ShivRoy

I sent them an Instagram message, never got a reply

I agree - I always check the bill both at 117 and at Pointe. There has been maybe only one or two occasions at 117 when the bill was incorrect - but I quickly got that it's a habit at Pointe. In the past few years, it got so bad that I started laughing correcting the bill every bloody time - every night at Pointe there would be extra drinks or extra items (the receptionist would bring one of the bar staff and the item/s would get removed - but it just happened almost every time). It got slightly better when Junior's son started to man the reception, and he's also very friendly - however, even with him some games continue. Once, I saw a charge for a suite on a free suite night on Weds - Junior's son told me, "oh you had a nicer suite, they are not free". Those who've ever been to any Rio sauna, be it 117 or Pointe, know that no single suite there is any nice. After a bit of an argument, that paid suite became free as it should be. On another night, there was a "cleaning fee" - again, Junior's son claimed this was added to the bill by a cleaning lady - and there was nothing untoward in the suite apart from your usual cum on the sheets. That cleaning fee stayed. I didn't get any extra drinks on the bills recently though - but even though I like Pointe and I want them to succeed, this is the only sauna in Brazil I'm constantly disputing my bills with. With their attendance clearly dropping in the past 2 years and them ceding even more ground to 117, I fear this is the very wrong strategy on their part.

Much much safer. I was initially apprehensive and prepared, like I would be in any Latin American city. But then a few days later I relaxed. Incidents could happen, and you need to be aware of surroundings, but I was walking in the night between bars, restaurants and clubs in Recoleta and Palermo without a problem - something I would never do in Brazil. It's not super-safe as say Prague or Hanoi - but it's reasonably safe, compare it to Marseille or Genoa, i.e. somewhat edgy southern European cities with some bad areas, I think that would be a fair comparison in terms of safety. So I'd say yes BA is much safer than Rio or SP

The place not mentioned often on this forum - but I've come back recently from two weeks in Buenos Aires. I want to come back already. I had a blast. This is my fourth time in Argentina, but my last visit was 9 or 10 years ago. I'd been to all the best places of this amazing country before, so this time I wanted just to have a chill city vacation in Buenos Aires, a city that I always considered one of the best in the world, and certainly the best in Latin America (for me). It's very different from the rest of Latin America, certainly different from Brazil. It does not feel Latin American, it feels more like a ramshackle Mediterranean European city instead - like Marseille or Genoa. It has that European cultured vibe, museums, theaters, leafy streets, public spaces, simply excellent food, and a great bar scene. It does not have that fire of Brazilian parties, no - it's more reserved and not that in-your-face fun, it's like a more refined sister of a loud brash half-drunk brother across the border. To put everything in the proper context from the very start: it is cheap. It is ridiculously cheap. It's cheaper than Cambodia. The economy went down the drain long ago, but the election of Milei propelled the inflation even further up. The local currency (black market rate) lost 20% just in the first three weeks of January. When I look up restaurants on Google Maps and see their menus photographed in November, I know that I need to double the prices for end-January (in pesos). Prices from a year ago do not mean anything, that was a different universe. I'm reading that just before covid, the taxi from the airport was 68 pesos, it is now 37,000 pesos (or 18,000 pesos on Uber) - you get the range. The wine is excellent - I was buying mine from a Chinese car service round the corner. They likely got the wine in stock in December before holidays and forgot to change prices - so I was buying wine from them in end-January for a price not seen anywhere else - $9 for a bottle with a Vivino rating 4.5 (normal malbecs are at around $2 per bottle). In an expensive Michelin restaurant, a huge 400g ribeye steak (dare I say the best steak in the world) and three negronis I accompanied it with rang me a bill of $20 total. In non-Michelin restaurants, steaks are between $5 and $8. In one of the top bars in the city mentioned in all sorts of awards and ratings, the happy hour sees two classic cocktails (I drink Negroni, but others may choose something else) for $3 (i.e. $1.50 each). Argentinian guys are not as defined or perfect as Brazilians - I'm a sucker for pectorals and abdominals, so I needed to dig hard. But thanks god for Venezuelans - they are plentiful in Buenos Aires, and they were more than half the guys I hired. Huge shout and huge thanks to @Latbear4blk who gave some incredibly useful advice on this forum. I was using local websites Soytuyo, Leonos, ArgentinaMasajes and Skokka to arrange all dates. The #1 piece of advice from @Latbear4blk was to check those profiles against the reviews on a local forum ForoPirata - that forum is gold, and I managed to save myself a lot of time (and trouble) by discarding quite a number of profiles who looked excellent on websites but got scathing reviews from previous customers on ForoPirata. If only such resources were available in other countries... I usually got two guys per day - one for "massage" and one for full sex. ArgentinaMasajes is an excellent resource, and I was very upfront with masseurs asking them direct questions on Whatsapp about what's possible on their side and what's not. Some were more modest and I wished them luck. Others entertained handjobs or fetishes, more daring ones were fine with BJs and cumming in my mouth, and the best allowed full-on sex. Mostly, I visited them in their places (after checking against references). This worked really well. Some, I invited to my place - and BA is a city where you can get excellent AirBnbs - mine was with a sweeping view from the 21st-floor balcony over the city, a rooftop gym on the 31st floor with panoramic windows, a swimming pool and a sundeck, and security that was ambivalent to visitors (the security guy just on one occasion recorded an ID of one of my guests who looked especially brutal, but on other occasions I met my guests downstairs at the security fence and then escorted them out afterwards bidding farewell without even talking to security- in most BA apartment blocks a guest would not be able to leave the building by himself without you escorting him out). "Massages" and other visits with full sex were all in $15-25 range, some slipping to $30, but never higher. (I got a local SIM card and conversed in Spanish over Whatsapp from a local number to make sure I'm not quoted crazy prices). One of my regulars was a well-known porn star - he's one of that Onlyfans cluster of Argentinian porn stars who have individual accounts and cross-pollinate bareback between each other with endless collabs. Well, I knew his name before, and his vids are everywhere (I'll omit the name). He was coming to my place for great sex for $25 ($20 rate + $5 Uber fare) and even spoke some English. I love Argentina. But as I said, it was mostly Venezuelans. If not for them, my picture would have not been this bright, but Venezuelans are muscular, defined, tattooed, insatiable, with a beautiful face and lots of kinky thoughts (and actions). One of the Venezuelans, I was coming to him every several days in the morning for a "massage" with some kinks and fetishes, and every time while I waited for him to come downstairs and open me the door, I saw the same beautiful girl coming out with two dogs, and one of them was usually immediately having a piss in front of me. When I saw her a second time, I thought it's such a coincidence, I'm at a different time than before but her dog-walking schedule matched. When I saw her again next time for the third time, it finally clicked for me that this was a GF of my "masseur" and their two dogs - she had to leave the apartment to walk the dogs for an hour so her guy would do various things with me disguised as a massage. Next time I saw her, I almost said hi. The guy was usually coming to let me in a minute after her leaving. With all that, I didn't go to any saunas - and as far as I know, there are no Brazil-style GP saunas anyway, they are normal non-escort saunas. I went once to Cine Ideal, an old grand cinema showing gay porn now in huge cinema halls with balconies - the entrance was something like $1 or $2, the cinema halls were pitch dark, and I probably could find someone and something there, but I saw little upside if I can have a $15-20 Venezuelan in proper comfort and lighting elsewhere. A couple of blocks from the cinema, there is another curious establishment - called MasajeClub. It's a business of massage coupled with a red wine bar. Apparently it's popular with locals at lunchtime and after work - the downside is that you can't select a masseur, he's assigned to you. The masseurs are your guys next door, not model-like, but they can go a looong way during the massage. The official line of this club is that you pay for massage ($4.50 one hour) and then whatever happens in the room is up to a masseur and you. There's nothing that the masseur is obliged to perform apart from the massage, but it usually involved sucking and even in some cases fucking. There are no minimum tips, so it is up to you if you want to leave anything to your masseur on top of $4.50. For something like $15 they have what they call a "circuit" - that's a 4-stage massage where four masseurs (again you can't pick) come to your room one after another to perform something like 20-25 min of massage - that may end up in four waves of different cum-shooting experiences. One or two of the four would usually not be averse to fucking. After that, they give you a glass of malbec. I've also been to the stripper bars. I remember there had been quite a few in my past visits, now only one remains, and it stages nightly shows rotating through three different locations in the city depending on the day of the week. Usually, it's three hunky straight strippers (usually coming in a bundle "one stunning, one ok, and one ugly") doing two routines - first stripping to a flaccid cock, and then the second one with a hardon. Then they come to the audience, and for a modest tip you can grab and fondle a hardon. I saw people leaving tips accounting for $0.1 or $0.2, so when I tipped $0.8, that gave me a really good grip of the cock and then a strong hug from a naked hard hunk and then a big thank you and usually a return trip from him to me for another $0.8. Big whisky cola is $2, beer is pretty much spare change. The show lasts for an hour and starts at 01:30. And then there are normal bars and clubs - again this is not the Brazilian level of eye candy, but it is still sexy in its own way. I really want to come back, this is such an underrated city to visit.

Well, I'm not fixated on the size per se - unlike Salvador that is a very black city, the ones in Nordeste are definitely lighter, but not as much as SP or Porto Alegre. In Fortaleza, there was one indigenous guy from the hinterlands in Amazonas who was simply outstanding. I'd say it's a healthy mix of various types there. I really liked festivals in Sao Luis - I was at the June one and it was almost Carnival-like. It's a city thriving on music, so I came back a couple of times.

Well, there are very few foreigners in that region, almost none that I've seen (Argentinians/Colombians aside). It was edgy as in every big Brazilian city, but usual precautions apply. Rio, Salvador, Fortaleza are all quite dangerous - but foreign tourists still go there and happily survive to tell the tale!

Fortaleza is infamous for being the most dangerous city in Brazil - the murder rate is so high that if you live your life there the chance of you being murdered at some point is 1 in 27. Still, great great beaches - both in the city proper (Praia do Futuro) and a couple of hours drive away (Canoa Quebrada - one of the most beautiful beaches in the world that I've ever seen). Recife in turn is infamous for its sharks. When they built a new city port a couple of decades ago, they messed up the biosystem in the ocean. Suddenly sharks infested the waters immediately to the south from the port - that's where the beautiful Boa Viagem beach is. The death/injury count became so high that all along many miles of the long Boa Viagem Beach there are signs "sharks - do not bathe in the sea", and locals really do not enter the ocean - the latest shark fatality was a woman who was standing just knee deep in the water. There are only two areas where locals swim - they are sheltered by a stone reef close to the shore - and only at low tide.

I was Friday, Saturday, Sunday at Boa Vista and there were many GPs on all three days, with Friday possibly the busiest - was it because of bingo? I remember Boa Vista before the pandemic - and GPs were fewer in between than they seemed now when I visited. The corridor leading to the maze is where they line up like at the 117 corridor in Rio. I've been to Recife maybe 4 times before, and that's why this time I was surprised - I didn't expect more than four or five garotos, and there were easily around 20 of them. At California, I think it's the management that encourages GPs to go naked on Thu - they brand Thursday the "dark nude night" - but I think they are rather reluctant to go full nude all the time, but some of the regular GPs wrap their towel around the dick rather than around the hips and walk around that way - something they don't do on any other days

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.

Alcantara is really really great. Like a trip to another world. I was at their June fest in Sao Luis once - plenty of events and parties, it's like a Carnival in June. And the best day to be out on the streets is Friday - the whole historic center turns into a party with live music, crowds, food, drinks etc. - like Lapa on steroids. When I came to Sao Luis for the first time, it was on a Friday, and my first night was just this awesome, and I thought: is this Brazil's hidden secret and an incredible place nobody knows? Then, next day on Saturday I came there again - and it was obviously totally dead. I was told then, it's Friday only, but every Friday

Yeah, I need to write about Recife too - I was pleasantly surprised at the saunas last week. Lencois Maranhenses are soooo beautiful - but they are very much season-depending. You need to visit between July and October after the rainy season. I went in November I believe - and lakes were already very much waning. I caught the beauty of this, but not that majestic view we all know - sorta semi-majestic lol. I was told, by December no lakes would remain.

And it was actually not bad at all - I visited in 2018, 2019 and 2020, but I looked at their Instagram and other socials now, seems like nothing changed and they are going strong. The name is Go.61 - some socials have it as Sauna Go - it's in the historic center. Similar to Fortaleza, the strongest nights are Thursday and Sunday. They had shows, caipirinhas for some spare change, free cabins, nice suites, swimming pool and even bingo where all guys come to the promise of some money. (I actually won at bingo and gave my winning slip to the garoto I was spending the night with at the sauna - he was over the moon).

I'm thinking about hitting Buenos Aires later this month. I've been three times before, however it's been a while since my last visit. I've done a search of all BA topics here going back to well before covid - many thanks to those who shared tips, that's helpful. My question is on accommodations. I will aim to stay in Recoleta, Alto Palermo, or Palermo Soho. There are plenty of Airbnbs available - what's the advice with regard to security? Is it safe to bring a guy back? If a building has security/concierge, would they be an obstacle to bringing a guest, or vice versa a help if a visitor can leave their ID card with them? I had a really nice experience on that in Medellin, for instance, where I stayed a couple of times in an Airbnb in Laureles and security guards were checking IDs of all my visitors while not complaining why I have two different visitors a day, every day. It also gave quite a feeling of security. Are things in Buenos Aires similar? In short, I'd be super-grateful for any advice of possibly tried and trusted apartments to stay (or hotels?). Thanks a lot!

Yeah, I thought about TAP when I wrote it, but as Marc said they are only just decent - and Lisbon is difficult to connect from elsewhere in Europe. I try not to fly TAP, with all their delays and missed connections. Plus, I'm usually on Skyteam so AF works better for me. However, TAP indeed is a good option to fly to NE Brazil - but one should allow ample time in LIS for connections as TAP flights are routinely late by at least an hour.

There is a place one block off Pub St called Home Cocktail - it's sort of an unofficial gay dining lounge (or rather, canteen:) Later in the evening you would spot gay tables - either couples or even gay groups, and some discreet cruising may happen too. They have an OK local food and incredible drink prices (which is why it's popular with local guys) - beer is 50 cent, and any cocktail (like Margarita) is $1.50. Don't remember whether G&T is a dollar, or $1.50 too.