An Interlude Downtown With Gringo. . .

[trilingual]

Yesterday SFTraveller, his Italian traveling companion, CTDick, Tomcal's traveling companion and I got together at the ungodly hour of 10:00 a.m. and headed downtown for a day of sightseeing and culture. We began at the old Imperial Palace, where they are showing the seminal suite of Albert Eckhout paintings of Dutch Brazil in the 1600s that were exhibited in Sao Paulo earlier this year. The building itself is interesting: It was built as something else in the 1700s, but when the Portuguese royal family hightailed it across the Atlantic in their haste to escape Napoleon's advancing army, it was hastily turned into the first royal palace in Rio. Eventually the royal family moved to a palace in Sao Cristovao, then in the suburbs of the city, but I think the old palace, in an austere colonial style, continued to be used for official purposes. Anyway, after viewing the Eckhout paintings and wandering around the building, the guys headed up the street past various colonial churches and cultural centers to the Centro Cultural do Banco do Brasil (CCBB) in the old Banco do Brasil HQ building where they had a good lunch and explored the exhibits before going back to Cinelandia and the National Museum of Fine Arts.

 

Yours truly abandoned the group after the Imperial Palace to meet Gringo, who had offered to give me a guided tour of his favorite lower-life downtown haunts! It had been years since I'd checked out the downtown scene, so I was eager to get reacquainted. Although I'm going to describe things in some detail, this includes a WARNING:

 

DON'T DO THIS ON YOUR OWN IF YOU AREN'T THOROUGHLY FAMILIAR WITH BRAZIL, COMFORTABLE IN THE THIRD WORLD AND AT LEAST REASONABLY FUNCTIONAL IN PORTUGUESE!!! TROUBLE COULD ENSUE IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING!

 

We started in Cinelandia, checking out the scene there. Usually it's better in the late afternoon, in the part of the square closer to the big fountain and Mahatma Gandhi statue, more or less in the area of the bar/restaurant with the green awning (Verdinho). We then went past the Rex porno movie and the adjoining sex shop with movie booths in r. Alvaro Alvim, the parallel street just behind the square, closer to the opera house end of the street. Around the corner, turning left (away from the opera house) is another porno theater, the Orly, where you need to watch out for the transvestites (if they aren't your thing).

 

We then caught the metro to Central station, where we wandered into the huge train station (suburban service only) and checked out the T-room on the the lower level. I had been there in the past, but it had died down considerably after turnstiles were installed and they started charging people money to pee! It's currently R$0,80 to enter, which is expensive for poor Brazilians, but it helps pay for upkeep and probably keeps out some of the worst riff-raff. Gringo had been there a few days ago and said it was empty because the station cops kept coming through, but yesterday there were no cops in sight and there were several impressive specimens showing off at the troughs! Gringo's fancy was caught by one such specimen, who followed us out and gave Gringo his cell phone number.

 

Immediately in front of the station along Av. Pres. Vargas is a ratty enclosed park known as the Thieves Hangout. Don't go in; it's a very rough crowd and it would be inviting trouble. Turning left, as you leave the station, you'll walk along a fenced in area surrounding the station. That area gets busy in the late afternoon, after Campo de Santana (across Pres. Vargas) closes at 5:00 p.m. The busiest area is on the corner of Pres. Vargas and the cross street where the station faces a couple of impressive government buildings.

 

Continuing across that street, you can enter the metro entrance in front of the big Art Deco government building and use it as an underpass (subway) to cross under extremely wide and traffic-clogged Av. Pres. Vargas to reach the Campo de Santana (officially known as Praca da Republica). Campo de Santana is one of the oldest public parks in Rio and is where Independence was declared (or maybe it was the Republic? I get confused.) It's fenced in and is only open until 5:00 p.m., so don't get caught inside after it closes! In years past the park was very ratty and run-down, but it has been restored and looks very handsome. It's not a particularly dangerous place, per se, during the daytime, when it's used by office workers and local residents as well as sex workers, but ALERTNESS COUNTS! The park is essentially divided in two parts. The half nearest Av. Pres. Vargas mostly has hookers. The half farthest from Pres. Vargas, past the large central monument, is where the M4M workers hang out on the park benches.

 

Yesterday was a gorgeous fall day, in the 20s (Centigrade) and without a cloud in the sky. The park looked gorgeous, especially compared to its formerly neglected state. Even the resident cotias (inoffensive South American rodents of the guinea pig family, but the size of small dogs) looked sleek and well-fed, instead of mangy like they were before the park was restored! The park is patrolled by guards in golf carts, which is reassuring, but that doesn't seem to stop the action. Guys will sit on the benches in the back part of the park, and if they're alone that means they're usually on the hunt. Gringo knows a LOT of them, and many of the clients, but he's been coming to Brazil even longer than I have, and stays with friends in the downtown area, just a few blocks from the park. We wandered around for a while, just enjoying the scenery and the splendid afternoon. Eventually I apotted an attractive young man on one of the benches, busily trying to work up a hard on to catch the attention of passers-by. Gringo spotted a likely prospect a few steps away and went off to investigate while I chatted up my discovery.

 

I wasn't really planning on any action, as I had some plans later in the afternoon, but Gringo was hot to trot before catching the overnight bus to Sao Paulo later that evening, so after my "new friend" swore he sported at least 23cm (9 inches) and that I could walk out without paying him if he was lying, I succumbed to temptation. We headed for Gringo's favorite "motel," on r. 20 de abril, which goes away from the corner of the park at the intersection where the Elite Clube is located. The "motel" is about half a block down the street, on the right as you walk away from the park. There's no overhead street sign; you have to look in the doorways until you see the sign, which says something like "Albergue 20 de Abril". It was R$12 for an hour, perfectly clean and adequate, with rooms very much like those at Club 117 with bathrooms and round beds (with sheets). My new friend, Rodrigo, is tall and lean, with a fine build and rock-hard washboard tummy. He wasn't fibbing; he has a fine piece of meat and was very appreciative of a long, loving blow job! He wasn't super-participative, but enough so, and like so many Brazilians is really a sweetheart. I've got his cell phone number for further reference!

 

Rodrigo wanted R$30 for his efforts, and I gave it to him without arguing. Chances are R$20 would have done the trick, but I thought he was worth what he charged. Many of the guys in the park aren't particularly handsome, nor spectacularly built (even if they are well-endowed), nor particularly young, and wouldn't be candidates for working at the saunas. Rodrigo wouldn't have been out of place at the saunas, though.

 

Afterwards, Gringo and I met across the street at the little market where we got soft drinks. We then wandered back through the park (right before closing time) to the "Saara" shopping district, a large downtown area bordering one side of the park where Arab and Jewish immigrant merchants operate wholesale/retail businesses of a bewildering variety with very low prices for many of the things you'll see at the shopping malls or in the higher priced shopping districts for considerably higher prices. I picked up a few more things for my rented apartment and headed home, a very happy and satisfied camper, indeed! Souvenir shoppers might be interested in checking out the Saara, it's an interesting experience. The easiest way to get there is to take the metro to Uruguaina station, and exit the station at N.S. dos Passos. Walking down that street (under the flags and banners), the parallel street, and the side streets, will take you past a fascinating slice of Rio life! At the end of N.S. dos Passos you'll see one of the gates leading into the Campo de Santana. If you don't want to walk all the way back to the Uruguaiana station, just walk through the park towards the Central do Brasil train station (with the tall clock tower)to the Central metro station from which you can head back towards downtown or the Zona Sul.

 

BTW, I was impressed with the degree to which downtown Rio is being cleaned up, fixed up and generally restored. Rio took a gigantic hit when the capital moved to Brasilia. It's been declining for more than 40 years, but it's finally starting to come back, spurred in part by the fact that Rio has remained the HQ for the Brazilian telecommunications and petroleum industries. There's lots to see and do, and the area is very much worth exploring during daytime hours on weekdays. After dark and on weekends there are only a few spots that aren't semi-abandoned, so don't go during those times unless you know the area, go with Brazilian friends, or are sure that you're going to someplace that will be well-populated, like Lapa in the evenings, a theater performance at the Theatro Municipal, or the weekend flea market around the ferry terminal.

[trilingual]

CORRECTIONS: It's r. Sr. dos Passos that runs through the Saara, along with the parallel r. da Alfandega, and the proper spelling of the subway stations that services the Saara is URUGUAIANA.