Guest tomcal Posted November 1, 2009 Posted November 1, 2009 I have posted previously about Porto Alegre and how much I like the city and the two saunas there. Mezzaninu Sauna is different from all the others in Brazil in that it was built new from the ground up as a sauna, not a renovated older building like all the others. The owner put alot of thought into the design and layout. Porto Alegre had their Gay Pride parade last month. Over 200,000 showed up for it. the city is about 1.4 million so a very good turnout. the first video is the float and the guys dancing. The second is the boys coming off the float. At 1:34 in the first video and :35 in the second you will see Cristofer, pics below. He and his cousin both work at Mezzaninu, his cousin plays for the local professional soccer team, which is a "farm team" for the bigger Sao Paulo team. I didn't believe this at first but it was confirmed by the owner of the sauna. I have spent time with both and they are really fun guys, if you get to P.A.! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzgExgDpvnY&NR=1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLv6l-FW6Eg&feature=related Quote
Members TampaYankee Posted November 1, 2009 Members Posted November 1, 2009 Quite a hottie and one more tattoo free. Quote
Members eeyore Posted November 1, 2009 Members Posted November 1, 2009 Great videos! Thanks for sharing. Quote
Guest tomcal Posted November 1, 2009 Posted November 1, 2009 Quite a hottie and one more tattoo free. TY, that is one thing about Porto Alegre guys, they don't seem to be as tattoed as the Rio or Sao Paulo guys. If you look at the guys on the float in the video you will see most don't have any tattoos. Cristofer is representative of the "type" of guys you see there. He is Italian and his cousin who works there is blonde and his Father is Polish. P.A. residents are desended from Italian, German and Polish immigrants from the late 1890's and again in early 20th century. It's very noticable from the minute you depart the plane in P.A. that it is different than the rest of Brazil. One thing about P.A. is that it's a good weekend destination but not for a week long trip! Mon. - wed. the saunas are dead and the city is not a tourist destination. But there is alot to do on the weekends. Last time we were there we went to a Gaucho Rodeo and it was great! P.A. is only a hour flight from Buenos Aires or 2 hours from Sao Paulo, 2-1/2 from Rio. Quote
Members TampaYankee Posted November 1, 2009 Members Posted November 1, 2009 TY, that is one thing about Porto Alegre guys, they don't seem to be as tattoed as the Rio or Sao Paulo guys. If you look at the guys on the float in the video you will see most don't have any tattoos. Cristofer is representative of the "type" of guys you see there. He is Italian and his cousin who works there is blonde and his Father is Polish. P.A. residents are desended from Italian, German and Polish immigrants from the late 1890's and again in early 20th century. It's very noticable from the minute you depart the plane in P.A. that it is different than the rest of Brazil. One thing about P.A. is that it's a good weekend destination but not for a week long trip! Mon. - wed. the saunas are dead and the city is not a tourist destination. But there is alot to do on the weekends. Last time we were there we went to a Gaucho Rodeo and it was great! P.A. is only a hour flight from Buenos Aires or 2 hours from Sao Paulo, 2-1/2 from Rio. Sounds like heaven to me. Just my kind of place. Laid back Monday - Wednesday is fine with me. My old batteries are the slowly recharging type. In fact, I could use a three day recharge between each of the weekend days...lol. Of course, I'd have to make regular trips to Rio and SP and BA too, as I like those varieties too. What are the winters like in PA and how does that affect the action? Quote
Guest tomcal Posted November 1, 2009 Posted November 1, 2009 What are the winters like in PA and how does that affect the action? Porto Alegre has hot summers and cold winters, not freezing snow type cold but they will have days in the high 30's low 40's. Summers are 80's to 90's or warmer! I usually go March thru May their fall or Oct - Dec. their spring. You can hit rain anytime of the year, but I have usually hit good weather. I have never noticed a difference in the number of guys working based on the seasons! :-) the other sauna Plataforma is the exact opposite of Mezzaninu, it's very old and no a/c, but does have a certain charm and we like it as well and actually it has more guys working than Mezzaninu. As I posted several months ago in a post, there are also 3 rentboy bars in P.A. that usually start around midnight. Quote
Members TampaYankee Posted November 1, 2009 Members Posted November 1, 2009 As I posted several months ago in a post, there are also 3 rentboy bars in P.A. that usually start around midnight. You may have posted already, but along with slow recharge comes spotty memory. How do the rentboy rates compare to the sauna rates from the perspective of a street-smart norte americano, not a naive tourista? Quote
Guest tomcal Posted November 1, 2009 Posted November 1, 2009 How do the rentboy rates compare to the sauna rates from the perspective of a street-smart norte americano, not a naive tourista? The first time I went to Mezzaninu the week after it opened two years ago, I was sitting having a drink with a couple who were locals and the first thing they told me is "Don't overpay, we pay R35R! we know the Americans pay more but don't wreck it for us!" LOL. The std rate is 40 R but because it's almost impossible to get bills of smaller denominations of $10 and $20.s it's easier to just give them $50R. In the bars like Era Una Vez the rate is $30 - 35. and you can rent a room upstairs or take them back to your hotel. Quote
Guest tomcal Posted November 5, 2009 Posted November 5, 2009 A few more pics from the Porto Alegre Gay Pride parade and the Sauna Mezzaninu's Float, which just happened to have a couple of my favorite guys on it!! Quote
Members TampaYankee Posted November 6, 2009 Members Posted November 6, 2009 Tomcal, I know the large cities Rio and SP are very broadminded about gays and saunas and sex in general! How accepting is the PA community of the gay community in general, and the Saunas in specific? This raises the issue whether there is much/any stigma for the sauna boys as no one believes these guys are just frequenting community centers for the sewing circles. Quote
Guest tomcal Posted November 6, 2009 Posted November 6, 2009 Tomcal, I know the large cities Rio and SP are very broadminded about gays and saunas and sex in general! How accepting is the PA community of the gay community in general, and the Saunas in specific? This raises the issue whether there is much/any stigma for the sauna boys as no one believes these guys are just frequenting community centers for the sewing circles. I have to admit that when Christofer sent me the pics I was surprised as these guys were on a "garoto de Programma" Float for a gay sauna!! (that's rent boy in portuguese!) Christofer as well as the other guys are "straight" and on their brazilian version of my space have all their photos with them and their girlfriends! In the gay pride parades in Rio and Sao Paulo there are not floats or at least I have never seen them for the saunas, and if they were, Rio is the size of NYC and Sao Paulo is twice as large, whereas P.A. is more like the size of Buffalo so the odds of someone knowing you are very minimal! P.A. has a very active gay community and outside of the two saunas has a 1/2 dozen or more gay bars and clubs. To answer your question, all of the major cities in Brazil seem to be very tolerent/supportive of the gay community! Hell, they wouldn't be able to pull off Carnival without us!! Quote
Guest tomcal Posted November 6, 2009 Posted November 6, 2009 A few more pics of the twink guys in Porto Alegre! Quote
Members TampaYankee Posted November 7, 2009 Members Posted November 7, 2009 I have to admit that when Christofer sent me the pics I was surprised as these guys were on a "garoto de Programma" Float for a gay sauna!! (that's rent boy in portuguese!) Christofer as well as the other guys are "straight" and on their brazilian version of my space have all their photos with them and their girlfriends! In the gay pride parades in Rio and Sao Paulo there are not floats or at least I have never seen them for the saunas, and if they were, Rio is the size of NYC and Sao Paulo is twice as large, whereas P.A. is more like the size of Buffalo so the odds of someone knowing you are very minimal! P.A. has a very active gay community and outside of the two saunas has a 1/2 dozen or more gay bars and clubs. To answer your question, all of the major cities in Brazil seem to be very tolerent/supportive of the gay community! Hell, they wouldn't be able to pull off Carnival without us!! Thanks for the feedback. The Buffalo references puts things into better context for me. Interesting to see that the guys are so open about things. Guess it means that they are quite self-confident about their sexuality and that nobody much cares -- society wise. Quote
Guest tomcal Posted November 14, 2009 Posted November 14, 2009 One last pic of my favorite...(well one of my three favorite) Porto Alegre guys Cristopher! Quote
