CaliPexx

Wow! Rejection hasn't been my experience at Lagoa at all and -- let me assure you, I'm neither a fabulously wealthy Brazilian (or American) sugar daddy nor a "spring chicken". I'm enamored with that thermas and the garotos de programa (GPs) there. But, like others, I tend to arrive on the "early" side, like 5-6 PM. I figured that if I arrived there too early, like when they open at 3 PM, there might be a scarcity of GPs, especially on weekdays for those GPs who hold day jobs. On my last visit to Lagoa, in February 2018, one of my American friends and I sat at one of the tables in the bar area, just opposite the entertainment stage, where there was a clear view of the glass enclosed showers. Being a size queen, I noticed a handsome GP, muscular, about 5'10" tall, with an enormous cock who was taking a shower -- my type exactly. He disappeared into one of the saunas adjacent to the showers, the one on the left. I could have abandoned my buddy and pursued the GP into the sauna but I waited. Within just a couple of minutes, the GP exited the sauna and came out of the glass shower room. I smiled as he was walking toward us. He returned the smile and then stopped at our table. I asked him, "Você quer tomar alguma coisa?" ("You wanna drink something?"). He sat down, displayed his 23 cm pauzão for me, which got me totally aroused and, within a minute or two, the GP and I found ourselves walking up to the recepção to order a suite. I'll leave the rest to your imagination but, let's just say, heaven couldn't be any better than this was!

@sanddunes and @Riobard: You are both right. In healthcare, there are potential risks in everything we do. So the answer to that, as you are doing, is to evaluate the benefit:risk ratio for any proposed procedure or treatment. My own primary care physician told me a story about his son, who was not immunocompromised or anything, and was planning a prolonged stint in the Amazon with the Peace Corps or a similar organization. My doctor's kid actually developed a case of vaccine-induced yellow fever that landed him in the ICU before he left the U.S. for Brazil. Fortunately, the guy recovered from that and continued on his mission in the Amazon. I mulled over that story quite a lot but, in the end, after reviewing the risks vs the benefits, decided to get the vaccine. Fortunately, I didn't suffer any adverse outcomes from the YF immunization. With the recent upsurge in cases of yellow fever in Brazil, my three traveling companions also decided not to take any risks of the disease and obtained the YF vaccine prior to our 2018 trip. Once again, they did not report any problems, even the mild flu-like symptoms you sometimes get with a flu shot. So, in the end, it's really all about being an informed consumer, doing your homework, and deciding on what level of risk you are willing to accept vs the benefits the vaccine might provide.

My friends and I have rented apartments many times in that part of Copacabana. It's very convenient -- close to the Metrô for accessing Point 202 and Clube 117. It's within walking distance of Rio de Janeiro's Castro Street in Ipanema -- Rua Farme de Amoedo -- where there is a popular gay bar, Tô Nem Aí, and, of course, the famous Farme gay beach between Postos 8 and 9. During Southern Hemisphere winter, when you are there, Praia Farme will be busiest in late afternoon, before sunset, on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. For many years, the world-renowned gay mega-disco/bar/sauna, Le Boy, operated in that part of Copacabana. But alas, two or three trips ago my friends and I discovered that Le Boy was no more. But I have fond memories of that emporium from my first trip to Rio in the 1990s. I did something I now realize was careless and accepted the invitation of a hot and hunky Carioca I met on the disco floor to go back to his apartment. Fortunately, I had a hot night with this guy and it all ended OK but the outcome could have been different. You'll be very close to the Forte de Copacabana, the rock outcropping and mini-neighborhood called Arpoador, which separates Copacabana from Ipanema. Be sure to take a walk out to the Fort (there's a small entrance fee, which includes some cool military museums). You can take some spectacular photos from there. Also be sure to climb up the rock at Arpoador, this time from the Ipanema side, to capture some of the most stunning sunset photos. Although the coastal fog blocked my great sunset view on this occasion, you can still see a bit of the glow on the buildings in the attached image. Fortunately, sunset will occur quite early when you are there, so you'll still have plenty of time to take the Metrô out to the saunas!

Another cool -- and safe -- walk, especially if you are interested in history and in exploring Rio de Janeiro away from the beaches would be the following itinerary: Start in Centro (downtown) at the impressive Biblioteca Real (Royal Library). Have a snack -- or one of the fabulous desserts -- or just stop by to admire the plethora of stained glass and mirrors at Confeiteria Colombo, an ornate gem that will transport you in time back to the 19th century. Walk along the Enseada de Botafogo -- the bayshore pathway that takes you from Centro through Flamengo to the upscale bairro of Botafogo. Stop to admire the hunks working out at the bayside academia (gym) along the way. End the tour at Botafogo Praia Shopping, where you must take the elevator all the way to the food court at the top of the mall to catch a spectacular view of Pão de Açucar (Sugarloaf). Enjoy Rio! The Cidade Maravilhosa has much to offer beyond the beaches that most tourists get to see.

The trails up to Pão de Açucar (Sugarloaf) and in the Tijuca forest are spectacular, containing the vestiges of the Mata Atlântica (Atlantic Forest) that occupied much of coastal Brazil prior to the arrival of the Europeans. But, as @Riobard cautions, I would not recommend hiking there by yourself. Another spectacular hike that is less accessible but MUCH safer are the beaches of Barra, in the far western part of Barra da Tijuca. I've attached a couple of photos I took there in January 2018, when I visited five of the beaches on one sunny Saturday. You would need to hire a driver to take you out there and show you the various beaches but that may be a project for a subsequent trip to Rio de Janeiro.

During a five week period I was alone in Rio, before my travel buddies arrived and we moved to a larger flat, I did the same thing, staying in a one bedroom apartment in Copacabana. There's something to be said about having access to your own kitchen and making healthy meals within your own space. So that's exactly what I did during those five weeks. That said, I kept a detailed record of my expenditures, down to the centavo, comparing the period when I was on my own and the weeks after my friends arrived, when we tended to eat more meals in restaurants. The funny (and surprising) thing was that my expenditures for dining out in Rio de Janeiro turned out to be not much more than what I spent when I was making my own meals. As you'll discover, Rio has many options for dining out very inexpensively, including por kilo restaurants (where they weigh your plate at the end of a huge buffet), juice bars that are located on practically every corner, and the ridiculously cheap pizza and breakfast restaurants that are attached to several outlets of the Zona Sul chain of supermarkets. I have dined by myself at all of those types of eateries, as do many brasileiros, and have never felt self-conscious in doing so. But YMMV. @caeron: Out of curiosity, in which bairro did you decide to rent your apartment? Copacabana? Ipanema? Elsewhere?

My friends and I go to Rio at least annually and sometimes more often. On at least half of those trips we have stayed in apartments, the other half at hotels. While we have never rented apartments through AirBnB, we've located flats more commonly through the map feature on sites like TripAdvisor, zooming in on particular areas of neighborhoods where we like to stay. One caveat is that, in most of the apartments we have rented, we have had to sign extensive rental agreements that specified that we were not permitted to bring "guests" back to the apartment. The penalty for violating this provision was immediate eviction, so we have never attempted to test the enforcement of that restriction. Although I generally prefer to keep my encounters with garotos confined to the saunas, which I consider safer, on those visits when we have rented apartments, my more adventurous travel companions desiring to bring a garoto back from the saunas have either (a) rented inexpensive hotel rooms for a night in the vicinity of our apartment or (b) used nearby love motels in the Zona Sul, e.g., Hotel Vanity in Copacabana. One other thing to remember: although porteiros (the guys who sit just inside the entrance to an apartment building) are present in most condo buildings, they are NOT always there 24/7. And these guys are NOT really security guards. One apartment I stayed at recently had no porteiro coverage during the night shift or on Sundays, so there would potentially be some safety risk in those edifícios. We have found that hotels have not objected to having guests, as long as you are upfront with them and pay the incrementally higher two-person rate, as opposed to trying to sneak a trick up the elevator. Additionally, being transparent with the hotel front desk about your guest's presence is good from a safety standpoint, as they will ask to see and photocopy his RG (Brazilian ID card). TL;DR: I vote with the majority in this thread and recommend that you stay in a hotel, at least for your first trip, and probably for several subsequent visits to Brazil.

According to the Bulletin of the Department of Health of Rio de Janeiro State, through 4 June 2018, there have been 262 cases of yellow fever reported in the State of Rio de Janeiro, with 84 deaths. This bulletin reports cases and deaths by city within the State of RJ. While I don't see any reports of communities within the city limits of Rio de Janeiro, and certainly not in the Zona Sul and Centro, where many of us tend to travel, there have been communities that are pretty close to Rio, e.g., the old imperial city of Petrópolis and in towns on the tourist route, e.g., the beautiful coastal town of Paraty. When I was visiting in Rio in December 2017 and January and February 2018, there was a massive public health program to encourage all people to obtain the YF vaccine. Because supplies were low, and in order to immunize as many people as possible, many states and communities in Brazil decided to offer a "fractionated" YF vaccine, i.e., containing one-quarter of the normal YF vaccine dose. Be advised that, if you get a dose of the fractionated vaccine, protection is expected to last only 7 years. Now, however, public health officials say that the full dosage YF vaccine protection is lifelong.

Right. And this may well be the case with the law student. My travel buddies and I haven't encountered him in either 117 or Lagoa in 3 or more years.

True. But once in a while you will meet one who defies our stereotypes. I can't forget a tall, handsome garoto de programa who shuttled back and forth between 117 in RJ and Lagoa in SP and who friends and I "met" in both cities on different trips. Reason: his parents lived in one city and he was attending a faculdade de direito (law school) in the other city. So he was able to earn some spending money wherever he happened to be!

Inhotim is an amazing place...a fantasy park for lovers of the arts. My friends and I first read about it in an assignment for our Portuguese class in California. We always visit at least one new city or locale in Brazil on our annual trips there so we grafted a visit to Inhotim on our second trip to the metropolis of Belo Horizonte and the state of Minas Gerais. And, BTW, there is at least one sauna com garotos de programa in Belo Horizonte that has been reviewed elsewhere in this blog. When we arrived at Inhotim, we quickly discovered that the park is so huge we were only able to see a small fraction of the art installations at Inhotim on our day trip from B.H. A few of our images of the park are attached. By the way, Inhotim has a wonderful restaurant that opens to gardens, sculptures, and a stream. Highly recommended for lunch! My travel buddies and I would be interested in returning to Inhotim to see more of this incredible park but, in my mind, this investigative report linking the park's founder with corruption and environmental pollution scandals places the future of Inhotim in doubt.