are getting along in the new era. "They are trying to live honestly."
Pacification has given risen to new kinds of businesses -- like the Hotel Boa Viagem, which opened last January. It covers four floors of a building with 106 apartments. Half of them were converted to rooms charging 98 reais ($49) a night.
After eight months of refurbishing, the fourth floor of the old building is now ready for guests. Folha reporters were the first to stay in rooms 418 and 420, with air-conditioning, flatscreen TVs, a sink to wash dishes and an en-suite bathroom.
Manager Marco Antônio da Conceição, 26, says there are no vacant rooms for the Catholic Church's World Youth Day in July. The first shipment of tourists are due to arrive this month. "A group of 29 French confirmed they were staying for one week. They want to see what a slum looks like."
Values of propeties have risen. A two-room house is now being sold for 50,000 reais ($25,000). With a terrace, 120,000 ($60,000). Rents are rising as well: a little room costs 450 reais ($225) per month -- the price of a house before the UPP.
A sea of parabolic antennas are another symbol of pacification. "They used to be illegal," says Luciano Viana, owner of Evolution Internet which -- lawfully -- provides cable TV and Internet access. "Bureaucracy and competition are tougher," he says. Now he has 100 customers who pay 58 reais ($29) per month, as opposed to 700 paying 30 reais ($15) for illegal service.
But perhaps the most notable emblem of the changing times in Rocinha is on one of the shanty town's terraces: a sign advertising yoga classes.
