Porto Alegre Club Closed

[Brall]

Arrived in Porto Alegre late this afternoon and was looking forward to going to the club Era Uma Vez because the time was too late to go to the sauna. After a wild taxi ride, and I do not mean the kind that most of you are probably thinking about :-) , we "finally" arrived at the address listed for Club Era Uma Vez, Rua 18 de Novembro #31. To my disappointment, the club was closed, and according to the taxi drivers at the hotel near by, the club closed a few months ago. By the way, the taxi driver took a very long route, sometimes in circles, and finally stopped to ask other taxi drivers for directions to Rua 18 de Novembro despite being told the location and directions on the company's radio. As we returned to "centro" he made a couple of unnecessary circles, and I finally asked him to stop the taxi. I paid the fare, got out of the taxi and went to take another taxi. The next taxi driver did not try to rip me off as a tourist, instead, he was very polite and knowledgeable. I asked the taxi driver if he knew the location of any gay bars, and he politely drove me to one. Such is life. Now, back at the hotel, I am more than ready for bed with dreams of going to the sauna tomorrow. At the sauna, I will inquire about the closing of Era Uma Vez. Good-night.

[trilingual]

If you feel like making an issue of it when a cab driver is taking you in circles in Brazil, and you can manage some Portuguese, ask to be taken to "a delegacia mais próxima" ("the nearest police station"). That should stop the nonsense! They don't expect tourists to know that!

[paulsf]

last Saturday night, my friend and I were taking a taxi from the Atlantico to 117. My friend is a Brazilian boy, so he gave the taxi driver directions. He kept missing the streets my friend was telling him to take, and said this was the first night on the job as a taxi driver. Finally we made it to the club with 25 reis on the meter. Should be less than 15. We got out and my friend and the driver had an interesting discussion that I didn't understand a word of, but my friend turned to me and said "lets go" NO Charge for the Taxi....

He wont tell me what they talked about.

[Guest ihpguy]

Maybe this thread should be on taximetro problems and not on the Porto Alegre club closing at this point, but here goes. I had a similar episode last month in Rio de Janeiro. Picked up a cab at the base of Candido Mendes and Rua da Gloria after leaving 117. Me and another American were going to meet some others for supper at Porcao - Rios. The taxi driver was kind of vague at wherre it was. So I told him in my fairly understandable Portuguese. Well, he kept on going around in circles in Flamengo, getting lost with which retorno he should take between the local and the express lanes to cross to the water side of the road. The meter finally read over 18Reais. And I can't tell you how long we were driving. In the future, when I know they are going wrong, I think I'll just get out and pay for another another initial pull from a different driver. Probably cheaper in the long run. We probably could have walked there quicker, cutting across the road, although safety at 8:00PM on a Friday night is another matter, as well.

[trilingual]

Sometimes it's true that cab drivers are new, or are driving in parts of town that they're not familiar with, and they get lost. Rio is not the easiest city to drive in, with all the one way streets, odd detours and inconveniently placed turnarounds on the major roads. However, if the driver is running up the meter while he's trying to find your destination, that's his problem and you should say so. Something along the lines of "I understand you may be new at this (or to this part of town) but I'm not going to pay extra for you to learn at my expense. You'll have to adjust the fare when we arrive." If it's not a scam, the driver will do that -- they're pretty savvy about knowing what the correct fare should be for the distance between where they picked you up and dropped you off. If you think it's a scam, though, you should either tell the driver to take you to the delegacia or just get out of the cab and find another one.

[Brall]

O.K. guys, back to the original topic. Oh happy day, the club did not close, it just changed locations. I went there the other night and had a nice time. The place was packed with boys and clients. Most of the boys seem to be street boys, very young (not my type, but others like this) and a few guys from the sauna. The rooms, located upstairs with a few rooms downstairs, are large rooms having a large bed with a plastic matress (no sheets here guys). The boys wanted the same price they receive at the saunas, R$40.

 

Referce taxi drivers, to balance things out, two nights later I met a WONDERFUL taxi driver who is very knowledgeable about the locations of gay venues and happenings. He drove me to the park and a couple of other areas where guys were standing in the streets showing their ...... A few times the taxi driver called over some guys and asked them to show their "piece" to me. The guys politely and eagerly did so. After meeting this taxi driver, I have used no one else. Currently he is off work for a couple of days, and when he returns I will ask for his permission to place his name and telephone number on this and the other site. No, he is not gay and is not interested in anything else but being a good taxi driver and a good person; life is wonderful. By the way, bad situations with taxi drivers happen the world over, especially to tourists or non-area familiar users. No matter where I am, when I find a good taxi driver I can trust, I use him exclusively.

 

Also, the next time I post here, I shall include the new address of the club. I left the city's gay guide in the hotel room. Later

[trilingual]

RE: Reports of Porto Alegre Club Closing Exaggerated.

 

Era Uma Vez indeed has not closed. It has moved. One of our POA fans just sent me the new address: Av. Brasil, 132 near the corner of Voluntários da Pátria. Open Wednesday through Saturday. Live it up, gents!