January 2024 Brazil trip

[Tartegogo]

2 minutes ago, 12is12 said:

Since u signed with a laughing imogen, I hope u r in a positive mood despite the negative tone of the post. 

I visited brazil thrice; never had such encounters, but I wish I had. 

I am in a good mood, it makes for stories to tell, but I am genuinely just stunned and wondering what these people are thinking, it is weird to me, an introvert, to have the balls to address people on the street and ask them for stuff, just because they look different. 
Culture shocks are not bad, just, well, shocking…

[12is12]

M happy u r in a good mood; u r certainly contributing to ours.   (-: 

I m not an introvert, and really love having unscriptured encounters, as long as my money is deep inside a hidden pocket.

[Tartegogo]

16 hours ago, buttercawan said:

I have never been to Manaus but after a quick Google search, I found Clube H20. However, it seems to only operate 4(?) days a week.

https://www.instagram.com/clubeh2o/?hl=en
https://www.instagram.com/clubeh2o_/?hl=en

So I can report that clube H2O has a free entrance promotion on Wednesdays, but drinks made with hard liquor are 60 reais. It is closed again tomorrow and then will be open fri-sat-sun.

There are no GPs, there is one massagista who is muscular, about 40, maybe even 45. You guys know me, I am into 20 to 25 year olds, that guy wouldn’t have done it for me. 
There are plenty of clients, of which only 4 or 5 were to my liking, and one 30-something which returned my advances.

The place is nice enough, no bad smells anywhere and the outdoor pool area certainly makes it interesting. But it is in need of repairs and a lick of paint. 

[Latbear4blk]

2 hours ago, Tartegogo said:

it is weird to me, an introvert, to have the balls to address people on the street and ask them for stuff

That's probably because you have never been hungry enough. I am sure you have been horny enough to ask for something from someone you did not know. 😇

[floridarob]

1 hour ago, Latbear4blk said:

That's probably because you have never been hungry enough.

Many years ago someone asked me for some water from my water bottle, on the street, which I thought was strange. My Brazilian friend said to me, Robert...you don't know what it's like to be hungry/thirty and nothing to do about it....when you're hungry/thirsty, you just go buy something....not everyone can, this was eye opening.

[Xclay]

20 hours ago, Tartegogo said:

...I am genuinely just stunned and wondering what these people are thinking, it is weird to me, an introvert, to have the balls to address people on the street and ask them for stuff...

Thanks for your candor. I'm sincerely puzzled that you are surprised. Poor people asking for help on the street is almost universal, including the US and Europe. It might be rare in some affluent suburbs and small towns, but you cannot walk down an urban street (or sit in a sidewalk cafe) in Washington, DC or Milan or Helsinki without encountering an outstretched hand. It is not a Brazilian phenomenon.

[Mavica]

21 hours ago, Tartegogo said:

... I had not finished my salad (which tasted terrible), and while waiting for my main, an older guy comes along and asks me if I am finished with it, or if am going to eat any more of it or something like that.  I nod and push the plate away, thinking that he was part of the staff, although not dressed for the part, and amazingly the guy grabs a few leaves of my salad and proceeds to eat them! Turns out he was a homeless guy asking if he could have some of my leftovers. I was so stunned, what the fuck? The staff didn’t bother to shoo him away, I had to tell him (and everyone else who could hear) very loudly “Deixa me em paz, não tenho nada para você, quero nada de você, só quero jantar em paz!"

Reading your comments I'm left with the opinion you haven't traveled much, previously.  I would have been embarassed for your behavior had I been sitting with you.

Yes, being so white is a burden you will habe to bare for the rest of your life. 

 

[Marc in Calif]

On 1/17/2024 at 3:03 PM, 12is12 said:

I m not an introvert, and really love having unscriptured encounters....

I think you shd stck to your abbrvtd style of writng with not many vowls. 

The word "unscriptd" would have been sufficient. But "unscriptured" is just too funny to pass up! 🤣

[Tartegogo]

5 hours ago, Xclay said:

Thanks for your candor. I'm sincerely puzzled that you are surprised. Poor people asking for help on the street is almost universal, including the US and Europe. It might be rare in some affluent suburbs and small towns, but you cannot walk down an urban street (or sit in a sidewalk cafe) in Washington, DC or Milan or Helsinki without encountering an outstretched hand. It is not a Brazilian phenomenon.

I guarantee you that people leave me alone in those cities that you have named. And most others. People also leave me alone in Rio and Porto Alegre.   And in Buenos Aires, in Uruguay, in Thailand etc.

I DON’T get left alone in the Philippines or in India, but I was expecting that before going there, so it wasn’t a shock. 

[Tartegogo]

So I had this guy last night which was not very cute but very eager to do a good job:

https://br.mileroticos.com/acompanhantes-masculinos/safadinho-na-cama-doido-pra-sentir-tua-pomba-no-meu-cu/23303656/

Today I had this guy, who was so cute and willing! Perfectly smooth skin and perfect hygiene. I am keeping him for the night. 

https://br.mileroticos.com/acompanhantes-masculinos/bruno-novinho-novato-no-site-sem-frescura/24880232/

Flight to fortaleza tomorrow evening. 

[Tartegogo]

5 hours ago, Mavica said:

I would have been embarassed for your behavior had I been sitting with you.

Really? So you let homeless people grab food with their bare hands from your table when you are eating, and you say nothing, and just smile at them?

[floridarob]

42 minutes ago, Tartegogo said:

Really? So you let homeless people grab food with their bare hands from your table when you are eating, and you say nothing, and just smile at them?

 I nod and push the plate away, thinking that he was part of the staff, although not dressed for the part, and amazingly the guy grabs a few leaves of my salad and proceeds to eat them! 

Sounded like you were done with the salad anyway, lol

[Tartegogo]

11 hours ago, floridarob said:

Sounded like you were done with the salad anyway, lol

You guys seem to say that you would be ok with a guy who has a really strong BO coming up your nostrils, eating leftovers with his bare hands, standing 30 cm from you, while you get delivered the rest of your dinner? 

By the way, none of the Brazilians on that terrace had left him do that. In fact I am pretty sure he knew that he didn’t stand a chance with them, he thought, “let’s try that foreigner”. Are all the other customers on that terrace also assholes for making sure he did not even dare to approach them, through the look they gave him? 

[Latbear4blk]

5 hours ago, Tartegogo said:

You guys seem to say that you would be ok with a guy who has a really strong BO coming up your nostrils, eating leftovers with his bare hands, standing 30 cm from you, while you get delivered the rest of your dinner? 

On 1/17/2024 at 5:04 PM, Tartegogo said:

I was so stunned, what the fuck? The staff didn’t bother to shoo him away, I had to tell him (and everyone else who could hear) very loudly “Deixa me em paz, não tenho nada para você, quero nada de você, só quero jantar em paz!”  

Can’t I be left alone in Brazil? I get accosted all the time by people selling me their stuff, because I am so white, I am obviously not from Brazil, and therefore a target. Between that and the embarrassment of registering a different boy daily at the hotel, this trip might not be as relaxing as I was hoping 😂

I think our reaction (at least mine)  does not come from you disliking that a homeless would disrupt your meal. I would not like that either. But I would not come to a discussion forum to share my experience the way you did and with the wording you chose. Read again the entire quote above. I would never yell at someone as you report you did, or would not be loud at someone in case you did not yell AT him. I would not add your last paragraph where you seem to be complaining not only about one incident.

I know you are an experienced traveler, and I always enjoyed your posts. Not this one.

[Tartegogo]

 

3 hours ago, Latbear4blk said:

But I would not come to a discussion forum to share my experience the way you did and with the wording you chose.

Well, fair enough, after a long day of getting stopped and harassed by everyone and their mother, and responding politely each time, I finally snapped. I don’t think it was as bad as I wrote it, no one bothered to look in my direction, the 4 waiters didn't react (at all) and even the table next to me remained unfazed. There was also a band playing and singing on the theatre square as I mentioned, so if I had spoken normally I am not sure he would have heard me. 

Nevertheless, I am not gonna hide that I snapped, or report only on the good times and my perfect behaviour. It wouldn’t make for an honest report and I don’t claim to be better than everyone.

And yes, it wasn’t his fault that everyone had been after me all day, and to be honest this whole situation is in large part my fault (and the fault of others like me) for having used the system to accrue wealth, while in that same time he could not do the same for reasons that are mostly systemic.

This is why giving to charities who try to house homeless people is so important, you can’t really restart your life unless you can take a shower and wash your clothes. These charities work a thousand times better than giving money in the street, which incentivise them to stay in the streets, as they will want more. Living on the rough is not only very unhealthy for them, it is very dangerous (violent death among homeless people is much, much more frequent than among housed people).

I guess the message I wanted to send was to be aware that Manaus is not like touristy Rio or very white PA, if you look like me, expect that being alone in the streets or at a restaurant terrace will make for a difficult time, if want to remain alone.

If you want to speak to everyone and their mother, you might have a great time! 

The fact that no one got the message that I wanted to send and instead interpreted it in the worst possible way (wasn’t someone sarcastically implying that I was a white supremacist because I mentioned that my white skin burns in the sun?) is another cold shower: 
I obviously can’t write well anymore.
 

[12is12]

Tartegogo, 

Not everyone misinterpreted your message; only the ones who reacted in the way u didnt like. The others just didnt bother to respond.     (-: 

Writing well, like beauty, "is in the eye of the beholder". As I commented on thrsdy, ur writing certainly contributes to good reading/mood here.

[Latbear4blk]

16 hours ago, Tartegogo said:

I obviously can’t write well anymore.

LOL.

Perhaps we all are over reacting? I never, NEVER, got any close to think of you as a Supremacist or anything like that. I only think, as I told you, that this was not your best post. But we all have bad moments, and we all hope we will not be judged by our worst decisions. 

[floridarob]

7 hours ago, Latbear4blk said:

and we all hope we will not be judged by our worst decisions. 

You having sex while the poor neighbor was watching everything through your open curtains....you're not getting off that easy 😆

[floridarob]

23 hours ago, Tartegogo said:

at a restaurant terrace will make for a difficult time, if want to remain alone.

But then there are the occurrences of a shoeshine guy, wearing gym shorts, with his huge dick hanging down the leg....I asked if he'd rather do a programma than to shine shoes....he put his shoe shine kit in his backpack and off we went to y hotel room.

 

 

23 hours ago, Tartegogo said:

If you want to speak to everyone and their mother,

I'm glad he wasn't with his mom....that would've been awkward 😱

[davet]

On 1/17/2024 at 2:47 PM, 12is12 said:

I visited brazil thrice; never had such encounters, but I wish I had. 

What was described happens (though not all the time) in so many places. Street vending is common and the incident didn't sound aggressive. The occurrence with the boy I would find to be even charming, and even the homeless guy was a harmless human encounter. You actually interacted with three real working-class Brazilians who weren't in the tourist or sex industries. I would embrace it.

[davet]

On 1/17/2024 at 2:55 PM, Tartegogo said:

it is weird to me, an introvert, to have the balls to address people on the street and ask them for stuff

The exact culture clash between a verklempt northerner (though I don't know where you're from) and a gregarious southerner. This was why french homosexuals went to Morocco and British homosexuals went to Tuscany and American homosexuals are going to Latin America.

 

On 1/17/2024 at 2:55 PM, Tartegogo said:

just because they look different

No that's not why.

[Latbear4blk]

2 hours ago, floridarob said:

You having sex while the poor neighbor was watching everything through your open curtains....you're not getting off that easy 😆

That one was the only time I did not get a five stars review from my host. He sent me a private message stating something like "You are welcome back anytime, but I will not post a review. You know, I have to be honest".

[xpaulo]

On 1/18/2024 at 7:38 PM, Tartegogo said:

you cannot walk down an urban street (or sit in a sidewalk cafe

Definitely my experience living on the west coast of Canada, maybe because of the tragically high rates of alcoholism and drug addiction combined with homelessness. There's always been panhandlers and I've avoided sidewalk tables for years. There are people in my town who want the police to keep the street people out of sight. My feeling is we should always know they exist. And a guy did take my plate with leftovers at the Frankfurt train station once. I gave him money instead, but I guess that was wrong too, re drugs.

 

[Tartegogo]

Thread closed

[mikeyrke]

On 1/29/2024 at 9:07 AM, Tartegogo said:

Thread closed

I wish you could have finished the reports on your trip I was enjoying reading about it.