Buenos Aires - 2004 Reports

As to learning Spanish, I think the Pimsleur CD's are good for learning to hear/speak the language, but even the highest level (3), it is not very advanced. Most people seriously underestimate the time necessary to master a foreign language. My advice is to start early and keep at it. For me, it has been one of the most satisfying things I have ever done – and I mean that in all senses of the word. Also try to take lessons, private or group when traveling. Nothing beats the one-on-one experience, although immersion lessons are a very difficult way to start. But private lessons in BA can be arranged for 18-25 pesos an hour, a bargain. And you will meet new people and get some insight into the local customs. You can hook-up with fellow students and teachers. Yes, this is hit and miss, but definitely doable. It has changed my life . . .

Peace, -P

Hi Prokofiev,

You make a lot of sense. For me it's going to be VERY difficult. Fortunately for me I live in San Diego. I am going to check out some tutoring in TJ as well as here.

Thanks for the insight everyone!

CT

Hello everyone!

I am so excited! I just signed up for a combination of private and group lessons in Spanish!

The instructor told me it will take about 100 hours of study to become fluent but would work with me to get me ready for my end of March trip to BA and Lima.

I am taking 2 hours of private lessons a week plus another 4 hours of group lessons.

I can't wait.

CT

Stormy, I tried pm'ing you today but got a message that until your mailbox was emptied no other email could be sent. Let me know when you clear out your inbox and I'll email you the info again.

LA Larry and others: it's my pleasure to bring you another fabulous tip that can enhance your BA mongering pleasure just as I did when I sent the first report on WSG documenting the incredible, inimitable Nuevo Estilo Boliche, which has been branded as a must-stop-at place in the BA monger's trail.

Larry, as of this morning the LA-BA fare on Despegar.com was listed as I think $555 which should only make it about $600 or so after the tariffs are added on. Larry, does this great tip entitle me to the name and phone number of your most highly recommended BA chica from your personal file for my next visit?!?

DownBA

Anybody dying for a genuine, in-the-flesh review of the chica they've been drooling over on the net?

Anybody have a need to send cash to your favorite working chica?

Inspired by Exon123's recent example, I propose the solution.

[i]Pay me to drill the chica of your choosing![/i]

As your faithful reviewer, I shall answer any and all questions that you have.

As the chosen delivery system of your cash contribution to your favorite girl, I promise to account for each and every centavo you send to her.

All this thoughtful service, for the low, low price of [b]FREE[/b]. Simply send yours truly the amount of cash your lady will be wanting for one, two, even three hours of her time, along with the name and contact information of your chosen woman, and Uncle Otto will do the rest. Only available through March 4th, so act now.

Cheers!
-Uncle Otto

Finally wanted to put a report together on my trip to BA. I already posted my experiences with the lovely Maria in her section. I spent a lot of time with the internet chicas and was able to meet and have dinner with the legendary Jackson.

First a warning. I was going to see a Clarin girl and I neglected to bring my good ole’ American rubbers. During the session, I had one of the local rubbers bust on me. Fortunately, I was able to ‘exit’ the situation quickly and so far everything is well. Just be careful out there.

I visited Bruna from Platynum. She is as pictured, pretty and sexy. 150p. She is really photogenic and I told her I was in love with her pictures and she showed me more pictures on her computer. Good lovemaking but I missed out on servicio completo because she is so petite.

Cameron from Platynum is just a really pretty girl. She is in an apartment on Sarmiento in Congresso is one of my favorites. Cost for an hour of straight sex with her was 100p. I spent 2 hours with her because I enjoyed her company so much.

Went to visit Barbhy on the same site. She is a more sexy than pretty girl who seems to have some work done on both her boobs and her face. Speaks some English. She is living in an apartment on Corrientes. 100 pesos. When I visited her in November I had a really hot anal session. This time she told me “not today.”. Nice BBBJ and good service.

I really enjoyed my time with Romina on Platynum. BBBJ &really good servicio completo. She is tall & dark. She doesn’t have a tight body at all but does a good job of giving GFE. It was somewhere in the range of 80p for the hour. I gave her 100.

Jasmin on Platnyum was another fun experience. She is also Eowyn on Gemidos. She is petite and rather dark and looks as if her ancestors were Native Americans rather than European. Cute & pretty in an offbeat way. Her incharge rates were only 50p hour complete service. I was much too lazy to go to Almagro, so I had her come over to me and she charged 80p. She puts on a really good show. She had me lie down on the bed while she stood up straddling me with her back turned to me. She did a good tease show where she’d sit on my face and then licked her finger and stuck it in her rear. BBBJ & another good anal session.

I also agree with the other posters on Valeria. She is a very shapely woman. Tremendous breasts and butt. I wouldn’t call her fat because she wears it very well. She’s better described as extremely buxom. Covered BBBJ. 50 half hour, 100 full hour. House is on 1300 block of Cordoba. Servico completo is available.

Barbie on Platynum is a tall, blonde with an absolutely smoking body and unbelievable legs She is truly a model and if you go to her place you’ll see tons of her pictures in several magazines and newspapers all over her apartment. She is pretty, but I didn’t like her eyes very much. 150 for covered BJ and sex. Offered extra 50 for ‘servicio completo’ which to her meant massages. YMMY. I personally passed on that version of complete service.

Mary on Platynum is an average looking woman but has huge breasts. I got with her several times because I am an early riser and she sees clients at early at 8:30 am. Covered BJ the first time, and even though not after that but still un-amazing. Offers complete service as well. She took a liking to me and I was able to convince her to let me cream her breasts, which she was originally dead set against.

I’ll post part two later.

Tio Otto,

You are such a generous and selfless individual. I would almost certainly take you up on your incredible offer, if I were not but a few weeks away from returning to paradise myself.

EZE :)

Mimimus,

Thanks for the report. Good information.

Moondog

Minimus,

I will second what Mood Dog said. I am coming down next week and will try out a few of your recommnedations. Thanks buddy!

BA Mongers,

In preparation for my trip to BA next week I have been living vicariously by surfing the sites.

I have noticed that a telephone number keeps popping up regularly. About 5 or 6 girls from one site give 4312-5441 as their contact. And the same number crops up on another couple of sites. Now I know that between sites same girl will appear with a different "name" and I would expect the number to repeat. But 4 or more on the same site? Wassup with this? Another "frequent" number is 4313-0721.

Is this an indication that they are all piled up in one apartment or location like the famous 1707? Or is this an "agency" type arrangement?

See you next week,

TicToc

Minimo, you're right, these condoms can and they do break. Carry your own rubber as the ones found here are mediocre. I just miss to much the brands found in Brazil that are the bests I've ever tried.

TicToc, the girls are not necessarely piled up or working for an agency when appear under the same number. Certain apartments have only one girl -at time- working, with the help of a madame. Often the girls that works this way are attractive or very popular (see eg certain fabricated bombshells on vipcenter.com.ar), so they move from a place to another in a different neighthood, in the same day. In this was, they also accomodates better the clients that prefere a certain area to meet. They try to be busy all day, that is certainly a good business goal.
And, Otto, that is a great idea. Count me in for additional service workforce.

[quote]Originally posted by TicToc

Is this an indication that they are all piled up in one apartment or location like the famous 1707? Or is this an "agency" type arrangement?[/quote]Tictoc,

Your instincts are correct. Many of the apartments also advertise their girls on Platynum and other websites. I'll bet this is the case with your girls who have the same telephone number.

-Uncle Otto

For all you cheap Charlies out there who just love to boast how low you got some poor girl down to for a couple of hours or a TLN including BBJ, kissing, BLS and more than one shot, here's what's coming all our way sooner than you think.

I can just imagine a shop stewards meeting of the various boites and boliches union reps...with min. rate cards at Black's or Help disco--much like the prices whispered at the FKK's and memorized by 'dancers' at the suck'n fuck streep bars in Moscow or outside Montreal...

Get ready for it: (I know, I know, bring on the scabs!!)

Argentine sex workers unite
Prostitutes' union is first of its kind in Latin America Corrupt police blamed for murder of AMMAR leader


REED LINDSAY
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

BUENOS AIRES—In this predominantly Catholic nation, prostitution has long been considered a sin before God and a crime before the law.

But thousands of women who practise the world's oldest profession are now demanding it be treated as precisely that — a profession, just like any other.

They have formed the Association of Women Prostitutes of Argentina, known by its Spanish acronym AMMAR — the word amar means "to love" in Spanish — and are appealing for government recognition as an official union.

It would be the first sex workers' union in Latin America and one of a handful in the world.

The prostitutes' demand for equal labour rights, however, has sparked political opposition led by the Catholic Church.

And on the streets, the women have run up against Argentina's notoriously corrupt police, who demand a cut of the profits and who stand to lose if prostitution is decriminalized.

On Jan. 28, 33-year-old AMMAR leader Sandra Cabrera was found dead, with a bullet through the back of her neck, in the red-light district of Rosario, Argentina's second-largest city.

According to provincial Interior Minister Alberto Gianneschi, "there are suspicions of police involvement" in the murder of Cabrera, who in recent months had reported numerous death threats against herself and her 9-year-old daughter.

In September, Cabrera accused the provincial police of protecting illegal brothels, and harassing and extorting street prostitutes, which led to the dismissal of two officers in charge of the Department of Public Morality.

"The police used to pass by frequently, but that night they didn't pass by at all, as if they had freed the zone for crime," says Elena Reynaga, AMMAR's secretary-general.

"That's why we're totally certain it was them. Sandra fought a lot with the owners of the brothels in that area, and last year they actually beat her.

"What they wanted was to drive out the girls at the corner because evidently this went against their business.

"And Sandra defended to the death that corner with her compañeras."

Two other prostitutes belonging to AMMAR were killed in suspicious circumstances last year, although neither had the stature of Cabrera, who ran the organization in the province and was a public figure in Rosario.

Since being founded nine years ago, AMMAR has signed up some 1,700 members nationwide, making it one of the world's largest organizations of prostitutes, according to Ana Lopes, who heads the London-based International Union of Sex Workers.

AMMAR already operates as an unofficial union under the auspices of the CTA, Argentina's second-largest union confederation and arguably its most powerful.

Members of AMMAR dedicate much of their time to educating other prostitutes about HIV/AIDS prevention, as well as about labour and legal rights. They hand out free condoms, offer grade school and high school equivalency courses, and distribute 200 monthly bags of basic foodstuffs donated by the government to those prostitutes living in poverty.

But the organization's most recognized achievement has been reducing police persecution. Staging public protests and lobbying local legislatures, AMMAR has helped pressure authorities into stopping the police from arresting street prostitutes in three cities and one province.

Still, in most of Argentina, prostitutes must choose between paying bribes to corrupt police or being thrown in jail — or worse — a reality that has changed little in decades.

Technically, prostitution is not illegal in Argentina, but most provinces have laws on the books that allow the police to arrest prostitutes for causing "scandal in the public thoroughfare."

On the other hand, pimping is illegal, but brothel owners are rarely taken to jail. Instead, they often form part of a shady business alliance with the police, who also collect kickbacks from the prostitutes in the street.

Nearly all AMMAR members work on the street, being neither the high-priced prostitutes who frequent five-star hotels, nor those employed in brothels.

AMMAR members say many women who work in brothels do so because they are provided protection from the police, who negotiate directly with the owners, and from the dangers of the street.

The brothels, which are illegal but tolerated by authorities, are notorious for their oppressive conditions and for being centres of child prostitution.

"The police should be out using the penal code to fight these crimes," says Elisa Carca, a former senator from Buenos Aires province who presented a bill that would decriminalize street prostitution.

"But not only are they not doing this, they end up persecuting the real victims, the street prostitutes, and forcing them to negotiate for money."

AMMAR leaders say a government-recognized union would allow them to more effectively push for decriminalization while giving them the legal standing to file formal complaints of child prostitution and other abuses. They also talk of replacing sordid brothels with prostitute co-operatives.

More than 90 per cent of Argentines are nominally Catholic, and while the Church's power has gradually waned in recent decades, it still wields considerable influence among the nation's political elite.

"Prostitution is a social blight," says Ana Maria Molina Gowland, who heads the women's commission at the archdioceses in Buenos Aires province.

"Decriminalizing it is only going to result in worse evils ... allowing public morals to relax and prostitution to increase. We have to look for other solutions that provide alternatives for these women."

The idea of forming a union also has its detractors among some prostitutes, including several dozen in Buenos Aires who left AMMAR to form their own organization because they were opposed to unionizing.

"The purpose of the union is to help maintain its workers in their jobs," says Eida, 51, one of the leaders of the splinter group.

"But we want to reverse this situation. We want to help each other find a way out of prostitution, by getting trained in other fields, getting jobs, getting schooling.

"More than 90 per cent of us want to leave prostitution because the stigma that it leaves with you stays until you die. It is a means of survival, not a job."

The organization has organized a sewing project for 24 prostitutes that is being financed by the city government in hopes of launching a small co-operative that would produce and sell children's clothes.

AMMAR leaders agree that the ultimate goal of organizing is to create the conditions so that no woman is forced into prostitution. But reaching an attractive alternative either within prostitution or in other occupations is no small task in Argentina, which is still suffering the after-effects of the deepest depression in its history.

In Plaza Once, a grungy park in front of a train station in the heart of the Buenos Aires garment district, Elsa Caballero sits on a cement bench waiting for potential clients.

With her graying light brown hair and modest outfit of black pants and blue sweater, one would hardly guess her profession.

Miriam, a friend in her 50s whose denim mini-skirt reveals pale legs marked with varicose veins, makes laps around the park, but seems to attract only jibes from a group of men sharing a cut-off box of wine.

Another friend, younger and thinner, accompanies her on these laps, apparently with no better luck.

Caballero says the police no longer arrest her, thanks in large part to AMMAR's lobbying. But since the economy collapsed, there is more competition and less work than ever before.

"AMMAR was born so that nobody has to do this job," says Jorgelina Sosa, 34, who heads AMMAR in the city of Buenos Aires.

"We aren't what is sold on television, that image of the sex worker who spends all day in a mini-skirt with her nails painted, a cigarette in her mouth and high heels.

"No, we're humans, we're people, we're women, we have the same rights as any other woman and, moreover, most of us are mothers, and some grandmothers ....

"I would like a dignified job, to not be a sex worker any more, but it's not so easy."


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Reed Lindsay is a freelance reporter based in Argentina.

More info on my trip.

Here are two experiences I don’t wish on anybody.

Kamila on Platynum. Unlike the rest of the independent girls that I called, she didn’t give me a warm welcome when I called. Got her price of 100p per hour. She has an apartment on Carlos Pellegrini about two blocks from Excedra. When I turned up, she somewhat resembled the girl in the picture but far less attractive, even more than the usual drop-off from the internet pictures. It looks as if she has had some tough luck since she took the pictures. Seemed very depressed and to be in a dark place personally. As we rode up the elevator, she told me to “excuse her mess”. Now we’ve all heard this from women before, and it’s not what we call a mess. While not horrible, it was a bit worse than I expected. Anyway, not 2 feet into her apartment, she pulls out a can of insecticide and sprays something that has crawled behind a plant. Great! Now the room and I both smell like roach spray. I wish I had read Saint’s report about her teeth. Anyway, like a trooper (or a horny man) I stayed. Uninspired session.

Dulce on Platynum. She is in all fairness a real pleasant person and is animated in bed, but she has a downright unattractive face. I decided at this point never to see anther woman with an obscured face.

On a slightly better note, I posted on the Maria section, I mentioned that I was supposed to see her one night but she didn’t show up. Two of her friends, Karen & Melanie approached me and told me that Maria didn’t come to work. The offered themselves to me. Melanie is a petite, mischievous-looking blonde. Karen is a young chubby brunette. Melanie was more attractive. They were trying to get me back to my apartment for whatever reason. I refused and wanted to go to a love hotel. They suggested a love hotel that was 1 block away from my apartment (all the way in Barrio Norte, close to Palermo!). At the time I thought that this was just a coincidence. When I asked why there, they said because the hotel had no trouble letting 2 on 1’s in.

Turns out Maria had told her Melanie all about me & my apartment, even what floor it was on. Goes to show just how much these girls talk. Anyway, I kept it in the hotel. When they arrived, Melanie asked how far from there I lived. Karen responded “one block away.” (!). I agreed to pay them 50 each, but they talked an extra 25 per out of me. Fully covered session. Ok, but not mind blowing.

Lastly, I really wanted to play with Claire on Platynum, but she he quoted me 300 per hour servicio completo. I didn’t bite. I wonder if anyone else had called her and gotten that price.

Definitely bring your own condoms! I always bring my own. I made the mistake of letting a girl use her's in Cuba and the condom broke sometime during the sex. Oops.

I'm not sure when I'll be back to BA. I miss it a lot but the world is a big place. I do feel obligated to mention that I'm hitting many places throughout the world the past several months and I have yet to find a place as good as Buenos Aires as far as the whole package of everything the city has. Brazil probably is easier to find action 24/7 and the girls are more passionate in Brazil.

I'm on a quest to try to find a place as good as Buenos Aires but I just don't think I'll find it. The value for the money is still in Buenos Aires. I'm headed to Cali, Columbia tomorrow and we'll see how that goes.

Otto, have fun in BA amigo. And LA Larry. I've been to the Four Seasons. It's amazing! One of the nicest and poshest hotels in BA next to the Alvear Palace. You'll like it. The beds are very comfortable too. In fact, when Castro goes to BA he stays here. Good luck.

Saint