CaliPexx

As reported in a prior post in this Forum, after having come within an inch of death, a generous benefactor took over The Rio Times earlier this month. The new owner of the online site, Matthias Camenzind, promised to provide more reporting within Rio de Janeiro and to expand coverage to other cities in Brazil. I was dubious that he would follow through but already there is a significant change in the online newspaper's content. Just in the past two weeks alone, I have noted many more stories about life in Rio de Janeiro, including politics, travel, crime, the economy, shopping, dining, and other subjects of interest to guys on this Forum who travel there. As an example, The Rio Times did cover the story this week, addressed in another post on this Forum, about President Jair Bolsonaro not wanting Brazil to become a "gay tourist paradise". Importantly, new owner Camenzind has, as he promised, expanded coverage to other parts of Brazil, in particular to São Paulo. Whereas the nightlife entertainment column in the past dealt solely with things to do in Rio, the Rio Times each day now includes a nightlife suggestion column for São Paulo. Although one commentator in the previous BoyToy Latin American thread suggested that we all should study Portuguese and read the articles published in online Brazilian news sources, it's not really practical to expect everyone to get a good reading command of Portuguese. Even if you do read Portuguese (and I do), sometimes nuances in meaning aren't readily appreciated. The Rio TImes does a good job of publishing online stories that are clear to understand. I urge everyone with an interest in Brazil to subscribe with the hope that The Rio Times may continue with our support along its current, much improved journalistic path. Here is a link to the "Premium Access" subscription page: https://riotimesonline.com/premium-access/

From President Bolsonaro's past utterances, he has a number of potential scapegoat targets from which to choose: (1) the PT (Workers' Party, which opposed him in the general election); (2) PSOL (the party of openly gay and now exiled deputy Jean Wyllys); (3) "Communists", Bozo's bogeymen who hardly exist in today's Brazil; (4) victims of the military dictatorship; (5) black Brazilians; (6) native Brazilians; (7) Northeast Brazilians; (8) immigrants; (9) women; and, of course, (10) LGBT people. Did I forget any other group of people defamed by Bozo during the course of his political career?

Bolsonaro simply reeks of homophobia -- not that we didn't know that already. After saying: "O Brasil não pode ser país do mundo gay" ("Brazil cannot be the country of the gay world"), Bozo goes on to throw out this welcome mat to men who have sex with women: "Se quiser vir fazer sexo com mulher, fique à vontade" ("If you want to have sex with women [here in Brazil], go for it"). We, as gay and bisexual men, along with our heterosexual supporters, are particularly offended by Bozo's comments yesterday to the effect that LGBT visitors are no longer welcome in Brazil, ostensibly to avoid Brazil becoming a "gay tourist paradise". Additionally, like many statements Bozo makes, his remarks are idiotic in that, as several of you have already pointed out, his rantings serve to shut down a segment of the tourist industry that includes many potential tourists with substantial disposable incomes, something Brazil could use right now in its struggle to escape economic stagnation. These comments are particularly ironic, coming as they do not long after Bolsonaro eliminated the tourist visa requirement for citizens of Japan, Canada, and the U.S. with the stated goal of increasing foreign tourism to Brazil. More importantly, many of us believe that President Bolsonaro's comments will serve as a license to incite violence against LGBT people, both Brazilians and foreigners. Already one openly gay Brazilian congressman who has fought with Bolsonaro over the years, Jean Wyllys, felt compelled to resign his seat in the Chamber of Deputies and to go into exile because of credible death threats he received following Bolsonaro's election and inauguration. While we probably shouldn't overreact to this news, it's important for those of us who are visiting Brazil now and for the remainder of Bozo's 4-year presidential term to remain vigilant by keeping apprised of the daily news from Brazil. This forum represents an excellent place for us to communicate with each other and to share information about any real or perceived threats to members of the LGBT and other minority communities.

@asdsrfr, nice to see your suggestion about trying Thermas Califórnia. However, in your post 18 months ago, you indicated that there weren't many GPs at Califórnia Thermas Club, except maybe on Thursday nights: Do you know if the GP situation at Califórnia Thermas Club has improved since your visit in late 2017? I'm curious about Fortaleza because in February 2019 I met a GP on a busy Tuesday night at Thermas Fragata in São Paulo. Unlike many garotos who have worked at the saunas with boys in just one and occasionally two Brazilian cities, this boy (who, BTW, is also blessed with an enormous endowment) -- named "Thales" -- was like a tour guide to Brazilian saunas with GPs, giving me his opinion about the best nights at each facility in cities he had worked at, ranging from Fortaleza to Florianópolis. He opined that I would really like the working guys at the saunas in Fortaleza, several of whom -- both white and black he said -- have the cool physical characteristic of "olhos verdes", i.e., penetrating green eyes! (and we hope, of course, that they also have the requisite characteristic of what appears in the majority of Brazilian sauna boys: penetrating huge endowments!)

The maximum dimensions of carry-on bags for domestic flights in Brazil are currently the same as those in the U.S. and other countries. Height: 55 cm (21½ in) Width: 35 cm (13¾ in) Depth: 25 cm (9¾ in) The new information is that, starting on 10 April 2019 and continuing weekly, these limits on hand luggage will be strictly enforced at airports hosting Brazilian domestic flights according to this schedule: 10 April 2019: Juscelino Kubitschek (Brasília/DF) Afonso Pena (Curitiba/PR) Viracopos (Campinas/SP) Aluízio Alves (Natal/RN) 17 April 2019: Confins – Tancredo Neves (Belo Horizonte/MG) Pinto Martins (Fortaleza/CE) Guararapes – Gilberto Freyre (Recife/PE) Luís Eduardo Magalhães (Salvador/BA) Val-de-Cans – Júlio Cezar Ribeiro (Belém/PA) 24 April 2019: Santa Genoveva (Goiânia/GO) Salgado Filho (Porto Alegre/RS) Congonhas (São Paulo/SP) São Paulo International Airport (Guarulhos/SP) Galeão – Tom Jobim (Rio de Janeiro/RJ) Santos Dumont (Rio de Janeiro/RJ) The way this will operate is that measurements of your hand luggage will be taken just before the security X-ray conveyor belt. If your carry-on and/or backpack exceed the limits, you will be asked to return to the back of the (usually long) line of the airline's check-in counter where you will have to pay for the bag(s) as checked luggage. While the cost of checking your carry-on is an annoyance after your bag gets rejected at the security checkpoint, the real issue is that you could easily miss your connecting flight. Although the airlines tout this new enforcement policy as leading to a more efficient boarding process, one can imagine that, as nearly every carry-on bag gets measured, queues will form at the security conveyor belt measuring station, with conflicts erupting among airline employees, passengers, and security personnel as hand luggage gets rejected. The new enforcement policy also indicates that your one allowed personal item (e.g., a backpack) may not exceed the following measurements: Height: 35 cm (13¾ in) Width: 45 cm (17¾ in) Depth: 20 cm (7¾ in) AND it must be able to fit under the seat in front of you. In any event, the new carry-on size enforcement policy is likely to affect many travelers, including road warriors on business trips and those of us currently in the middle of or planning quick trips to Brazil that include domestic flight connections.

Great idea! Go for it! It's a great time to consider making this move, with commercial real estate prices near their lows and the value of the USD at near high levels vs the BRL. I feel confident that many guys on this forum would be more than willing to patronize your new establishment. That said, I'd recommend that you partner in your endeavor with a Brazilian who can not only assist you in winding your way through the labyrinth of Brazilian bureaucracy but also who knows something about their system of gorjetas (tips). ;-)

On a Facebook posting on 18 February 2019, the owner of Nova Manhattan 21 on Rua Buenos Aires, 21 in the Centro, the latest location of Clube Manhattan Rio's, to which it moved just over 2 months ago, stated that he would be closing the new location and looking for a new site: To his credit, the owner cited the complaints of customers of the sauna including the facts that the club was situated in a small space and that there is no sauna in the "sauna"! He also mentioned the two long steep stairways that clients needed to climb to reach the reception desk. BTW, we didn't find either of these conditions to be a barrier but they might be for someone with cardiorespiratory concerns. As of the 3rd week of March 2019, Nova Manhattan 21 was still open Mondays through Fridays only and we visited the club on two occasions in March. In a post on this forum one year ago, someone mentioned that Manhattan Rio's, the previous incarnation of Nova Manhattan 21, located near Santos Dumont Airport, was trying to pick up downtown clientele that formerly frequented New Meio Mundo on Mondays and Fridays. Truth be told, our Monday encounter with the sauna was pretty abysmal, with very few GPs or clients. The biggest attraction for the boys seemed to be a bingo game that was supposed to start around 9 pm. We departed around 8 pm, however, to cut our losses. All that said, we got a guided tour of the new location (the receptionist at Nova Manhattan 21 was the woman who worked at the front desk of Clube 117 for many years and recognized us) and found it to be one of the cleanest Brazilian saunas we have ever visited, with spanking new lockers and suites all containing immaculate showers that actually had both hot and cold water! Nevertheless, we decided to give the place the benefit of the doubt and returned on a Friday. Our Friday visit was a MUCH better experience with lots of clients and GPs. I'd estimate around 20 GPs and 10 clients ultimately gathered in this small space. We had anticipated that it would be better to arrive there early, like around 6 pm, when offices in the downtown business district were closing, but it turned out that the GPs, many of them hot, good-looking muscular types, worthy of 117/202, were just starting to arrive around 7-8 pm. My friends and I had a great time and were looking forward to returning here on our next visit to Rio de Janeiro. Unfortunately, @Pauleiro mentioned in another thread in this Forum that Nova Manhattan 21 is now closed. If so, this must have happened very recently, like during the last week in March or first week in April. Some of the respondents to the owner's FB posting included suggestions, e.g., that the owner should consider taking over the old space in Copacabana/Arpoador, now vacant, previously occupied by the LeBoy disco/bar/sauna. Others recommended that the owner find a more suitable location in Centro. What do you guys think? Would you relocate the Nova Manhattan Rio to the higher rent South Zone (Copacabana/Ipanema) area where it would be more likely to attract gay tourists as well as locals? Or would you keep the sauna in Centro, as downtown is presently devoid of any saunas with GPs and where rents may be lower but where the location may be off-putting to some tourists, especially on weekends when the downtown business district is essentially "dead"?

Although I receive and read a daily Google synopsis of news from Brazil in Portuguese, I also enjoy the perspective provided by The Rio Times and have subscribed to the publication for the past several years. For folks who don't read Portuguese, the website offers useful information for foreign travelers. So I was personally very disappointed to learn that The Rio Times would cease publication this month. The good news is that The Rio Times has been resuscitated by a new owner, Matthias Camenzind. He promises to provide more reporting within Rio de Janeiro and to expand coverage to other cities in Brazil. Let's hope that the new publisher is successful in his endeavor! https://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-business/the-rio-times-to-continue-and-expand-under-new-ownership-of-matthias-camenzind/

Haha! Reminds me of the old Tonight Show with Jack Paar, where they had a translation chain through 5 people and languages. The end result was always hilarious!

The narrator makes a good point. Although Spanish and Portuguese are related languages, Brazilians get somewhat offended by Americans and Europeans thinking of Portuguese as being the "little brother" or, even worse, a "variation" of Spanish. He uses a one sentence example containing all cognate words, to show how "easy" it is to understand Portuguese. However, when you enter the world of sex with Brazilian men, you'll encounter sentences like this (from an ad for a GP, i.e., garoto de programa): Here is my translation of the ad: However, if you try to put this GP's ad through Google Translate, here's what comes out: You might end up wondering, "What scene is that GP really into?!"

According to the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá, there is also no yellow vaccine recommendation for Americans traveling to either Bogotá or Medellin.

Maybe it had something to do with the devastating tropical wind-and-rainstorm that battered Rio de Janeiro last week, but the American Embassy / U.S. State Department decided to issue a weather alert today for Wednesday, 13 February 2019. It seems that the State Department is getting more aggressive with its alerts, a good thing in my opinion, as one of the functions of a diplomatic mission is to safeguard the interests of its citizens living in or visiting a foreign country.

Thank you for the suggestion, Walker. I'll need to do that if it turns out that no one on this forum has ever visited Thermas 1087 in São Vicente. Truth be told, although I can speak some Portuguese, so the language wouldn't be a barrier for me to make a WhatsApp call to the sauna, as it might be for some clients, I do value the critical opinions and advice of members of this forum more than what some harried front-desk employee might say. That said, not all sauna employees are paid to "inflate the numbers" and, to be fair, I have spoken to reception clerks at saunas where they have acknowledged frankly that they only have "n" GPs on premises at the time of my call (where "n" is a very small number of boyz). And these honest front desk guys were also frequently willing to share with me when the best night would be, in their opinion, to visit the sauna.

Have you ever visited Thermas 1087 (formerly Thermas Senador) in São Vicente, adjacent to the city of Santos, on the coast of São Paulo State, about a 1.5-2 hour drive from São Paulo city? Being verão (summer) right now, I figured that the "Baixada Santista" coast of São Paulo might attract a sizeable number of gay guys looking to escape the sometimes oppressive heat of São Paulo city, particularly on weekends. Do they have garotos de programa at Thermas 1087? Or is this strictly a "client-client" gay sauna? I did a search on BoyToy.com and was unable to find any references to this termas. Additionally, I did a Google search and not much came up other than Thermas 1087's website and FB page. FWIW, here is a link to the Thermas 1087 website. And here is a photo of one of their gogo boy dancers from the Thermas 1087 webpage:

What's the address of "Nova Manhattan 21"? On a Google search, no website pops up and only a few Instagram type links.

@numazu1: I totally agree with the assessment of your writing style by @pylonguy71 . Have you ever considered publishing your experiences as mini-chapters in an anthology? Maybe as an e-book? Ten years ago I might have said that the world wasn't yet ready for that type of reading experience. But times have changed. Something to think about.

There's another offering of the Sunday Hippie Fair on Praça General Osório in Ipanema: a number of artists display and sell their paintings. Although, as previously stated, most of us would not recommend a favela tour, many of the works of art have colorful scenes of favelas, usually with other iconic features of Rio de Janeiro in the background, like the statue of Cristo Redentor on top of Corcovado. The smaller pieces can be rolled up and transported back to the U.S. relatively easily. They make for lovely, inexpensive gifts for friends back in the States or for hanging in your own home.

... today's headline from the English language newspaper, The Rio Times, about the ongoing military and police operations in and around the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, even in the "safe" Zona Sul (South Zone), adjacent to the beach community of Leme (next to Copacabana): Armed Forces Deploy 1,800 Troops Around Leme in Rio’s Zona Sul

Sorry to be a Debbie Downer (boy, that phrase really dates me! ) but ... @axiom2001: If you and @SolaceSoul need any further proof of why you wouldn't even want to do a tour of the Santa Marta favela, where the Michael Jackson statue is located, just look at the headline from yesterday's O Dia newspaper. I've translated the headline into English but the text of the article is in Portuguese: Gunfire in Santa Marta operation, in Botafogo, frightens residents @caeron: I realize that you have made the wise decision not to do a favela tour but please be careful, even in the area where you are staying near where Copacabana meets Ipanema. The following gun battle happened just today in the Cantagalo and Pavão-Pavãozinho favelas, both of which loom over Copacabana and Ipanema and are visible from many of the high-rise apartments my friends and I have rented in those areas over the years. The paper interviewed horrified residents of both Copacabana and Ipanema who were close enough to hear the gunshots. Gunfire in Pavão-Pavãozinho operation frightens Copacabana residents These gun battles occurred, as have some other recent ones, as a result of the return of the Unidade de Polícia Pacificadora (UPP), the "Police Pacification Unit", and the Forças Armadas (the Federal Armed Forces) to combat the narcotraficantes (drug gangs) in the favelas. Several years ago, similar actions of the UPP brought peace to many of the favelas. Unfortunately, as soon as the UPP departed, the narcotraficantes and their associated violence returned to those communities. Most of the places you travel in Rio de Janeiro in the Zona Sul (South Zone beach communities) and Centro (Downtown) will be very safe, particularly when there are lots of other people around. However, just as in any large city with huge disparities in incomes and high crime rates, it's best to keep your wits about you at all times. Just look and act streetwise, like a carioca (Rio native). Never present the aura of being an unsuspecting tourist.

@caeron: Exactly. Beside the danger factor, this is another point I have wrestled with in my own mind in finally deciding against doing one of these tours. Although proponents of organized favela visits will argue that a certain percentage of the fee gets plowed back into the community, thereby helping the residents, I find it hard to get past the unseemly spectre of a group of wealthy (at least by Brazilian standards) gringos gawking at the residents of the favela community and their living conditions. But, as you commented, YMMV.

Unfortunately, I think Santa Marta might have been the favela my American friend visited in 12/2017 and where they had to duck and cover because of a tiroteio (burst of gunfire). I recall him mentioning, when we spoke in January, that the Michael Jackson statue was supposed to be one of the highlights of the favela tour. Just last week, not far from there, and even closer to the safe Zona Sul bairros of Leme and Urca, there was this tiroteio between two favelas near the famed Praia Vermelha that left seven people dead and, for the first time, closed down the Aerial Tramway leading up to Pão de Açúcar, stranding unsuspecting passengers on the rock: http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-politics/seven-bodies-recovered-near-rios-sugarloaf-mountain-in-urca/ So, just as we discussed in the YF vaccine thread where, in my opinion, the benefit of getting immunized exceeds the risk, one must calculate the risk: benefit ratio of a favela tour. Right at this moment, at least in my mind, the potential risk for harm greatly exceeds the benefit a tourist might accrue from the visit.

@axiom2001: From your post, you indicated that you have not traveled in Rio de Janeiro in the past couple of years. Several of your RJ tour suggestions were good ones. One, however, was NOT! Check out the links below, just from the past months. A once-trendy Rio slum is now ‘at war’ -- The murders in a popular Brazilian favela reflect rising violence in a country in crisis. Police operation in Rio favela leaves at least eight people dead -- Allegations that some of the victims were innocent residents executed in a revenge mission after a police officer was killed there Rio rethinks favela tourism amid wave of violence And the violence in the favelas stems not just from narcotraficantes (drug lords and their gangs). Last October, a Spanish woman tourist was killed by police after doing a Rocinha walking tour as her driver failed to stop at a police checkpoint. When I was in Brazil in January, a friend of mine told me that, while visiting another so-called "pacified" favela, located between the safe Zona Sul communities of Leme and Botafogo, he and his group had to duck for cover as gunfire erupted. Among my group of four travel buddies, I was the only one who always wanted to take a favela tour. However, in view of the current situation, I would not put my life at risk for a favela excursion, nor would I recommend that any tourist, whether a Rio de Janeiro "old hand" or novice, take that risk either. There are so many other fun and safe activities to do in Rio, as many of us have already pointed out.

@numazu1: As you were saying ... http://riotimesonline.com/brazil-news/rio-politics/more-than-60-percent-of-young-brazilians-want-to-live-abroad/

And don't forget -- for those of us who are over a certain -- ahem -- age (60, in most cases), theatre tickets, including those to the spectacular Theatro Municipal previously mentioned, are half price. And admissions to many museums are free for idosos (seniors), including the one I mention below! These benefits are all part of a Brazilian law that provides recognition of people with disabilities, pregnant women, and seniors. Public transit in Rio de Janeiro is also free, with photo ID, for residents AND visitors over 65. As a science and tech buff, one of my faves is the Museu do Amanhã (Museum of Tomorrow), a futuristic interactive museum that was built in conjunction with the Porto Maravilha development in preparation for the 2016 Rio Olympics, where they tore down (but also tunneled) a previously ugly view-blocking double decker freeway, similar to what San Francisco did with the Embarcadero Freeway, and reclaimed the area for pedestrians and visitors. As you might imagine, the Porto Maravilha is another superb place to take a stroll and to capture stunning views that are not often seen by most tourists in Rio. Here's a link to a brief YouTube video about the Museu do Amanhã, narrated by a European student at one of the Portuguese language schools in Rio:

@trencherman: Thanks for the tips about Restaurante Mosteiro and Gula Gula. I had not heard of those before. Is that your own photo of Confeitaria Colombo or a stock photo? I have never seen that emporium of sweet delicacies so empty! I have several images of the inside of the Confeitaria taken during late afternoon but they all contained identifiable people, so I uploaded only a photo of Colombo's impressive ceiling in my earlier post. Usually, there are lines out the door and down the block. The good thing is that, unlike the chaos one sometimes finds in many places in Brazil, Confeitaria Colombo is very organized. And the dining room is enormous. So, even if the line appears formidable, it actually moves very quickly. The brief wait is time well spent. For those who have not visited Confeitaria Colombo previously, keep in mind that it has 3 or 4 locations, including one in the grounds of the Forte Copacabana, in Arpoador, near where @caeron is staying. But none of the other outlets can compare to the original, in Centro, in terms of both ornateness and sheer size.