Gotti

All this discussion about body types in a Lagoa topic and not a word on the type that made Lagoa a legend: the model!. Yes, they've been scarce of late (pos 2016?), If existent at all, possibly migrated to a different scene, the spa scene, only vaguely hinted in this space. Can somebody in the know please dissect it. We all need new thrills.

No question about it, boys are what we are in it for, I just mentioned the stage because there is lots of attention towards it (including boys) and how excrutiating will be a drag revue on a 12 inch high platform cramped in a corner of 2 walls.

Now that some reviews are in, I can figure out how precise mine was, that happened to be the first one. The stairs, that were on the title of my review, overwhelmed everyone and were widely condemned, the rooms/suites had positive marks and thats about it. Surprisingly nobody mentioned the stage. A lesson? If you are selling encounters do not make it a vertical environment, in this case there is nothing that can be done, no renovations, re-arrangements, anything at all, the place is simply wrong from the get go. Unlike Rio, that is mostly buildings in the good areas, Sao Paulo has plenty of houses that even smaller, could offer a similar experience as the original one, instead the space that was chosen is simply puzzling. I also noticed (but did not write about) the low rate boys/customers also 1/1 when I was there. I thought it happened because was the first weekend but it looks like a continuous situation, certainly unnaceptable. Who could ever predict that the mighty former Lagoa, just described by a fellow poster as "the best sauna of the western hemisphere" would play second fiddle for Rio de Janeiro's saunas. Hope to live to see Sao Paulo reaction!

As specified, I meant best facility, not the best sauna overall, in a good night 117 still have a greater selection of boys but the music, the lights, the screens makes Point a more pleasant experience. Became a fun place, the kind that you like to stick around after you are done with your business, unlike 117 that you just want get the f*** out as soon as you are done. Even the music volume that used to be unbearable got tone down and became enjoyable (they still owe us a better DJ). Lagoa also used to be cool (in a different way) untill 2 weeks ago, now is the pits!

Not forgetting that they leased Point 202 for around a year and manage it to nearly put it out of business, thankfully Junior returned and not only saved it but transformed it in the sauna with the best facility in Brazil, at least in the Rio/SP region. I was there last week and had a blast. He always dreamed in a disco-sauna and little by little finally achieve it. Brilliantly! Take that Rudolf! Take that Acyr and Jorge! By the way, never met any of these people.

The problem with the new Lagoa is not the fact that it's got smaller, there is nothing wrong with downsizing if it's well done, unfortunately not the case here.

Garotos' age is the least of the problem of the new Lagoa, the real issue is architecture, which means cannot be solved. A stupid decision was made from ground up. Hard to believe that people involved had decades of experience running this type of business. If they wanna make up for it, the only thing to do is lock the door and look for a new site.

Yes, there is an exercise room, only smaller of course. The number of boys is hard to figure out with the new configuration of several floors. The quality was terrible if compared with the old Lagoa, but maybe is seasonal, yesterday I was at Point (Rio) and the quality was disappointing as well, despite the place beeing alive and kicking like I never seen before (I hadn't been there for nearly a year).

The stage of New Meio Mundo was like Radio City Music Hall if compared with the current Lagoa stage. The night I was there a go go stepped on a spotlight (there were only 2) due to total lack of space, still better than the sound system that has only treble, making you wanna run to the outside if there was an outside!

Hi Tomcal, I've been to Bar Fama and sleaze is an understatement, just don't go by yourself. Regarding Lagoa, as I said before, I don't think it will fail, since there is no competition but I think Rudolf (who I never met) will be seeing less of us from the Boytoy community. If we don't make a difference, good for him!

He better figure out how to recover this considerable investment among So Paulo customers and I hope is feasible cause most tourists, like myself, that included Sao Paulo in their intinerary solely because of Lagoa, Will be changing gears and staying most of the time in Rio, if going to Sao Paulo at all, which I hate to see it happen cause I love the city.

No chance of doing it at the new Lagoa

I haven't posted in a while, several years if anyone is counting, but decided that the new Lagoa opening is a too big event to pass, and I'm sorry to say it was quite a disappointment. Not that I expected to be anything close of its former self, it would be unrealistic, but it supposedly took months, if not years, looking for a place and they settle for something completely wrong. What sets Lagoa apart was always the ambience, boys come and go, there was good night's and bad nights but the vibe of the place was always there. The heart of the new place, the area where the stage and the main bar is located looks like a medium size office with low ceilings and claustrophobic atmsophere located at an intersection of stairs, filled with cheap hard plastic furniture. Unlike 117, Point or even Fragata, there is not an comfortable seat to relax and watch boys by, and worse, if you have an eye on a boy, which you probably do, he might easily have escaped to 2 flights up or down and soon you will realize you are doing stairs all the time. Both saunas are bad, the dry one looks like a closet, the sound system is horrible and will never be fixed, is not possible in an office space. The dressing area is tiny, if you wanna sit to tie your shoes you will have to wait for your turn. Not to be unfair and say everything was horrible, the rooms were adequate for a sauna and the showers were good and new, the boys selection was very weak, but is certainly might happen anywhere. I still don't think it will fail cause at the moment there is no competition in Sao Paulo, which makes the right time to somebody start something new. The top boys, if they ever come around, could easily be persuaded to go elsewhere. The location I think is more Higienópolis than Consolação, probably on the intersection. I paid R$60,00 on a Sunday and was told it would be R$65,00 if charge.

Stabbed by a knife..., I think somebody is watching "Cruising" a few times too many, I agree, not for the faint of heart, not recommended for someone that arrived in Brazil the day before, but a welcome walk on the wild side. Among the rough trade, some occasional boy-next-door allowing to be sucked for R$50,00. A must have! Just a reminder: the whole Bar Fama thing started on this forum when somebody mistakenly said that I wrote about a platform of guys standing with their dicks in their hands waiting for blow jobs and ensured a furious debate with members, until then unaware of the existence of the place, claiming they could not find such platform. I had to ask people to go back to my post and see that although I did write about the bar, I never wrote about such platform. I was finally cleared, it was all good for a while, and now all of a sudden, a knife! Bar Fama, always controversial, what are you waiting for?

Being favored for his/her looks I always thought is something we all knew since kindergarden, at the latest.

I agree, Point nowadays has better looking guys than 117, however, if you prefer a certain type of boy, 117 might have them in bigger numbers, so the best approach is go to both and decide which one is your thing. 117 should be tried on a Tuesday and Point on a Wednesday. Weekends? Try Sao Paulo or on a longer shot, Porto Alegre. If you must remain in Rio over the weekend, the only option is a place called The Week, you must be into techno/trance, is also a good pick-up place with plenty of hot boys, however you must be under 35, otherwise don't even bother. Another big change in Rio is the night-life, what was already weak became non-existent. The subway got a lot bigger, if you take into consideration only the Zona Sul (as you should), more than double the extension. The city also became even more violent, the favela tours, compared with ones from the past, became a lot more eventful, so to speak.

I should add that for a first visit, Rio is certainly an absolute must, the scenery (as a big city) can't hardly be beaten by anywhere on earth, but sex-wise, after spending so much money in such long trip a stop in Sao Paulo would make sense, since would not add substantially more expense and could be sexually more fulfilling, depending on personal taste and luck to a certain extent.

Yeah, I have also left Lagoa disappointed occasionally, and I did post it here, it just happens that the disappointment occurred more often at 117 than at Lagoa. If only I was just not such a picky bastard...

I also think Sao Paulo is cheaper in general, with the exception of Lagoa boys. Hotels is hard to figure out because location is as important as the hotel itself and is impossible to compare the location of such two dissimilar cities. Food is definitely cheaper in Sao Paulo, even a soda you pay more in Rio, subway is also cheaper in Sao Paulo, although not by much. Yes, the Lagoa boys costs more, but the quality is also better.

Precious information above, seems too good to be true, but I will certainly inquire about, if played as described, salvation!

The only bank that I can think of that has operations in both US and Brazil is Satander, in this case they have branches in New York and maybe elsewhere in the US, they are all over the place in Brazil. I used to get to my Chase account in the Brazilian branches of Citybank, they had some kind of agreement, but I had to pay a fee, as a matter of fact two fees, both City and Chase charge me for the operation (not funny), now I don't know what I can possibly do, since City is not in Brazil anymore. I have no idea if Satander customers in the US can do any banking at Brazilian branches and what kind of fee they are charged, if any.

Maybe the hotel owner figured it out that a new hotel in Rio is a very risky proposition, Airbnb is decimating the profits of the current ones, the luxurious building that was formery Meridien changed ownership at least 3 times in the last 5 years, after Meridien became The Windsor and now is a Hilton, Copacabana Palace is in the red, despite being owned by a huge international corporation (The Orient Express, yes, that Orient Express), even Donald Trump backtracked on his, although the official reason was shady practices by his partners (surprise!), the hotel finally opened with a different name after considerable delays (missed the Olympics) and is doing poorly with rooms being discounted on a permanent basis (the last time I checked it was $60,00 despite being in front of the ocean and having an infinity pool), with no major event on the horizon (what could be bigger than the Olympics and the World Cup?), a hotel in Rio looks like a dicey proposition, there is of course the option of a high rise condo, but I think not many people would fancy taking ownership on a high rise next to a favela(in this case the "Tabajara"- stray bullets anyone?), maybe the owners figured out that is best to allow whoever is paying the rent to stay put for the time being, but I don't have any solid information, these are all conjectures, hopefully makes sense and we will have Point for many years to come

The renovation looks quite impressive, just a reminder:: An even bigger transformation happened a few years ago when the third floor was built from scratch, with the progress documented step by step with a slick power-point presentation projected on big screens in the disco area and voila, shortly after everything was ready, the control of the place was transferred to the guys from Meio-Mundo that in turn never invested a penny neither at the place they just took charge, neither at their own place, both went into accelerated disrepair. I frequently criticize Junior for the tacky ways Point operates, but I do admire his tenacity in improving his business and putting the money back on it, very different from Jorge and Acyr (I think this are their names) that in 10 years that I occasionally went to their sauna, never seen a dime returned to the business. What this transformation at Point will lead? Wish someone could figure it out.

It might seem like a moral issue but is more likely a security issue, which makes sense in a city like Rio. What scares the hosts is not only the extra person per se, but who is behind them and women are even considered more dangerous than men because there is usually somebody else behind their operation. While you are asleep, your "guest" might run to the corner and have the keys copied in a kiosk on the corner (plenty of them in Rio), so they have access to the apartment and the building when you leave town and you won't even figure it out. Seems paranoid, but it does happen. Is a good idea to not leave the keys at the door when you are sleeping with somebody. Not only the owners might have an issue with guests, the other tenants are probably against it as well. The bigger the apartment more restrictions on the table. A one room apartment is more easy to get away with it, a two room, you gotta get lucky, a three room forget about it. (you probably don't need it anyway).

The low fares at the hotels is due basically to Airbnb competition. The financial situation also has it's share, but is important to notice that the crisis is going on for at least 3years (was actually much worse a year ago), while hotel prices started collapsing about a year ago. Is possible to get a one bedroom apartment for $50 or $60.00 a night in Ipanema or Copacabana, it will not be luxurious but quite decent. Is also more convenient to bring boys, since is one at a time, a good idea is renting the apartment for 2 (makes no difference on price) and at check in let them know that the companion will come later, (is not 100% guaranteed there will be trouble free but is a good chance) also rent the entire one bedroom apartment, never a room in an apartment where the owner lives. The Airbnb prices are getting ridiculously low, which leaves a lot more money to spend on boys. The only drawback is that you have to clean after yourself.