Salvador, Bahia

[+ José Soplanucas]

https://sopla.substack.com/p/clube-11-566

I am having a great time here. Check my report on the sauna above. It is just my first week, my only doubt is whether I will love Clube 11 after a month. Everything depends on the turn around of boys. It looks like the standard price here is 100R for a full service programa. I am offering 150 and the boys are treating me like a Queen. I am surprised all the boys I talked to (about 10) are openly versatile. Back in 2017, when I visited for the first time, that was not the case. And when you meet Bahianos in Rio, they are always only top (at the beginning). I am gladly impressed by this change. The sauna is celebrating its 20th anniversary week,  a big party is planned for this Saturday.

This coming Sunday is the local gay pride parade, from Praia do Porto da Barra down to Ondinas. I will probably be there if the crowd is not overwhelming (I do not like to be squeezed). I guess I could keep my distance from the most heavy crowded sections of the parade. If I feel safe pulling out my camera (I think I will), I will get nice pictures. There is an after parade party at Zoom, so I will probably go there for the first time.

The city and the people are fantastic. Everyone is very welcoming and friendly. However, I do not think I would like to live here. I hate walking up and down all these hills. Today I took a day off to rest, my right knee is killing me (I had a surgery 10yeas ago). Besides that, poverty is too ubiquitous and too many buildings, often beautiful ones, are falling in pieces.

I went to the Museu de Arte Moderna de Bahía and saw some very appealing artwork, but everything would look so much better with more investment. After my visit there, I attempted to walk south to get to the Museu de Arte, but my knee forced me to call an Uber to go back home to put some ice on it without reaching my intended destination. Before taking the Uber, I walk through a path between the highway and the favela you see bellow in the picture. There were homeless people living on the path, they could not even afford the favela. They smelled horrible and looked like corpses, malnutrition and heavy drugs. It made me very sad, so much misery in such a beautiful natural scenery.