[Mezzaninu Sauna]

4 hours ago, bucky13 said:

thanks for the update, Xclay.  I too enjoy off the beaten path environs and Porto Alegre along with Salvador often provide some less jaded working boys...

beautiful, built, sexy, eager and just plain nice.  

Exactly!  Well said.

[Mezzaninu Sauna]

After over two decades, I am a still a big fan of Porto Alegre -- from the glory days of Plataforma (2000s) to the big, grand new Mezzaninu (2010s) to the struggles of Mezz (post-pandemic in the online era). 

I was back in December and I still like it a lot. Why?

●  I have long-time guys (three starting 20 years ago) I love to reconnect with.

●  I like variety and do not require a large selection of GPs from a narrow niche (e.g., minimum inches, height, skin shade, BMI).

●  I love the more easy-going, small-town vibe and the boy-next-door types, along with the more muscular, toned jocks. And I always find interesting, hot new guys.

● I enjoy staying in the upscale Moinhos de Vento with its good restaurants, nice hotels, and beautiful big park. The park is filled with eye candy and had great daytime orgies at the WC until recently. Alas, I no longer venture into the dark park for its early AM debauchery. The Moinhos de Vento area is a very short walk from Plataforma and a short cab ride from Mezzanino.

● Plataforma survives. The stench of urine is gone and it is borderline tolerable again. I went twice in December and, despite few GPs, you just might be surprised. I was shocked to see a previously aloof stripper who did awesome, erotic policeman and soldier routines and who looks like a more handsome Neymar. Maybe he needed some cash and did not want to be more widely seen on sale at Mezzanino? Anyway, I had a long-time fantasy fulfilled.  Friday night is said to be Plataforma's big night.

● FYI, as of my last visit for ten days in mid-December, Mezzanino was open Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

All in all, that is why I always keep POA "in rotation" when I go to Brazil.

[Rio sauna schedule]

Thanks!

However, one post here said Point (202) is closed on Sundays.
Also, a post here said New Meio Mundo is best on Mondays and Fridays.

[Rio sauna schedule]

DITTO!  🤔

I just arrived and I'm looking for the same info.

[Mezzaninu Sauna]

JunNJ, so how was Mezzaninu in May?

I was in Porto Alegre in February and went to the sauna about 9 out of 12 days. Always had fun, even with only a handful of GPs.

Of course, Mezzaninu is a totally difference scene than Lagoa but I like the "small town boys" and the change of pace.

Making my Nov-Dec plans, I just checked with two of my PA favorites. They said Mezzaninu is still open but business there is very, very slow these days.

Hope you had fun in PA. Highlights to share?

[how is Lagoa during Christmas and new year period]

In defense of Carnaval...

Rio's Carnaval is one of those things to experience once in your life. I saw the grand finale ten years ago and I have great memories of the incredible, over-the-top shows.

Here is my suggestion for minimizing the chaos but seeing the highlight:

Get tickets to see the Winners Parade which is the Saturday after Carnaval technically ends.  This year it will be held March 5th (9pm until about 5am) at the usual venue the Sambodromo.  The beauty of going this night is that you get to see the number one samba school and the five runners-up (and skip the losers). 

https://www.riocarnaval.org/samba-parade/champions-parade

● Pay extra for premium seats; it's worth it. 
● Maybe buy an extra seat since the width on the bench is narrow. 
● Bring thick ear plugs to make the deafening sound system tolerable.
● Get a long afternoon nap in advance of the fantastic night long show.

By this weekend there will still be random, entertaining marches (half of which have lots of drag) in the Copacabana area during the day.

I had an awesome tail end of Carnaval. And the saunas were a blast as usual.

At the same time, like taking the TransSiberian Express, I don't need to do it again, but I'm extremely glad I did it once.

[Omicron CoV VOC Brazil, etc]

Thanks for the interesting info. 😷

Good news that Omicron is rapidly supplanting the more dangerous variants! 🤞

[Egypt update]

Agree with Baska that Ramadan is not ideal. For me, the problem with December in Egypt has nothing to do with Christmas.

Winters are surprisingly cold in Cairo!  AccuWeather predicts December 25 will only get up to a high of 15° (59° F) with a low of 9° (48° F)!  I prefer to save Egypt for the fall and spring.

[Fortaleza vs Natal vs Recife?]

I'm planning two or three months in Brazil in the first quarter of 2022. I like to optimize the weather as much as possible. I spent a lot of time reviewing several climate sites with special attention to the number of rainy days per month.

Overall, in the first quarter, here are the best odds that I found for the most pleasant and least rainy weather ☀️:

● Northeast in January
● Rio and BH in mid-Feb
● SP and PA in March
   along with Foz do Iguaçu

So, regarding the northeast...

Fifteen years ago I had a good visits in Fortaleza, Natal, and Recife.  But which one of these three do you think has the best GP "scene" these days?

I know Salvador has fans here, but let's exclude Salvador please.

Thanks in advance for any advice!  😎

[Athens – Pandemic Update]

3 hours ago, JackR said:

I wonder if the police presence on Omnia was only temporary.

Interesting question.

Recently Kostas Bakoyannis, handsome young new mayor of Athens, was quoted here stating:

"We are reclaiming public space, like Omonia Square, a city landmark — I think that’s going to be a symbol."

If so, that suggests more than a temporary crackdown.

[Athens – Pandemic Update]

5 hours ago, tm_nyc said:

Thanks!  An excellent post (even if it's less than what Santiogodc experienced). ...

Can you say anything about the age & general type (or types) of guys that you encountered?

Thanks!

Ages?  Nearly all in their early to later 20s, with one attractive, masculine Iranian guy I was with who was 30.

Types? Straight acting, G-for-P guys. Given the gene pool, dark hair and mostly brown eyes, but not at all dark or even olive skin. All were fairly trim, with some more toned and some more skinny.  (Plus a few who looked sadly emaciated.) 

[Athens – Pandemic Update]

Santiagodc wrote an epic, three-part account of the 2019 prepandemic scene in Athens. His posts were my guidebook, but of course a lot has changed. Here is my update:

Theaters
Sadly, the wild, astonishing places that Santiagodc vividly described were shuttered. You’d think the guys who sold themselves there would have moved to nearby Omnia Square, but not the case.

Omnia Square
Nothing like the cruising nirvana that Santiagodc saw. Usually no more than a couple of guys, if any, were waiting by each metro escalator. And most of them were neither attractive nor making any eye contact.

Usually, only one or two guys, if any, in the whole Omnia area were signaling availability. Overall, there was neither the quantity or quality that I’d expected. I erroneously thought the pandemic would bring out more immigrants needing cash.

One reason may have been a police crackdown. Police were everywhere around Omnia, especially on the weekend.

I nodded to one good-looking young man who followed me around the corner where I discovered he was selling grass only. He refused to consider sex even with a generous offer.

Omnia side streets
A few guys were hustling on the side streets that Santiagodc had identified. But again, few were good choices. Around here I found only three (during a week) worth taking to the short-term hotel one block over.

€5 rooms
Santiogodc’s tips on the €5 short-term hotel rooms and how it all works were spot on. Rooms were surprisingly clean too.

Parks
Same pattern. Not nearly as many guys hustling as I’d expected – only a few, day or night.

Fees
Santiogodc’s summary of expected payments was higher than I paid. I always said, as if not open for debate: €20. None ever hesitated and they all smiled. But these were for short action in €5 hotel rooms or bar washrooms or park thickets, not for longer sessions. (Santiagodc took some guys back to his hotel room.)

Multinational
As Santiogodc described in detail, you do see a variety of the Balkans through to Central Asia. I personally promoted international relations with Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Iraq, Kurdistan, and often Persia.

Bars
Many of the bars were closed and a few were just beginning to open back up. One place that was open had a number of healthy-looking, nearly middle-class, easy-going, G-for-P, Persian guys was Sami's.

Bonus Eye Candy
Among the many Greek policemen in their 20s or 30s, quite a few were hot and, as their tight uniforms revealed, have toned bodies and nice bulges. In every group of four or five, invariably one was extra, jaw-droppingly sexy.

Tourist tip
Get the Acropolis at 8am when it opens and be rewarded with having the Parthenon all to yourself. Then go to the new Acropolis Museum nearby and have breakfast with a view on the upstairs terrace.

Of course, “your mileage may vary.” But, if you want to visit Athens anytime soon, you can have fun, but I’d caution against expecting the full, grand scene with wild theaters that Santiagodc recounted from years past.

[Medellin]

I was in Cartagena in February and no quarantine was required. (My post here.)

Visited Medellin in the summer of 2019 and enjoyed it a lot.

[Cartagena ✈]

Just spent ten great, very warm days in sunny Cartagena, Colombia.

Highly recommend at least three days to see one of the most beautiful cities in South America.  Inside the walls of the Spanish colonial old town are block after block of colorful, elegant houses, along with excellent restaurants and cafes often with live Latin music.

Everywhere you look is another photo-ready, IG-worthy scene. Visit for the sunshine, architecture, food, and culture — but not a Copacabana-type beach or for anything resembling saunas with GPs.

But how was the "scene" or at least my experience of it?

I'm not keen on the hassle of Grindr but, alas, that seems to be a main means of solicitations. One skinny, online guy wanted $180 (US) and called me "cheap" when I politely declined.  At the other extreme was an average-looking guy advertising for 40K pesos ($11).

I did go with six Grindr guys who did not present themselves as escorts, and discovered later that three of the six wanted a "taxi" allowance (typically about 50K pesos or $14). OK, not too bad.

One problem for hookups is finding a room. Nicer hotels are strict and don't want their properties to become known as havens for prostitutes of either sex. To be more active, I should have booked an AirBnB apartment. 

I finally found two sex motels but they were 20-30 minutes away from the old town.
● Motel la Cangreja was slightly closer and fine, but not quite as nice as
● Motel Star Suites. Both seemed like bargains for around $15 for a couple of hours.  

If you know of one closer to old town, please let me know!

One guy whose profile emphasized that he not a "scort" took me to a nearby, small, dirty room in Getsemani (the barrio next to old town) and claimed it cost 150,000 pesos which suddenly dropped to 100,000 pesos when he realized I wasn't buying it. In fact, her rate for the filthy room is 35,000 (I later ascertained). Out of curiosity I paid the 100K ($28) anyway to see where this would go. First, he tried to get me to shower while he would wait on the bed near my phone and wallet. I declined of course. The sex turned our to be so perfunctory that I left after a couple of minutes.

At one point, I made some moves on a tall, handsome Venezuelan working on commission getting passersby into an emerald store. He figured out what I wanted and off we went. He found a taxi driver who know where an hourly motel was (turned out to be Star Suites) and he was surprisingly good in bed and earned his 150K. 

Giving credit to macdaddi for his post a year ago, I'll update two places he cited:

Le Petit (Calle Cabal, Cra. 6 #32-34)
● Late night bar and dance club
● Some working boys, especially from Venezuela
But de facto midnight curfew cut down on the late night action.

Gabanna Club (Calle Cabal, Cra. 6 #32-34)
● Mostly serves the black gay population, but not entirely
Over half were older guys; a few of the younger guys hoped for money.
● Offers upstairs and downstairs darkrooms as well as a bar

Miscellaneous:
Did not experience as much begging as I expected based on previous posts.
Sellers (almost inevitably hats, cigars, sunglasses, necklaces) were numerous but were not too aggressive, IMHO. A smile and "gracias" (not slowing down at all) was usually sufficient, but sometimes "ya lo tengo" (I have it already!) and a shoulder shrug was needed.
 
Nicer hotels will arrange the Covid tester to come to the hotel. I paid $110 with results emailed back within 16 hours.

As earlier posters have noted: The city beaches are small and not particularly clean. I did not take day trips to go to the islands where the beaches are supposedly great.

Reminder: Cartagena is very, very hot. I did not think 90° would be so hot, but the humidity kicked it up to steam bath level 11-3:00.

[The Next Visit to Thailand]

In a nutshell:
I'd already deduced I was vaccinated in September (sore arm and an independent antibody test), so the January unmasking at the clinic was nice but anticlimactic.

Then, as you stated, my only options were to drop out or to let them continue monitoring my health (two questions per week on an app and paid quarterly blood draws this year, maybe longer).

With this chance to continue to do my little part to fight the scourge, I'm staying in the long-term study that will let Moderna discover how long its vaccine sustains resistance and how much it protects against new strains.

Back to the card...
Since yesterday, I've discovered that the leading digital candidate is called Common Pass, coming to app stores soon. See link below.

Quote

United, Lufthansa, JetBlue and other airlines are already backing an app called Common Pass that allows carriers to verify your test results and vaccine status.   --- Wall Street Journal, Feb 4, 2021

[Egypt update]

I've been to Alexandria four times and, unlike many other places in the region, I rarely felt being checked out by testosterone-filled young guys needing release and a few bucks. 

I did have a some hot encounters the first trip long ago that made me want to return but the later trips were pretty uneventful. Some of the previously lucky venues had been closed and I did not find any replacement. Nothing like elsewhere in Egypt. But sometimes it's just a roll of the dice of course.

Maybe guru Santiaodc has some more updated tips.

[The Next Visit to Thailand]

In August, I volunteered for the Moderna trial, got lucky, and got the two vaccine shots not the placebo. 

But my vaccine verification "card" is slightly heavy paper with name and dates of shots printed by hand. Would take five minutes and not even require advanced software to duplicate my card and print a new name and dates.

Surely Moderna will have to come up with something better than this to be a real "vaccination passport." 

But who know? The yellow fever vaccinations records are easy to fabricate (mine is real!) and they are accepted everywhere.

[Is Mezzaninu in Porto Alegre Permanently Closed?]

Say it ain't so.        

Big fan of Mezzaninu.

Hate to see those great PA guys forced to retreat to the filthy, smelly squalor of Plataforma.

Yes, wmcemdub, surely with a metro area of over 4 million people Porto Alegre ought to draw an entrepreneur to buy the purpose-built Mezzaninu building!

[The Next Visit to Thailand]

Sawadee krap!
Promising news:

Thailand is set to waive its onerous quarantine for tourists who have been vaccinated!
https://www.ttgasia.com/2021/01/26/thailand-to-warmly-welcome-inoculated-travellers/

Next week would be better but the relaxed rules are supposed to start July 1. 

Excellent incentive to get your shots if you haven't yet.
Impressive NYT assessment of the vaccine's potency here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/18/briefing/donald-trump-pardon-phil-spector-coronavirus-deaths.html

[Third and Final Try: BKK Visitor-Friendly Hotels]

Good to know about other options but -- while it is not as rainbow-clad as in the good ol' days -- I found the Tarntawan Hotel Surawong -- despite the new owners -- to still be ideal.  Modest price, large rooms, and very quiet (way back from the street) yet in the middle of the main scene. 

And they continued the practice of returning visitor's ID only after calling my room and confirming all is well.

[Egypt update]

Thanks again for detailed info!

You got them to last as long as two minutes sometimes! Impressive.  My guys always blasted in less than a minute, sometimes somehow within seconds!

I found that, rather than resident pros who know the score, it was always extra fun, when the opportunity arose, to connect with excited Egyptian tourists who had never talked to a white guy, such as young men from El Fayoum visiting Cairo, from Matrouth visiting Alexandria, from a western oasis visiting Luxor. 

I've been all over Egypt, including the western oases, with the exception of the Sinai.  I figured: Why go see all French and Germans at Sharm El Sheikh when I can see plenty of Egyptians elsewhere?

So... one more question to the master santiaodc:

Have you visited Sharm and, if so, do you recommend it at a place to see and to play?

[Egypt update]

5 hours ago, DutchDork said:

Thanks a lot for this information! When was the last time you were in Egypt and Tunisia? How hung are the guys?

Based on a large sample of regular, masculine, working-class guys (not like the self-selected extreme who, in other countries, might display themselves online or in saunas or in porn) the answer is that most are a resounding average to slightly above average -- with the usual bell-shaped curve around the mean.

Throughout the Middle East and Maghreb, nearly all are cut of course.

Most notable was that they were invariably hard as a crowbar and so horny/excited that they often blasted very, very, very quickly.

[Manila Report]

Santiaodc, your most practical, detailed posts with cruising details yet!  Thanks!

When I was in Manila twenty years ago, I hooked up twice with very handsome, young salesmen who were working at Robinson's and came to my room at the Holiday Inn when they got of work.

When I was there for a conference ten years ago, the sexy, mini-bar guy was hungry for white guys, stared at my crouch, and asked if he could help me in any other way. I screwed him every morning from then on.

[Egypt update]

santiaodc,

There used to be one or two theaters where the balconies were filled with action. And even in the more proper theaters, when an action movie brought in almost entirely young guys, I'd always have a few come sit beside me for a hand job.  Did you check out any theaters in your recent trip?  I guess they are all closed.

Are all the awesome hammams closed too? Those used to filled with horny young workers and soldiers looking for someone to drain them.

Speaking of soldiers, I'll never tire of watching fit, masculine, young Egyptian soldiers kissing each other on each side of the mouth, holding hands, and walking along entwined.

[Egypt update]

Thanks for another brilliant north Africa post! 

After a five year absence, I'm returning to Egypt in April/March.

It is indeed the working-class guys who love to be serviced, but the more middle-class guys are more prissy about it. However, the Nile Hilton health club steam room used to be a nonstop orgy.

Don't you find that extra eye contact plus a grin will trigger a horny young Egyptian's interest on the street just about anywhere in the evening!?

Be sure to check out santiaodc's Tunisia report too: