2006 Rio de Janeiro Reports

[El Austriaco]

I was in the last four months in Angola, Mozambique, Guniea Bissao, Gambia and just entered Brazil now. Nobody at the imigration even asked me about vaccination.

I can't really imagine it to be a big problem, but I was just pointing out that Brazil, actually, does have a yellow fever vaccination requirement, so that's why I provided the links to the requirements and/or recommendations. I agree with you, if you go to Rio, I wouldn't bother getting any vaccinations unless I am required. Also, I do observe your precautions when I travel, anyway, and I have never had a problem on the road. When I got typhoid fever, strangely enough, it happened just after I moved to Mexico. And it wasn't just a case of a fresh newcomer getting slammed, either, because my cousin's husband, who is Mexican, got it, too. Go figure.

All the rest is true, except item 3. If you go to a favela to buy drugs, you are 100 % safe while inside, because you are under the protection of the drug lords.

BD, there are certainly favelas that are involved in serious wars between different factions to control the drug trade, like Vidigal and Rocinha. Also, shootings do occur in the favelas, too as well as police incursions, and in Copacabana, you're really close enough that they affect even life on the asfalto. While the drug lords may in fact protect you while you are there, true, I still wouldn't say that it's entirely safe. Would you go to a baile funk in a favela? There have been quite a bit of reports of deaths and injuries there, too.

Well these girls who hustle the tables at Terracao Atlantico and Meia Pataca are generally on the low end of the scale for Copacabana P4P. And for one of them to have the audacity to quote 300 reais is outrageous and just tells me she had no idea who she was playing with.

I am using this element to get the Copa hardcore GDPs to lower their prices more in line with acceptable rates rather than quoting me dumb gringo prices. Whether one actually ever goes to centro or VM or any of the other cheap places doesn't really matter, IMHO.

But when you say low-end, what do you mean? In terms of looks, performance, attitude, services? You know, while I can not conclusively say whether Terma girls also frequent some of the other places in Copa (MP, Balconey, Mabs, Terraco Atlantico, Help), my impression is that the freelancers rotate between all of them, so there is no way to say that one place has better girls than the others because many of the girls might be the same. As I mentioned earlier elsewhere, I have seen Barbarella girls in MP, Frank’s girls at Balcony, and most girls that hang out at MP until 10 go to Veranda Help afterwards, and possibly back to Balcony once Veranda Help shuts down at 3. Girls walk from MP to Balcony and back might get picked up by someone on the way there. And of course, most will go to Help, finances permitting.

For some reason, you seem to believe that the quality of all girls in centro or elsewhere is bad. I disagree, I've found pretty high-quality girls there, too. Not many of them, sure, but neither do I find only pretty ones in the termas, either. This was actually the point I was trying to make: pricing and quality (however you want to define it) have little to do with each other in Rio, and I don't really see a strong correlation between rates and performance, either. Pricing sure has much more to do with WHERE you find them and the quality of the facilities where you get to bang them, definitely.

In other words: Copacabana doesn't necessarily have the "best" girls. IMHO, of course, it sure has the highest concentration of hardcore GDPs who specialize in overcharging inexperienced, foreign mongers.

My two centavos for today,

EA

[Lorenzo]

I mean the little holes in the wall type places where you do the girls in a cubicle with a curtain drawn type of place and the sheets are changed every couple of days. Maybe these places charge 60 reais or so but im not sure about the pricing structure now as the only places i have been to like these were in Copacabana that a friend brought me on a tour a couple of times, then in Copa it cost about 60 reais for 30 min. Sure I found some girls that were doable but certainly they were not hign end.

These cheap-assed places are best avoided at all costs. The only reason to go to one is if you are flat on your ass broke and have only a few bucks to last until you catch your plane out that evening. There is a place just like you describe--you take the girl to a cubicle where everything can be heard just outside--in Copa in an office building at 43 Rua Siqueira Campos, on the 8th floor. The place was advertised in the O Globo classificados. It was there that I had one of the most disgusting experiences I have ever had mongering in Rio; this was maybe 5 years ago.

I picked a girl from the lineup and took her to the cubicle. Surprisingly, some of the girls were attractive; considering the quality of the place; this one was maybe a 7+. The girls were all wearing street clothes or their own bikinis, as opposed to the uniforms thay wear at the better termas. Anyway, we went to the cubicle, stripped and began foreplay, starting with DFK and tit-sucking. I then brought my face down to her crotch with the intention of starting DATY when what did I see hanging out of her crack but a used condom from a previous customer, and as if this weren't bad enough, there was semen splattered all over her vulva! I let out a very audible "eeeeeeeeeeeeuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuwwwwwwwwwwwwww!", and made an appropriate face as well. She got the message, put something on, left the cubicle and washed, then came back a few minutes later. Needless to say I gave up all thought of DATY, but I had also lost my desire and gone limp. I felt like getting the hell out of there, but I had taken a 100mg Viagra that I didn't want to waste, and there was no time to go to another termas because I had plans for that night. So I let her give me a BBBJ until I got hard again, then fucked her with a condom, trying to come as fast as I could. But I've never been back, and I studiously avoid these places, confining myself to the more upscale termas. L'uomo is still my favorite.

The mystery is why some of these girls that are reasonably attractive work at these shitholes; there was a luscious black girl at this same place that I would have chosen, but somebody else grabbed her first. Maybe they're cokeheads and therefore unreliable, but I suspect many of the girls at the upscale places have drug problems as well. In any event, stay away from the cheap places. Because of this experience I have never been to VM, nor do I ever intend to go. There are just too many better places available.

Lorenzo

[J Wadd]

Speaking of Centro -- has anyone ever been to the colossal boite down there called "Florida?" You can see it on one of the ways in to Copa from the airport. It's on the right, kinda near 4x4.

TIA,
JW

[Rio Bob]

rio bob, which termas do you consider low end in centro.

I don't mean 4x4 or any of the others on that level. I mean the little holes in the wall type places where you do the girls in a cubicle with a curtain drawn type of place and the sheets are changed every couple of days. Maybe these places charge 60 reais or so but im not sure about the pricing structure now as the only places i have been to like these were in Copacabana that a friend brought me on a tour a couple of times, then in Copa it cost about 60 reais for 30 min. Sure I found some girls that were doable but certainly they were not hign end. Just not my scene.

The only thing I have seen of these centro termas is many very current pictures of the best girls there. All of them very doable but non could command top pay at copa.

[Rio Bob]

I
Whenever I hang out in Copacabana now (and I do like to hang out in MP and Veranda Help, if maybe only for nostalgic reasons) and girls approach me and give me the sales pitch, I always tell them (in Portuguese) "You know, I don't really monger in Copacabana any more, I prefer Centro and Villa Mimosa". While the VM part is a lie (I never been there, but would like to check it out, and I do know places along the same lines), the point is that just eavesdropping these places will immediately signal to the girl that you know the options that are available to you and that she just can't insult you with a R$ 300 for ST offer. You wouldn't believe how quickly rates drop much more in line with reasonable standards, in many cases. You will also see how quickly some girls move on to a more promising (read: dumber) prospect once they realize they can’t rip you off. You will realize how hardcore most of them and what their preferred targets actually are. I don’t mind, because those are the girls I am trying to avoid in the first place.EA

Well these girls who hustle the tables at Terracao Atlantico and Meia Pataca are generally on the low end of the scale for Copacabana P4P. And for one of them to have the audacity to quote 300 reais is outrageous and just tells me she had no idea who she was playing with.

I myself have no desire to monger in the low end termas’s of centro that the majority of Brasilians can only afford but I have many friends who do during the day and at night occupy the same tables outside Help and feel the same exact way. During the day these guys scour centro looking for a cheap gem and eventually they find it and when something that is even below the quality they had that day in centro approaches them in Copacabana for 300 reais that always evokes the same reaction as you.

Good thing Copacabana has to offer better quality then these table hustlers as they are the lowest of the low and if that is all Copacabana had to offer I and many others would not travel all that distance to Rio just for them.

[Carlos Primeros]

I was in the last four months in Angola, Mozambique, Guniea Bissao, Gambia and just entered Brazil now. Nobody at the imigration even asked me about vaccination.

For more than 20 years I travel over the world and I never got any of the serious maladies you described here with the exception of a asian flu - but this knocked me out for 3 weeks!

I simply do it the sensible way: do not drink any non-botteled beverages, do not use ice-cubes, do not eat unpealed fruits, do not stay in cheap, dirty hotels and stay as far as possible away from mosquito - infested areas. If neccessary - use a mosquito-net.

Brasil is not one of these third-world countries like Guinea-Bissao where everything is very un-hygenic and the shit is flowing on the streets in rainy season. In Brasil the standards can be compared to wide parts of the South of the US (forgive me Texas).

I am not a MD but using your common sens will prevent you from a lot of harm.

These are - as usual - my 2 centavos.

Carlos

[Choddu]

Dear Adventurer,

I have travelled to rio for thermas and such in the past.This time I am travelling with my family.

I would like to use your apt only for the afternoon of th 18th with my kids because there is a rolling stones concert on the beach.

I will obviously pay you for the courtesy you extend and like I said I will be there with wife and kids therefore I know nothing about the thermas.

I will obviously be jealous of you.

Sal.

[Thunderbolt47]

Has anyone ever been to Nova Friburgo? I hear it is a college town. Termas- Strip Clubs- bars- apartments- streets? I have a friend with some land near there. Thought about going to check it out. Thanks.

T-bolt

[Java Man]

yep, got the international certificate of vaccination. i'm well aware of all the medical recommendations and requirements. also got my DEET mosquito netting ordered.
(no disprespect), but thanks for the warning Dr Sparks, but i think i'll trust the advice from the medical staff of the infectious disease/travel clinic of the University of Chicago Medical Center and the CDC. and they did tell me about all the side effects. (which is hitting me today.) and yes i know, all doctors are quacks.

It's actually recommended to get vaccinated just to travel to Rio. i never did. to add to the laundry list of reasons not to go to Rio: they have a yearly problem with Dengue Fever.
in the all my trips to Rio, i only got sick once: from eating a bad shrimp sauce, (i think.) i had eaten at the same restaurant before many times with no problems. i've gotten to know the owners and staff. i still eat there.
i have also gotten the "Rio cold or Flu" a couple of times just as i was returning home or after i got home.
hey, but this time i'm actually going into the jungle, (not the Tijuca Rain Forest either,) but the F'n Amazon and don't want to press my luck.

[The Watcher]

Rio is getting an increasing amount of coverage in the US -- particularly in men's magazines....Not a good thing at all.

That is precisely the reason that I do not tell people about Rio anymore. In fact, I encourage my friends not to talk about Rio anymore.

[Big Dick]

...

Sorry to say that, Tavares, but what you did seems just about the dumbest thing you could possibly do in Rio, IMHO. You really lucked out on more than one account here:

1. This wasn't a setup by the girl to get you busted. Read the board, there are many stories of Help girls setting up customers with drugs.
2. This wasn't a setup by the cab driver working in collusion with the girl to get you busted. Especially when it was a cabbie SHE KNEW.
3. You didn't get robbed or worse while in a favela at night. Going to a favela at any time of the day is a bad idea. Worse at night. And to do it to buy drugs is just insane.
4. You didn't get searched by the police on the way back from there.

...

EA

All the rest is true, except item 3. If you go to a favela to buy drugs, you are 100 % safe while inside, because you are under the protection of the drug lords. The problems start right outside (items 1., 2. and 4.).

But as said, our friend Tavares has been extremely lucky - and a complete idiot, if I may add.

[Big Dick]

I would like to share with you mongers one experience I had in my last trip to Rio in December.

Met a very good looking girl at Help and took her to my hotel in Copacabana...we sat on the balcony talking, about 4 am, and I brought up the subject of drugs. She told me she had never tried cocaine which was obviously not true, given the interest she showed in buying some right away. We went down and she spoke with a taxi driver who happened to be round the block. He made a phone call, took us to a favela and kept us waiting in the cab...We were feeling a little bit uneasy but after a while he came back, stoned, and took us back to the hotel.

We had agreed on a price, he charged me more as expected but that was not the problemn the way to the favela he told us he would put the taximeter running to make it look like a normal service, JUST IN CASE THE POLICE STOP US...he said...
To make a long story short it was really great to have sex, including anal ( she asked ), with that wonderful green eyed, blond girl with so much cocaine around, until 3 pm.

The problem is that I was told the day after that if the police had caught us I would be in very serious trouble as a foreigner. To avoid prison I would have to pay them something like 2 or 3 thousand Euros.

Experienced mongers, I have a question for you: is there any possibility that what I was told could be true?!

Tavares

To answer your question: Yes.

You were damn lucky.

[El Austriaco]

chingon, Vaccinations are very toxic with many side effects and it has been proven they dont work. The best way to protect yourself is to boost your immune system not compromise your immune system by injecting yourself with a toxic vaccination.

May or may not be true, hell, I don't know, I am not a doctor. Got vaccinated against typhoid fever once, and got sick anyway. Wasn't in Brazil, though.

Please note that an international certificate of vaccination against yellow fever is compulsory for travellers who, within the three months prior to their arrival in Brazil, have visited or been in transit through any of the following countries: Angola, Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ecuador, French Guyana, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Peru, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Venezuela and Zaire.

http://www.travel-southamerica.com/I...ccinations.htm

Here is a good list of medical recommendations:

http://www.mdtravelhealth.com/destin...ca/brazil.html

Also, check out http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/...ures_1229.html

In other words, failure to get vaccinated might really be the best way to protect yourself, because in that case, you get sent back at the airport, in which case you won't get exposed to any of the many Brazilian critters, GDPs, STDs, and whatever not . Just kidding.

[Lancer520]

I know I´ve only been here 2 days but I will say the whole crime thing in Rio is way overrated. I was almost scared into not coming reading all the bad shit that goes on but truthfully it´s no worse the San Jose, CR or most other big cities. As long as you know where to stay out of, you´ll be fine. And once again let me just say that there are more off the charts girls in Rio then any place of have ever seen. As a matter a fact i´m off to Help now to find another future ex-wife. Hopefully a 12 but no less then a 9. Can´t take a step back from last night. And just got 4 50 mg little blue friends at $35 to make sure it´s a rock star kinda night. We have a VIP table at Help and the rapper Pharrell is gonna be there tonight. I´m off.

[Java Man]

Brazil, especially Rio is DANGEROUS. Crime is rampant, and the police are corrupt. heck, there are no police. an army of criminals awaits your arrival. as soon as you arrive, immigration paints "VICTIM" on your forehead, and puts a target on your back. make sure your next of kin forms are completed. you'll be lucky to return alive. Iraq and the Middle East are safer. Don't go, stay in your house where it's safe.

i know what i speak of, since i've been to Rio over a dozen times in the last three years. And i can't wait to get back!........in 20 days
i'm going to the Amazon region this time: Manuas, and other areas along the river. will be there almost a month. got $350 worth of vaccinations and anti-malaria, thyphoid drugs already.
so, if i survive the crooks in the area, (cause anywhere people live, there's crime), and if the food, bugs, and wild beasties don't get me, i should be OK.

i think i'll stay home today