davet

Bangu is not a rundown slum but a quiet working class exurb. There's a pretty shopping mall converted from some old factories. Food out here is notably cheaper but less fancy and quality than down south. My half-hour Uber from Sao Conrado was ~$10US a couple years ago. You can even do a train adventure from the Central station in downtown Rio. It wasn't hard to get to Bangu but a little hard to find Casa Boate. The facility is okay and has a breezy semi-outdoor section. I did not find anyone to my fancy, but my tastes have gotten too caviar and champagne. Let's say these are guys who can't be sure they'll get enough customers in Copacabana to make it worth the trip. 

That Bel Ami first generation was the first time that we Americans were introduced to healthy, hearty, drop-dead gorgeous guys who were absolutely sex-positive. At the risk of going off-topic, the first two Lukas' Story videos cannot be found anywhere, even on Bel Ami's website or on the pirate sites that seem to have everything. Even the repackaged reissue ("Lukas Stories") has disappeared. I'm a collector of gay videos and the Lukas' Story videos were landmarks in erotic entertainment. It must be some legal issue.

The title says it all.
Help a bro in need.
I am into muscular men.

I think I walked from Teatron to my cheap hotel in Chapinero, but I'm like that. Chapinero seems pretty quiet and safe. Parts north of Chapinero get ever more affluent and chic, so you should be okay.
There are some excellent Michelin-style froo-froo restaurants that would be $300 a person in the US but less than half the price in Colombia. Leo is very well-regarded. But other than these bargain high-end restaurants (whose chefs and staff trained and worked in Europe), my favorite Colombian eateries are the chicharron chains. You get a cup of deep-fried tasty, salty pig pieces with a twist of lime and a beer. Life can't get any better than that!.
Aand the folks on this board can't possibly be worried about the dietary effects of what they put in their mouth.

I feel I need to do a short write-up of my experiences in the Northeast - I left some bits and pieces in comments elsewhere in various topics, but let it be a standalone post.
I really really like Nordeste - guys are more down-to-earth and they care more about you, there is more chemistry and less rush, it's cheaper, it's sunnier. The choice is not as wide as in Rio or SP (even though I have doubts about SP after my two recent trips, but I digress) - but it takes one/two/three guys to make your night, and even if it's four great GPs and not 20, you'd still match the necessary numbers so to say.
Fortaleza. I visited a few times before the pandemic, during the pandemic, and as recently as earlier this month. The sauna to go is still California. It's not as bursting with excellent garotos as 7 years ago, but it's still quite busy. Over my week in Fortaleza this January, I found out that no day is totally dead. Best days are Thursday and Sunday. Thursday is when all GPs are naked or with a towek wrapped around their dick, plus there's a stripper. The stripper has two outings a night - first a regular strip, but he goes from the stage to the audience to interact - in my case, he sniffed and licked my neck pressing his body into me. The second outing afterwards is with his dick hard - and then he goes to the audience in a similar fashion so you can defo touch. No extra tips that I've seen.
Friday at California is a curious night of the "Wheel of Fortune" where there are three client winners spinning the wheel to get a prize (like a free entrance, or a free suite). On a Friday I visited, an older gentleman won the prize I really really wanted to witness somebody winning: two meet skewers from the kitchen. He could choose chicken or pork. Somebody needs to make a movie out of this.
Suites are excellent at 30 reais - but on any given night only a maximum of two out of four are operational. There also free cabins, like in Barcelona's Thermas and people use them a lot (GPs flip a mattress and wipe the surface with an antiseptic). Condoms are free and plenty available. Guys are of varied shapes - there are quite a few of those who let's say are not frequent gym visitors, there are twinks, there are bigger muscular guys, and there are a couple of stunning guys with hard lithe bodies like at 117 or better - they are obviously straight, and even though one of them told me he is, quote, 99% top, he and all others did bottom for me. Fucking very straight muscular guys is still a pleasure for a bottom guy like me. TThe universal rate in Fortaleza, as elsewhere in Nordeste, does not depend on whether the GPs are out of shape or stunning muscular - it's always 100. Even if some tried to say 150 seeing me as the only foreigner in the sauna (in all three mentioned cities), all immediately and easily came down to 100 when I mentioned I know the universal rate. Some of course earned extra.
Dragon sauna is the best in Brazil in terms of facilities, but it is empty with GPs, even during their big events. There are a couple of them at best, and they are quite jaded ones - it's better head to California. I really don't understand why it's not happening with Dragon - I can only assume it's high entry fees for garotos, as in terms of facilities there's no even comparison between Dragon and California, but all GPs and their clients are still at California.
There are more cruising bars, like the ones that opened in Rio - Rommeo, Eden, or others - but they are very non-GP ones. I've been to Eden on the night they advertised a live sex show with a visiting porn star, and the vibe was very non-GP - lots of people, incl some young ones, but none appeared to be rentable. Other than that, Fortaleza has quite a quirky underground non-sex LGBT scene - Berlin-style techno parties at The Lights on Fridays and Saturdays, and samba at Teresa e Jorge bar where there's quite some gay presence.
Recife. That was a major surprise. I visited this month for the first time in a few years - I think I did one trip early into the pandemic, but not after that. I remembered there were two saunas - Boa Vista and Blue Thermas - which were normal saunas but with some GP presence. On a visit this month, I was pleasantly surprised by Boa Vista - so much I spent all my three nights there without even visiting Blue Thermas. Boa Vista is the main sauna where quite a few non-hiring Recife guys go, some of them are simply stunning but not GPs for some incredulous reason. However, there is quite a substantial presence of GPs in the sauna, and I had multiple romps. Same as Fortaleza, the universal rate is 100, suites are at 30. On all nights I had their best suite which was itemized in my bill as "presidential suite" - it was 40. 
There is a maze, there are free cabins, there are open showers, it's actually quite a modern clean and very busy sauna where GPs are a fixture but not the main element. Still, you can have lots of fun. I had incredible experiences there, including with a guy who had great muscles and a great smile but was really nervous throughout but very attentive to my needs - when we showered (and the presidential suite has a large shower cabin with two shower heads so you can shower together with a guy and may continue to romp there) he told me he came from a rural inner state area and this was his first ever visit to the sauna and I was his first ever client. As he was visiting from the village, he was planning to stay the night in the sauna - it's open all night and serves free breakfast at 6am to those who are still there. 
Boa Vista also has a separate hall open on weekends which is pretty much a nightclub dance floor - with distinct 1990s high school prom vibes, but lots of local towel-clad patrons dance there which I think is really cute in its strange way and not something I've seen elsewhere in Brazil in saunas.
So actually Recife was a blast. There is an interesting gay quarter 5 mins drive from Boa Vista with a proper night club and a few funky gay bars - I stayed outside on the street with a caipirinha and just observed the crowd. Really good.
Sao Luis. I will mention Sao Luis as I don't think there were any reviews, and I've been possibly three times there, though not since 2021 or 2022, I think. They have a very decent GP sauna called Go.61, or it's called Sauna Go on some of their socials. It's sort of California style, very similar to what Fortaleza has, but with an added bonus of a swimming pool. There are similarly cheap suites and drinks, as well as plenty of free cabins on the upper floor. When I visited, I met really cool guys - again 100 was the usual rate. The best days are Thursday and Sunday. Sometimes they have performances, or bingo - at other times it's usual karaoke or just simple fucking, no complaints. 
Sao Luis is a really good city. On Friday nights, the whole historic center (where the sauna is, btw) turns into one big street party. They also have a week of June fiestas which is pretty much a carnival in June. An hour long public boat ride away with a severely drunk boat captain brings you to the island of Alcantara which is a ruined colonial city lost in time and space - a great day out.
That all pretty much sums up why I liked to come back to Nordeste all recent years - and sometimes (but not always) it's an even more satisfying experience that the meat conveyor belt of 117/202/Lagoa in Rio and SP. Long story short, there is life on other planets in Brazil.
 

Remember: Venezuela was punching way about its weight in global beauty pageants, which were virtually an industry in the country. Pageants for men were starting to happen to.

I think I walked from Teatron to my cheap hotel in Chapinero, but I'm like that. Chapinero seems pretty quiet and safe. Parts north of Chapinero get ever more affluent and chic, so you should be okay.
There are some excellent Michelin-style froo-froo restaurants that would be $300 a person in the US but less than half the price in Colombia. Leo is very well-regarded. But other than these bargain high-end restaurants (whose chefs and staff trained and worked in Europe), my favorite Colombian eateries are the chicharron chains. You get a cup of deep-fried tasty, salty pig pieces with a twist of lime and a beer. Life can't get any better than that!.
Aand the folks on this board can't possibly be worried about the dietary effects of what they put in their mouth.

I think I walked from Teatron to my cheap hotel in Chapinero, but I'm like that. Chapinero seems pretty quiet and safe. Parts north of Chapinero get ever more affluent and chic, so you should be okay.
There are some excellent Michelin-style froo-froo restaurants that would be $300 a person in the US but less than half the price in Colombia. Leo is very well-regarded. But other than these bargain high-end restaurants (whose chefs and staff trained and worked in Europe), my favorite Colombian eateries are the chicharron chains. You get a cup of deep-fried tasty, salty pig pieces with a twist of lime and a beer. Life can't get any better than that!.
Aand the folks on this board can't possibly be worried about the dietary effects of what they put in their mouth.

I think I walked from Teatron to my cheap hotel in Chapinero, but I'm like that. Chapinero seems pretty quiet and safe. Parts north of Chapinero get ever more affluent and chic, so you should be okay.
There are some excellent Michelin-style froo-froo restaurants that would be $300 a person in the US but less than half the price in Colombia. Leo is very well-regarded. But other than these bargain high-end restaurants (whose chefs and staff trained and worked in Europe), my favorite Colombian eateries are the chicharron chains. You get a cup of deep-fried tasty, salty pig pieces with a twist of lime and a beer. Life can't get any better than that!.
Aand the folks on this board can't possibly be worried about the dietary effects of what they put in their mouth.

Posted here +57 312 2717925  I am not aware of any active Instagram account.

What was described happens (though not all the time) in so many places. Street vending is common and the incident didn't sound aggressive. The occurrence with the boy I would find to be even charming, and even the homeless guy was a harmless human encounter. You actually interacted with three real working-class Brazilians who weren't in the tourist or sex industries. I would embrace it.

I'm too tech-lazy, but whenever someone starts a thread, add that Alcantara, a short boat ride from central Sao Luiz, is a colonial time capsule that hasn't been touristified yet but will surely be turned into an Olinda or Ouro Preto. Try to be in Sao Luiz for their Bumba Meu Boi festival, while Alcantara has its own festas juninas around the same time - Brazil has so much more in addition to carnaval. The southern Brazilians, though, look down upon the Caribbean poverty of the north, and much of colonial Sao Luiz is in need of restoration, so don't expect a glitzy St. Barths.
The lencois are beautiful. They basically mean climbing up and down a lot of little hills so be ready.
From the picture on Google Maps, that must be the same sauna I went to in 2011. It was dead then, kind of surprising during festival time, though I did have fun with a scruffy surfer. Glad to hear it's lively now.

What was described happens (though not all the time) in so many places. Street vending is common and the incident didn't sound aggressive. The occurrence with the boy I would find to be even charming, and even the homeless guy was a harmless human encounter. You actually interacted with three real working-class Brazilians who weren't in the tourist or sex industries. I would embrace it.

The exact culture clash between a verklempt northerner (though I don't know where you're from) and a gregarious southerner. This was why french homosexuals went to Morocco and British homosexuals went to Tuscany and American homosexuals are going to Latin America.
 
No that's not why.

The Cine Lido and other porno theaters in Latin America used to be packed with 20-somethings, many of whom would let you take care of their urgent needs. Now the guys just whack off at home with the phone in their other hand and the cines have become just like cines everywhere else (the few that remain).

What was described happens (though not all the time) in so many places. Street vending is common and the incident didn't sound aggressive. The occurrence with the boy I would find to be even charming, and even the homeless guy was a harmless human encounter. You actually interacted with three real working-class Brazilians who weren't in the tourist or sex industries. I would embrace it.

What was described happens (though not all the time) in so many places. Street vending is common and the incident didn't sound aggressive. The occurrence with the boy I would find to be even charming, and even the homeless guy was a harmless human encounter. You actually interacted with three real working-class Brazilians who weren't in the tourist or sex industries. I would embrace it.

I'm too tech-lazy, but whenever someone starts a thread, add that Alcantara, a short boat ride from central Sao Luiz, is a colonial time capsule that hasn't been touristified yet but will surely be turned into an Olinda or Ouro Preto. Try to be in Sao Luiz for their Bumba Meu Boi festival, while Alcantara has its own festas juninas around the same time - Brazil has so much more in addition to carnaval. The southern Brazilians, though, look down upon the Caribbean poverty of the north, and much of colonial Sao Luiz is in need of restoration, so don't expect a glitzy St. Barths.
The lencois are beautiful. They basically mean climbing up and down a lot of little hills so be ready.
From the picture on Google Maps, that must be the same sauna I went to in 2011. It was dead then, kind of surprising during festival time, though I did have fun with a scruffy surfer. Glad to hear it's lively now.

I had a different reaction about Colombia. I found the people there to be very warm and "gay" in the old meaning of the term: waitresses were literally singing as they brought my food out. People were making so much eye contact on the streets, on the buses, etc., that it was getting confusing. I had to remind myself that they are just friendly tropical people and no come-on was intended.
The DR is a much smaller country than the other two so the men are more limited in availability (no saunas with 20-30 garotos) and variety (almost exclusively caramel, moreno, or black). But the few men in this small country have HUGE things between their legs. If you leave the DR without bagging at least a couple 8-inchers, ask for your money back. 

I had a different reaction about Colombia. I found the people there to be very warm and "gay" in the old meaning of the term: waitresses were literally singing as they brought my food out. People were making so much eye contact on the streets, on the buses, etc., that it was getting confusing. I had to remind myself that they are just friendly tropical people and no come-on was intended.
The DR is a much smaller country than the other two so the men are more limited in availability (no saunas with 20-30 garotos) and variety (almost exclusively caramel, moreno, or black). But the few men in this small country have HUGE things between their legs. If you leave the DR without bagging at least a couple 8-inchers, ask for your money back. 

I agree completely with this scorecard based on my recent trips. Saturday and Sunday are strangely low-key at the Rio clubs. In general, SP and Lagoa are looking better, with more clients and guys. The fashion models aren't back, but the hungsters and steroid guys are. A good sequence might be Thu, Fri, Sat, and Sun in SP, then Mon, Tue, Wed in Rio, continuing through the weekend if you care to.

I know who you're talking about. He has a Greek name and was moving to Greece, he told me. He is beautiful, but he asked for way more than the going price (I remembering him wanting 300). My experience has been that the more a guy asks for, the more disappointing he'll be in the cabine (because he's stuck up). I guess this one is worth it, according to your review, though I still have doubts.

Two weeks ago Thursday was packed and Sunday was the next most active day at California. Surprisingly, Saturday was not much better than Wednesday had been. 
Monday and Tuesday there were a half dozen GPs and not any stars. I was sadly celibate on Monday but did tolerably well on Tuesday. Your mileage may vary. 

Davet, one other tip about that Cal scene:
The top-tier guys are *not* regulars. Don't assume hottest guys you see on Thursday or Sunday will be back anytime soon. Discovered that one of my fav GPs buses in from hinterlamds only once every couple of weeks. Other stars were  once a week, but they may return sooner if you promise a scheduled rendezvous. 
Let us know how it goes!

Bottom line:  Definitely go Thursday through Sunday.
Monday through Wednesday depend on how selective you are.