SolaceSoul

I would amend this to include 117 as a great option on Fridays. I would say, depending on your personal tastes, it’s a toss up between 117 and 202 on Fridays (or, for the Ironmen, do both). I would also add that Thursdays at either club are particularly slow and hit-or-miss. It’s a great night for a date outside the clubs and skin the saunas entirely. But if you’re visiting Rio for a short period, I can understand why you’d want to spend every day at the sauna!

I last visited Recife in December 2016. From what I can remember, the garoto prices in both Recife and Fortaleza were about the same as they were in Salvador, but I don’t know if I can definitively state that 80 reais was the standard. Maybe between 80 and 100 reais would make more sense in 2019. Either way, it’s about only a $5-$6 USD difference, and IMHO, is not an unreasonable price difference. Maybe another, more frequent visitor has a different opinion.

Pauleiro. I believe I was the poster you quoted about Recife having 3-4 payboy saunas. But you also mentioned Clube 11 in this post. Clube 11 is in Salvador. Depending on the night of the week, in Salvador you can visit either Clube 11 or Sauna Fox (The A-list Saunas), or Sauna Olympus or Thermas 13 (The B-list Saunas) — or a combination thereof. As for Recife, I might be getting the names mixed up, but I remember Sauna Progresso as the sauna that also doubles as a bar in the open air. Thermas Boa Vista was nearby in the same neighborhood (not walkable, not advisable to try, so Uber or cab). Blue Thermas is in the Boa Viagem area and more modern facilities. Regarding the boys, each of these 3 saunas on busy nights should have plenty of garotos. Personally, I found the Progresso setup the more difficult to navigate, because some were there for just the bar or shows while others were there for sauna culture — but your mileage may vary. The other two, I found more suitable for me. I haven’t been to the 4th sauna, Thermas 111, and I have no reports about it.

Edit.

I don’t think that “whoa” doesn’t mean what you think it means, Blatherer.

Rioblather certainly doesn’t look like THIS professor! While on the subject of sitcoms, Rioblather is more like our resident Cliff Clavin from “Cheers”, the obnoxious, pompous, know-it-all, abysmally single postal worker who lived in his helicopter mother’s basement and, famously, lost on “Jeopardy”. Here is a scene from one of my all-time favorite episodes, where Cliff, privately realizing that his obnoxious personality and verbal diarrhea keep people from wanting to befriend him, chooses to get get a therapist to wire him to an electric shock device in order to improve his personality:

Kevie, there is more than one way to bully. Some — because all they really may have are their words that they like to believe go over your and others’ heads — will show off these words in an attempt to boss the bull around. It’s all he has, really. It’s why when he’s called out for it, he has to go into long diatribes trying to convince others of his omnipotence and worldliness. If he were truly that confident, he would simply let it go — not type extended soliloquys puffing out his proverbial chest.

Wow, that hit such a nerve that you had to stew over it all night and morning — when you very well could have been enjoying the beach weather and engaging with actual human beings face to face. IF that were actually possible for you to do. I’m sorry you have no real-life friends, Weirdo. Depression is real and there are pills for it. Seek help, because your running away from it with trips for paid sex obviously is not helping.

Well, follow your own advice, and just read what you like and ignore the rest. I can ignore posts about twinks, bears, aging porn stars and Republicans — surely you can skip parts you don’t like on a message board that offend your sensibilities. Countless threads get “derailed”, for numerous reasons, and by countless people, for various reasons — including, but not limited to, threads about Lagoa that end up about Salvador.

You’re quite fond of throwing Molotov cocktaills and then running away as if you’re some innocent, aggrieved party. But I’m old enough to remember that just before this post of yours, you threw this one out: Your feeble attempts at seeming more worldly and well-read than others cannot mask your obvious insecurities. You’re a sad, lonely, miserable man, and none of your travels can ever cure what really ails you inside. I actually feel quite sorry for you. I bumped into a North American tourist very much like you on this trip — a real Debbie Downer! — and I couldn’t run from him fast enough.

I’m here in Salvador enjoying myself — something you seemed to have failed to accomplish. Oh, but you seem to do this quite often around these parts! Remember your absolute fuck up about the address / location of the Aurora Lan House in São Paulo? Even though you were dead wrong about its location (and had never even been or seen the place in person, or heard of it before it was brought up to you in that post), you were like a dog that just couldn’t let that bone go. So, your claim that you can accept correction with humility is laughable on its face. You HATE it when the curtain is pulled back to reveal you not as The Great Knowledgeable Oz, but as a sad, frail little man with just a thesaurus’and Wikipedia. Whether under this current username of your previous pseudonym — a skunk by any other name still smells like Pepe Le Pew. Oh, old girl, don’t flatter yourself. You’re not the collective. You can’t even get nice, friendly guys behind the counter of a sauna in laid m-back, tranquilo Bahia to be nice enough to you to tell you what days are best for visitors — and they actually have financial incentives to be extra nice! You expect others to believe you have a fan base or a following?

No Bahian in the 21st Century actually calls Tororó or Saúde “Nazaré”. That would be like calling Harlem “Washington Heights”, just because they’re both uptown. Sometimes, in efforts to come across as “smarter than the average bear”, one can just seem douchey or smarmy. It helps to chat and interact with (and actually listen to) more locals and less gringos, and rely less on impersonal online reading material. Moving on: In previous posts about Salvador, I briefly mentioned an older payboy sauna called Olympus. It’s in the Centro neighborhood of Tuitui, which is slightly east of Av. Sete de Setembro intown. For years, it has been a hit-or-miss proposition, not very well-appointed and not too many garotos or clients. Out of curiosity, since I was in the neighborhood, I went by Olympus and was impressed with the vast redecoration job done downstairs. I was also told by staff and working boys that Fridays and Saturdays are busy nights at this smaller sauna. I went on a late Sunday afternoon and saw about 5 working garotos — 2 of which, IMHO, were worth my hiring, Sauna Olympus has been around for quite some time. It’s in a decent (for Salvador) downtown area family neighborhood and is easily accessible by Uber, cab or bus. It’s also within a close driving distance to Clube 11 (in Tororó), so if you’re in the area, on a weekend, a reasonable 2-sauba trip would be Olympus/Clube 11 (or vice versa).

I don’t understand your question at all. It’s all a matter of tastes and I don’t know you as a person or what your preferences are. All I can say is enjoy the city of Salvador and I also like going to its saunas. The two main payboy saunas are nicely appointed but don’t expect the crowds and plethora of physique models like at 117 or Lagoa.

A common setup in the DR is to get underage boys and girls to be seen with tourists acting inappropriately or at the bare minimum, suggestively (sitting on laps, hugging, caressing, etc.). Photos are taken from afar, then the supposed parent and a police officer swoop in and threaten to file criminal charges of soliciting a minor unless the tourist pays up to get out of the mess. Whenever anyone that even looks under 21 approaches you in the DR, say loudly to them, “NO!” and use the appropriate hand gestures that are universally recognized as “get away!”, so that witnesses see, if necessary.

Wednesday and Saturday are better at Clube 11. Friday is not terrible there but it isn’t as crowded as Saturday. For Fox, Sunday and Friday are best. Saturday is okay, but not as festive as Friday and Sunday. There is usually live music there each of these nights. If it were me and my tastes and interests, and I had to do a sauna Monday , Wednesday and Thursday, I’d select 11 on Monday, Fox on Tuesday, and Fox on Thursday. Or, like I said before, Uber to both. Each of these nights will be slow — even by Bahian standards. But there will be garotos there. As stated before, teenage-boy-looking twinks and around-the-way regular-looking guys are fairly invisible to me, which seems to be the favored type by most on this board, so I’m not good at assessing that kind of quality. But Salvador isn’t exactly a treasure trove of muscle men, like in certain Rio and São Paulo saunas — the more built ones from the gyms look more like natural futbol players and beach boys. But both of these saunas tend to have a couple of them. Whether they are there on slower nights is a toss up. I can’t explain why the sauna workers weren’t helpful to you about the best nights. They were very open and helpful to my traveling friend (his first trip to Salvador) and me (one of many trips). My friend is very personable and easily makes new friends everywhere he ventures. But I’m much more aloof and yet, they were still very helpful and open with me. Also, to be pedantic, Clube 11 is situated in the Tororó section of town. Nazaré is the neighborhood slightly north. There was an attractive trans woman at Fox on Thursday who looked like a naturally beautiful woman. She claimed she lives in Paris now. All the working boys there knew her. I imagine we are referring to the same person. Fox is located in Pituba, which is their Melrose / Chelsea / Georgetown / Buckhead disgrict and relatively upscale. There are going to be lots of trendy restaurants there, like in Rio Vermelho.

Perhaps you should have just asked around (either here or at the saunas). The big Friday party is at Fox, as well as on Sunday. 11 is better on Wednesdays and Fridays. Thursdays are fairly quiet at both. The front staff at either location are usually very good about informing new-ish customers about the best nights each week. Most Baianos tend to be laid back and agenda-free. If you’re cool to them and easy enough to talk to and get along with, then they’re cool with you. This Friday was SRO in the open bar area at Fox. 11 was, understandably, comparably slow. The reverse is the same for Saturday. If the experience of trying both saunas each night is important to you, then it would probably be best to do the slower sauna first early on, then Uber or cab it to the busier one for the remainder. Car traffic during that time can be a bitch going to / from Tororó to Pituba — it can take about 40 or so minutes. So, plan accordingly. There was a terrible tropical rain and thunderstorm Friday night in Salvador, which caused much rapid street flooding in lower areas, especially near the ocean and sea. Also some power outages. Driving in Uber or a taxi once the storm hit that night was challenging, to say the least. And it looks like no more sunny beach days for the rest of the week, and muito mais chuva. The slow pace and eternally tranquilo culture of the Bahia is not for everyone.

That child fucker knows exactly what is doing. Unless he has enough pesos to keep paying off Dominican authorities, he’ll eventually wind up in a Dominican prison or get extradited to the USA.

In order to boost tourism, Tropical Trump plans to drop visas for US citizens (and Canadians, Australians, and Japanese) entering Brazil altogether. Although this is very promising news for tourists to Brazil, do not expect a travel authorization document requirement to be eliminated altogether. It most likely will be replaced with a quick, on the spot, visa-like ETIAS or a travel document granted at the airport. https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2019-01-16/brazil-plans-to-drop-visas-for-americans-to-boost-tourism-minister Brazil Plans to Drop Visas for Americans to Boost Tourism: Minister Jan. 16, 2019 BY JAKE SPRING BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil plans to eliminate visitor visas for Americans, the country's tourism minister said on Wednesday, as President Jair Bolsonaro seeks to turn around the lagging tourism sector and engineer cozier relations with the United States. The visa initiative is part of the Foreign Ministry's plan for the first 100 days in power of Bolsonaro, who assumed office on Jan. 1, Tourism Minister Marcelo Alvaro Antonio told Reuters in an interview. "Our intention is really to eliminate visa applications for Americans," Antonio said. Bolsonaro won the presidency running on a right-wing populist platform and is an open admirer of U.S. President Donald Trump. He has sought to realign Brazil with the United States, unlike the leftist Workers Party government that led the country for 13 of the past 15 years and favored relations with fellow developing economies. "The left has treated the United States as an adversary, but not our government," Antonio said. "President Bolsonaro wants to embrace the United States as a partner of Brazil." Brazil is Latin America's largest economy but has long punched below its weight in tourism. The country currently receives 6.6 million foreign tourists a year, roughly half that of New York City alone. Brazil will also seek to eliminate visas for Canadians, Japanese and Australians but the timeline is up to the Foreign Ministry, Antonio said. A Foreign Ministry spokeswoman declined to comment. Currently, U.S. citizens pay $44 for a two-year visa, or $160 for a 10-year one. Antonio said bureaucracy increased for Americans seeking to visit Brazil under the Workers Party government, which supported equally strict treatment for Americans seeking Brazilian visas as Brazilians face when going to the United States. Other plans to overhaul tourism policy include doubling the country's spend on foreign tourism advertisements to more than $34 million by 2023, said Antonio. An existing target of doubling international visits to 12 million annually by 2022 remains in place, he said. The government also is seeking to convert its national tourism board into an agency, allowing it to partner with private enterprises like airlines, which is currently forbidden, Antonio said. (Reporting by Jake Spring; Additional reporting by Anthony Boadle, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien) Copyright 2019 Thomson Reuters.

As I mentioned above, some posters here are arguing over a distinction without a difference. The main difference between the ESTA and a visa is that an ESTA can be obtained electronically through an online form, while the tourist visa must be obtained at or through an embassy or consulate. The travel rights of entry and restrictions are the same for both.

Never mind. I found a WaPo article that attempts to clear up the confusion. It seems that the ETIA is categorized as a “travel authorization document” and not a “visa” — which for anyone reputable who works in US. immigration law will inform you that is a distinction without a difference: ”A spokesman for the commission said the E.U. decided to establish the ETIAS in summer 2018. In 2016, the European Commission proposed ETIAS, “an automated IT system created to identify any security or irregular migratory risks posed by visa-exempt visitors travelling to the Schengen area, while at the same time facilitate border crossings for the vast majority of travelers who do not pose such risks,” according to the fact sheet, which the commission released in July. It added: The ETIAS authorisation is not a visa. Nationals of visa liberalisation countries will continue to travel the EU without a visa but will simply be required to obtain a travel authorisation via ETIAS prior to their travel. ETIAS will be a simple, fast and visitor-friendly system, which will, in more than 95% of cases, result in a positive answer within a few minutes. An ETIAS travel authorisation does not reintroduce visa-like obligations. There is no need to go to a consulate to make an application, no biometric data is collected and significantly less information is gathered than during a visa application procedure. Whereas, as a general rule, a Schengen visa procedure can take up to 15 days, and can in some cases be extended up to 30 or 60 days, the online ETIAS application only takes a few minutes to fill in. The validity will be for a period of three years, significantly longer than the validity of a Schengen visa. An ETIAS authorisation will be valid for an unlimited number of entries. The ETIAS travel authorisation will be a necessary and small procedural step for all visa-exempt travellers which will allow them to avoid bureaucracy and delays when presenting themselves at the borders. ETIAS will fully respect this visa-free status; facilitate the crossing of the Schengen external border; and allow visa free visitors to fully enjoy their status.“ https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/world/2019/03/09/americans-must-soon-register-not-get-visas-travel-some-european-countries/

Provide a link for your source(s), please. Thanks.

My non-political reaction = UGH. My political reaction = cue Radiohead’s “Karma Police”: “this... is... what... you... get.” “The European Union announced on Friday that American travelers will need a new type of visa -- a European Travel Information and Authorization System or ETIAS -- to visit the European Schengen Area.” https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/us-citizens-need-visas-to-visit-europe-in-2021/index.html

Jacqueline Bissett still looking good!

Flex in Atlanta is still open, and by all accounts, still thriving. The area around it has gentrified rapidly, so its surprising that it has lasted this long and hasn’t been sold for yet another high-rise. I used to enjoy visiting various bathhouses whenever traveling. In the USA, the last one I visited was Club Lauderdale in Fort Lauderdale several years ago. I believe it’s still open. I think the one in Tampa as well as the one in Miami is still open. A few years ago, there were two in Dallas but I believe there is only one left. Same as in Houston. Pre-internet days (not just during pre-height of the AIDS crisis), bathhouses were a popular hookup method, and in some cases, were good for relaxation and working out. Also, the physical quality of the patrons was higher. Now? To be kind, not so much. As a previous poster mentioned, if one is into physical appearance and has an age range preference, the dying bathhouse scene in the USA is not worth the cost or the time. The Internet and dating apps have changed the game. Also, in major metro areas, private clubs and sex parties — usually on invite-only emaillidys and strict membership requirements by category) have replaced bathhouses (and adult bookstores / peep shows). Outside the USA, it seems that the bathhouse, or sauna, Illa’s remained more popular. I know several Americans who wouldn’t be caught dead in. Bathhouse in the USA, but whenever they travel abroad, cannot wait to get to the local sauna.