Rio! 1st time & questions not answered in other threads

[JuanP]

I didn’t want to hijack anyone’s thread, so started a new one.  I managed to get a covid vaccine that was left over due to a no show, which means I am guaranteed my second shot on March 26.  I’m 42, have no health issues and don’t work on front lines, so feel like I won the lottery as I would prob have been last on earth to receive based on the prioritizations.  And that means I’m going to go to Rio! For the first time!

 I’ve read all of the threads including MiamiEthan’s and all the great answers you gave to him re: first time, so thanks.  I had a lot of same questions, so this post will be a lot shorter thanks to the great info offered by many of you.  But still a few things:

1.  You told Ethan not to stay in a nice hotel, due to guest policies.  I much prefer nice hotels too BUT also want to have guys over. The @Tomcal escapade he mentioned in a recent post sounds fun ? so would like guests... I saw that someone mentioned looking for penthouses on Airbnb which sounds a great idea. First, which neighborhood makes the most sense?  And does anyone have tips for filtering thru the noise and getting a great Airbnb? Or... does anyone have a recommendation of one that is great? Was planning on spending a couple hundred a night on Fasano so price isn’t a major issue, but would love something nice and that allows guests. 

2.  How best to spend more time with guys you like overnight, outside of sauna, etc.  Do you just suggest it at the sauna? Ask them about overnights? And what are the going rates for overnights? As for more than one guy, I saw that you should find one you like and suggest he choose others. I’m good with that, but is it safe as it’s my first time.

3. I like to do off path touristy stuff as well: hiking, day trips, def want to hike up to Christ the redeemer, explore neighborhoods, maybe go hang gliding as it looks fun. Also, a handful of the best restaurants in Latin America as per Michellin are in Rio, so want to check those out too as I’m a foodie.  But, saw @numazu1mentioned that a lot of that was closed due to Covid. That was back in January, so wondering if that is still the case.  

4. Many of you talk about taking guys to dinner, etc. I’m assuming you speak Portuguese? I travel a lot 35+ countries and counting, and I always meet guys,  befriend them during my stay, and go to dinners, museums, etc. but I’m not sure that’s going to be possible due to language [I don’t speak portuguese] and fact that there prob aren’t many tourists...  I prefer to travel solo, not because I like to be alone, but because it allows you to meet so many more interesting people along the way. I’m a little concerned that it’ll be a ghost town and it’ll just be me going to the sauna and eating alone for a week. Thoughts?

5. lastly, sauna vs hiring online. What do folks think about this? I tend to not love sauna vibes, but maybe the Brazilian ones are better/more fun?? So hiring online is appealing, but curious what the more experienced folks think?

 

thank you everyone!
 

 

[JuanP]

Ohhhh.... sorry, final question. for those who are familiar with Brazil at the moment.  Should I visit São Paulo or another city instead of Rio?

[Latbear4blk]

https://ilikepinga.com/2020/12/05/david/

https://ilikepinga.com/2020/12/23/yuri-gaspar/

He speaks English.

[Riobard]

What lottery is that now?

The playbook sounds like powerballing behaviour at about a 10-fold increase of novel coronavirus exposure risk in one of the riskiest cities worldwide with one of the highest lethality rates and intervention fails, while (presumed format) mRNA vaccination reduces real-world infection risk by about 90%.

Any net protective effect of inoculation? ... one minute please ... clickety clack clickety clack clickety clack ... erm, compu-ah says naow. 

The 90% reduction in chances of acquiring CoV infection is relative only to your baseline exposure risk where you’ve been for the past year or so. If your free-styling in Palookaville approximates the existential free-basing to which we punters are accustomed to in Brazil, then your fortuitous vaccination may offer some comparative benefit.

Edited February 27, 2021 by Riobard

[JuanP]

2 hours ago, Riobard said:

What lottery is that now?

The playbook sounds like powerballing behaviour at about a 10-fold increase of novel coronavirus exposure risk in one of the riskiest cities worldwide with one of the highest lethality rates and intervention fails, while (presumed format) mRNA vaccination reduces real-world infection risk by about 90%.

Any net protective effect of inoculation? ... one minute please ... clickety clack clickety clack clickety clack ... erm, compu-ah says naow. 

The 90% reduction in chances of acquiring CoV infection is relative only to your baseline exposure risk where you’ve been for the past year or so. If your free-styling in Palookaville approximates the existential free-basing to which we punters are accustomed to in Brazil, then your fortuitous vaccination may offer some comparative benefit.

Riobard, I’m sorry I’m not sure I understand your reply... are you asking questions? Or are you answering questions? or are you commenting?  e.g.:

“playbook sounds like powerballing” which playbook are you speaking of and what is powerballing?

is palookaville = to Rio?

What is existential free-basing?

Thanks...

 

Edited February 27, 2021 by JuanP

[Riobard]

Quite all right. I myself had to look up Fasano and some readers won’t grasp the cryptic Michelin reference. 

I thought you are American and would understand related idioms. Parenthetically, the public health guidance in USA and elsewhere is to not yet over-value vaccination protection capacity for yourself or make flimsy assumptions about transmission potential, at this juncture, and to avoid non-essential travel to regions with high coronavirus case incidence and with more contagious regional CoV variants that may escape previous immunity to the original predominant wild type strain of 2020. 

Powerball is a famous American number-pick lottery, an extension of the winning the vaccination lottery, your own analogy. Playbook refers to the activity plans in Rio, with you apparently likely not considering the kind of pandemic mitigation you may have otherwise followed at home in ... Palookaville, a Marlon Brando partialized famous movie quote (On the Waterfront) that refers to any obscure average place in USA, like I’m from Nowhere, Ontario.  

The free-style free-basing expressions are colloquialisms for behaving as if there were no recommended advisable restrictions aimed at protecting you and Brazilian locals from a serious contagious disease, notwithstanding you may have the ‘non-home’ visitor partial advantage of early vaccination uptake. 

You seem, like many, to simplistically equate vaccination in the early stages of minimal overall community immunization as a ticket to unbridled tourist behaviour in a city like Rio that is so poorly organized that COVID mortality statistics are almost as high as daily reports of new infections. The city has pretty much given up on tracking diagnosis. 

You are basically a desirable commodity there due to your influx of personal resources where locals are in survival mode without the luxury of perhaps fully comprehending or heeding infection control guidance. Affluent visitors break from science-grounded advice for other reasons. Altruism is not one of them.

Vaccination is only as good as its sterilizing immunity capacity. It does not have that capacity for novel coronavirus. The threshold for responsible foreign tourism is coming in due course, if you are willing to be patient. It is based on reductions in case incidence as vaccination progressively drives up herd immunity. What is also likely coming eventually is a vaccine nasal spray that complements intramuscular injection because the virus is both systemically and mucosally replicated. 

Go ahead and ask typical tourism questions, though there is little that in my view hasn’t been exhaustively asked and answered here ad infinitum.  But don’t expect wimpy radio silence from everyone here when thinking that the current state of vaccination is a magic bullet that already flings open the portals to safe travel. There is such a thing, maybe still (?!), as common sense steerage to the relevant questions of the day. My eyes are fatigued from constantly rolling them with regard to the endless rampant COVID misinformation and denialism everywhere I look. Exhausting and daunting. 

Take or leave what I have to offer. If you simply cannot or will not postpone, you can consider some sound risk mitigation strategies when there. As the cumulative infection/recovery rate to date in Brazil is relatively high, perhaps even up to 40% among vulnerable subgroups, many hires will have reasonable CoV immunity. You can try to maintain small social bubbles that still enable you to interact meaningfully. However, you will need to assess a few things, trading off some extra effort to gain health security.

This likely means steering clear of congregate sauna/brothel settings. If those settings cared about staff and clients they would screen the trade for immunity in the first place. It is far less onerous than the repeated viral swabs that should, by the way, be a standard of practice as well. Knowledge is power. There are likely as many garotos de programa that have proportionally recovered from infection as the same proportionate venue capacity reduction dictates anyway.

You yourself can pay for rapid serology tests for private hires in order to assess for protective antibodies. If they do not meet the immunity criteria, you can give them something for their trouble anyway and they will exit with a possibly valuable piece of personal information. This task will also greatly reduce your potential for carrying and transmitting virus or actually getting sick yourself. 

[Lonnie]

1 hour ago, Riobard said:

I myself had to look up Fasano

I think it's near the Fregoli.

[Bucknaway1614502762]

Brazil saunas are not like the American saunas.  Brazil saunas are more of a nightclub or bar vibe where the the dress code is underwear or towels.

As far as deciding to look for fun online or go to saunas?  My answer is yes, try them both.