Copa will be a very different place without Help. I'll miss the show of circling piranhas, and the imminent sense of danger that always got my blood pumping. I'll miss stopping by the Terraço after fucking myself silly at one or more termas, just to watch a scene that even David Lynch would have trouble conjuring up. There is no place like Help anywhere in the world. Love it or hate it, the place was impossible to ignore and always interesting. Now it's gone.

I feel for those unfortunate enough to never have had the Help experience. My first time there was 1992, 8 years after it had opened and only a few years after it had gradually changed from a middle-class disco to a puteria. I didn't pull my first GP from Help until 1996, a sweet 19-year-old who had just arrived from a small town in SP. That girl was still working at Help the evening it closed. I had some wonderful experiences in Help and with Help girls, but mostly in the early years. Many of those girls were visiting Brasilian students in Rio on vacation, looking for a way to defray some of their expenses. They were looking to have a good time and were almost invariably sweet and total GFE. Over the past 5 years or so Help had become a haven for a rougher crowd of favelada putas. Fights between the girls were commonplace, and the feel both inside Help and out front was decidedly less pleasant. Maybe it was time for a change. Maybe some social evolutionary process kicked in in response to some of the dysfunctional stuff happening around Help. Maybe something will start anew that will look more like the Help of old.

Time will tell.

Farewell, Help. It was fun!

It appears Jaguar is a "cascateiro." Surprise! But O Dia yesterday said that Friday is closing night for Help. So lets share Help stories and pictues. Describe your best/worst/weirdest/most memorable Help and TA experiences. Share photos of the best and the worst of Help.

TA experiences:

Worst experience: I met Cat for the first time at TA, thanks to Sweet!!

Weirdest: a 'foot job' under the table within view of hundreds [only the tablecloth's overhang saved my dignity].....so good I took her back to the apartment for the rest of the night-lol

Best: New Years' 05 with 15 CH members at two large tables celebrating for over 5 hrs in between our Garota activities, with all the food and alcoholic drinks included for one price [they lost bunda on our group].

CFK

(Message edited by copperfieldkid on August 25, 2009)

Tell me it ain't so.... I'm arriving with a newbi in tow on Sept 5th. I love the whole TA and Help action. I can't believe i'm missing this by a crummy week. What's plan B for evening entertainment?

Until they close TA, all the putas will be out front. Other options: Balcony, all of the termas, Lapa (take a puta with you), Mariuzinn (ditto), etc.

As is typical in Brasil, no one really knows what's going on. Me included.

According to a story in O Dia, there will be a final private party at Help this Friday. But Help will not necessarily close immediately thereafter. Quoting the O Dia article: "The last night, no one knows when it will be."

http://odia.terra.com.br/portal/rio/html/2009/8/as_ultimas_noites_na_pista_da_help_a_mais_badalada_da_avenida_atlantica_29741.html

The story also notes that, despite many rumors, the owners do not plan on opening another place.

The article interviews some GPs, a bartender who's worked there since the day it opened in 1984, and mentions the Polaroid guy and one of the candy salesman. One puta suggests that with lots of putas selling their asses on the streets, the scene will be uglier that what has existed around Help.

The article also notes that the owners are still fighting the closing in court. I don't think they'll win, but this is Brasil...

(Message edited by Bwana_dik on August 26, 2009)

You had me searching O Dia online for news as well and I noticed the same statement - so we are back to the closing date being open....

But, I did notice another interesting article on the former owner of the Office Sports Bar getting robbed and his apartment getting invaded at gunpoint. The robbers thought he was one of the Help owners

http://odia.terra.com.br/portal/rio/html/2009/8/policia_sem_pistas_dos_bandidos_que_invadiram_apartamento_de_australiano_31562.html

Holy shit - we are definitely not in Kansas anymore :-)

I guess one thing I have always wondered about is how many of the GDP's in Help eventually get married to their customers over the course of the year and what the average time to divorce and them coming back to 'Help' has been. Seems like the many of them are engaged, or have already been married and now are back to work again. I wonder if they are stepping their efforts to snag some guy before the final curtain falls. But then again, the best trait of the majority of girls is certainly not planning ahead. Just look at the old hag walking back and forth between the Balcony Bar and Help each day (She must be in her 60's, but looks like she might have been hot about 30-40 years ago)

I think between rip-offs, drama, etc, etc, I am sure we can fill many volumes of books with stories at 'Help'. Now with the closing still a little way off, there are still many stories to be written.

I think I'm done "writing" my Help stories, although if it's open when I come to town in late Oct., I'll probably actually go inside for one last visit.

I saw that story about the owner of the Office. Those robberies happen all the time, especially if the robbers get the impression that a person is fairly well off. It's never a good idea to flaunt your wealth in Rio.

To be honest, I really will not miss it all that much when it does close. I think the girls have become more jaded and expensive over the years. There are so many other options available either way. And the majority will migrate somewhere else anyway.....I am pretty sure very few would be willing to give up their current salary and work for a R$600 monthly salary in some shopping center. Even if they score "one of the higher paid jobs" available without a university degree, i.e. R$1000 a month, it is still a chump change as to what they earn now. Lots of motivation for them to shift their craft to another place.

Life will go and the scene will as well...

Okay so what's the verdict. Did help offically close today? Countdown 7 days til Rio!

I read on WSG that it was open last night.

Downandup thanks for the update. Hopefully they stay open for a bit longer, so I can enjoy Help one last time.

It is still open....and I would bet that they will still be running strong when you arrive in 7 days.

Awesome Lovingmarvin, thanks. I really do like the whole TA/Help environment and I'd like to enjoy it one last time, and I want my buddy to experience that scene also.

Sat with some regulars at Balacony Bar today and the thought is that they have through September to stay open - Nobody will truly know the close date until it is actually closed. I am sure that date will make immediate news right here on CH by us Rio residents.

Gentlemen,
Last night Scorpion gave me a raft of shit concerning my post about Kilograma closing. Apparently, he like others on the board misread the post and thought I was talking about Help. I explained that I never once mentioned Help and the dead give away that I wasn't writing about Help was my comment that I didn't know if Catacony liked or hated the place. He looked at me like I was nuts or something until I asked him one question: "Does Cat like Help?" In a heartbeat he replied, "No, everyone knows he hates the place." See, I wasn't writing about Help!!!

Okay, enough about how everyone fucked up with the reading comprehension test and on to more important stuff, like when is Help closing? Doing deep investigative reporting, I have uncovered some great intel. This time I haven't fucked up like the last time with Saddam's WMD's because I have a great source. Let me enlighten all of you. First of all, Le Meridian Hotel, at the corner of Princess Isabel and Av. Atlantica, has recently been sold reportedly to the same individuals that own Help. Secondly, renovations are going on round the clock. Are you guys putting things together yet? If not, let me add this little tidbit. Previously, the owners of Help wanted to use the Aporador Casino that they also owned as a replacement, but many of the neighbors are politically connected and very influential, essentially nixing that idea. Lastly, Le Meridian is located in what could loosely be described as "The Sex Center of Copacabana,"surrounded by places like Franks and Barbarella, etc--consequently, no political pressure.

Okay, that's the where, but WHEN? My source says September 5th is the last day for Help. Why that day? I don't have a fucking clue, but this source is much deeper than the Chick-let Lady so don't take it with a grain of salt.

Jag

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1VBlaromJY

This is more serious than I thought...

Wait a minute did you say Kilograma is closing!!??? Now that upsets me more then Help. I love eating at Kilograma. When are they closing? And Help is closing on the 5th and I arrive the morning of the 5th. Maybe I'll get one last night there but on an empty stomach uggg...

beautifully done deeg if you did that overwrite..funny as hell..

Someone, please, document the closing in photos. We need pics of the "Fechado" sign across the front, and absolutely need pictures when they start tearing the place down.

Jag would put a "Fechado" there or do one with Photoshop just to keep all you guys away.

I arrive on the morning of the 5th, and if I find that it really is closing - and the garota I was just on Skype with laughed when I asked if she thought it would be Saturday - I will actually go in the joint.

thanks for the youtube link dongringo...LMAOROTFL

Cat if you go in the roof will cave in.

I got an email from Bobby at blameitonrio today 09/01/2009 and he said the club is still open.

Cat, if you arrive on the 5th, we can hang at Manhattan or 4x4 with your best friend CFK!! I'll be in Rio until the 13th. Of course, CFK has to agree to hang with us.

I thought CFK was laid up in bed after hurting his back trying to tie his shoes?

If CFK is laid up it is because of all the packages he was carrying from Rio Sul on one of his Garota shopping trips??? -

help was open yesterday

Help will be open for awhile. From what I had heard, the city of RJ has not concluded the financial deal with the owner(s). By owner, I mean the real owner not the guys who actually lease the land and run Help. Never once did I hear the final number paid for the land/property of Help(??)
The only thing I ever heard was that the "official" design of new museum was chosen and initial project construction was supposedly to be scheduled in mid-October -- and when did anything in Rio happen as scheduled??

As for the demise of Help, according to a lot of semi-pros and termas garotas they stopped going to Help because they were afraid and/or disgusted by the favelada girls who took over the place.
As Bwana said fights happened amongst the girls -- I mean real fights with punches, pulling hair and blood.

I didn't seem too long ago that pretty much any girl you wanted in the place would have went home for the night for 200R and it was mostly GFE. If you were willing to work and wait just a bit then 100-150R was more than fair for an allnighter.
It then went to 300R....and then the unimaginable girls started quoting short-time rates. My most recent trip, one termas garota (I know) was getting guys to spend 500R for 2 hours. She never made that a couple of years ago working at 4x4 working a 8+hour shift and she was certainly a lot cuter back then now. Ridiculous!

I personally think the termas are safe of these Help whores. The few girls I know who tasted Help first and then went to work at a termas place never made it more than a few weeks. They either got fired for missing days or just quit because they said it was way too much "work" compared to Help.
Those that can, will move onto Europe. Those that can't will dissipate to Balcony, Meia Pataca, perhaps Barbarellas and to the Sao Paulo clubs.

I do worry more about the idiot (guys) that frequented Help. Will they continue to go to Rio or move on to other venues? I didn't seem to see a lot of them at the mainstream termas...was this their choice or just lack of knowledge? Most seemed to be confined to the limits of Copacabana. Will the likes of termas Monte Carlo and Luomo go to shit because of this?
It's too bad we could not just drop Help as it is in the country of Italy -- it would definitely solve the 2-fold problem of getting rid of the faggy-looking** white-belted, lacoste shirt wearing, capri pants, sweater around the waist/neck douche bags AND butt-ugly, tattoo-clad, ghetto-ish, PXC wearing Help faveladas.

(** My apologies to any board member who may have been insulted because you wear white belts, capri-pants, sweaters wrapped around the waist and colorful tight-fitting Lacoste shirts.....I am not saying you are a faggot, just that you portray that image. I guarantee you though, any Brasilian girl will be charging you double for you wanting to have that image in a putaria and pretty much fucks it up for the rest)

Help has been a topic of conversation this week, and everyone I've spoken to actually thinks that it's closing. Now, I've heard date ranges from October all the way to "sometime next year", but what's clearly different now vs. every other "Help is closing" rumor over the years is that the folks in the street down here think it's really happening this time. So I do too, to a certain extent.

What will replace Help? Nothing. I don't think it will have much of an impact on the Zona Sul termas since it's usually 11:00 and after before TA/Help crowd comes out, and the termas are pretty much winding down by then. The garotas from Help, I don't see them migrating to termas since most of them, as you said, couldn't hack it. I think that what will happen is a pretty wide dispersal of garotas and mongers. Meia Pataca will get busy again, and depending on the management/owners of the restaurants, places like Transa and Mondego and La Maisson and other other Atlantica sidewalk restaurants will see an influx of girls. Some will probably start working the street. Some will of course end up in Lido, though Barbarela - with the mandatory "pay or stay until 4:00 AM" rules will weed out a lot of girls who could hack it there. Of course the favela girls wouldn't make it through the front door of Franks or La Cicc or Barbarela in the first place.

I think Balcony will get much busier. It seems to have picked up quite a bit over the last year or two. The place next to it. La Dolce Vita, is a full-fledged putaria now. I haven't walked in but there was some eye candy there a couple of nights ago. They were going in and out, so I don't know what the deal there is. Sort of like Balcony, where you roam in and out, just without the skanks? A place that will start charging a cover? I don't think they know yet.

Balcony is a lot smaller than Terraco Atlantico, but I could see it taking over the outside roll, to a certain extent. As far as a big indoor disco that rolls until the wee hours, there isn't another space remotely available in a location would have it. Who knows, in five years, maybe one of the currently-regular clubs in Copa will be a big putaria. Help started out as a regular disco, it took a while for the GdPs to win dominance and chase out the civilian crowd. Could it happen to the big clubs in Leblon or Ipaname? I don't think so, since those locations aren't conducive.

Help is unique. A big, wide-open puta disco right in the middle of the tourist zone. While I don't like the place anymore and never go, I do recognize the fact that a lot of guys love it and actually make it the focal point of their trip. In fact, some guys come here just for Help, and nothing else. Or they come for Help and discover termas and beach girls and agencies and massagems and all the rest. So it will impact those guys. I was always surprised, when I used to go to TA/Help regularly (yes Jag, practically every night for years), that you never saw most of the guys you saw there in any of the termas. You would see them on the beach, in the Atlantica restaurants, but never in Luomo or MC or the Centro places.

Will those guys not come anymore? It could be the straw that breaks the camel's back for a lot of guys. One of the lower-end kilo places, I saw today their buffet price is R$18.95. In November, it was 15.95. A 20% increase in one year, for a second-rate kilograma. Amazing. Help closing could be on more reason - and a big one - for guys already on the fence to stop coming. The inflation combined with the poor exchange rate, thrown in with the uptick in crime over the years and the definite slip in garota quality.

We've all thought about it, I'm sure. We all certainly talk about what X costs now in dollars compared to whenever. I could have honestly said in 2003-2005 that even without the best sex in the world, I would still come down to Rio for everything else. Well, for the last 3-4 years, I can definitely say that without the best sex in the world, I wouldn't come within 2500 miles of the place.

Rumors of Help's demise are a lot like free advertising, but who would suggest the owners are spreading these rumors on purpose? :rolleyes:

I like sitting outside help and watching the world go by wile talking shit with fellow CH members. Would I go to Rio without help? Yes, if I take a girl more them twice from help during a trip it would be a lot. For me these ladies are overpriced under serviced and not worth the hassle of sleeping with one eye open. At heart I am a Terma guy now.

What will happen when help goes? Its a sad truth that newbies will always find a place to be ripped off, its just a simple law of nature. Will there be another Help. I do not think so because, quire simply, Help is a relic of another time. Its time has past and its time for it to go. I will miss it, don't get me wrong and I imagen that in memory it will get bigger, the girls cuter and the stories more colorful and I am sure we will remember with fondness the place where the scum of the world went to met the scum of Rio.

I don't think anyone has mentioned this, but entrance alone into Help is now 40R.

Entrance into 4x4 is 40R and includes ass-grabbing , groping and kissing.
Entrance into the best clubs in Lapa (including live music) for yourself and female date is 40R.
40R is price per plate at some of the best Churascarias -- Churascaria Palace and Caretao.
For just 50-60R, you can get kissing, BBBJ and pretty decent sex with an average downtown apartment garota.
And though not a huge fan, it is 60R entrance into Barbarellas and include some good eye-candy and 2 drinks. I did that twice last trip in lieu of wasting it at Help. I had a better time than at Help.

Comparably, I think 40R is a complete waste of money to just enter Help.
I used to take "dates" there just to hang out, but now over 100R just to do that. I honestly can't wait to leave after about 2 hours.

I will miss TA. Sometimes just hanging out there having a Chopp is fun to watch the circus show. And in the past few years actually pulled some decent girls from there.
I hope of other outside Cafes pick up where TA leaves off.

Who knows, maybe the new Frontera and Clube Nossa Sem Hora will become the TA/HELP down the road.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is whether Help and TA would close down as one entity. If Help closes, I don't see why TA can't hang in there for a while until the rebuilding for the musuem must start.

I had heard it is one entity of property. Think about the terrace section of Help that is on top of TA. When Help goes, so does TA.

TA is not that bad of a place. Chopp beers are decent price-wise (3.50R), the Caiprinhas (11R) are potent and I would rate their Canja Chicken soup as one of the best out there on Atlantica. For a place that sees nothing but Gringos, they don't over-inflate the prices absurdly like they could.

That block is actually pretty small. I think they pretty much would have to tear down everything at the same time and then start digging like crazy.

Just a little nugget....but 'Help' is still shugging along for those of you planning on arriving soon.

Regarding Kilograma closing - It is indeed closed, but all they are doing is renovating and will reopen as Frontera. Frontera is a Kilo place like the former Kilograma, just with nicer inside decorations. There already several around town - including one in Ipanema. They also opened a huge one in Barra de Tijuca. So this a good change (at least from my perspective). Price wise there were pretty similiar.....

Yes, there are currently three Fronteras, one in Barra, one in Ipanema and one in Jardim Botânico. I seem to recall the one in Ipanema being pricier than Kilograma. I'll reserve judgment until I try the new one next month.

As to Help's closing, I'm now of the opinion that Help will close when Help freezes over or a GdP buys an apartment for CFK, whichever happens first.

I'd listen to him...he's a fucking Nostradamus!!