I am thinking of including Salvador in my upcoming trip to Brazil early next year.  Has anyone been there recently?

Just spent a week there. The architecture and nature are beautiful, people are nice, but also there is a lot of poverty.

Main sauna is Clube 11. Fox seems to be less popular. Ancora do Marujo bar is great!

I like Archer's response. I have not been lately, but the city is beautiful and the guys are sexy.

The city, the geography, and the local culture are amazing. If you look in my blog, there are detailed reports about the saunas. I went for Christmas/NY, it was hot as hell and I got sick, and yet had a great time. It is a city that I always keep as a possible destination, and to stay there for a few months once I am retired.

 

So, my plan was to travel to Rio for 10 days and work on a project that I need to finish during the days and attempt to make a new gay boy and drink caipirinhas in the evenings with contacts from prior trips.  Unfortunately, due to bad luck and poor planning my two most favorite "contacts" are both out of the country at the moment.  The apartment I rented in Ipanema using Marriott Homes & Villas also had an issue which was a real departure from my last two trips (no issues whatsoever, highly recommend) but that actually ended up working in my favor.  You see, the prior occupant somehow managed to smash the glass top of the stove in the unit.  Initially, I was told that it would be repaired the next day but that didn't happen and, on day three when it still wasn't repaired, they offered to let me out of my contract.  Since I had just completed two whelming trips to the saunas (both places seriously need to up their cabin game), I accepted their offer, booked a somewhat expensive last minute flight to Salvador on GOL and an absurdly cheap AirB&B with a stunning ocean view that looked really nice in Salvador.

Salvador is not Rio and it is definitely not Ipanema.  So far though, I'm really enjoying my time here.  Clube 11 is pretty decent.  I went there this evening and saw a lean, toned, 20 year old that is exactly my type within 5 minutes of walking in the door and getting changed.  He could tell I was interested so after a brief introduction he led me downstairs into the steam room and started to go down on me.  Free samples are always appreciated but, well, he was very talented and he just kept going and going to the point where I had to ask him to stop which led to the following interaction:

Me gesturing toward the cabins on the upper floor, "Quanto?"  To which he replied, "Oitena" but, because my Portuguese is not that good and he is absolutely in the same league as the two young men that I had been planning to spend my week with in Rio and, in general, I've probably just spent way to much time in Ipanema, I heard, "Oitocentos" which is crazy high so I responded, "Você é lindo mas isso é muito caro."  Fortunately, at this point he said, "Setenta" and drew a 7 followed by only one zero on my chest.  I quickly accepted and had an amazing time with him upstairs.

He will be coming to the apartment tomorrow afternoon.  The view really is stunning.  I'm hoping he will let me take his picture with the fort and ocean in the background.

I'm staying in the Barra section of Salvador.  Would anybody care to recommend a few decent restaurants?

 

He must've thought, what kind of gringo did I get that thinks 80 is expensive, he must be a friend of floridarob..... lol

Salvador was the one time in Brazil where I got mugged (about 10 years ago). The historic center is like an island surrounded by very sketchy neighborhoods. This was the one city I should have heeded all the warnings about, but I was cocky from my good experiences in SP and Rio. It looked like such a short walk from my hotel in the colonial center to the sauna ...