In Rio and no one to HELP you? The Devil may care.
Well I just returned from a great trip to Rio, so I don't know what everyone is complaining about. The thing with me is that I never went to HELP anyway, I speak passable Portuguese, and I would often spend around R$500 during a night on the town anyway. One night during this trip I managed to spend R$1,050 at T-65. Pricy? Yes, but I had a mighty good time.
Granted, a thousand Reais doesn't go as far as it used to but the quality in Brazil is still quite good and not hard to find. As stated by another poster, if a Termas lady likes you then there is a good chance she will offer to meet you before or after she gets off shift. I received several offers but I'm more of a short-time sort of guy.
I think the only folks noticing a huge difference are those that went to HELP practically every night. Now that the "Wal-Mart of Sex" is gone it will take a while for people to readjust to the new scene. But if everyone wants to believe that Rio is overpriced and not worth it anymore I'm not going to complain. It only means more garotas available to me when I return in May.
Time to shift my focus back to Europe for now; return to London & Berlin in a couple of months.
"O tempora, O mores"
- DSK