A Tale of Two Cities

[williewanker2]

In the next post, I will describe my recent adventures in Sao Paulo.

[williewanker2]

I visited three Brazilian cities (Rio, Sao Paulo, and Curitiba) with a U.S. friend and had a great time even though the experience was quite different in each city. Brazilian cities seem to vary more than U.S. cities. The main difference is that the farther south the city, the more the population (and the sauna boys) seems European rather than African.

 

I don’t have much to say about Rio that has not already been said here before. After a few days in Rio, we went first class on a luxury bus to Sao Paulo. This was six hour trip costing $R70 (US$28). We took the bus to see the countryside but were somewhat disappointed. By going first class, we had great seats that were good for sleeping, but the view was limited because curtains blocked the windows. The seats were three across instead of the usual four, reclined as much as many first class international airline seats, and had foot rests. We stopped halfway for a meal. If I did this again, I might leave at midnight, sleep all the way, and save the cost of a hotel room. Another option is to take the bus route along the coast past Paraty to Sao Paulo where the scenery is spectacular.

 

Following the recommendation of another poster to this site, we stayed at the Bourbon Hotel one block from Praca de Republica (Republic Park or Square). This is a first class hotel though the rooms are on the small side. The price was $R130 (US$52) per night. On balance it was a nicer hotel than the Atlantico in Copacabana which cost $R180 (US$72). Across the street is the Republic Park Hotel which was also recommended to us.

 

What made the location of this hotel interesting is that the street in front of the hotel (Av. Dr. Viera de Carvalho) seems to be a center for informal gay nightlife. Each night there were hundreds of gays milling around the street. Some were sitting at the bars and restaurants. Others were buying drinks and food from street vendors and just hanging out. There were a number of drag queens parading about and even a group of deaf gays chattering away in sign language.

 

The median strip on the street and the nearby Praca de Republica is noted for its hustlers looking for business. I did not find them attractive and saved my business for the saunas. However, the square has a huge crafts market on Saturday and Sunday that was both larger and more interesting than the one in Ipanema.

 

The square is also the site of metro stop which makes it easy to visit the saunas and has a terminal for buses going to the airport. South east of the square is the maze of walking (pedestrian) streets that comprise the oldest section of the city extending down to Praca de Se. Brazil is at least 100 years older than the U.S., but its cities seem to have far fewer historic sites and buildings. There seems to be nothing left of colonial Sao Paulo except for a couple of small churches. I would not recommend a visit to Brazil just to see its historic, cultural, or artistic sites.

 

I expected Sao Paulo to be a richer, more modern, and cleaner city compared to Rio since Sao Paulo is the business center of Brazil. The areas I visited, however, seemed to be more rundown and dirty than Rio. Admittedly, I only briefly visited Avenida Paulista which is the Park Avenue of Sao Paulo. It is a long broad street lined with modern skyscrapers.

 

The Lagoa sauna is certaintly the best in Brazil though priced accordingly. The many boys are stunning, and the facilities are huge. My only complaint is the narrow hallway upstairs leading to the video rooms. The boys would stand along the hall with huge hardons forcing you to navigate around them or push them aside making it difficult to get to the porno which of course is the main reason I came to Brazil.

 

We also went to Sauna Alterossa out in a working class suburb. We took the metro and then a short cab ride. Most of the patrons are local, and the boys seemed to be more your average young Brazilians. The prices were in the R$30-50 range rather than the R$50-100 charged at Lagoa. We hired two boys to put on a private show for us. Also there are small tiled rooms in the sauna area where you can take a boy for a quickie without paying the fee for a private room upstairs. I had one boy beat off to see him cum.

 

A description of Curitiba will follow.

[trilingual]

Unfortunately, in their rush to modernize, many of the architectural treasures of the big Brazilian cities have been lost. São Paulo is particularly bereft of old historic structures. However, even though it was founded more than 400 years ago, SP wasn't much more than a wide spot in the road until the late 19th century, when it began its great spurt of growth based on the coffee boom. Most of what exists in SP dates from that period to the present. Downtown (where the Bourbon is located) is run down, although slowly coming back to life. There are handsome residential neighborhoods, deluxe shopping, and huge wealth, although most of that is somewhat off the tourist trail.

 

Rio has more architectural treasures than SP, but it was also the capital of Brazil from the later 1700s until 1960. During that period it housed the Portuguese Court (when it fled across the Atlantic to escape Napoleon) and then the Brazilian Imperial Court. There's a surprising amount left from those days, plus some churches and other structures that are even earlier. Petropolis also has many buildings from the Imperial days, including the former Imperial summer palace, now a museum about the period, featuring the Brazilian crown jewels.

 

There are endless historic treasures in cities like Salvador (the first capital of Brazil, from the early 1500 to around 1760), Recife, etc. There are many very well preserved colonial towns, like Parati, Olinda, Sabará, Ouro Preto, São João del Rei, Tiradentes, Mariana, Diamantina, etc. that are absolutely beautiful. But you need to get away from the metropolises to see really complete colonial towns. More reasons to keep coming back to Brazil!

[CT Dick]

>featuring the Brazilian crown

>jewels.

>

Tri, as I read this I laughed to remember my visit to Petropolis.

 

I was surprised to find that the museum contains one set of jewels but two crowns-This in the land of Amsterdam-Sauer and H. Stern! It seems Don Pedro II popped the rock's out of Dom Pedro I's crown to decorate his own.

 

The Summer Palace is a wonderful museum but I hope no one expects the Tower of London.

 

Dick

[williewanker2]

This describes our trip to Curitiba after visiting Sao Paulo. We took the bus from Sao Paulo to Curitiba. This turned out to be almost 8 hours long because of bad traffic in Sao Paulo. Though the bus was very comfortable, we could not see much because of curtains. We certainly did not want to take a 14 hour bus ride from Curitiba back to Rio and flew instead for a cost of about R$320 per ticket.

 

Curitiba is a clean, almost sterile city of about 1.5 million settled by Europeans. It sits on a high flat plain. I saw almost no black faces or favellas (slums). Though I have no proof of this, my suspicion is that the city is not very welcoming to poor blacks and "encourages" them to go to Rio or Sao Paulo to look for work. A privious post said that blacks don't migrate there because it is too cold though this did not stop blacks in the U.S. from migrating to New York and Chicago if jobs were available. It is so unlike the rest of Brazil that the city does not even celebrate Carnival. The center of the city has a long walking street and a number of pretty parks and fountains.

 

We stayed at the low cost Hotel O'Hara at 770 Rua. 15 de November. The rate was R$65 per room. It sits across the street from a park (Santos Andrade). If you go west on Rua. 15 de November, it becomes a nice walking street ending at Praco Osorio. During the day, we sat in an outdoor cafe on the street watching good looking boys and men walking by. My friend called them Aryan gods.

 

Parallel to Rua. 15 de November on the other side of the square is Rua Amintas de Barros. On this street is located the one sauna we visited in Curitiba -- Club 773. If you walk east along the street for about six blocks and up a hill, you will spot the sauna on the left hand side in an orange stucco house. There is no sign and even the street number (773) was half missing. There were maybe ten boys there -- almost all fair skinned and somewhat twinkish in appearance.

 

One day, we took the famous tourist train from Curitiba down through the spectacular mountains and tropical jungle to the coastal town of Morretes. We had arranged a tour for R$130 that included a guide, the train ride, lunch in Morretes, and then a bus ride back to Curitiba.

 

I liked Curitiba but I don't think that I would want to live there. I missed the beauty of Rio and its more varied tawdry pleasures.

[Luv2play]

Bobby, thank you for your wonderful descriptions of your visits to these two very different Brazilian cities. I know from experience that those huge hardons at the sauna can be so annoying when you simply want to get down a narrow hallway LOL!

 

When I was in Sao Paulo a few years ago, I loved just walking around as much as possible and taking in the sights. I ate in places frequented by the locals and when my limited Portugese failed me, I would just point at something on someone else's plate that looked good as my way of ordering.

 

I found a few historic places in SP that were interesting and enjoyed going up to the top (36th floor or so) of a downtown office building that was a scaled down version of the Empire State Building in NYC. It was built 3 or 4 years after the Empire State. The views from its open rooftop deck were spectacular.

 

I visited two saunas in SP, the Lagoa and another smaller sauna (name started with an F). Anyway, on walking from the subway to that sauna, I passed through a very nice section that had antique shops and very nice apartments and restaurants. Felt completely at ease.

 

All-in-all, a nice experience. Thanks for bringing back the memories.

[+ Axiom2001]

"I would just point at something on someone else's plate that looked good..." I definitely can relate to this: it happened when I dined at a small restaurant down the block from The Atlantico Hotel.

 

I thank both of you for allowing me to recapitulate certain moments while I was in RIo and Sao Paulo. Axiom

[+ Lucky]

"My only complaint is the narrow hallway upstairs leading to the video rooms. The boys would stand along the hall with huge hardons forcing you to navigate around them or push them aside making it difficult to get to the porno which of course is the main reason I came to Brazil."

 

I doubt that you will find much sympathy for this complaint among us sex-starved Americans!