mvan1

"I'm looking to book flights to Brazil (from Los Angeles) for early next year." You might not know that American Airlines is the only carrier that has non stop flights to Sao Paulo from Los Angeles. A non stop flight removes the concern of possibly missing a connecting flight. It also removes several hours from a trip. American Airlines is not always the cheapest way to go but, as I wrote, it is quicker and less stressful than when a connection is involved. Occasionally, you will find a bargain fare to Brazil on their website. I once got a business class fare for around $1,300.00. However, I do not expect to see that low business fare at any time in the near future, but it could happen. Another thing with the American Airlines non stop flight is on departure day. If you have a regular coach ticket and if there are empty seats in business class (just before boarding time), American Airlines will let you "buy up" for around $500 - $600 dollars in addition to what you already paid for your original ticket. The agent will tell you the amount if and when there are unsold business class seats. On the other hand, if you do not mind a connecting flight, you can look at the constantly fluctuating fares of LATAM.

"I am planning a trip to Brazil in the middle of March 2018 (arriving in São Paulo on Saturday morning, departing from Rio on Sunday, 8 days later" Sauna wise, and statistically, the best nights to visit São Paulo's sauna Lagoa are Wednesday and Friday. Of course, there is no guaranty that these nights will be great. However, compared to other nights, statistically and/or usually, those two nights are the most busy with respect to finding lots of available and attractive garotos. Several years back, I used to visit sauna Fragata a lot. In fact, I preferred Fragata over Lagoa. Sadly, I have now abandoned Fragata because my last ten visits there were totally unproductive, garoto wise. During my last few trips to Fragata, I noticed some of the same garotos (who were young and gorgeous a dozen years ago) continue to go to Fragata and go there as garotos. Several of them are grossly out-of-shape and some look like many of the clients. I do not know if those garotos actually meet clients. Fragata used to be my favorite sauna but time did its awful thing to the place (and to the garotos) and now Fragata is merely a shell or memory of what it formerly was. Just because I no longer find Fragata worthy of a visit, does not mean my opinion is the only opinion that matters. Try the place, if you have the time and interest. You might enjoy being there. Enough about Fragata. At the present time, Wednesday and Friday night, at Lagoa are quite productive. Friday is usually a little more active than Wednesday but both nights are usually fun and filled with lots of handsome garotos. Uber is available to and from either sauna. It is possible to stay at Lagoa until after ten in the evening (or later) and have an Uber at the front door in just a few minutes. I have done that many times.

What an excellent report. Thank you very much. I have a few questions. Your report indicates that you went to Cuba last month. The timing of your visit is why I have my questions. I read that a few months ago, Trump (after he and his family visited Cuba) reversed many of Obama's easing of travel restrictions for Americans visiting Cuba. Could it be that you are not American, and therefore, were not affected by Trump's bizarre decisions? I am aware that American Airlines, Delta Airlines and United Airlines all took major financial losses because they anticipated tourism to Cuba but because of Trump's pronouncements and reversals, the airlines cancelled or curtailed many of their existing and proposed routes to Cuba. There are new travel restrictions for Americans flying to Cuba when trying to book a ticket using U.S. air carriers. If you are American, do you have any advice for lessening the aggravation put in by Trump for Americans visiting Cuba? Thanks in advance.

If your question pertains to a visa for Brazil, and if you plan to travel to Brazil in January, next year, or later, you will not need any company to get a visa for you. You will not even need to visit the Brazilian Consulate for a visa. You do not say which country of residence you are. The below link is to an official site for Brazil that explains a major change for getting Brazilian visas. Assuming you are a resident of one of the countries listed in the article, you will be able to get your Brazil visa online. Here is a link that explains how and when: http://www.brazilgovnews.gov.br/news/2017/09/brazil-to-begin-issuing-e-visas-for-australians-in-november

If you use whatsapp for text, you will not have a problem provided you are able to see the person's name in your whatsapp contact list. After a few tries, using whatsapp for text will be like second nature to you. I use whatsapp's both phone and text international every day and never have a problem.

Argentina did what many other countries did after the enormous growth of the cell phone industry. Argentina and other countries were running out of telephone numbers and had to do something to remedy the shortage of numbers to accommodate the influx of new and future telephone numbers needed. Argentina and many other countries left the basic telephone number the same but added (changed) the beginning of the number by adding a formula to increase the numbers available and to identify a cell phone number. For example, in Brazil, a few years ago all cell phone numbers in the larger cities simply added - 9 - to the beginning of the number. In Argentina, for cell phones, the prefix 911 now replaces the former prefix of 15. Unrelated but incidental to the above is the fact that international long distance calling was simplified by the use of the + as discussed in my first response. Another thing you might want to try is to add an escort's name and phone number to your phone's contacts list. After you add the contact, go to whatsapp and refresh your contacts. You should automatically find the escort's name and number in whatsapp. I just did that as an example and it worked for one of the escorts you listed in your inquiry. Good luck -

This should help in calling to and/or from most countries: Why not just use numbers? The symbol + is used because the numbers dialed to start an international call vary from country to country. For example, most European countries use '00' to start an outbound international call, whereas all of North America uses '011'. Other countries use different codes entirely. As an example, if a British business displayed its phone number as 0044 20 7946 0018, somebody dialing from Germany would be correctly connected because Germany uses '00' for making international calls. However, somebody dialing from Australia would not get through, as Australia uses 0011 for outbound international calls instead. __________________________ The alternate number that was given to you does not include the country dialing code for Argentina, which is - 54 - Therefore use the number in your example that begins with + You might have experienced a down town time with the telephone company provider when you tried to make calls. Try again.

The article discusses a major impact to tourism that occurred over eight recent months (January through August of this year). Many (not all) from this forum will change their habit of frequent visits to Rio. At the very least, more caution than was necessary in prior times is warranted when currently visiting Rio. A corrupt government or the beginning of colonialism is irrelevant to the article.

Home Business Rio Loses R$657 Million in Tourism Over 8 Months Due to Violence Business Local Business Rio Loses R$657 Million in Tourism Over 8 Months Due to Violence Restaurants, bars and hotels have registered significant revenue losses and some have been forced to close in the eight first months of the year. By Lise Alves - November 3, 2017 Share on Facebook Tweet on Twitter By Lise Alves, Senior Contributing Reporter RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The city of Rio de Janeiro has lost more than R$657 million of its tourism revenues during the eight first months of the year due to crime and violence, according to a new survey conducted by the National Confederation of Commerce of Goods, Services and Tourism (CNC). Couve Flor restaurant closed its doors in September due to the recent escalation of violence in the city, photo internet reproduction. The loss is equivalent to 29 percent of the total loss of the sector’s revenues during the period (R$2,291 billion). The segment of bars and restaurants suffered more than half of the loss (R$332.1 million), according to the survey, with both tourists and residents afraid to go out due to the increasing reports of violent clashes between police and trafficking gangs. The violence also makes it harder for those who live in these communities plagued with the escalating violence to go to work. One of the first and most famous health food venues in Rio, Couve-Flor, closed its Jardim Botanico location restaurant in September. According to owner Jair Pinto, the armed disputes in the Rocinha favela community led to repeated absences of many of his employees who live in the community. “In a single day eleven employees missed work,” Pinto told Globo newspaper. “They could not leave the house because of the shootings.” Another city landmark, Osteria Policarpo, located in Rio’s Humaita neighborhood, closed its doors last month, after 25 years. According to chef and owner Luiz Gennari, the restaurant did not resist the strong economic crisis and the increased violence faced by the city in the past year. “Unfortunately the situation of our country, state and city is very complicated and we will not be able to remain open,” said the restaurant in its social media page. The segments of transportation, travel agencies and car rental companies also suffered losses, totaling R$215.5 million, or 32.6 percent of the total revenues while the segment of hotels and inns registered losses of R$97.7 million, or 14.8 percent of the total revenues during the January-August 2017 period.

"mandatory" where does the mandatory come from? On nights I went to Bar Fama with friends, and if the place was too empty for us to stay, we left after five or ten minutes and paid only the entrance fee of R$10. We were informed that if the place was busy with customers and garotos, and if we stayed in the facility to partially watch a show or "cruise" for more than ten minutes, we would be charged R$20 reais consumption charge on top of the R$10 reais entrance fee. In reality, it is not necessary to enter the facility to see if it is too dead to be interesting. Just pull back the curtain near the entrance and look inside. If it is dead, you leave. Disappointing, but quite a simple maneuver.

● FECHADO AGORA Qua: 20h00 - 05h00 Detalhes Entrada (R$ 10 entr. + R$ 20 cons) Redes sociais pages Informações Conferidas em Jan/2016 Fechado agora (above) merely means "closed now" (not permanently) - the place is still in business - As you can see from the above "cut and paste" that I provided above, the hours are from 20h00 - 05h00 (translation, eight o'clock at night until five o'clock in the morning). The entrance fee is R$10 ( equivalent to about three U.S. dollars and change). Even though the business says it opens at eight o'clock, don''t waste your time going there until close to midnight or later. If you go there early, sometimes, but not often, you will find some hustlers hanging around the place looking for early pickings. SUGERIR EDIÇÃO VOCÊ É DONO DESTE LOCAL?

It still is a great place. It is not out of business. When you click on Google for any location, if the place is a business and it happens to be closed at the time you look at the site, Google will say the place is closed. This does not mean that the placed is closed permanently. So, Bar Fama is alive and well, even though it has late hours and can be hit or miss when you go there.

How is it that I missed the reports about Brazil being "the murder capital of the world" - see this: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2016/01/29/months-before-rio-olympics-murder-rate-rises-in-brazil/#6e0c09141a0b Is it time for a reassessment of my many trips to Brazil? Have I just been lucky? Or, could it be, the murder and crime statistics are not in the areas I visit. These news reports certainly are not reassuring as they are written. The news reporters have a job and have to write something, otherwise, they will be next on the unemployment roles in Brazil.

TIM is bad for bogus charges on prepaid accounts. Resign yourself to the fact that it is only a little bit of money that TIM deducted and you will not get back any of the amount already deducted. You are talking about less than two euros for the week of films. It is not worth your time. Of course, if you have had your TIM phone for a while and from your prior trips to Brazil, then there would have been the R$3,99 weekly charge from the time TIM started deducting the money. Even then, you are not talking about enough money to spend time on something that will not result in any refund. You said you have not figured a way to stop the weekly payments. Doing so is not difficult. Use your phone that contains the TIM SIM card. Send a text message to TIM. Using a text message format, enter the number 70700 (do not use whatsapp or any other text method except your local SIM phone). Next, in the area to write your message, type, (in capital letters) EXIT p / 70700 then push enter. You will shortly receive a text from TIM (protocol) telling you that the service will stop after your current payment (that TIM deducted without your knowledge or permission) expires. I used TIM for many years while in Brazil. I had unexplained and unauthorized things happen to the prepaid amounts I paid to TIM. I finally switched to VIVO as a carrier. No more bogus charges. In Brazil there is no "perfect" prepaid phone carrier but TIM seems to be the worst because of their spurious charges and their inadequate coverage area. If you return to Brazil again, there is a VIVO store not far from the hotel you used. The store is on the third level in the complex called "Shopping Light" across from the Sao Paulo opera house. Although you did not ask for an opinion of Porto Alegre, I think you might be a little disappointed visiting Porto Alegre during the week. The weekend is the busiest and best times for the saunas and hustler bars. This means that you will most likely not get as much pleasure from Porto Alergre had you visited on the weekend instead.

"I am a little confused about Fragata : is it worth going there ? Or Lagoa is the place to go ? What are the best days/times ?" Fragata, in my opinion, is worth a visit while you are in Sao Paulo. I have been there many times. You can access Fragata via taxi, via bus or via Metro. Since it is your first time going there, you might want to go by taxi. If you are adventurous, you could take the bus or Metro but you will have to walk a few blocks to get to Fragata. My experience has shown that USUALLY, Tuesday and Sunday evenings are best (busiest) at Fragata. Lagoa is arguably the best sauna in Sao Paulo for rent-boys (garotos). This sauna can also be accessed by taxi or Metro but I do not recommend using the bus. If you use the Metro, you will have about a five block walk to Lagoa. As an alternative, Uber in Sao Paulo is quite good. I have used Uber many times to go to Guarulous and occasionally to go to various locations in Sao Paulo. I have never been disappointed at using Uber in Brazil. You also asked about Chile Pepper - I have no information about that place. One place you did not mention is Bar Fama - Bar Fama is a fun hustler bar similar to the hustler bars found in Porto Alegre (Era Uma Vez in Porto Alegre, for example) was but one such type bar that comes to mind. I tried to do a search on this site to find the previous thread about Bar Fama but nothing comes up although there is quite a lot of information in the thread. You might try later and it might appear for you. In case the thread is lost, here is a web link to Bar Fama : http://famainflama.blogspot.com/ Bar Fama, like the hustler bars in Porto Alegre, does not open until near midnight. By one in the morning, the place is usually packed. The place is not far from the hotel you mentioned but I do not recommend walking to there or from there late at night. Using Uber or a taxi would be a good idea. Good luck on enjoying Sao Paulo.

Glory be! Rodolfo recovered part of his senses. He put the "cash price" back at Lagoa and it has been back for a couple of weeks, I don't recall exactly which week it returned. Lagoa continues to be a place to find beauties, if beauties are your thing. -

Rogers was in Copacabana and it closed about ten years ago. There is no new name, it is gone. -

Just when we thought things could not get any worse in Brazil, now this warning prior to the Olympics - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/17/rio-de-janeiro-financial-emergency-olympic-games-2016

For those of us who often travel by air, it is not uncommon to hear about a passenger being forced to give up his or her seat to an air marshal. Air marshals are on many flights. Supposedly, air marshals insure safety and security on a flight. Air marshals are not identified as such on a flight - they remain anonymous unless passengers connect the fact of seeing a passenger being removed and another passenger being assigned to the previously occupied seat. Air marshals are sometimes boarded before rank and file passengers and sometimes before the crew. Sometimes, they come on board just before the aircraft door is closed. There is no fixed pattern for when they board. Air marshals carry weapons, usually, a pistol and lots of ammunition. The weapons are concealed. Here is an interesting story that discusses how ineffective air marshals have been on flights. This latest matter involves a non-stop flight from London to Los Angeles. There were four air marshals scheduled for the flight. One was removed for being under the influence of alcohol. Reading the article and related statistics do not create a feeling of security, in my opinion. Air marshals work with/under TSA, which is also not known for being effective. http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea.com/2016/05/15/united-flight-delayed-to-remove-drunk-air-marshal/ -

I want to join you in expressing comments over the precipitous disappearance of the previous new posters that inquired heavily about Brazil prior to their first-time visit to that country. The new posters had many good and realistic questions. In response to those questions, the new posters learned accurate and helpful information from us that they no doubt used during their visit to Brazil. As you wrote, "They finally feel secure to take the plunge, spend time there, have a blast, get back home and not a single line about their experience, - - " I would not call them ungrateful, as you did. That is a bit harsh. The negative downside to new posters coming to the forum to repeatedly ask for information from experienced travelers (then not getting back to the forum after their trip) is that some of us might not be so generous in sharing our experiences with future new posters.

Before you get too enthused over the sauna in Zurich (Paragonya Wellness Center), take a look at this thread that discusses the only rent-boy sauna in Zurich:

Can this article be correct? Among other things, in the article it reads: "A German tourist was the latest visitor to feel the wrath of the sex workers when he was clubbed around the head with a rock and had his money and valuables stolen in the party town of Pattaya, south of Bangkok. Lutz Mohler told police he had been attacked when he refused the advances of a group of the transgender sex workers, adding: "When I refused, they hit me with a rock and rode off on a motorbike.” Here is the article: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/7107785/Violent-gang-of-ladyboys-mugging-tourists-warn-Thai-police-after-German-man-was-attacked-in-girlie-resort-town.html Can this article be correct? Are the sex workers in Pattaya really that aggressive as described in the article? -

For quite some time (at least a couple of years), there were special prices on Monday nights to encourage clients to come to sauna Lagoa on Mondays, a relatively slow night. Mondays are usually (not always) dead nights at saunas in Brazil. The entrance fee during the price special at Lagoa on Monday was R$20 and the cabines were also R$20 (depending on what kind of cabine a client rented). These special prices were provided the client paid cash rather than used a credit card. Yesterday, Rodolfo (the owner of Lagoa) ended the Monday night specials. He now charges R$50 entrance plus R$50 for a cabine. For some reason, Roldolfo does not understand or doesn't care that there is a recession in Brazil and that Brazil's economy is in the pits. His former Monday night special prices brought in a lot of local Brazilian clients as well as a lot of garotos who wanted to make money from the numerous Monday night clients at Lagoa. Mondays were quite busy at Lagoa while the special prices were in effect. Needless to say, word quickly got around about the Monday night price increases. As a result, last night (Monday) was a dismal night with hardly any clients and few garotos at Lagoa. The place was deadly dull. I stayed for less than an hour. Rodolfo needs a competent business advisor.

I observed during flight how much more noise there is from the engines on the 787 than is heard on conventional commercial aircraft. Another thing, the air seems much drier in the 787 than on other aircraft. I wonder if the drier air is due to the composite materials (plastic) used in constructing the 787.