numazu

This is great guys. I am going to Rio in a few months and will check out some of the suggestions here. A couple of questions: 1. Has anyone been to ilha Grande? Any tips or experiences any one wanna share? It looks beautiful and Gabriel wants to take me. 2. Gabriel insists on me staying in his apartment in Sao Goncalo partially for my visit next time (to save money he says). I intend on having an AirBNB in Ipanema the whole time to store my valuables and other things, but thought staying with him in his usual habitat is a good experience. Good or bad idea?

Thanks! If I can inspire anyone to travel because of just knowing about my experiences then I know that writing about them is worth it. Better start traveling, coz the world is huge (and the cocks, and the asses)! Thanks for reading me accurately. Though I would never tell anyone to piss off hehehe. And Tarte's post really wasn't unsavoury at all! Be that as it may, I'm a big boy (trapped in a short asian's body). I can handle it. Muito obrigado meu amor! Do I have a sycophant squad? LOL I need this in my life. He is very very skilled with his fingers... And yes, he has saved me plenty of money this trip. I had a budget in mind of two garotos a day, on top of the 250 reals I intend to pay Gabriel. I obviously did not do this, at least as of the current Day. I still have a few posts left before I wrap up. Oh, and I am also good at math and play two types of instruments... Oh wait, I am all those things. Damn it. Hehe Rob you know me. I told you I started out as a bottom twink in my teens and early 20s and graduated to what I am now. Somehow Brazil is pulling me back to my youth. Which is good I guess. more replies later...

Yeah I've had at least two coworkers learn this the hard way. They both had supposed pre-nups, but neither worked out, because in one case it was contested saying she did not have viable counsel present when the prenup was written up, the other because my coworker just earned too much money for there not to be spousal support. This actually reminds of the show 90 Day Fiance on TLC. I don't watch the show but see clips of it floating around the interwebs once in a while. Soooo cringeworthy:

Day 8.5: The Mezzaninu Puzzlement Maybe we got there too late. Maybe there were too many customers tonight. Maybe its because I brought someone more good looking than anyone else in the place. Whatever it was, it just didn’t work out. So for the record, I really really wanted this to materialize. Gabriel has been wanting to fuck someone at the sauna with me, and tonight was our last night together this trip, so it had to happen tonight. After our unexpected but rewarding detour into Rio Grande do Sul’s countryside, we finally made it to Porto Alegre. We decided to skip driving around PA and just drove straight to Localiza to return the car. After navigating through PA’s awful traffic, we return the car with no issue. We get an Uber to get back to the AirBNB. We procrastinate a bit before deciding to go to the mall to get something to eat and do some shopping. We choose Igautemi Shopping this time, and it was a much better mall than Moinhos Shopping. There was a branch of Caracol Chocolates here, though no hot boy manning the store: After lunch we decide to do some quick shopping. I always like doing a small shopping spree with the chosen boy du jour, just because (a) it makes me happy to buy them something, not extravagant stuff, especially if they withstood all my demanding sexual and non-sexual needs, (b) I get a little bit of shopping done myself and (c) because I can. I thought we could do some clothes shopping after Gabriel’s need to borrow my gym shorts and underwear this trip, so we head over to Zara. When I first met up with Gabriel this trip, I noticed that he was head to toe decked out in original Adidas and Nike gear, as well as in possession of what appears to be genuine Louis Vuitton wallet and belt and some nice looking ear studs. He told me the clothes were from one generous client, and the wallet, belt and studs were from another generous client who brought him to LV a month before. Easily upwards of $3000 total for all of that. I told him I won’t be able to match those extravagant gifts for sure. He said it didn’t matter. I eventually bought him a pair of pants (175 reals, $47). He said he needed a new pair for a party he was going to tomorrow. I offered to buy him a matching shirt, but he said he didn’t need anything else. Okie dokie. We window shopped some more at other stores before we realized that it was already 6 PM. It was sauna time! We did not want to miss our window to get the choice boys. We had to go to the sauna tonight. Even if there were Porto Alegre free boys on Grindr available. Even if some of them make the corniest opening pickup lines: We hightail it down to the exit to catch an Uber. At home we showered and made ourselves presentable. Gabriel took my black exercise jacket and wore it. I laughed and asked “What would I wear? It’s cold outside!” He took his trendy adidas sweater and put it on me. It fit quite nicely. I am wearing a jacket that a client bought for him. That’s kind of cool. We get an Uber and off we go. We arrive at the sauna and notice there were a lot more cars parked up front this Friday than previous night on a Tuesday. This was a very good sign. Or not if there were more clients than boys: The receptionist teddy bear greets us and gives us our keys for our lockers. We venture in and notice some more activity this time. We head on over through the hallway to the bar/sitting area/stage/see through shower area to see what was going on. There was a sprinkling of customers here and there, and some younger guys who might be garotos. Again, it was hard to tell who was who. They weren’t stunners for sure. That’s probably why it was hard for me to determine which guy was a garoto or not. I talked to Gabriel about this. He pointed to a couple of guys who were younger than the rest of the folks out here and were in more or less decent shape. “They might be the garotos. I am not sure either.” We laugh at each other’s confusion. Gabriel goes over to the bar to fetch us a couple of waters. Gabriel tells me about his confusion right now. He says that when he works at Club 117 in Rio, he makes it a point to make eye contact with clients, especially those he thinks would be a good fit for his services. Most of the garotos in 117 are like that, he says. I ask him if they were all like this because most of them were Cariocas at 117. He says maybe, but some boys come from all over Brazil. I tell him maybe the Cariocas show them how to be assertive and therefore it made for a more interactive atmosphere at Club 117. He agrees and says that the boys here could need some assertiveness right now. “Maybe you can show them how it’s done,” I tell Gabriel. He laughs. “I could earn so much money right now,” he then says. He takes off his shirt to reveal his golden brown muscular torso. The customers look his way. Yup. He could make a killing here. He sits back down and just laughs. “We can probably try to see if there are more boys on the roof terrace.” I agreed with him. He puts his shirt back on and we go up the stairs to the terrace. There were more people at the terrace this time, as it was a clear night with no rain. I would say the tables were 2/3s occupied, which meant it was a pretty good turn out. We sit at the far end and just people watch while sipping waters: Gabriel points to some boys who were clearly garotos and asked me if any of them would be good for our threeway. I take a look at them and was on the fence. They were just not standing out for me. I tell Gabriel my criteria for the night: the boy should be at least as good looking as my Grindr hookup this morning. Since I’m paying, there is no sense getting someone less attractive than someone I can get for free. It made sense to Gabriel, so we kept on looking. We then see this gorgeous guy emerge from the bar. He was about 5’8 – 5’9, probably mid-20s. Lighter hair and lighter eyes. Gorgeous tattoos. In a towel and you can see some ab definition there. Again, not like Gabriel’s precision laser cut abs, but you know, better than my own loaf of bread. He sat down with a customer. “Pity,” I tell Gabriel. The one possible guy here in this whole establishment is with a customer. Gabriel tries to assess the situation. “Maybe we can wait to see if the client is wrapping up his programa,” he says optimistically. After 5 minutes the boy and his client leave their table. I guess it was the start of their programa instead of the end of it. Oh well, we got nothing but time. We check out the other boys, and I was close to pulling the trigger a bunch of times, but didn’t. I was holding out hope for the gorgeous guy. If any of the other guys would show initiative by going up to us to say hi, I might have hired them. But no one did. Some of them just sat there, staring into space. Gabriel takes my phone and looks at our photos from Gramado and Canela. He picked the ones he liked and sends it to his own Whatsapp. I had a ton of other photos in there. Lots from Chaturbate models from Colombia, most of them naked, some of them videos. When Gabriel sees a photo or video he likes, he asks me who it was and where was it taken. He goes through a lot of the photos. After about 30 minutes of just hanging out we get bored. The gorgeous boy and client are taking their sweet time. We decide to head back down the stage area to see if there were any new things happening. We get there and it was deserted. Gabriel was confused and livid at the same time. “What is wrong with this sauna?” He says. The bartender, who heard Gabriel’s statement, asked him if everything was alright. Gabriel says yes, but then asks where the boys were? The bartender introduces himself to Gabriel and me. Gabriel then tells the bartender that he was from Rio and knows how a Rio sauna looks like and operates, and is nothing like the sauna here. He didn’t say specifically that he was a garoto I think. I am not sure what the bartender thought but it was irrelevant. Gabriel tells the bartender that the boys in CLub 117 are more assertive, as the go up to the client and shake their hand, and usually has a spiel ready to make small talk, just to make a sale happen. He says that the boys here are passive and not as warm. I chime in the conversation and tell the bartender than my first time going to 117, I was overwhelmed by how forward the garotos were, but I appreciated the aggressive welcome, even if it was jarring at first (foi surpresa). Its easier to assess who to hire if you are up close and personal instead of just looking in a distance. The bartender surprisingly approves of our observations. He says sometimes he wishes the boys were more engaging with the customers. It would mean more business for the sauna. He also said that it was slow season this month. It was rainy, it was cooler. It was typically slower. And tomorrow is the sauna’s main day, he says. Saturdays are always super busy here. Lots of garotos, lots of customers. He advises us to come back tomorrow in the late afternoon so we have our pick of the boys. Gabriel laments that this was our last night in PA, and tomorrow we fly to Rio and Sao Paulo, respectively. The bartender says that the two cities we mentioned have better saunas anyway, so we are probably better off heading there instead of here. That doesn’t help us now. We ask the bartender about the gorgeous guy garoto. He immediately figures out who it was we were talking about and tried to look for him high and low in the building. He came back and says he couldn’t find him, as he might still be with a customer. That programa is really taking a long time. He must be good. We stick around for a while and keep the bartender company. After that we head up back upstairs to check to see if the boy was there. He wasn’t. I guess it just wasn’t meant to be. We start heading to reception to pay our bill. Two waters and two entrance fees. I fire up Uber and wait 7 minutes for our ride. Just like last time, while we wait, Gabriel goes behind me and wraps his arms around me. Again, he looks over my shoulder and talks to the receptionist. “Have you seen this boy we were trying to look for all night?” The receptionist said that he has left just 10 minutes ago. Gabriel and I just laugh. “It is just the two of us tonight,” Gabriel tells me. That was just fine by me. Maybe it was because Gabriel was with me. Maybe because I was too picky. Maybe it's because all the good garotos were taken tonight. Whatever it was, I will go back here, next time I find myself in PA. This was definitely a missed opportunity, and one that I will try to make right in a future trip. Our Uber comes. We get to the apartment. We strip off our clothes and make out naked. We spend three hours talking and laughing and sucking and rimming and fucking and cumming. That was just fine by me. Sauna: 2 Laziness: 1 Hot boy tour of the city: 4 Act of god: 1

Day 8: Three Gramado Musings 1. The Education of Gabriel Gabriel was a talker. He was naturally bombastic and demonstrative because of his tremendous luck of being born a Carioca. There was just something about Cariocas that instantly draw you to them. The joy and zest for life for them seemed effortless and natural, and makes you wonder what was in the water in Rio that made them the way they were. And because Gabriel was also a garoto, he was even more boisterous and confident, and fairly generous with his body and his personal space, and it was his mission to get you to be comfortable enough to be equally generous with your body and space with him. There were downsides to this happy-go-lucky existence of course. A Carioca friend of mine who lives in San Francisco always tells me how proud he is of being Brazilian and wouldn’t trade it for anything else in the world. But then goes on to say that the very thing that makes Brazilians so happy and carefree is also the reason why they cannot sustain a good government and stable economy. He couldn’t explain why it was so. He said they seemingly have everything: a robust population, abundant natural resources, relatively progressive thinking for the region, which are all ingredients that would otherwise make Brazil an economic superpower. He says that just when he thinks the country has turned a corner, it collapses in on itself, unable to withstand the weight of rampant corruption and the burden of weak leadership. Gabriel is struggling with his own motivations. He was not born super poor. His siblings are all college graduates who have stable jobs and could thrive even within the corrupt system of government. He didn’t go to college, and liked going to parties and bask in the sun too much, his words. He wants to go get a degree but lacks the appropriate drive or the concrete plan needed to execute this. His brothers help him out sometimes, and he earns enough at the sauna to pay his bills and his motorcycle, and to keep up with his constant partying. I guess life can be hard when you live in paradise. There is no urgency to stop the party, if the water is always warm, the sun keeps shining, and the samba music keeps playing. As we wind down our night and not wanting to sleep yet, Gabriel and I talk about the sauna, and the characters in it. He says he wants to leave the sauna as soon as he can. He has told me about the energia negativa that permeates through the sauna walls. It’s a sad place to earn money, he said. He has been working in 117 for about a year, but says that some garotos have been there upwards of 10, even 15 years. Most have turned to drugs as a way to cope with the negative energy and the relentless grind of grinding customers. He said everyday he tells himself that he wants out, but he gets to the sauna and earns more money in a day than most his siblings do in most weeks. It is hard to leave, he said, but he has to, for his sanity and health. He does not want to end up like the career garotos in the sauna. He values his health too much to do so. We talk about his options. We come up with a plan for him to slowly phase out the sauna from his life. But to him, the first step to this road to prosperity was to learn English. He asked me if I could teach him English and in return I can practice my Portuguese with him. I told him that this was an excellent idea. For now though, he asks me to improve his “sauna English”, by teaching him a few phrases he needed to deal with gringos and other non-PT speakers. I took the hotel notepad and pen and scribbled down two questions. I hand him the pen and pad and asked him to answer the questions in English. He does and I check his work. I give him some corrections. I ask him to scribble in more sentences: I tell him that it helps me to write down some of the Portuguese I’ve learned to help with remembering. We go into the most important subject of all: payment. He knows mostly how to count in English, which is good. He asks me how English speakers usually could ask him how much his services were worth. I give him a few examples. He scribbles them down. I ask him if customers ask him what his sexual services were. I tell him about top and bottom, equivalent to his ativo and passivo: We get into stuff like kissing as well. I told him it is important to tell customers that you are like a machine in bed, pounding away like there was no tomorrow. I call him the “Maquina,” the energizer bunny in bed. He tells me it is good that he loves sex so much, it is no problem for him to perform for clients. Amen to that: He in turn teaches me a few colloquialisms in Brazilian Portuguese. I type them down in my phone. We talk about doing this kind of teaching session on WhatsApp video once in while when I go back to the USA. Indeed, after this trip was over, we commence with our teaching lessons, usually when he is in his long bus ride from Sao Goncalo to his work at Club 117, or on his ride back from work, though he is more subdued and less talkative after the grind of the sauna. It is probably that negative energy thing again. We do not do this every day, but often enough that he is now more effective in teaching me Portuguese than my teacher. It's almost 3 AM when we fall asleep in each other’s arms. 2. Angel of the Morning We get woken up by the alarm at 8 AM. We wanted to get an early start today so we can at least see some of Porto Alegre before we return the car and prepare for the sauna tonight. I wasn’t looking forward to the 2-hour drive back to PA, but I figure the earlier we get the drive out of the way, the better off we will be today. Gabriel was not a morning person either, but he was in tune with my wish to get an early start. We decided to get some breakfast first, and then after settling our tummies, go to the gym and then hit the road. That’ll get us to Porto Alegre around 1 PM at the latest, plenty of time to get some other sightseeing done before returning the car at 6 PM. The breakfast in Hotel Serra Azul was pretty standard fare, but it was included in the price of the room, so we were not complaining. Lots of breads, meats, cheeses, and waffles/pancakes, with a full complement of fruit juices and surprisingly excellent coffee: While eating I checked my Grindr. I scrolled through some old messages, with some pretty promising but missed opportunities. Oh well. After 5 minutes, some new messages trickle in, including a message from a 23-year-old guy. I look at his profile photo and recognized him from somewhere but couldn’t exactly put my finger on it. I read his message: “I saw you at the caracol chocolates:” Remember him? It was the guy who helped us at Caracol Chocolates yesterday. I thought he was pretty hot. I asked for more photos. He obliged. Nice body, handsome, and was hung like a horse, or a Brazilian. I say I like: I guess he saw me at the store and liked what he saw. But he saw me with Gabriel, the guy who was hotter than the sun. Since Gabriel did not have Grindr, maybe this guy was trying to get to Gabriel through me? It was possible: So I guess he really wanted to fuck me. I send him a photo of my ass. He doubled down with his wishes to meet. I guess I could give this is a go. I tell him he could meet me but I had to ask my “boyfriend” first. I fill Gabriel in on what was happening. He asked to look at the messages and photos. He chuckled. He showed me one of the penis pics. “Grande,” Gabriel said, pointing to the pic. I laughed. Gabriel was still bigger and thicker than this guy, but he recognizes a big penis when he saw one. I ask him what I should do. Gabriel says to go for it and said he could go to the gym while the guy and I do it. I asked him if he was OK with it. He assured me he was. I tell the guy to give me 20 minutes. He asked for my room number and I gave it to him. Gabriel and I wrap up breakfast and while Gabriel changed for the gym, I get a quick but thorough shower to prepare. When the message came that the guy was at the lobby, Gabriel takes the key card and kisses me in the lips and says “Have fun!” I get a knock at the door and there he was. He was over 6’ tall, strong and lean, and fairly handsome. He was whiter than most Brazilians I’ve become accustomed to, and had either hazel or green eyes, I couldn’t tell for sure. He looked younger than how I remembered him yesterday. I welcome him in and we exchange names. In perfect English he asks me some questions about my trip so far. I ask him about his work in Caracol chocolates. Mandated small talk at the start of a Grindr hookup. A way to ease into the task at hand. He struck first. He leans down to give me a deep kiss, then takes off my shirt to give my nipples a nibble. I take off his shirt as well, to reveal a slightly hairy and inviting torso. I relieve him of his trousers to reveal an already hard cock, pointing up with anticipation. I take it in my mouth. He takes off my shorts and gives me an amazing rim job. He takes his time. He clearly loves my ass, and wasn’t afraid to go for it. I give him a condom a lube. He fucks me doggy style, softly at first to get me used to his size, and then came the jackhammer. He flips me on my back and assumes the position. He wraps my legs around his neck and kisses me while pounding me. He comes this way. He pulls out and takes my still hard cock and puts two fingers in and finger bangs me till I come in his mouth. After washing up together we exchange Whatsapp contacts, and tells me to send him a message when I am back in town. He said maybe my boyfriend can join in next time. I tell him that it was a possibility. When he leaves I text Gabriel that the coast was clear. After 5 minutes Gabriel walks in the door. He gives me a kiss and asks me how it was. I tell him it was great. He said he saw the guy at the lobby while he was taking the stairs down to the gym. He tells me he thought the guy was handsome. I see a bulge in his shorts. I take them off and his large cock flops out, all thick and hard like the previous guy. Gabriel takes off my shorts, turns me around and bends me over and takes a look at my hole. “Nice,” he says, and then proceeds to rim me. I guess it turns him on that the guy was just here in the room, and in me. He takes a condom and proceeds to fuck me. Brazil is turning me into a bottom. 3. Lost in Translation Google Maps is a bitch sometimes. My blind trust with it has occasionally been my downfall. It gets me to my destination 99% of the time, but the 1% of the time it fails me, it is oftentimes ends horribly. Gabriel and I, post-coitus, pack up and check out of the hotel. It was $100 for the 2-night stay, plus another $10 for some mini-bar items, and $13 for the valet parking. I put in the address of the apartment in Porto Alegre, let Google Maps calculate the quickest route to our destination, and head on out. In the car we have loud music playing right away, and have lively talks about whatever came to us during the drive. I wasn’t paying too close attention when Google suggested to make a right on Estrada Serra Grande, which took us out of the main highway on the state route 116. I noticed the road was smaller but didn’t really think anything was amiss till the concrete part ended and it turned into gravel: I checked google and it said we were on the correct road. I should have just turned it around to get back to the four-lane highway, but somehow I just kept on driving on the dirt road. Pretty soon we see farm land. We are clearly not on the main thouroughfare anymore: Gabriel seems unconcerned about the detour. At this point I was a little concerned. I did not want bandits to suddenly appear and force us to stop the car and rob us. This looked like a pretty remote part of the south. As we drove on, we get to see some nice farmland with some animals. We decide to make the most of our detour and snap some photos: We drive on, with the road getting rockier and less traveled. We got a little worried until we see a lone man walking on the road. We stop and asked him if this was the road to Porto Alegre. The man said yes, and there was probably 15 more minutes of unpaved road before we hit gravel again. This gave us some relief. We encountered a fork in the road, and stopped the car to figure out which road to choose from the google map directions. While we figured out which way to turn, we see a nice church in the distance so we decided to leave the car to take photos: There was an old man, who had a house close to the church, who encouraged us to get closer so we could get better shots of the area: We get a lot of nice goofy photos. Lots of "the hills are alive" shots. After our photo session we talk to the man. He was a jolly old Gaucho, probably close to 80. He asked as where we came from. When he learned I was from the USA, he asked me if I liked Trump. I was diplomatic, as one should be when encountering strangers, anywhere, and told him a lot of people liked Trump and a lot didn’t like him. He laughed at the answer and told me what he thought about him. His wife soon joined us in the conversation. The wife laughed at my strange Portuguese. We bid both a farewell and thanked them for their hospitality. Not long after we finally encounter gravel road! I guess we found a shortcut, which was cutting through the town of Santa Maria do Herval, a nice farming town with lots of natural features. We make stops once in a while to take some photos. We stop by a creek and do an impromptu photo session with a shirtless Gabriel: It was actually a nice accident that we got “lost” in the farm lands of the south. Sometimes the cliché is true: it really is all about the journey and not the destination. From there we find our way back to state route 116 through Novo Hamburgo. And it took us to Porto Alegre. Next, the Sauna.

Catching up on replies: He hasn't really explicitly asked me to do this, though if this is his way of asking me to do so, then I don't blame him. He is really unhappy with Brazil. Even my Portuguese tutor wants to leave. My overarching philosophy in life is to say yes to everything. It has worked out so far. What a coincidence! I had two private messages asking me about my experience renting a car in Brazil. I guess its not as clear to everyone as you might assume. I had my own anxieties of renting a car in Brazil as I do with renting a car in Costa Rica, which I did just a few weeks ago. I'm always glad when there is an article online demystifying the subtle differences in renting out cars overseas. Like the title suggests, I am a newbie, as are countless of others out there who benefit from the info here. He's my first garoto hire ever. Now I think all garotos are like him. Awwww thanks Rob! And yeah, some people already are considering renting cars because of my post. I guess its useful for some people! Yeeeeep. And I'm in Bangkok now. And I sure am trying to keep coming! You guys always have my back. Obrigado! Or I guess to Rob it's gracias, to you it's kob khun krup! More replies coming...

Day 7: Canela Road Trip I was sort of surprised on how easy and hassle free my rental car-road trip-Brazil tour has been so far. It is Brazil after all. From all the news reports and the general overall impression that Americans have and get about Brazil, I was half expecting a “Max Max” dystopian nightmare throughout my drive. Instead it was a care-free and stress-free time with a very amiable and game-for-anything garoto. I guess realistically the success of any road trip hinges greatly upon the quality of your travel companion. I do not know if I would get the same experience if I instead got a garoto, or free guy for that matter, off of Porto Alegre to go with me, while knowing the guy only a day or less before embarking on this trip. Gabriel and I have built up a rapport since our initial meeting last January, and we have settled quite remarkably into just a pair of old friends embarking on a road trip together. And this established rapport was crucial to a day like today. All I knew about Canela was I wanted to explore it and the area around it because my Portuguese tutor highly recommended doing so. So Gabriel and I did our research together the night before to prepare for today. From our little research, everything looked beautiful and accessible and since we had a car we would be able to go everywhere. Also, it looked like we will be getting a lot of exercise today with all the hiking and walking some of the venues required, so we both opted to wear athletic attire to be well prepared for the day. So after breakfast, we take the four bottled waters from the mini-bar in the room at Hotel Serra Azul, as well as some snacks we bought from chocolate shops off of the main drag in Gramado, we were off to our Canela adventure. Some highlights: Canela downtown was as quaint as Gramado downtown, and the Catedral de Pedra was very photogenic. Gabriel took a shit-ton of photos for Instagram. Lots of souvenir shops here as well: The Parque Estadual do Caracol, or Caracol State Park, was the highlight. We get there mid-morning, with the air still crisp and fresh. We had fun hiking around nature, and the view of the waterfall was pretty spectacular: After hiking around the park itself we drive up to the teleferico, or cable cars, to have an even better view of the park. There was a nature trail at the top of the terminus of the cable car route. At this point Gabriel was in a full jokey mode. The nature trail had some kitschy replicas of animals around the trail. Gabriel had fun with how bad some of the replicas were, while taking photos, and even riding some of the animals (you’re not supposed to do that), and wondered if the real animals were even here to begin with: On our drive back down the mountain, we pass by a Jurassic Park-type theme park called Vale dos Dinassauros. I asked Gabriel if he wanted to stop by the theme park. He said that if the animal replicas in the nature trail was any indication, he said he wouldn’t want to see what might be the same poorly rendered animatronic dinosaurs. We did have fun taking photos in front of the supposed electrified fence. Not sure if this was worth the 60 real ($16) entrance fee, but it probably would have been fun anyway with Gabriel’s commentary, or pictures of him riding on one of the dinassauros: After all the hiking and laughter, we find a por quilo buffet-style restaurant on the side of the road. It was 25 reals, or $7, for lunch. We skipped dessert because we were going to a chocolate museum next. Yesterday, at the hotel, they gave out little Chocolate nibbles from Caracol chocolates. So when Gabriel googled the chocolate brand, he found that Caracol had a whole chocolate museum full of kitchsy fun, called O Reino do Chocolate, or the Kingdom of Chocolate. We just had to visit it today: We bought a lot of chocolate souvenirs at the gift shop and was helped by a very good-looking employee. He even packed the chocolate in a Styrofoam cooler to protect the precious delicious chocolates: This is not the last we hear from good-looking employee… More about him next post. We wrap up our road trip with a victory lap of Gramado. We visited the various parks in the area, and concluded with a sunset “Pedalinho” ride in Lago Negro, or Black Lake. A pedalinho is like a boat with foot pedals like a bicycle to drive it around the water, and in this case in the shape of a swan. It was a pretty nice, though strenuous, way to enjoy the lake: Gabriel, as expected, did an Instagram live broadcast, with me in it. I was able to utter a few phrases in Portuguese for his audience. Back at the hotel Gabriel was still buzzing with energy. He dangled the gym-then-sex combo again to motivate me to go to the gym with him before dinner. I said we can if he bottomed again for me. He said yes, since he said he will probably be able to top someone tomorrow back at Sauna Mezzaninu. I forgot to mention this yesterday: Gabriel did not bring gym shorts and enough underwear. I offered to buy him some but he said to not waste my money since he had plenty back home, and just asked if he could just borrow shorts and underwear from me if I had extras. Luckily, I brought some spares with me, and both fit him perfectly. He looks better in them than I can ever dream myself looking like in them: Gym, rinse, repeat. I think my relationship with Gabriel has progressed a little bit today. At our room after gym we start hugging and then it graduates to making out. Still sweaty and gross from the gym and from the rest of the day’s exertions, we start having sex. Normally I expect him to shower first, with me or after me. Now here we were, sucking, rimming, enjoying each other, wearing the sweaty and filthy baggage of the day. Gabriel scent was in full tilt masculine musk mode, and I was covered in a shiny sheen of sweat, but it didn’t matter. I was more concerned with him not liking the dirty me, but it seems it didn’t matter to him. I was enjoying this version of Gabriel, taking in everything, the smells, the sweat, the filth, all of it. And at this point, I didn’t think it could happen, but it made our sex better. A long hot shower was needed after that (because, among other things, there were buckets of cum between the two of us). We get ready for our big dinner tonight. It was at the Churrascaria Garbo and Bombacha, which was restaurant with a show. I think it’s like South Brazil’s version of a luau which is to say it was very touristy and overpriced, but that was not the point. The point is to just get huge helping of Gaucho culture (found in Southern Brazil, Uruguay, and Northern Argentina) in one spot, while eating a yummy dinner. It was about a 30-minute drive from the hotel to the restaurant , which was in the mountain ascent of Canela. Inside, the restaurant had a large dining hall area, with a big stage in the center. It was typical Churrasco with the meat station and buffet style display of food filled with side dishes and desserts, but it had way more variety in meats and side dishes than most Churrascarias I’ve been to, and the meat was out of this world delicious. At 10 PM the main show started with a very touching spoken-word song recited by the host. He rattled off all the states in Brazil in one poem, and various people would cheer when their state was mentioned. When Rio was called out, Gabriel gave out a fairly enthusiastic cheer and clap. He was getting into it. I was as well. There was a big Minas Gerais table, and they had the biggest cheer of all tonight. We stayed for two hours, and the show was pretty good, and was intelligible for me even if it was in Portuguese: We leave the restaurant at 12 midnight, after taking photos in front of the restaurant and surrounding park. With our bellies full and senses heightened by the cultural show, we successfully concluded a full day of touring. We were almost sorry we were going back to PA tomorrow. Not because PA was not as pretty as Gramado and Canela, but because it meant we were closer to saying goodbye. Sauna: 1 Laziness: 1 Hot boy tour of the city: 4 Act of god: 1

Day 6: Drive to Gramado When I first decided to pick Sao Paulo and Porto Alegre for my next Brazilian vacation, I thought I’d just have a typical run-of-the-mill week-long sex tourist trip. You know, spending every waking moment getting sex however which way you can, which meant just staying in one’s hotel room during the day (to recuperate or to Grindr) and then venturing out to the saunas in the afternoon, and continue on through the night with your chosen boy(s). Lather, rinse repeat, with the occasional trip to the mall to eat. Normally I have one of these mongering weeks when I just want to relax, not think about anything else, and just forget about responsibilities for a moment. I would just let my lizard brain get the best of me, and dictate my everyday goings-on. But shoehorning Marcos into my trip got me excited about touring Sao Paulo, so no pure mongering for me there. And then my Portuguese teacher, who hails from the south of Brazil, got excited about the prospect of me visiting the Rio Grande do Sul state. She spent part of her younger years in Gramado, and was full of helpful advice about the area. She really sold it for me, so I had to get off my ass and plan a full itinerary for myself and Gabriel. I am sure, years from now, when I have grown tired of discovering Brazil, I will be in full mongering mode. But now, exploration calls my name. Even if my tutor has assured me that renting a car and driving from Porto Alegre to Gramado and Canela is very easy and simple, I still had my doubts. I was kind of uneasy with the thought of me driving on Brazilian roads. There are buses that go from PA to the two cities, but not having a car while exploring cities without a developed transportation insfrastructure is kind of a pain and inefficient. So there was no getting around it. I went to Rentalcars.com and looked for a rental car place in downtown PA that was Uberable from the AirBNB. There was this rental car place called Localiza. Good reviews online. Pretty cheap rates to hire cars. I choose a car that was an automatic because I’m American and can't drive a stick. I get a quote for $62.48 for the two days and 8 hours I thought I’d need the car: I decide to decline the additional insurance that the site was recommending to get, and just get the full coverage with the company on the day itself, at the counter. So this morning Gabriel and I *repack* our suitcases to go on a 2 day excursion of Gramado and Canela. I only bring half my clothes; Gabriel brings all of his stuff. Even if we were going to be gone for 2 nights, I rented out the Porto Alegre place for even the nights we will be gone. You never know if we would get bored and just return early. From the Mezzaninu disappointment yesterday, we figured missing out on a Wednesday and Thursday night of sauna time wouldn’t be the end of the world. We will try again Friday. We head out to the street to find some breakfast. We settle on a place called “La Cafeteria” on Avenida Osvaldo Aranha. Pretty nice and chill area. Gabriel orders a sandwich, I order a croissant. We both order a cappunino with chocolate in it. The chocolates bits at the bottom of our coffee made us happy: After food we head back to the apartment, get our suitcases, and get an Uber to Localiza. We get to the rental car place and it was busy. After waiting 10 minutes in line I get to the counter. I gave the counter lady my e-voucher, passport, driver’s license and credit card. She gave me a form to fill out asking for some additional information. Then she asks if I wanted full coverage for the car, which included everything, including loss of the car. I said yes. It was an additional 135 reals, or $37, which was not bad. Overall I was getting a fully insured car for $100 for 2 days and change. I chose a Hyundai 20s, which was fairly easy and comfortable ride. Gabriel does not drive so I had to drive the whole way. I was kind of nervous at first driving the car off the lot, but once I got the hang of it I was ready to hit the freeway. Gabriel put in the address of our hotel on my Google Maps and we were off: The drive itself was pretty straightforward. It was an almost 2 hour journey, and we drove it straight through without stopping. Now this is where knowing a little bit of Portuguese was handy. I had my hands full with driving so I could not use Google Translate. And I didn’t need it. By this time (from talking all night last night) Gabriel was used to talking a certain way so I can understand him fully without me asking him to repeat himself (by speaking slowly and enunciating the words). If there was a word I didn’t understand, I’d just ask “O que <word>?” and Gabriel would either use another word I knew, or would go on Google Translate and tell me the English equivalent. He operated the car radio as well. He put in an English station but I insisted on him putting on whatever he wanted. He found an EDM/Dance pop station that had a mix of Portuguese, Spanish, and English songs, which was perfect. Whenever there was a song I liked, I asked Gabriel to “Shazam” it for me, so I can download the songs on my Spotify. By the end of the drive, my playlist was full of great songs: I picked the Hotel Serra Azul in Gramado as our home for two nights. It was highly recommended by my Portuguese tutor. Indeed, it was in central Gramado, with full amenities, and great staff. I booked it in Agoda.com for 384 reals, or $100 for 2 nights, which was not bad for a supposedly 4 star hotel. Though it looked tired and in need of a refresh, I could tell that this was once a great hotel that had its glory days. It was 25 reals ($7) a day for valet parking, which was also a steal. We get to our room (pretty standard room with a comfortable king bed) and relax for a little bit. After a shower, and then sex (he really wanted me to bottom again, he promised to bottom tonight, we’ll see), we venture out to central Gramado to enjoy this pretty town. Some highlights, all walkable from the hotel: Certain parts of the downtown certainly looks like a small German town: The Museo do Festival de Cinema in Gramado was cool, and had Brazil’s version of the Oscar, Kikito: The prettiest Mcdonalds I’ve ever seen: Praca das Etnias, where Gabriel posed for photos in front of the Italian section (he is ¼ Italian, he says): Other quirky stuff that makes it look like Europe: And the highlight of the walk, 10 reals ($2.75) for a Prawer hot chocolate: It was kind of the perfect drink to have while walking the streets of Gramado. It was colder here than most Brazilian cities. We rested at the hotel again after the walk. And then Gabriel insisted on going to the gym before dinner, he said to work up an appetite. A 45 minute routine, with him giving me tips on my form at the gym, was actually what the doctor ordered. Because what did I say about post-gym sex? It’s great! You’re filled with endorphins, your muscles are all swollen, and your libido is through the roof. I got to top this time. God bless Brazil. So now we really worked up an appetite, we go to another tutor recommended place: the Mammia Mia Galeto restaurant. Galetos are small chickens, cooked to perfection. I asked Gabriel why the chickens were so small. He said they were young chickens, and the meat on them is still tender, that’s why we love to eat them. The food was excellent, and plentiful. Lots of salads, pastas, breads, and of course those little chickens. The food was not cheap, it was $50 for two, but it was worth it. Gabriel could not stop posting photos of the food on his Instragram. Even though we were super hungry we still could not finish everything that was put on our table. And we were sure glad we skipped lunch! And walked around! And went to the gym! And had sex! Sidenote: I have been opening Grindr ever since we got to Gramado. Grindr was active, but not one garoto messaged me. All I got were free boys: As we drove back to the hotel Gabriel wanted us to drive around the town to see what it looked like at night. We spent 30 minute driving in circles, not because we were lost, but because Gabriel decided to have a conversation about his future in the car. He said knew he had to leave the sauna soon. He was growing tired of the work it entailed. He tells me about the “negative energy” the whole sauna scene has, and it just sucks out the life out of one after a while. I gave him some career advice, as much as I could with my limited Portuguese. He seemed to take it to heart, and ended the conversation. I knew it was something he has been thinking about for a long time. He blurts out one last thing about what he felt about it. I could not understand what he said. He took my phone, put it across my face to unlock it (it was an iPhone X), and then typed in Google Translate. He hands me back my phone. We got to the hotel and gave the keys to the valet. I looked at my phone: How topical. He is not a fan of the World Cup I guess. Clearly this was something I had to unwrap with him. I table the discussion for tomorrow. Tonight, we rest. No sauna in Gramado, that’s why I brought the sauna boy with me: Sauna: 1 Laziness: 1 Hot boy tour of the city: 3 Act of god: 1

Day 5.5: Alegre With Gabriel accounted for and boarding commencing for our flight on Azul Airlines, I started to get really excited about Porto Alegre. Not so much for the city itself, as I’ve heard not so good things about it from my Portuguese professor, but really for the nearby cities Gramado and Canela. Yes, there is a sauna in PA, but with my garoto-takeout ready to go with me, I had less incentive to go to the sauna. But I will go tonight, I promise. Gabriel did not have a carry-on with him, so I assumed he just checked his baggage in Rio. He took my roller bag carry-on though, I guess to help me, and I appreciated the gesture. Pretty soon we got seated, me getting the window seat, and Gabriel taking the middle seat. He looked so giddy happy and excited. He tried to hug me while we were sitting. It was kind of cute. He didn’t care who was watching. I squeezed his thigh. He placed his hand on mine. He just didn’t care about the PDA. Just like that first night in Rio, in the Uber leaving Club 117. This was off to a good start. During the flight, Gabriel and I talked what has been happening since we spoke last. We have been talking through Whatsapp pretty regularly, so we more or less knew what was happening in each other’s lives.. He talked about his previous flight, which was his first, and arriving 3 and half hours early at the airport this morning, because he was so paranoid with missing his flight. I did talk about Sao Paulo and Marcos and my time there, as well as what I thought about Sao Paulo (all positive). Gabriel then commented on how much better I was speaking in Portuguese. That meant the world to me of course. When I first met him last trip, I had to rely heavily on Google Translate. It made the conversations less spontaneous and candid. And now I was able to (more or less) prattle on about my Sao Paulo foibles without reaching for my phone. I knew my verb conjugation was for shit, and my vocabulary was still limited, but having been in Brazil for 5 days now, and hanging out with Marcos who would occasionally insist on us talking in Portuguese to help me learn, prepared me for Gabriel. I was beyond happy with this complement. I told him I will be coming back to Rio in 4 months. I promised him my Portuguese will even be better when I see him in Rio next time. Just a few words about Azul Airlines: they have their shit together. The fare was not that expensive, the flight left on time (a few minutes early in fact), pretty pleasant experience during the flight, and the entertainment system had a DirecTV-esque interface with a lot of offerings. And the food was pretty cool. For this short flight they had about 4 snacks to choose from, 2 sweet and 2 salty. Gabriel and I got all 4, plus a drink. What was cool about it was all snacks were Azul branded: Pretty soon we were landing in PA. It was a gloomy and rainy day: We did not have to wait long at baggage claim to get Gabriel’s bag. I turn on the Uber App and put in our AirBNB’s address. I chose getting an AirBNB condo instead of a hotel mainly for the price. I got a cool one-bedroom unit in a condo high-rise for about half of what I could get for a hotel with similar quality. It was located in the Bom Fim “bairro” of Porto Alegre, which was situated next to the historic center and nightlife. The host of the AirBNB was a SuperHost, and pretty responsive and helpful to my questions, and an excellent English speaker. We get from the airport to the AirBNB, it was 16 reals, or $4.50: Check-in was easy, we just got the keys from security in the front. Security didn’t even ask for our identification. He just asked what unit we were renting (it was in the welcome message from the host), and gave us our keys. The unit was in the 9th floor. The unit itself looked very modern and there were a lot of tasteful décor. There were two bathrooms, which I always think is an excellent idea, and a queen-size bed in the bedroom. The host even had welcome snacks for us, which Gabriel and I immediately devoured, because we were pigs. When we were settled in, Gabriel did something he did last time we met, take off all his clothes except for his underwear, to hangout. Do cariocas automatically want to disrobe? They live in eternal summer in Rio, and beaches are usually a second home to them. I guess even in the rainy and gloomy south it is still hard to break old habits. He joins me in looking out the window, looking down over PA. He asks me what I wanted to do today. I told him we can check out Sauna Mezzaninu tonight. He pulls me close. I could feel his bulge behind me. I reach for it. It was hard. Damn it lol. He wanted it. I turn around and get a good look at his body. He looked tanner than before. And his body was more muscular and more lean at the same time, than before. I asked him if he has been going to the gym more these days. He said yes, and he said he was much more disciplined with eating. He wanted to become a fitness model, he said, and needed to shape up if he was going to get photo shoots. We shower together, in the en-suite bathroom in the bedroom. We start there, and then graduate to the bed. Kissing, sucking, rimming, more kissing. He asks if I had condoms and lube. I tell him to get his lidocaine to numb the pain of bottoming. He said he forgot to bring it, but it didn’t matter he said. I suited up. He sat on it. It took him a while to get used to the feeling. It was off to the races after that. I came in the condom. He came in my mouth. We lay on the bed for a while, catching our breathe, talking about sex with other people. He tells me about customers, I tell him about my Sao Paulo hookup. He says he rarely has sex for fun anymore, and preserves whatever energy and fluids he has for work. That’s probably why he is single, he opines. Too many bills to pay, too much time partying on free days, too little time to focus on one person. We shower again. We were both hungry (again) after sex, so we head out to Uber to the nearest mall, which was Moinhos Shopping. During dinner Gabriel asks me again on what I wanted to do tonight. After talking about a few options we decided that since it was rainy, there wasn’t a lot we could do outside, but there were indoor activities we could do, including checking out Sauna Mazzaninu. It was 6:30 PM by the time we finished dinner, probably primetime hour to go to a sauna, so we get an Uber to the sauna. We get to the location. It was already dark but the street was amply lit, and the façade of the sauna had the sign “Mezzaninu”, indicating that we were indeed in the correct place. Uber is still pretty good with knowing where to go in Brazil. There were some parked cars in the front, so that was a good sign. We go in and get to the reception area, where a heavy-set man greeted us. He asks us for our names. I tell him my real name, Gabriel gives him his “nome de sauna,” which I found interesting. I guess it was just automatic to him. We get our keys and then we were off to explore. We go in the premises and find the place deserted. Gabriel looks at me with a look of “where is everyone?” To our right were the locker rooms. There was a lone young guy sitting on one of the benches. Was he a garoto? He doesn’t seem like the typical garoto. He was cute I guess. Was he a customer? Gabriel looks at me again and shrugs. We do not bother changing yet. We wanted to see what the deal was. There was a long hallway leading up to a big room. It had chairs, and tables that were big enough to be restaurant size. Was it a restaurant? To the left was the bar with a lone bartender. To the far left was an obvious stage. Noone was dancing. To the right was an huge shower enclosed in glass. Noone was showering. There were a sprinkling of customers scattered in the area. Where were the boys? Gabriel and I sit at the far end of the hall. He asks me if I wanted to drink anything. I told him I just wanted a water for now. He goes to the bar and comes back with two water bottles. I guess he didn’t want to drink alcohol either. Up above we see a second floor, and there were two younger looking guys in towels leaning on the railing. They were lean, almost twink like. Cute-ish. Garotos perhaps? Gabriel sees them as well, and asks me if I thought the two were garotos. I said I had no idea. Gabriel then says that the place has a weird vibe. He said he was expecting a sauna like Club 117 in Rio where he worked. He said the boys there are more aggressive, and will chat up customers instantly, even as they enter the door. Here, he said, you can’t tell who the garotos were, because you were not greeted by any of them. It was just weird to him. Maybe it is the Carioca in him. And maybe cariocas are more demonstrative, more assertive, more outgoing. Maybe in the south of Brazil, people are more subtle. Whatever it was, he was not liking it. He asks me if I wanted to fuck any of the garotos we have seen so far. I told him I didn’t even know f they were garotos. He laughs at this, almost too loudly. Some of the customers glance at him. I did notice that the customers were staring at him. He was easily the hottest guy in the premises. He is a Rio garoto after all. I tell him that maybe he should get customers here. From the looks of things he would earn a lot of money. He laughs and shakes his head. “I am on vacation,” he says. “No work for me tonight.” After 20 minutes of watching paint dry we decide to go upstairs to check out the rest of the sauna. We get to the second floor, and it looked like it was where the private rooms were. We get to the third floor and it was a roof top bar/dancing area of sorts. The two garotos were there, talking to the bartender. It was still drizzling, so there was no one else there. No customers. So why were the garotos hiding up here? At this point Gabriel and I just entertain ourselves. We talk about plans for the next few days. I show him photos on my phone of Sao Paulo, and past vacations like Bogota and Cartagena. He lifts up his sweater to show me a new tattoo, which was on the middle left area of his back. It was pretty and suits him. I notice the garotos staring at him as he lifts up his shirt. I take off his sweater completely. We continue our conversation with him shirtless. We had to entertain each other. After 20 minutes he asks me one last time if I wanted to get a garoto here so we can fuck him. He said he really wants to top someone. I looked at the garotos and told him that maybe we can try again to go here Friday night, when it was a guarantee at least to have more life than tonight, a Tuesday. We finish our waters and head down to reception. The receptionist gives us our total, entrance fee plus two waters. I gave him 100 reals and I think I got 25 reals back. I call an Uber. While we wait, Gabriel goes behind me and hugs me. I stroke his arms, as we stare at my phone waiting for the Uber. Over my shoulder, Gabriel asks the receptionist if Friday night was better here. The receptionist says yes, and remarks that the rain coupled with Tuesdays made it a slow night. That was understandable. We get our Uber. It was about $2.75 to get home. We cuddle the whole night. I let him fuck me. Someone had to take one for the team. Tomorrow, Gramado. Today, my tally improves: Sauna: 1Laziness: 1Hot boy tour of the city: 2Act of god: 1

This reminds of the time when I was in Italy years ago with my parents on a family trip. We were eating pasta at a local restaurant, and I commented that it was the best pasta dish I’ve ever tasted. My dad then said “We don’t have to travel all this way to eat this kind of pasta! Olive Garden has the same kind of stuff! And it tastes better!” While that may have been true (it wasn’t, the pasta dish was better than anything Olive Garden could produce IMHO), I think the fact that I was eating the dish in Rome made it taste better in my mind. To me, somehow sex in Brazil feels better. But that’s just me. BTW same thing happened with my dad when we were in Hong Kong. He preferred Panda Express to Dim Sum.

Day 5: Sao Paulo to Porto Alegre. Baiano to Carioca. New adventure today! I am heading to Porto Alegre. I am leaving Marcos, the Intercontinental, and Sao Paulo behind. I am bringing with me some souvenirs from the tours, gifts from Marcos, and some bruises on my body courtesy of Grindr Boy yesterday. I was not able to go Lagoa at all the last 4 nights, and I actually had two chances to do so, but because of laziness and crowd control, I was unable to do so. But there is still next Saturday, the day I return to Sao Paulo, before I catch a flight back to the USA on the following Sunday, so I still have one more chance to visit the legendary Lagoa. But my thoughts are not to Saturday at the moment. Right now my thoughts are to Porto Alegre, as well as Gramado and Canela. While PA has saunas, the other two cities do not, therefore I had to get a companion for this stretch, as I was not in the mood to burn hours on Grindr to find someone to tour with me. I chose Gabriel, the subject of my previous trip report. He is a garoto in Rio, working at Club 117. So since he is a garoto, unlike Marcos, I had to pay for Gabriel's time. I have no problem with this of course. Gabriel has been my first and only garoto hire in Brazil. I had a fabulous time with him last time, but because it was only one night, my time with him was painfully short. I was eager to spend more time with him. I have been in constant contact with him all these months in between trips, and have built a rapport with him. He only asked for money once, and I said no. After that he kept talking to me as if nothing happened, and never asked for money again. I thought he would stop talking after that denial. I was wrong. As soon as I knew I was going to Porto Alegre, I asked Gabriel through WhatsApp if he could go with me. He said yes right away. I was honest with him, and told him that I will want to go on Grindr and will have sex with other guys while he was there, and I may have to go to the saunas and get garotos as well. He said that this arrangement was perfect, and said that he would even go with me to the saunas and have 3 ways with me if i wanted. I was sold. Also, he was actually curious about what other saunas looked like. It would be fun for him too. The tricky part about asking him was probably the most important detail of all: how much should I pay him. He is not going to go with me for free, that much is clear. I am taking him away from 117 and Rio for 4 nights to be with me in Rio Grande do Sul. That’s 4 nights of not working in 117. And if there is any payment involved, I am the kind of guy that wanted things in simple black and white. The payment terms needed to be clear. So I asked him, in one of our conversations on Whatsapp before the trip, what his nightly rate for me was. He first countered with a “whatever you think is best,” which is an answer that I hate. I wanted a firm price so there was no gray area, no hard feelings and no second guessing. I asked him again. He thought about it, and then said 500 reals a night, or $140. I felt this was fair. I would expect him to get this amount in a normal night in 117. I know he is fairly popular. Normally I would have just said yes, but for some reason I was in a bargaining mood. I just countered with a “That’s too expensive,” without giving a reason. He then says he can charge 500 reals on days we have sex, and 300 reals on days we do not have sex. I countered with something like “But I will want to have sex with you everyday because you are hot.” And this was true. He is hotter than the sun. There was no way on earth I will not spend every waking moment enjoying him. He told me he will think about it, and then told me he was going to work, since our conversation happened on a late afternoon. I received a message from him after work, around 12 midnight Rio time, telling me that he was just OK with anything he gives me. I then just threw out a “250 real a night?” or 70 dollars, which is half of his initial offer. And he said yes. That was cheap. For a guy I will have sex with multiple times a day. Maybe tonight was a really bad night at 117 for him. Anyway, at least I had a base to work with. It was a guarantee that I will give him more than 250 reals a night anyway, plus I planned on taking him to a shopping spree as well (for me and for him), as well planning on gifting him a $55 cellphone (the LG Phoenix 3), so I will take care of him for sure. I take care of people who take care of me. Gabriel is no exception. So with the ugly and unromantic (but necessary) subject of monetary compensation out of the way, I was free to plan our vacation together. There was the matter of buying Gabriel’s flight to Porto Alegre. I already bought my tickets to PA on Azul airlines. I looked on the Azul website and saw some departures from the SDU airport in Rio, which is the closer airport to Sao Goncalo where Gabriel lives, which is just about after one crosses the Rio-Niteroi bridge. The cheaper flights connected to Guarulhos on the way to PA. I thought it would be fun to meet Gabriel in Guarulhos airport and take that flight to PA together, sitting next to each other, to catch up and get reacquainted. So I book the flights ($120 roundtrip), booking the “Mais Azul” fare, the one with check-in baggage included in the price, and we were set. So today I get a WhatsApp from Gabriel super early this morning, telling me that he was leaving his apartment in Rio. And Marcos (remember him?) and I leave the hotel today together, in the same Uber, for the aiport. Marcos was pretty chipper today, considering having had to go through an ordeal just yesterday. He held my hand the whole way to the airport. His flight departure today was 2 hours after mine, so he will have plenty of time to make his flight. Since his flight was with LATAM his departure was in Terminal 2 of Guarulhos. Azul flew out of Terminal 1. I ask the driver to drop Marcos off first at Terminal 2, before going to Terminal 1 to drop me off. When we get to Terminal 2, Marcos gives me a warm hug before leaving the Uber. It was fun kid. And then the Uber had to leave the airport to get back to Terminal 1. The terminal looked way smaller than Terminal 2. At this point Gabriel would have been already in GRU, his layover from the Rio flight, but I have not heard from him yet. I go to the check-in counter. No lines today. I get greeted by the attendant in Portuguese. Upon seeing my American passport, the attendant shifts to flawless English. I get my boarding pass. I go through security pretty quickly. Again no lines. This is the advantage of Azul having a virtually dedicated Terminal just for them. Terminal 2 of GRU is a circus compared to this Terminal. Once in the secure area I check the Arrivals display. I see that Gabriel’s flight has arrived, but still no messages from Gabriel. I was a little worried. There was still an hour to go before boarding, so I wait patiently. 20 minutes before boarding I finally get a Whatsapp message, and then a flood of them, from Gabriel. He said that he arrived safely, but he needed to find a cellphone shop to buy some more data for his phone. Unfortunately, he said, Terminal 1 had too little shops, and didn’t have the shop he needed, so he had to take the airport shuttle to get to Terminal 2. And he had to wait long for that. He got to Terminal 2 but had to find the shop amongst the circus in the terminal. That took some time too. Once he got data in his phone, he then messaged me. I told him to get back here to Terminal 1 soon so he can make boarding. He said he is waiting for the shuttle. Pretty soon pre-boarding announcements were being made. I was getting antsy. I keep checking the back where the security checkpoint was to see if Gabriel will appear. And then it was the start of boarding. They board by seating, so I line up in the appropriate lane. 15 minutes in line and boarding started. The Azul status members line get in first. I take another glance in the back to check. And then I see him, just in the nick of time. I see Gabriel emerging from security, looking a little bit stressed, scanning the hall, looking for our gate. He sees it and starts sprinting towards the queue. I put a hand up and he sees me. An incredible wide smile greets me. He looked so relieved. He joins me in line, giving me a side hug. “Ate que enfim!” I whisper to him, he finally made it. “Estava muito preocupado,” he answers, saying he was worried. “Eu tambem,” I reply, concurring. We both laugh. It was nice to see him. He was wearing a sleeveless shirt that was cut deep in the sides, revealing his muscular torso, giant arms, and abs. He was wearing knee-length shorts that revealed his strong legs, along with his Air Jordans. Carioca wear till the end. When he hugged me just now I got a whiff of his scent. It was all man. He was sweaty from his ordeal of running back and forth between terminals, and it made him smell even more manly. And his face, handsome, friendly, with a look of joy and relief, was great to see. He towered over me by a good 10 inches. The overall visuals and scent all were working for me at that moment. It got me hard! I could not wait to spend more intimate time with him. Right there, em vivo, I realized that even 500 reals was really too little to spend for this kind of quality. And he stood out for sure. People were staring at him. A big strapping handsome young man just barreled through the terminal to be by my side. In revealing Carioca wear, amongst the more buttoned-down Paulistanos. It was probably a strange sight. I didn’t care. It was Gabriel’s time with me now. Marcos was in the rear view mirror. Next, the flight, Porto Alegre, and Sauna Mezzaninu.

Day 4.5: Sao Paulo Crowd Control I wasn’t that concerned at first with Marcos missing his flight. It was with LATAM after all, and half of the LATAM flights I’ve been in have been delayed. And even if Marcos checked in 30 minutes before his flight, the ground staff may still be able to accommodate him. I walk towards Paulista Avenue and to get myself a coffee to go. I order a delicious Cappuccino from one of the corner bakeries near Paulista Ave. I look at the Uber App. He was still 40 minutes from the airport. It was going to be a close one for Marcos. It was close to 5 PM when I got back to the hotel. I figure it was still too early to go to Lagoa so I relax on the bed while sipping my coffee. I guess I was so tired from the touring today that even the coffee did not work. I shut my eyes for a minute and dozed off. I got woken up by my phone. It was ringing. I looked at it, it was a Whatsapp call from Marcos. I answered. He told me he missed his flight by 5 minutes. He said he got to the counter at 15 minutes before the flight departure time. LATAM told him that the flight closes 20 minutes before the scheduled departure. I looked at the time and it was 6:05 PM. I guess there was just too much traffic on the streets of Sao Paulo today, and he did not make it. I asked if he could get on the next flight today. He said he did not know if there was even another flight today, but he was still at the counter waiting to be put on another flight. He was breathing heavily and was kind of panicky from his voice. He kept telling me that he was really stupid for not minding the time. I tried to calm him down and told him that whatever happens he will get back to Salvador, and told him that I tell him to keep me updated if there was any progress with getting a next flight. I was kind of kicking myself now. I should have high-tailed it to Lagoa the minute Marcos left. I could have at least tried getting a garoto while he was dealing with stuff in the airport. On the flip side, Marcos needed my help, and if I could not answer his calls while he helplessly looked for another flight back home, it would be bad. So I decided to sit back and wait till Marcos got his return ticket, and go to Lagoa after he got his issue resolved, or to see if he had to stay with me tonight to catch his flight tomorrow. While waiting I fired up Grindr. As usual I had a few messages waiting for me. I read through the non-garoto messages and found some pretty promising ones. I put in some stock responses to the ones I liked. After 10 minutes of this I got a few more new messages come in. I was about to answer them when I get a slew of messages from Marcos. He said that there were no flights for him today, but they were able to get him a flight tomorrow afternoon. He said he had to pay 50 reals for a “rebooking fee.” He said he had no choice but to pay it, but said he was relieved to get a flight out of Sao Paulo tomorrow. He then asks me if he could go back to the Intercontinental to spend another night with me. I told him of course, but deep inside I was kind of disappointed. I guess it was partly out of our hands that the traffic in Sao Paulo is bad, both out of 25 de Marco street and the drive to the airport. It was also partly my fault for not minding the time. I was the seasoned travel, and Marcos was a newbie, and I should have known better not to take too long window shopping (and too long having sex in the shower). The sex was good though, and the touring even better, so I should not complain. I guess Lagoa can wait. (sigh) I then get a message on Grindr while this was all happening. I open the app up and it looks like I got a “tap” from someone. I get a lot of taps, and most of the time I ignore them, but for some reason I chose to answer this one. I looked at his profile. 22-year-old Brasileiro, 5’11, 160 pounds. His picture was great, he was in a speedo and had a fairly muscular athletic build. I had to respond: I asked the usual, what was he into? He said the magic words: “faco tudo, voce escolhe” - I will do everything you want. I asked for more photos. He had a lot to share. It looked like he was fairly athletic. The photos were of him doing various sports activities. His nudes were pretty good as well. Nice abs, big ass, big cock. Checked all the boxes for what you would expect from a Brazilian boy toy. Money didn’t come up once in the conversation. I had to meet him. Marcos was telling me on Whatsapp that he was about to go to the Departures level to get an Uber to get back to the hotel. I had to think fast. Was I going to meet this guy on Grindr? Marcos was about come back. I know it takes at least 45 minutes without traffic to get back to the hotel from the airport, but I had to be sure. So I decide now if I was going to meet with the guy: I give him my location details. He says he is in Trianon. I mapped and it was only a 9 minute walk for Grindr boy: So with Marcos, I tell him to not bother getting an Uber because I was going to call him an Uber myself. I opened my Uber app and put in the Departure location at Guarulhos airport, and the destination location to the hotel. I offered to get the Uber so that I can track Marcos’ car while I was getting busy with this Grindr hookup. I was not going to Lagoa, but at least I’ll get this Grindr hookup before seeing my “boyfriend of the weekend.” I sent Marcos the plate number and car make and model of his Uber ride. 5 minutes later he was on his Uber. 48 minutes said Uber. I had 48 minutes to wait for the Grindr hookup. I get a Grindr message: “Estou aqui,” he said. He was here. I told him to go to the lobby. I waited for him at the lobby. I saw him come in the door. I made sure I caught his eye before heading to the elevators towards the back. He caught up with me at the elevators. We get to my floor. We get in the room. He kisses me in the living room. “Nice room,” he says, in English. “Thanks,” I said, as I watch him take off his shoes and socks and toss them on the floor. We go to the bedroom. I look at my Uber app. 40 minutes till Marcos gets here. I set a timer to 30 minutes, then I set my phone down on the nightstand. I ask loverboy, “Tudo bem?” He answers “I am fine,” and then kisses me full on the mouth. Such a great kisser. The one with full tongue, full lips, lots of saliva, lots of contact. We struggle to take off each others’ clothing. He pushes me down to the bed and takes my cock in his mouth. This was going to be good. He takes his time to enjoy my cock, and then comes up for air to kiss me again. Lots of body contact. He nibbles my nipples and takes a good suck on one of them. I take his cock too. Then I eat his ass. Nice ass on this one. Fairly muscular. Hips and thighs that are large and powerful. Big calves. He has a nice set of abs and cum gutters that I enjoy nibbling on. Normally I would need a full weekend to enjoy this kind of work of art, but for now I will have to finish the job in under 30 minutes. He seems to know the urgency of the situation. He gets my cock good and wet. Then without warning he takes my cock in his ass. And thrusts up and down very forcefully, almost violently. It was hot, even there was some pain when he bounced on me. I was getting into it. I came pretty quickly. He felt it. I pull out and without warning he sits his ass down on my chest forcefully. I was almost out of breath but I didn’t care. He comes all over my face and neck. He gets off my chest and sits on the ned beside me. “That was good,” he says. “Muito bem!” I said, concurring completely. We laugh. We do a quick washup. I make sure all the jizz is off my face and neck. We put our clothes back on. He asks me about my travel plans. I tell him I was going to Porto Alegre, but will be back Saturday in Sao Paulo. He tells me he wanted to see me again Saturday. I told him I will Whatsapp. I will definitely want to do that again. I look at my Uber app. 12 minutes away. Not bad. I bid Grindr boy goodbye. I go back to the shower to get a thorough soap down. The right part of my ribs were sore, and my left nipple felt raw. Sex hazards. Once I am done I try to tidy up in the room. I see a red spot on the sheets. I guess Grindr boy left some blood from his ass on the sheets. I turned the sheet upside down to hide it. I did my best. I do a full inspection of the room. No evidence of Grindr boy. I looks at my body. I see that my left nipple had a red mark around it from Grindr boy’s exertions. Oh well. I make myself presentable. Pretty soon Marcos was back. I meet him at the lobby. We get back to the room and Marcos hugs me. He tells me about his hellacious 3 hours, almost crying. About missing his flight. Being out 50 reals. But he is glad he is back in my arms, he said. He just wanted to relax with me tonight. He also wanted to buy me dinner. He said it was the least he could do for me putting up with him for one more night. I insisted on McDonalds, since I was jonesing for some burgers, and I knew it was a cheap alternative for him. He does not earn enough money for a fancy meal so McDonalds was perfect. We walk to the Cidade Sao Paulo mall and I tell Marcos my order. I sit down while he gets in line and gets our order. While I wait, I kept talking to Grindr boy on WhatsApp. I wanted to get to know him more: Our conversation was an interesting mix of English and Portuguese, and at this point I did not need Google Translate. There was obvious chemistry between us. I had something to look forward to this Saturday. Marcos comes back with our dinner. He buys me dessert as well, a McFlurry. Even McFlurries are somehow better here than back home: I enjoy my last night with Marcos. It was totally tranquilo. Sex was fun, again. No comment from Marcos on the new bruises he has found on my body. Life is good. Even if my tally is not: Sauna: 0 Laziness: 1 Hot boy tour of the city: 2 Act of god: 1

I did not know that this was a thing. Must check on it next time I am in SP. I am reliving my trip with what i write here, and my writing makes me also want to board the next plane to SP. I had so much fun. Thanks. You got the gist of why I do travel the way I do. I've met so many friends with this method. The problem is they want to see you again next trip, but all you want is to meet others. But its a good problem to have. Muito obrigado amigo. I am wondering now why I did not get the "arab" when I was there. He is indeed yummy. I will try to get him next time. Apologies if it was not clear. This was a trip that concluded 3-4 weeks ago. I do not have the time while I am there to write this.

The way I do it, one does not get in touch with the studios per se, but with the models in studio. I don't think the studios have any infrastructure to receive "customers". They are first and foremost a business that houses models who put on a show on camera, and the houses are not a brothel in the traditional sense, like boy bars in Thailand or saunas in Brazil. I happened to have met models that belong to the same studio and they were kind enough to accompany me to their place of work. I've met the owners of the studios because they were open to meet me, after some convincing from the boy(s). From there I've become known to the owner(s) and the studio and the other boys. The studios only get money from the cut they get from the boy's time using their computers and rooms. They (probably) don't get a cut from the boys if they meet clients offline for money. Therefore there is no incentive for them to entertain clients going to their houses en masse, since they are not a brothel. However, I have taken owners (with some models in tow) to dinner and the disco and to the beach, oftentimes picking up the (minuscule - food and beer is cheap in Colombia) tab for beers or dinner. Therefore they have been OK with me contacting their boys, me staying in their studio, and they even go far as send me photos of new models that come in, when they come in. They will pimp out the boys who want to be pimped out. Or if they want you to give some "tokens" to a new model to help them start up their reputation, they will ask you. There are models on Chaturbate who only do shows in front of the webcam. With some, if you ask them outright if they are escorts, they get offended. Some even have "no soy scort" on their Instragrams as a reminder that they only do it for show. But I also know some models double as masseurs who advertise on Grindr or online, and are more receptive to getting propositioned for money. I have found that subtlety is always your friend. Some boys who don't usually pimp themselves out, but will do it if the price is right, or if they like you, or if they are bored that day. If you like a boy online and want to see if they are going to be able to be had for cash, talk to them on Chaturbate and see if they are in a city that you will be visiting. Ask them to go out to dinner with you, or if they are available to be a guide. If they say yes, more than likely they are willing to do more with you when the time comes. Your mileage may vary, of course. This is just one way to meet boy toys in Colombia. When you are there Grindr is fairly helpful. Most of the models are on it anyway. And there are also saunas in some cities.

I thought sex counted as cardio?

Day 4: Sao Paulo Hustle There is one thing I constantly struggle with when I am on travel: I want a taste of everything. I want a lot of boys, I want a lot of running around the city, and I want to be romanced. The perfect scenario for me would be this: having a charming gorgeous boy who is (1) adventurous enough to discover the sites with me, (2) romantic enough to give me the boyfriend experience, and (3) slutty enough to give me a great time in the sack, (4) invite over others boys to play with us, but (5) not clingy enough to not get jealous if I venture out to find boys for myself. It is nigh impossible to get all this in one gorgeous boy, so I have to drop two or even three things in my wishlist sometimes. It’s the very definition of a first world problem, and one that I gladly wrestle with in every trip. (Can speak intelligible English used to be number (6), but with my Spanish and Portuguese improving every trip, this has become less and less important.) Marcos, as you may have guessed, has (1), (2) and (3) in spades, all wrapped up in a handsome, sexy and muscular Brazilian package. But he would never go for (4), and is the opposite of (5). But I am not complaining. He rocks my socks off in bed, the visuals are very impressive, and his intelligence and smarts with (1) and cutesy demeanor for (2) all more than makes up for the lack in other criteria. But after a few days, I eventually will want some (4) and (5). In my trips, I don’t want to have a BF, I just want to borrow one for a few days. So today was Marcos’ last day with me. His time with me running around Sao Paulo was indeed memorable, and the sexy parts were equally memorable as well. But it was time to spread my wings and look for other meat. I specifically booked Marcos’ flight to be in the late afternoon, so we have some time to say our goodbyes (read: one more roll in the hay), as well as maybe visit another tourist spot before he leaves, but it will give me enough time to high tail it to Lagoa to get my first taste of Sao Paulo saunas. Let’s see how this day goes. His alarm wakes us up at 9 AM. He really wants to get the ball rolling today. We shower together, have some hanky-panky in the shower (thank goodness for big showers), and get a quick breakfast at the hotel bar in the lobby, filling up on pastries, coffee and suco de laranja, and we talked about the remaining tourist spots on his list that were doable with the roughly 4 hours we had today. Visiting the zoo and aquarium were not doable. But he thought doing some last minute shopping would be good. So he suggested two places with good shopping options: the other famous shopping street 25 de Marco, and the shopping institution Mercado Municipal. We decided to go to Rua 25 de Marco first. I must admit I did not know anything about this place, but trusted my young ward’s decision making. We Ubered it to a general spot on Rua 25 de Marco (15 reals). As we got closer to the street we noticed a slowing of traffic, and the increase number of pedestrians in the streets. Marcos and the driver have a short convo about our options before Marcos decided that we had to get off the Uber. And there it was, probably one of the densest concentration of shops, people, and cars I’ve seen in a while: Marcos whispers to me to “check on your wallet and cellphone” to protect it from pickpocketers. As I try to stuff all my belongings in my front pockets, Marco films some segments for his Insta stories, telling his fans where he was and his initial impressions of this shopping institution. He and I snap lots of photos (as I deftly try to protect my phone). Marcos tells me what he knows about this place, and says that he wants to buy a few electronic items from the “Oriental Mall”, and other souvenirs in the main shopping areas. The Oriental mall was interesting. Marco purchased some cellphone cases, chargers, a Bluetooth headset, and an Apple Watch knockoff. He also bought me a nice Apple Watch band knockoff that looked like a Louis Vuitton product, for 10 reals. I thank him for his generosity. I use the watch band on my Apple Watch my first day back in the USA, and the band disintegrates 30 minutes into my gym session later that day. That is a record. Thank goodness the watch itself did not get damaged. It’s the thought that counts I guess. When Marco has his fill of the shops in Rua 25 de Marco, he google maps “Mercado Municipal” and sees that it was just a 20 minute walk from where we were. After walking in the increasing humidity of the city, we see our goal: The inside was as impressive. Lots of foodstuffs, souvenir items, and other local delicacies. We buy some food to eat because we were hungry, and after we walked around the massive warehouse and saw a lot of nice things, but did not buy anything. I happened to glance at my watch and saw that it was 2:30 PM! Time flies when you’re having fun. I tell Marcos that we had to go. He nods. We go and window shop a few more stores before heading out. I fired up my Uber app and tried to get a ride. From the map in the app, it seemed that all the cars were too far away! One car eventually accepted our ride, but it said it was 20 minutes away. We tried to wait for it but after 15 minutes the car was still about 17 minutes away. Muito transito. This was unacceptable. I canceled the ride and Marcos tried to hail a taxi. After 10 minutes we were able to snag one. We calmed down a bit as the car tried to navigate us through Sao Paulo traffic. We got to the hotel and sprinted up to the elevators. In the room Marcos stripped off all his clothes, goes in the bathroom and turned on the shower. He peeked his head out the door and asked me again “Are you coming?” I told him “You will miss your flight!” He says “I don’t care,” as he reached for my hand and led me to the shower. I hurriedly disrobed and joined him. A little soap here, a little nibble there. He backed into to me and just like that I was fucking him. If this was his way of saying hello and goodbye, I have got to see this kid more. After the shower he hurriedly packed up his stuff. He didn’t bother fixing his hair. When he was done he gives me a bear hug and asked if I could call him an Uber for Guarulhos airport. “Five minutes away,” I tell him. We kiss one last time and head out to the lobby. The car was already there. He puts his suitcase in the back, opens the passenger door and gets in. I take the car door handle and shut the door. Marcos looks at me through the window bewildered. He gets out of the car and asks, “You’re not coming?” I tell him no. He looked disappointed. He gives me one last hug and asks me to Whatsapp him. He gets back into the car, and the car speeds away. I absentmindedly waved goodbye. My mind was already thinking about what my plans were after this: I’ll tidy up the room. I’ll eat a snack. I’ll take a shower. I’ll head over to Lagoa. I’ll invite a garoto to spend the night. I’ll fall in love. I look at my Uber app and see that Marcos’ drive to the airport was 58 minutes. It was 4:30 PM. His flight was at 6:00 PM. Will he make it? Continued…

Day 3: More Sao Paulo, more Marcos I’ve always been fascinated by the racial mix of Brasileiros. When I look into Marcos’ face (my handsome and gregarious companion from Salvador) I see a lot going on. He has the classic Italian nose (that goes well with his light brown eyes) that I notice on most of the boys I am attracted to possess. He has gorgeous olive skin, a skin tone you would expect from someone who lives in perpetual summer, until you see him naked and realize that it is not just a tan, as it was his natural skin color. His eyes had a little bit of Asian shape to them, probably a product of Brazilian Northeastern Indios mixing with other races throughout the centuries. And his cock, his beautiful fat and formidable cock, and his naturally athletically muscular physique, could only come from African origins. I like to journey far and wide to look for beauty. And its beauty like his is what makes those 14 hours on a plane that much worth it. My second day with Marcos was filled with same frantic touristic pace we had yesterday. I was letting him dictate the pace because it was fun seeing him all excited and pumped up to discover the city. I remember once upon a time, having this wide-eyed fascination with traveling, and it is nice to at least get a contact-high for discovery as Marcos was having for Sao Paulo. Not to get into any details of the day, but after breakfast we started with walking around Parque Ibirapuera, a massive park within Sao Paulo similar to what Central Park is to New York City, and just admire the scenery and the people and have conversations about life and such. We go back to the hotel to shower and then hoofed it towards Rua Augusta and Oscar Friere Avenue to see Sao Paulo’s version or Rodeo Drive (a famous shopping haven in Beverly Hills, California). Marcos bought some items from the shops there. It was important to him that the shopping bags that his merchandise came in had the words “Oscar Frieire” on them, to show his friends and family back home that he shopped in the famous shopping district. It was a Sunday, so shops closed a little earlier than usual, so we decided to take it easy the rest of the day and see a movie. We had to see the new Avengers movie of course, and I insisted that we see it in dubbed Portuguese: It was not as hard to understand as I thought it would (though it is not exactly Pulitzer prize winning material). After having dinner in the mall, we just walked around Paulista Avenue. We spent the rest of the evening ducking in and out of stores and cafes, observing the various impromptu street “shows” that happen in almost every corner, and people watching the seemingly hundreds of people out and about in the city tonight, just hanging out, doing the same thing we were. We talked about how seemingly safe it was to just walk the length of Paulista Avenue and not feel in danger of being robbed. Maybe we were naive but thats how it felt tonight. We talked about the Rio contrast, where you had to fear for your life and your belongings if you made a wrong turn or not paying attention. He said he would move to Sao Paulo in a heartbeat, but would not want to move to Rio. As we walked around he showed me places on Paulista where famous protests and rallies were held during the various crises the country have faced through the years. He told me about the current crisis, and how poisonous it was in eroding the population’s confidence in their government. The country’s going to blow up soon, he said, as it had numerous times before. It was 10 PM as we walked back to the hotel. He suggests ordering in some wine and fruits to help us relax for the rest of the night. He goes to the bathroom and fills the tub/Jacuzzi with hot water. After 20 minutes the libations arrive and Marcos stages the bathroom with the fruit and drinks for our delectation. We both undress, get in the still hot water, and enjoy the evening. We talk, we laugh, he puts in a minute-long Instragram live stream of him in the tub, with the wine, and the fruit, telling his countless fans about what he was up to. It was his last night with me. With this kind of attention I was almost tempted to ask him to stay longer. ALMOST. I am a sex tourist after all, and no matter how much romancing I get from this gorgeous one, I am still a slut at heart. As god as my witness, I’m going to Lagoa tomorrow! So, failure again with my tally, but tonight, I didn’t care as much: Sauna: 0 Laziness: 1 Hot Boy Tour of the City: 2

I’m never explicit about my intentions on Grindr. I don’t put on there that I’m looking for sex, or for garotos, or have any $$$ on my profile. The headline on my profile is simple but has been effective in both attracting local guys AND paid guys, at least for me. Your mileage may vary. Warning: this is not my actual Display Name, but close enough. One or two words, in the country’s language, followed by an American flag. You can’t do much. You only have 15 characters to work with. These words plus flag combination is what i use in Latin America, from Mexico to Uruguay, and including Brazil. I don’t know if that’s what makes it work or not. I also have my real photo on there. Useful for local guy hookups. I almost never initiate contact. The beauty about this part of the world is that there are always horny guys out there, as well as hot guys in need of cash, or both. It’s like watching a Christmas tree light up, as I have said before. Drains my cellphone battery a lot. I get a fair number of messages from prostitutes when in Colombia. Ditto Brazil. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s the American flag in my profile, a signal to them that I may have gringo dollars. It might be my stupid face, or the fact I’m fresh meat, as I’m never in a place for more than a week or two. Who knows. But it works for me.

Day 2: Sao Paulo with a Baiano It is common practice for me to look for a companion when I want to do a lot of touristy stuff at a place I am visiting for the first time. This has been particularly useful in my previous Brazil trip, where my BF at the time, a Brazilian (another story for another time), accompanied for 2 of the 3 weeks I was there. Obviously he knew the language, and was fluent in English as well, having lived in Europe for a few years now. In my Colombia trips, I’ve always been accompanied by either Colombian or Venezuelan Chaturbate boys. All knew the language, the ins and outs of the country (if not the city), and the safety concerns one must have when traveling in this part of the world. For this trip I sought out two people, for different halves of my trip. My Sao Paulo companion was a 22-year-old telemarketer from Salvador. Let's call this boy Marcos. The (then) BF and I met Marcos when we visited the city, at a mutual friend’s party. Marcos added me on Instagram during the party (as a pre-Whatsapp step – check out the guy’s Insta first before committing to Whatsapp). He was very prolific on Instagram (as most people his age) and had thousands of followers due to his thirst-trap type photos he posts. But he’s not just a pretty face. His Insta timeline is always chockfull of videos of him talking about the current events of the day, shirtless. The videos are just him talking, usually about politics, but since he is shirtless and his delicious chest (and abs) are in full view of the audience, he gets a lot of likes and delightful and creepy messages. Marcos and I have been messaging back and forth after my January trip. When I told him I was going to Sao Paulo he immediately asked me if he could go with me. I didn’t have to think about it too long. He was handsome, young, and since he is a budding bodybuilder, his body was on point. But he was also educated and had passable English, unlike most garotos (I am assuming). The problem was the motivation: I did not know if he was interested in having sex with me, or if it was even on the table. But I knew that he didn’t earn enough to be able to afford the RT airfare from Salvador to Sao Paulo, as well as pay for his share of food and other things, so I had to take care of all of that. I don’t always assume sex in on the table (but in my experience, it usually is). But he was charming, and smart, and would be a formidable (and interesting) companion for me as I dive into the touristic and cultural delights of the city. If sex was on the table, great! If not, I can always look for it on my own, or wait till he leaves in 2 days and catch the next Uber to Lagoa. I look at airfares for him: about $150, which was not bad. He then sends me photos of his CPF (I love doing this, I like seeing CPFs of guys), and I use the info on the CPF to get him a LATAM flight. I take the leap of faith, as I usually do in most situations, and invite him to Sao Paulo. Since he had work till Friday evening, he opted for a 3 AM, Saturday morning flight from Salvador, which got him to Sao Paulo at 6 AM. He took the Monday off, instead using the day to fly back to Salvador. I insisted on getting him the 6:25 PM flight back, which meant he had to be at the airport at 5 PM, which meant he had to leave the hotel at 4 PM, which meant I had time to go to Lagoa after he left. One must think about these things when on a (semi) sex tour. Before he left, he forwarded me a list of places he wanted to visit in Sao Paulo. I like a guy who knows exactly what he wants. He really really wanted to play the tourist: So Saturday morning, I await his arrival. He texts me saying he has arrived. He takes an Uber and tells me he is 45 minutes away. I shower and make same coffee. Pretty soon he texts me to say he is at the lobby. 5 minutes later he is at the door. Since his name is in the reservation he was able to get a key to the room, and used the key to operate the elevator up to my floor. I hear the door open in the living room. I wait for him to find his way to the bedroom. I see his head poke though the bedroom door. “What are you doing?” he asks me. “Waiting for you.” I head over his way and extend a hand to shake his. He pulls me in for a hug. “Nice to see you again.” He says warmly. He tells me about his journey - it’s his first time flying, he is very tired, he is excited about the hotel. He tells me he wants to shower and get going on our tour of the city. The next sequence is magical: he takes off all of his clothes, heads over to the bathroom, and turns on the shower. After a minute he pokes his head out and asks “You want to join?” I guess there was going to be sex after all. I fuck him in the shower. Life is good. Can’t give out photos of him of course. But I have permission to post his a pic of his cock (changing skin tone, etc), which I had to crop from a magnificent full-body shot that I took: The rest of him wasn’t half bad either. Pecs, abs, biceps, ass, handsome face. This kid was the embodiment of everything you expect from Brazil. Being from the North East, he seemed to have more “Indio” in him as there was white and black. A perfect mix. Oh, and as promised, he ran me ragged today playing tourist. I didn’t mind. He was gregarious and charming and was chock full of knowledge about Sao Paulo and Brazilian culture. Places we went to today: MASP – the Sao Paulo Museum of Art. Walkable from the Intercontinental. Nice first location for us. We had time between walking from one art installation to another to get to know each other. His English was not as good as I thought, but he tried hard anyway. These two paintings called “Retirantes” held a special meaning to Marcos. It was about Brazilian Northeastern Migrants, his ancestors, and their suffering during the drought in the last century. Touching explanation from Marcos. I’m glad I was able to get him here to see this piece of art in person: Mid-day we noticed Paulista Avenue was closed to traffic today due to a cycling/health festival. Lot of things to see: After, I took Marcos to his first subway ride ever, on the Sao Paulo Metro. He was beyond thrilled. I showed him how to use Google Maps to know which lines to use and which stops to look out for, as we made our way to the Sao Paulo cathedral (from the Consolacao station to the Se station, two lines, transferring in Paraiso station). Cheap fare – 4 Reals or $1 for a single ride ticket: The Sao Paulo Cathedral was pretty nice: We walk down through Rua Quinze de Novembro and of course we see some sexy soccer/football action, seemingly a regular sight in the country: And some concert happening ahead: We take an Uber to Beco de Batman (Batman’s Alley), an alleyway with a dense concentration of graffiti. We get a Bud and admire the art: And at sundown we head back through Uber, satisfied with our day: We did a lot in just a few hours. What I saw was a living, breathing dynamic city, through the eyes of my equally dynamic companion. I did not feel unsafe at all through all this. It was a pretty refreshing feeling, especially in Brazil, a supposedly fairly dangerous country. We were exhausted, and took a nap when we got to the hotel. We woke up pretty late, ordered room service, and just had a night in. Sex before bed of course. I guess it was always on the table. But, failure with my tally today. Maybe tomorrow? Sauna: 0 Laziness: 1 Hot Boy Tour of the City: 1

Google Translate would be the best one to use, as others have suggested. The microphone feature is pretty good to use if you guys are tired of typing out responses. It helps if both of you enunciate the words, or if you type, make the sentences simple so the translations don't come out weird. BUT, the best thing that happened to me last trip was when my cellphone battery died, and I was forced to communicate in Portuguese with my companion. It did wonders for my confidence in speaking the language and after that I did not use Google Translate as much. Of course I've been taking lessons so it was probably just the kick in the butt I needed to not rely on GT as a crutch in order to communicate. There are a lot of AirBNB Rio options, especially the Ipanema and Copacabana ones with a lot of reviews from usually Gringos, that are great. They usually have a doorman who act as security so these AirBNBs are pretty safe. The price is usually fair, and it is usually in a residential-ish touristy area that has a lot of spots you want like restaurants, markets and easy access for Uber. But for a newbie, I'd suggest the relative comfort and security of a hotel, especially if you are not comfortable with the city yet, and especially concerned about safety. You will have (mostly) english-capable staff that can help you orient yourself with the area, as well as have the safety infrastructure (security checking ID's, safes in the room, cameras everywhere) you may need for your own peace of mind. No clue, I had my BF as my first guide. But Viator has a lot of private tours that may have what you need: https://www.viator.com/Rio-de-Janeiro/d712-ttd#{"listSpec"%3A{"sortBy"%3A"001"%2C"layout"%3A"grid"}%2C"filterSpec"%3A{"selections"%3A[{"name"%3A"groupId"%2C"value"%3A"26"}]%2C"availabilityRange"%3A{"from"%3A""%2C"to"%3A""}}%2C"currency"%3A"USD"%2C"destinationId"%3A"712"}

A few hundred nights? Wow you're a baller TotallyOz. It's a fabulous hotel and the location is amazing. And the staff didn't seem to mind my guests either, as security didn't even bat an eye and no one even checked for ID. Yeah i never do it bare with sex workers ever, no matter how hot one is. With non-working guys, its a matter of instinct for me. I don't do it for everyone, but when I do it its special, and always worth it. Always came out of it still negative, fingers crossed. It's a calculated risk for me, and the PrEP I'm sure does help. I wouldn't recommend this behavior to anyone. My sexual health, my responsibility. But if one can get access to PrEP, get on it! The BF and I are on PrEP, and we have been asked by some friends if we could import some into Brazil for them. It's still expensive in the USA, but Thailand seems to have cheaper PrEP. I wonder how they get it that cheap... SP Pride will be a goal for me next year. All the photos from friends of the parade and parties had me envious. I am curious then, are the saunas super busy during Pride? Overflowing Cabinas? More garotos than customers? Too many customers?

Day 1: Sao Paulo Back home people always ask me: why would one ever go to Sao Paulo? What is there? Isn't Rio the place where everyone goes to? I had the same misgivings about Sao Paulo, even if it was the first Brazilian city I've ever visited (last December). Rio is stunning with its natural beauty and unique laid-back atmosphere for sure, but after being impressed with Bogota and how metropolitan and cultured it is (and how different it was from the natural beauty and laid-back atmosphere of the Colombian caribbean coast in Cartagena), I was eager to appreciate Sao Paulo as a city with similar charms. Rio can have its beaches for now. I was ready to discover, for the second time, the more buttoned-up Sao Paulo. Its time to hangout with Jackie Kennedy, after having fun with Marilyn Monroe. I took a Biz class Avianca flight (booked through miles) from LAX to Bogota. It’s only a 6 hour and 15 minute flight, and by the time food service arrives, I'll only have about 4 hours of sleep, even with the lie-flat seats. I wait at what must be the largest Star Alliance lounge I've ever been at, take photos of the tarmac while waiting at the terrace: Sent some photos to my 22-year-old Nordestino friend from Salvador who will be joining me in Sao Paulo, to tell me I am on my way, and he promptly posts those photos on Instagram (sans my face thank god). He must be excited. Pretty soon I board my flight. We are given these pretty nice Tumi amenity kits: The food service comes and goes, I pop in two Advil PMs, recline completely, and sleep... to be woken up by the flight attendant to ask me if I wanted breakfast. I slept pretty soundly. I muttered out an annoyed "Si!" and got situated. Used my Amenity kit to freshen up as we head over to Bogota airport. The airport is still familiar of course, having just left it about 11 days prior. The Avianca boarding was a shit show and the gate changed twice, as panicked people ran back and forth the massive El Dorado International in Bogota. This is unfortunately a common feature of this airport. We finally boarded. Another Tumi amenity kit. I didn’t even bother with food service. I reclined fully and went to sleep, wanting to be fresh for Sao Paulo. But in reality, how does one sit still when Brazil is on the horizon. My mind was racing with the possibilities of the week. I watch "I, Tonya" to pass the time (good movie, Tonya Harding had a rough life). Pretty soon we get to Guarulhos. It took me 12 minutes to wait in line at immigration. The immigration had one question "Turismo?" To which I said "Sim!" Rushed through baggage claim because I only had carry-on with me. Turned on my roaming on my phone ($10 a day on AT&T International Day Pass). Got Uber to figure out where I was. Put "Intercontinental" and it found the Sao Paulo hotel. It showed that the journey was 48 minutes. I'm pretty sure with "muito transito" the journey will be longer. I always forget how big Sao Paulo is. I go up to the Departures level and looked for Check in counter D, since that was where one of the Uber stops were. The driver was already there when I get to the curb. I put my roller bag and backpack in the backseat with me. The driver confirms the address of our destination (Sim, obrigado), and then speeds away. The drive was pretty ordinary, though some trouble getting out of Guarulhos. So much traffic. An hour goes by and we get to the Intercontinental. $18 for the Uber ride. Taking advantage of my loyalty to IHG properties when I travel for work has its perks, and it meant cashing in a whole lot of points for this trip, I decided on the Intercontinental after staying at an AirBNB in Bela Vista with my BF the prior trip. My first companion for this trip is a budding body builder, and so before the trip he asked if my hotel had a gym. I always remember sex after the gym is always amazing, with muscles still swole from the workout, so I made sure I got a hotel that had a more than decent fitness facility. Post-gym sex for 3 days! Check-in was fine. Receptionist spoke english well. Made sure that my companion's name was in the reservation (it was). Got a double upgrade, which meant at least a suite. The room was lovely, got a pretty nice view of Sao Paulo, and, 10 minutes later, got my sweet amenity (they ask if you wanted the sweet or salty amenity) and some free water. Pretty pathetic amenity compared to other intercontinentals (in Europe there is at least always Champagne): When all was said and done it was 6:30 PM, which I guess is prime sauna time. It was a Friday, I'm in Sao Paulo, what should I do? I do the pathetic thing and fire up Grindr. It took a while but soon I get some messages. Got the typical Garoto offers: This one is asking for 300 reals - $80 (https://gustavo-goiano.webnode.com): Looks good, but too rich for me: This one was fine for 200 reals - $53, but only Ativo so it wont work for me (http://www.garotolandia.com.br/lucasnahad.html): But tonight, because I am too "preguicoso" to do anything because of the long flight, the pillow-top mattress, and the room service dinner I just ordered (Picadinho with risotto and some farofa, 65 reals - $18, with a free glass of wine), I just try to chat up some guys and see where it lead: After two hours of Grindr talking, eating my dinner, watching TV (NBA playoffs in Portuguese, not bad), I make plans with a 27-year-old Paulistano who lived near the Itaim Bibi area. I guess it’s a good sign that he asked if there was parking close to the hotel, which meant he had a car, which meant he was not going to charge me anything. He chose to Uber instead. When he got on his Uber, I got on the shower. Despite my best attempts, I was in danger of having sex in Brazil. It does not take a lot to get some here, and if you fail to land anything here, it is your own damn fault. Sex was fun. He bottomed, of course. Insisted on bare. I obliged. I was taking PrEP, so at least he was safe. He wanted to stay over. I told him I had to get up early so it was not a good idea. It was true. The Nordestino's flight got in at 6 AM tomorrow. Got to be up for this hottie from Salvador. But I failed tonight. No Lagoa. Sauna: 0 Laziness: 1

Day 0: The Setup Previous post: OK, so after my first trip, I am not such a newbie to Brazil anymore. I visited my first (and only) Brazilian sauna to date (the legendary 117, everything it is hyped up to be and more), got my first garoto de programa experience (lucked out on a gorgeous carioca, did not get robbed or decapitated), got to make some friends (a couple of Paulistanos, some Cariocas, and some Nordestinos (peeps from the Northeast Brazil, Salvador and Natal). I am ready for more, of course, primarily to at least spend more time at the saunas when I can. I spent 3 weeks in Brazil last time and only had time for a sauna visit on my last night, so I have to work on this. Just a background: I am 36 year-old Asian American from California, and I travel some for work. I'm a bit familiar with Colombia and Mexico, and trying to make inroads into Brazil. I've been learning Portuguese casually since late last year just for the heck of it using a once- or twice- a week Skype lesson online from a nice lady living in the South of Brazil. I've been currently struggling with verb conjugation, and my vocabulary is still limited, but between work and personal life and procrastination, it is the probabaly the best I can do at this stage. After spending Carnaval in Barranquilla, Colombia (with some Chaturbate boys) in March, I decided to cash in some miles and get a nice week-long Brazil trip. My United Mileage Awards search pointed me to some Super Saver Business Class flight on Avianca. Having used Copa Air as my primary airline to South America from California, using Avianca was a needed change of pace, because layovers in Tocumen Airport in Panama City has long worn out its welcome with me. Since business class award seats were only available on Sao Paulo flights in the dates I was looking to fly, I let the airline points gods choose my fate and decided that Sao Paulo will be my my entry point to Brazil. I don’t do anything without a goal, even with my vacations. My goal for Colombia was to visit its top 5 cities (in population), which I have completed last month with the Bogota trip (so I now have expanded this goal to top 10 – I am 6 for 10 so far). Since Brazil is bigger (and possibly better), my goals needs to be as ambitious, or more. My goal for Brazil: to visit every state in the country. To date, I have visited the states Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Rio Grande do Norte (Natal) and Bahia (Salvador). So what state should I visit this time to accompany Sao Paulo? A short search of the Latin Section of this site yielded more mentions of Porto Alegre (apart from Salvador) as a nice 3rd city, in addition to RJ and SP. So I do some research and ask my Portuguese teacher, who is from the south (Floripa, Santa Catarina) just to see what she thought of Porto Alegre. Also, the promise of meeting more light-skinned, light-eyed Brazilians sounded intriguing (-ish), so I look for round trip flights to PA from Sao Paulo. I ran into some cheap fares on Azul airlines. Without looking at reviews for the airline and its flight record I booked it. Gotta take a leap of faith once in a while. So I guess Rio Grande do Sul is going to be my 5th state. And then there is the matter of companions. I am still in discovery mode in Brazil so I am eager to see the tourist sites, and having a local companion show you the way is always superior to just going it alone. There is still a lot of Sao Paulo I want to see, and I also wanted to go to Gramado and Canela in the south, to supplement the Porto Alegre visit. I could just leave it to chance and just find companions when I am there (and possibly burn a lot of minutes on Grindr or take a chance on a garoto), or I can do what I do usually: invite friends and/or boys I met in previous trips to accompany me on the next one. A lot of sexy Brasilerios to choose from, but two stood out for me: A 22-year-old Nordestino office worker from Salvador who me and the BF met at a party, who I have been Whatsapping and Instragraming with me all these months, and Gabriel, the Carioca garoto I had a GP with last trip in Rio, who was also my first hire for Brazil. These two I thought I had the most chemistry with, and it is nice to compare notes to which boy is better the free one, or the garoto? My last, but (most?) important goal is of course to visit as many saunas as I can. It will be tricky with the presence of the two boys I've invited, but I will have at least 3 nights of alone time I can do this in. I only had one night last trip. Let's see how many nights I can get at the sauna this trip. So this is the setup. I write very detailed trip reports because it is the only way I know how. Continue or no?

Just adding some color to the suggestions here. I find the Mexico City gay bars to be one of the best in the world (at least with what I like in a bar), and there are a shit-ton of gays in the city. And there will be no shortage of (free) hotties who will want to go with you to the bars, and to even the gay strip clubs. I agree that Zona Rosa would be the default place to stay and enjoy the bar scene (and possibly the safest place to be at night), but by no means the only place to spend time in at night. The Centro (downtown) area also has fairly decent and sometimes superior clubs and bars (although less safe), and there are other bars scattered in the Roma Norte and Sur and Polanco areas.I never had any problems staying in hotels near or in Zone Rosa and having a rotating stable of boys visiting me. Some photos here. Sorry these are grainy. BB Show Bar Strip Club. Crazy ambience but generally a great time. Preferably with a friend or five. Spanish helps a lot with the boys: Botas Bar. Good with friends or alone. More subdued than BB. Surprisingly had at least 3 models who spoke decent english. Had long convos. Pretty chill time: Sample of a regular gay bar: Baby. Young crowd, great music, good dancing. Lots of cuties: Another sample gay bar, but in the Roma Norte/Roma Sur area: Tom's Leather Bar. Hybrid gay bar and stripper bar. Too many gringos in my opinion, but nice ambience and eye candy. Dark room is fairly active, if that's your thing. CDMX is one of my fave cities to stay a long weekend at. Pretty dynamic (culturally, ambience, food etc etc etc) and there seemingly are thousands of gays that descend upon the city in the weekend. Overall lots of fun.

torogen I sent you a PM. FYI there are studios in Bogota, and with any other major city in Colombia.