Xclay

Good luck and take care with the cop you want to choke you! That does not always turn out well. I'll stick to the cops, soldiers, and airmen who stop by the saunas, but I admire your nerve approaching them out and about! Looking forward to updates on your upcoming adventures.

Trying unsuccessfully to delete this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Ha! And the vampire analogy works for us on a couple of levels. I was at the party too with my earplugs working overtime to continue to keep my good hearing intact.

Thanks for sharing this AFP wire story. It makes quite a few references to increased police patrols in the Copacabana area. And I can vouch for that. This Saturday afternoon I took a long walk along Avenida Atlântica on the hotel side and on the beach side. Police were at nearly every intersection, in the middle of long blocks, and parked on the esplanade. I'm used to seeing police here, but this was an all-time record. They were patrolling up and down the parallel avenues too. For the record, most wore tight brown uniforms. You might not have picked all of them at 117, but generally not too bad. Many of the muscular military policemen wore tight white t-shirts stating Policia Militar along with shorts seriously stretched by their quads. Sorry. I got distracted from the serious subject of police deterring crime in Copacabana. To recap: Yes, many are indeed here.

Good question. Perhaps more of the fair "German" GPs now migrate to SP/Rio where sauna prospects are more lucrative and sugar daddies more plentiful. Also one speculation is that many descendants of German and other northern European immigrants have become more prosperous over the past couple of decades. And to really speculate, some intermarriage over the past generation might darken the dirty blond hair!

Floridarob, above you wrote "neither did I" so it sure sounded like you were or had recently been in PA. The record has now been duly corrected. But, yes, tons of fun in Rio and far more good candidates. I'm in Rio now too and enjoying it except for the rain.

My two weeks in Porto Alegre (out of ten weeks in Brazil) overlapped with Pauleiro. Looks like our experiences diverged. I am eclectic in my preferences and I did usually have really good romps at Lux — even during the week — with enthusiastic prior favs plus surprisingly fun newbies. Only two were subpar. Unlike FloridaRob and Pauleiro, I did venture over to old Mezzaninu a few times. It was never as totally empty as when Scott456 visited recently, but it was close. When I went, Mezz only had two-to-four GPs. Yet, one day I met a cute, very short, 19yo, excited GP btm on his second day on the job. Another day I ran into a tall, handsome old favorite. Of course, Lux was still the better venue. However, for most visitors, especially those with particular niche tastes, Buttercawan is absolutely right that PA is a roll of the dice. P.S. I see mentions that you'll encounter guys from a blond Northern European gene pool. That was my experience in PA in the days of Plataforma twenty years ago when there were GPs with light brown hair, including the novelty of an almost blond young German-Jewish taekwondo btm from Gramado. These days such fair GPs seem far less common. The many white GPs are mostly Mediterranean white.

Since late March 2020 (when the Brazilian government lowered interest rates and added lots of pandemic measures), we've been lucky to get good exchange rates. Currently, the rate is not at its recent peak of nearly 6 reals for one dollar, but nearly 5:1 is still quite good (for visitors). Years ago, I tested exchange rates at ATMs vs. credit cards and found that both were very good and they were comparable. I had also been warned to be careful in using my credit card in Brazil because hacking was not uncommon. For many years, my practice has been to use my credit card to pay my hotels and any large purchases — but pay cash (drawn from ATMs) for coffee, most meals, saunas, and GP tips. A few days ago, I quickly used a Bradesco ATM to grab some reals on the way to a sauna. I was shocked to see it defaulted to a terrible exchange rate with an 11% "mark-up." So I decided it was time to run a comparison test again. I was ready to denounce Bradesco until I discovered that you can reject the Bradesco default (designed to rip off other dumb tourists!?) and get an excellent exchange rate. Down in its screen's lower left corner is the crucial option "Decline Conversion"! Clicking that option does not deny baptism, but it yields an outstanding result. My test results: *For the "official" rate, I used XE.com's widely used "mid-market" rate on the day I made the transaction. Not included above is the R$20 transaction fee (US$4) that Santander adds. My Schwab card reimburses all local bank transaction fees, but otherwise that extra $4 each time starts to add up! Bottom line: ✔ Bradesco ATMs are great IF you "decline conversion." ✔ Santander ATMs are good if your bank reimburses Santander's transaction fees. ✔ The basic Visa card exchange rate is great (as long as you keep the charge in reals and decline the conversion to USD or EUR). Miscellaneous: ● I know that for some posters here getting 4.4 instead of 4.9 is pocket change. Good for you. But for those of us who stay longer and keep an eye on our budget, it matters. ● I did not check Itaú or Banco do Brasil. Getting into a Banco do Brasil here in Porto Alegre is worse than TSA airport security. Plus, I've never forgiven Banco do Brasil for its ATM giving me zero cash after accepting my transaction 20 years ago in Recife. Nightmare getting reimbursed. ● Just noticed that Gap1972 briefly noted the Bradesco trick in passing back in September, and others complained about the Bradesco "robbery" back in January. This site is amazing.

The Moinhos de Vento area with the big park and upscale restaurants has always seemed safe in the two dozen years I've been coming here. I've never heard of anybody having any problems. I always regularly walk at night from Lux (revamped Plataforma) up the hill to Moinhos de Vento. No hassles ever. From more distant Mezzaninu, you'd want to take an Uber.

Of course you can occasionally come across a random GP hunting at any Brazilian sauna. But, as far as I know, no GPs regularly go to any PA saunas except Lux and Mezzaninu. Compared to much larger cities, it's impressive that PA has two!

I praised Porto Alegre here last January (see link below) even before the significant progress noted in the two threads started in June-August (linked in the post above). I just arrived in Porto Alegre today, so I'll provide an update in a week or so.

FYI...

A few guys on this forum like cruising the streets and elsewhere. So I thought I'd share this "historical" compilation of 41 cruising venues in Rio and Niterói that a Brazilian compiled about 2010. My reactions: Surprised he identified so many cruising spots in Niterói. I've encountered some, but surprised to see so much action at so many McDonald's. Shopping malls are inevitable places worldwide, and some of these are still active. The São João Batista Cemetery! Gravediggers as GPs?! Quite a few parks of course. Some of these places are still cruisy, but I suppose many of them are inactive now. Of course for men who are sexy and virile, any place in Brazil is cruisy. End of my archeological post. I did not spend much time polishing the Google translation, and this site does not accept PDFs so PNG format was used.

Gingerbeef, please tell us about your swing around Northeast Brazil! Did the tips you received about Fortaleza prove to be helpful? Did you decide to go to Natal? How is it these days? Thanks in advance. (I'm considering some combination of Fortaleza, Natal, Recife and Salvador this Dec-Jan.)

For your first trip to Brazil, I trust you know to be super careful with the packed mob at Tomorrowland! Bring no watch, no ring, no billfold. If you cannot live without your phone, consider stashing it in underwear with security pockets, such as here and here. And you can always put some reals in your socks or underwear. Young 39yo Israeli, eh? Of course, if you look even remotely like your porn countrymen Jonathan Agassi and Michael Lucas, you'll have plenty of covert fun at any Ipanema (if you want more upscale) or Copacabana gym.

You are absolutely right. 👍 But at least in my case, my primitive Portuguese and Google Translate allow for some phenomenal conversations. 😉

And many of them may indeed actually be having their first night as a sauna GP (since there is a lot of turnover among newbies who find it is not for them). BUT, I've discovered over the years that a sizeable portion of those who claim to be newbies (having learned many clients like the fantasy of a "sauna virgin" who has not already been despoiled by many hundreds of prior clients) are actually savvy veterans.

Don't understand that math. The more you spend the larger the amount of $$$ saved. Even if I only spend 250 reals per night, the daily cash discount of roughly US $5 amounts to a saving of $50 over my typical ten days at Lagoa. Seems like a nice, easy windfall to me. Of course $50 may be negligible to some others and good for them!

I just pull out cash and Giovanni and the other nice guy (both are used to me paying cash) give me the discount. I suppose, if they do not volunteer a discount, you might just ask "discount?" No problem.

In case not everybody knows, you get a nice little discount if you pay cash (reals)! The mathfree discount seems to be a quick chashier's guess of roughly around ten percent (plus or minus five percent). Also, I find it seems build up club karma if you often return 10 reals of the change to gorgeous Giovanni or the nice, shy stocky guy.

Thank you. Let us know how the adventure goes!

Thank you for the disappointing but valuable news. 😥

Interesting, Mavica. Thanks. I do see several older references to Thermas Germânia, such as here and here , with the latest one in 2014. But your detective work makes sense since it seems perhaps new owners changed the name. At the Rua Germânia address, Thermas Jardins surfaced around 2016. Its last link that I can find was its Facebook page in October, 2020. That does not necessarily mean it is defunct, but the vacant lot is not encouraging! So potentially Campinas has Très Chic* Thermas Atlantida but perhaps no Thermas Jardins? *Just discovered that the Très Chic sauna in Campinas has the same owners as the upscale Très Chic sauna in Curitiba which always had about 5-8 GPs when I visited in the past. Note the dual sauna info at the bottom of this page. So that looks like good odds that Très Chic for a GP sauna, although it does not guarantee fantasy GPs of course.

Over 60 miles (nearly 100km) north of Sao Paulo is Campinas (population 1,200,000). The Campinas Metropolitan Area has 2,600,000. Campinas is the main hub for Azul so it is quite convenient for nonstop domestic flights. The only forum reference I can find to the GP scene in Campinas was back in 2014! Alas, I cannot find any evidence that Thermas Germânia is still open. I do see references to two current saunas in Campinas: Très Chic and Thermas Atlantida. But I do not see any clues as to whether they have GPs. Lately, we've had some posts about new GP saunas on the periphery of Rio. So to those of us who like to explore "undiscovered" GP corners of Brazil, I thought I'd solicit any intel you can share about Campinas. Thanks in advance for any tips.

For just such decisions, check out this great website based on climate averages: https://weatherspark.com/compare/y/29679~31123/Comparison-of-the-Average-Weather-in-Porto-Alegre-and-Fortaleza