Arrived in Rio - First Report

[IamI2002]

Off topic

[BillyZ]

Thwarting two daylight robberies

 

Mavica,

 

Thanks for sharing your candid impressions.

 

I'd be grateful if you could you please elaborate

on the sentence where you wrote:

 

"On two occassions, teenagers

attempted to rob my friend as we

were walking in broad daylight."

 

To have been attacked on the street twice within a

day or two is horrible. I'm sorry to hear of that.

 

I gather your older friend must have seemed like an

easier target than you did. But, I'm extremely

impressed that your 77-yo friend was able to twice

thwart Brazilian teenage thugs! Wow, good for him.

 

Could you please tell us what happened in those two

episodes? And why do you think teenagers twice went

after him (besides his age)? Nice camera around his

neck? Impressive watch? Bulging billfold? Leaving an

ATM? Dressed to kill? Something else? And where did

these attacks take place?

 

Thanks for your help, Billy

[Guest needtraining]

Hey, IamI2002-

I've been enjoying this board for a few months and will continue to do so. Your unkind remarks are a first to my eyes and is not welcome. The level of discussion here is positive, helpful and respectful. If you can't make that standard, please don't come back. You'll only look worse if you try to defend yourself; so take a break.

[trilingual]

RE: Comments

 

>tri - anything showing up yet in the rio news sources you use

>regarding the violence that has been reported or the beach

>melee that was described? will be back at atlantico 2/19 for

>a week and again when tom cal and others return 4/10.

>is there a web page you recommend with local rio news in

>english and if not which would you recomend in portugeuse?

 

Sorry, I had to open the windows. Seems like something toxic has been farting here in "Escorts South. . ."

 

Anyway, I haven't seen anything about either of these reported stories. That obviously doesn't mean they didn't happen, I've just not seen anything. Crimes against tourists that get reported to the police usually make the papers, though.

 

I'm not aware of any pages with local Rio news in English. Maybe if you Google around you can find one. The two big local newspapers, "Jornal do Brasil" and "O Globo" both have websites, at http://www.jb.com.br and http://www.oglobo.com.br respectively. In the JB, local news would appear in the Rio section. Late breaking news is on the home page. I don't remember what Globo's local news section is called, but you should be able to figure it out.

[Mavica]

Replies/Comments

 

A couple of general comments before anything specific to questions/comments of others:

 

On the Metro station near the Atlantico - it´s not open yet, nor is it expected to open until sometime after Carnaval. The main exit of the station is exactly opposite the Estacao . . . a long block from the hotel (however, there is a side (second) exit across from the hotel). My thought is that the hotel will be negatively affected by the new station because it appears that a lot of vibration from the trains carries up into the hotel (they´ve been doing some test runs I think), and it´s easily felt in the rooms (I´, on the 8th floor, and have felt the vibrations). However, the Metro stops running at 11 p.m. weekdays, and doesn´t operate on Weekends, so maybe it´s no big deal at all.

 

About crime - a big story in the news this week has been a reported 40% increase in crime against tourists in January 2003 as compared to January 2002; it´s been all over local television. It´s being reported that the government is very concerned, because reported crimes in February are well above last year and the tourism sector is hollaring for authorities to get a grip on the situation prior to Carnaval. The military police have taken-over the monitoring of a camera system installed to track street activity along Copacabana, and other touristed areas in the city . . . and military police will be responding to some incidents as a show of force. While sitting in the yellow awning place Monday night, a foreign gay tourist was assaulted and injured while walking down the street there at about 10 p.m. From all indicators I hear, crimes against tourists is spiking upward.

 

Now, for some specific responses:

 

Mike_M: you need to get a grip, learn how to read, and not expect others to view the world through your rose-colored glases. I never said I was looking for love, it seems something you´re preoccupied with in your many comments. What I expect from so-called professionals is service. You seem accustomed to settling for second-best, and that´s your right . . . just don´t expect others to settle for second-best, too. About hustlers in the saunas, well . . . from what I see, they´re infested with street hustlers. To call these guys Escorts does a disservice to the true escorts that may be out there. Many of the sauna guys hustle from sauna to sauna . . . not loyal to just one place . . . and after the sauna they go to the yellow awning restaurant and hustle the crowd there (sometimes by walking through the tables, or hanging on a sign-post at the corner, or standing with others across the street) . . . and they show up at Le Boy and La Cueva. Lots (maybe most) of these guys have no life other than hard-core hustling. Many of these guys are desperate . . . and it can be sad to watch the games they play.

 

Tomcal: Be it Rio or New York . . . it´s always sound advice not to bring someone into your home, or hotel room . . . I agree with you. However, from what I´m observing, many of the sauna boys are not much more than rough trade/common street hustlers who play both the sauna game and the street hustling game. Yes, one has a recourse to possibly track someone down if they rob or abuse you (if you´ve seen them at a sauna), but they´re still at the bottom-feeder end of the scale as far as I can see. I´m not comfortable with an all encompasing and general statement that all sauna boys are safe to be with . . . outside the sauna. About taking people back home from outside a sauna, I did that from Le Boy the other night, and it was a great experience (non-commercial).

 

Luv2play: Whether something is a bargain is relative to an individual´s situation/perspective. I´m one who has always subscribed to the belief that going first-class is less expensive than the bargain-basement route. No, I´m not loosing sight of foreign travel, like you . . . I´ve done a lot of it. The purpose of this trip is not to whore-around all day, but to hit the beach, rest from my work schedule, see the tourist sights a first-timer ought to see, and, then . . . to have a little relaxation with a guy. There´s more to life than hanging with hustlers. I wouldn´t tell anyone I know that Rio´s been a bargai. . . it can be an expensive place for a first-timer to get to . . . relative to other options. I´ve said before, and I´ll say it again . . . the hustlers I´m seeing in the saunas are below-par, compared to the average Brazilian guys of the same age I see walking around. So, why pay for an inferior product, when better is available for less?

 

BillyZ: My friend was approached by the would-be thieves after they they came towards me . . . and after they had hassled several Brazilian men and women at a nearby bus stop on Copacabana Avenue . . . at mid-day. Another incident occurred in daylight, near the yellow awning restaurant (rough-trade central). After moving around the city a little, the central part of Copacabana seems more dangerous than other places I´ve been here. Just about all of us are going to stand-out as foreigners, and not locals . . . so not looking like a tourist is likely to be difficult to accomplish. My friend and I are moving around without jewelry, camera´s in the open (he travels with disposable/one-time use cameras), etc. (my expensive camera is getting little use, because everyone is advising me not to use it in the open . . . because of the high probability that I´ll be robbed.). He was not robbed, because I stepped between the guys once, and me and another local man intervened another time. My sense is that many parts of Rio are dangerous for tourists/foreigners to visit . . . and this is a fact supported by the government´s own crime statistics released this week. Some of us are lucky, and move around without difficulty . . . because, these crimes are ones of opportunity, not thought-out in advance. However, many people are being victimized . . . and anyone who attempts to triviliaze that fact does a disservice to inbound travelers, IMHO.

[Guest Deweywop]

RE: Replies/Comments

 

"I´ve said before, and I´ll say it again . . . the hustlers I´m seeing in the saunas are below-par, compared to the average Brazilian guys of the same age I see walking around. So, why pay for an inferior product, when better is available for less?"

 

The last part is a very interesting point that I totally agree with. I didn't think the sauna boys were below the average Brazilian guys, but that's an non-scientific difference of opinion, and times may have changed since I was there. However, I'm trying to work out the logical implications of the statement. It all depends on how much the better goods are "available." I'm now encouraged by Mavica's report to go back to Brazil to check out the non-commercial cruising scene, which on the first round I found to be unexpectedly cold. As I saw it, Brazil was the only country I've been to where the professional boys were at least as good looking as, and in the case of the Lagoa in SP hotter than, the average young guy in my desired demographic. My experience with US "escorts," all of whom sold themselves sight unseen, is that they have been below the average guy walking around the US, and even less attractive than men I've turned down in bars. Of course, for economic necessity and choice, I've never gone to the $600 star escorts. However, if I may take the general porn-star universe as the top end of the escort market, well -- they're only roughly equal to the average young man walking around West Hollywood, and well below the average young man walking around UCLA or Berkeley. But those guys aren't exactly available in the same way.

 

Rio, let's be sure, is a temple of body worship. In Copacabana I constantly saw teenagers walking around in surf-shorts, water dripping off their golden bodies. There seemed to be a mini-gym above every juice or frango joint. I once saw a guy just standing on the beach, no towels, no preparation, his clothes just folded up next to him, worshipping the sun and allowing us mortals to worship him. If all that is available, and I'm still holding out the hope, I'd be happy to put that in the mix and make the sauna boy work a little harder for the competition! So any more words on the non-commercial side of Rio would be well appreciated.

 

Going back to the commercial sex scene, I guess the thing that most clicks with me about the Brazil is that I get to see exactly who I'm going with, how he looks, how he acts, how he talks. A street trade who's exactly what I want will always beat an unseen and usually inaccurately- or incompletely-described escort in my book.

[Guest Deweywop]

RE: Replies/Comments

 

I've also re-read Mavica's and Mike M's previous posts, and I also don't see where Mike M has remotely implied that gay men have to settle for second-best. As our previous posts have made clear, those of us who are fans of the Brazil scene think it is the best we've seen in the world (and praise the lord that price apparently has little relation to quality). Rhetorical inventions and escalations are unnecessary in this already bizarre forum where American men talk anonymously about paying for gay sex in foreign countries. (But don't misinterpret me, I love it!)