[This is my e-mail account to a friend on my first trip to NL, Summer, 1998. Now that I'm more of a BT regular, I can see I some of my observations and perceptions were inaccurate. But I thought I'd post it anyway, for what it may be worth. --Balam]

Subject: Mextasy...

I have to write this while it's fresh, even though you're not going to read it right away.
Got back around noon today (Sat.) after a trip of two nights. I left Thursday for Laredo by car and parked by the int'l bridge about 3:30. My plans for lots of daytime outdoor activity around the Rio Grande Valley were shot by the well-above-100-degree temps, which were nothing short of brutal. I have to say I was also pretty unprepared for just--well, what NL was like as an ambience. I'd been in the fourth world and in very seedy first-world urban areas but this was literally the first time I'd been in the official third world. It was interesting (and one of the things that I truly love about travelling) how quickly everything came to seem normal--the jostling, constant accosting, the urchin kids, the smells... It's also amazingly bustling, pop. maybe 300,000, with many maquiladora plants and also the major US/Mexico transborder shipping/trucking hub, what with the pan-American highway running north directly to San Antonio/Dallas (as I-35), and south directly to Monterrey, just 200 km. beyond NL, and eventually Mexico City.

Anyway despite the heat I took a long walk (maybe 4 miles) all over the city in a vain quest to try to walk to Boys Town based on a hypothesis I'd formed about where it was from the vague descriptions on the web. After the walk I was fine, and very able to distinguish border tourist zones from ordinary business districts, industrial districts, and residential areas of varying degrees of prosperity.

Once back at the hotel (only US$25/night, a very orderly in its own way, highly touted in the LP guide, a wonderful but really ramshackle piece of 30s deco--and I admit that it totally took me aback at first, cf. 'third world' above, although the *super* cheap places I used to stay 25 years ago in Europe when not going to youth hostels were sort of in the same league. Well, I got a bunch of showers, then got a cab to Boy's Town--got there by about 8:00pm.

It was deserted, but it gave me time to explore as it gradually perked up over the next hour and a half.

As helpful and truthful as the WSG postings are, they just don't quite do descriptive justice to this place--it is a *scene*!! Picture a compound that is about 4 football fields long and 3 football fields wide. It is surrounded by a white or green or reddish pink (in places) painted cement wall with beer ads painted over it facing toward the streets on the outside, a nondescript industrial area near railroad yards. Within, it is little city on a slight incline with two parallel main streets and four cross streets connecting them, thus forming three longish blocks, with building both in these blocks (facing the streets) and all the way around the periphery along the wall (facing the exterior streets), except of course where the gate is. The streets are extremely wide, unpaved, packed with reddish dust that kicks way up as ancient pickup trucks, reconstituted 70s-cars, and sleek-TX-plated SUVs roar around. The road frontages are packed with low-sitting, ramshackle cement or corrugated metal or wood structures, giving it the appearance of the notorious colonias that crop up in the boarderlands from TX to California. These structures serve as business establishments of a surprisingly *wide* range of descriptions, giving you the sense of being on a highly niched-out, specialized, interdependent, economic Galapagos Island.

When you enter there is a police station, whose shorts-wearing men (yes, all guys) are *everywhere*--I don't think it's possible to look anywhere outside without one entering your field of vision. They seemed casual and friendly, talking with locals, not looking stiff or dangerous (unlike what I encountered courtesy of the US border patrol and the US Customs and Immigration). Next to the police substation is a medical office where women get their health certifications taken care of--peering in yesterday, it was a sight to see a few in big heels, flimsy clothes etc. standing on line as if in a post office... Once beyond the wall, the larger establishments are boîtes of one sort or another, but the smaller ones reflect the interesting variety alluded to already. There are a few shops where older women sell flimsy clothes, lingerie, etc. I'm pretty sure there was a pharmacy stand where condoms etc. could be had. There are many little stands selling fajitas, sometimes as scanty as a guy with a bbq grill, but sometimes more like roadside stands with a few outside tables. Wandering around I noticed several groups of older men who busk in front of different clubs, one always with a string bass, one with an accordian, and some with guitars--and it was fascinating to me for some reason to hear them singing in that Norteño style, with the close vocal harmonies, not in funny sombreros or anything like that, but just a bunch of old dudes with greasy gimmie caps or cowboy hats; and once yesterday I saw some other guys just join them for a song or two...

The low, white-painted, beer logo emblazoned concrete structures are the standard and, perhaps quite literally, the "government-issue" structures. They have concrete sidewalks and seem to intersperse beer joints with picnic tables and sometimes a band playing, with blocks of numbered cubicles out of which independents work. Very little was doing in these beer joints, although most seemed to be open. The cubicles seem like Netherlands del Sol--because despite the Tres Amigos logos, and screen doors for glass, a woman still sits in or outside of a room she has (assumably) rented and fixed up for herself (likewise almost invariably decorated with stuffed animals and travel or film posters), waiting for customers. A poster to the WSG describes them as being in 'virtual sexual slavery' but whether or not this judgment is correct, it could well be a mistake to assume the women *live* in their cubes. I am much more inclined to believe that, as in Amsterdam, the cubes are only used for work. Fwiw, the one that I was in (uh, see below for this) did not have any sink or running water.

There were also some not-to-spec structures that stood out and that spanned many styles and degrees of opulence. There was a kind of wild-west motif building which, when I looked in, looked like an old-west whore house and with a line up of very aggressive, kind of dom-seeming women (or were they?), as well as matchingly-dressed impressarios chatting up traffic (such as it was). There were a few other clubish looking clubs--looking like the places you got when US cities started pushed "waterfront development" in the 70s and 80s--advertising floor shows but with nothing much going on, and in some cases the matchingly dressed impressarios and maybe a woman or two. There were also gaggles of similarly fairly aggressive women outside a few of the concrete clubs.

But the most popular street had, on one side, a row of clubs, and on the other side a mysterious seeming wall whose only two openings were manned by security guards. The row of clubs included, for the most part, some of the concrete jobs as well as a few more notable architectural items. Among these were clubs advertising novelty shows and having from 2 to 10 matchingly clad impressarios in front when I had a chance to check them out on Thursday night, my first night. Moving from the top of the hill to the bottom, they were: A banana show club--you get the idea--where nothing much was happening, and if anyone was dancing at all she was clad and it was pretty dark. A donkey show club, with live, teathered donkey out front who had--you could not fail to notice--an utterly huge, swinging shvonts. Nothing ever seemed to happen there although it was lively, with groups of youngish frattish Yanks and quite a few women, fairly youngish and often waifish and cuteish--I got the impression Friday, as two young women were approaching the club, that they were daring each other to enter and hang out for guys, giving me the idea that it was like pick-up work and that you weren't a regular employee there necessarily. It took me a while to figure out that the donkey show, if it ever happens, is not the point of the place. Below that, the third theme-joint offered a gorilla show (involving a man in a monkey suit); that show is described in the WSG write up, but while I was there, it was darkish and clad dancing was the extent of the activity; still another place [1-2-3] had a good number of aggressive impressarios, who, to my surprise, were dressed in white shirts with black ties on Thursday, but black shirts with white ties on Friday.

At the center of this block, however, was the Tamyko club, well described by a WSG writer as looking like a fake-pagoda-themed Chinese restaurant, the kind with neon trim. We are now getting into the upscale side of things. There is a smallish, airconditioned club; and then a big, very nice patio area with gazebo like pagoda thingies etc. but which weirdly seemed pretty empty--the patio area leads to little roomlets where women from the club would, I guess, take guys. This was one of the first places I went on Thursday. I was immediately approached by a woman who was not esp. to my tastes and had to do some concerted work to get her to desist in her requests for a drink. I hung out there for maybe a half hour. Not much was happening. Two Americans walked in and they then hung out with two women, again biggish and not so much to my liking. I saw one woman there, though, who seemed really cute--looked about 23, short hair, a sort of fresh wide-eyed look, very fair skin; but though dressed slinkily, she seemed like maybe she was in charge of things because of where she sat by the door to the garden so I was reluctant to approach her; and then she kept disappearing.

I then went across the street to the mysterious, guarded wall--which enclosed a place called Maribu. Entering through the small gate was like passing from desert to oasis--as you walk on polished tiles, you are in a huge walled garden with lawn, palm trees, and other lush tropical items. The tileway leads to a low moorishoidal type structure; you enter and it's like a post neo deco casino with a big dance area and a bar on one side; about 4 bored and not so attractive women sitting around; many bow-tied bartenders etc; and 2 guests. Weird. I hung out there for 20 minutes over my standard 7-up. I really didn't get this place. It didn't seem the slightest bit sinister, btw. WSG gives a very similar description.

Somewhere in this time--earlyish on Thursday--I had my first encounter. I figured I'd start with the cubes as kind of a baseline. I did a lot of checking. Well over half were too chubby for my tastes--esp. that look where the lower midriff bulges too much. But there were a few who seemed nice looking. The terms 'pathetic' and 'strung out' are used by several posters to WSG about the women here. For me the term didn't quite apply except in one case--a woman who seemed pretty good looking but when I looked into her eyes, my god the lights were totally out. There was one woman who had a kind of fetching plaid miniskirt, slender waist, an attractive sort of typically mestiso handsome face so I went to her--Lucía. She said she was 23 and maybe, but I'll say 30. When she undressed I realized that you can look better in a miniskirt than out of one--she was a bit bulgy, and had quite a bit in the way of stretch-marks and (assumably) birth-related surgery scars... still overall, she was pretty attractive. $20 US, not a very huge price. She was straightforward. I then mentioned a bj but she said that was extra so I forwent it... Unlike in Amsterdam she didn't count positions or make various other restrictions, though she also seemed entirely impervious to what stimulations I tried to offer. But whatever, it was a start. I gave her a tip, of course; I mean, $20 seemed to me very very low (and the WSG talks about $10 and $15!) Nothing very special to report although I must say she felt very good. My non-Spanish, her non-English, and my general sense of newness kept info exchange between us to a minimum. It also was really really hot in her cube--she had a fan but no AC.

I peregrinated about a bit after that, figuring (still) that I could take in a "show" while refactorizing... but it was then that I realized that the shows really weren't what was going on in show row... just setups for encounters, which I wasn't ready for. I hung out at the donkey place a bit because some of the women there and thereabouts seemed pretty cute; but they were all occupied.

I then, eventually, after much more peregrination, moved to the most famous establishment of all--Casino Papagayo--located on the other side of the block occupied also by Maribu. Again inside a walled compound, but with a nice, tiled, guarded parking lot within the walls; plus nice vegetation, and a solid-looking building and grounds. The place clearly caters to Americans although most of the women I talked to didn't speak much English.

I had gone in there the first moment I arrived but found there to be no customers--just 15 or so women, many bordering on the scary, so I had left. Now, coming back at about 10:30pm the place was very happening and hopping. Tons of women, maybe 70; goodly number of guys; bar working very hard; waiters all over the place. It was so crowded that I wasn't greeted at the door or taken to a seat; I simply could kind of float around and try to make out women in the very very low light. After not too long, I saw a very slender Asian looking woman; of exactly the build of (porn star) Chelsea Lynx, that is, if there's a dividing line between "skinny" and "perfect" range, she's just barely over it onto the "perfect" side. And not tall, either; 5'2" tops. She's standing, leaning against the wall and I ask her if she's waiting for anyone.... no. Seeing her I can tell she's definitely not Asian, but with smallish facial features; nice medium complexion; narrowish, tapering face; not absolutely gorgeous but pretty. I buy her a drink; she says she's María, 19, from Monterrey, and has worked here only 3 days. I asked her if she came up by herself or if she came with girl friends or did it knowing others already here; by herself, she said. I really like the setup here because when you do the drinks routine you can talk and ask questions and also act kind of surprised and innocent when she proposes that you head off and take a room ("But what would we do there?...But what do *you* like to do...really??") All a game but I like it. Also, I really like being felt up and snuggled up to and the like... Anyway she proposed $60US and I said fine... I suppose I could have bargained but didn't feel like it--actually I did bargain for extra time (45 min, up from half/hr). She then turned all-business, asked me for $5.00 for the room, plus $1.00 for towels, plus $1.00 for condoms if I didn't have any (I did...); disappeared; then reappeared and we headed through the courtyard to one of the banks of rooms, passing the towel lady who dispensed towels and gave out the room keys--the towel fee was passed on to her. Anyway the room was a bit of a mess but basically very good, with a shower, and excellent air conditioning... I dumped out the contents of my pockets, including several items--a little freebie condom wallet with fresh unlubed (por la boca) and lubed (por la panocha) condoms (she seemed amused/impressed by this degree of preparation). I also had some Astroglide I had bought as a lube--I guess I was trying to be the complete Ed Powers. It's pretty good stuff actually because it is not at all viscous.

Anyway she was really nice; we kissed a little tho not that much; I went down on her and I am pretty sure she came from it; and I must say, it was so so so so nice to have sex with someone that lithe--I esp. liked it with her on top because it was so easy for me to hold and move her. I don't know if you remember it, but my favorite Chelsea Lynx footage is from More Dirty Debutantes #19, when the photographer guy lies on his back and Chelsea gets over him and really goes nuts; it put me in mind of that. Anyway it easily lasted the 45 minutes, I'd say. For me the thing that just makes it most special is when women seem to be getting off, and I think that was the case. Afterwards, we took showers although she clearly indicated we would take turns... It was a good encounter. Btw, I believe that she was new because she seemed very un-mechanical and open. She was also completely unshaven, which I like (in general, I didn't see tats or piercing in Boy's Town or (much) in the streets, nor did I encounter any shaving beyond some trim). Otoh, I don't believe she was 19--24 would be more my guess, just because of how her body felt (not that bag of wet cement feeling you get with 19 y.o.'s), plus she clearly had stretch marks, for whatever that's worth. You know it's funny though--I find myself a bit hazy trying to remember this encounter, eclipsed in my mind, as it is, by what followed it the next day.

OK, so, now it's the next day. I was a tad at a loss how to spend a day in Nuevo Laredo on a day when the mercury surely hit 110--it was totally fucking brutal. But I took a long walk around town in the morning, which was very nice (hereabouts, the mornings are pretty decent, and the highs, believe it or not, occur around 5:30 or 6:00pm). Then I decided to do all the gift shopping I could think of. It was fun and I bought some really nice, though quite bulky stuff which I hauled across the river to my car.

By the time evening rolled around I was so drained that I was toying with bagging it and getting home--I had a feeling that I was forcing myself beyond my needs for sex out of some sort of need to prove myself to myself. Well a good shower cured me of that...

Anyway I got there at about 9:00pm, and did a bunch of looking around. After definitely writing off the "show row" and the stalls, I went to Papagayo, which didn't have that many customers. I got visited by a frankly fat woman at my table; then before I could quite loose her, her friend came (not fat but not to my taste) and proposed a twosome, just as in WSG; no, sorry. Finally I got by myself and just sort of watched around over my trusty 7up. Then I saw this really fresh-faced, cute, young, a bit tallish, kind of curly haired woman with really dark skin and a very nice smile; she came over, I got her a drink, and we talked so far as our linguistic abilities permitted. Again from Monterrey; 18 (now this I believe); had been briefly in Dallas. She was kind of cute; she always sang along with the music. But I don't know, she wasn't riveting somehow. So I didn't spring for her proposal of a room; pretty as she was, it didn't seem like she'd be all that focused. I really like that this can happen. If Chantal, that awful woman in the Netherlands I told you about, had worked at Papagayo, there's no way I would have had a session with her. So again I left, though I had a sort of inkling that at some point I'd seen a woman who looked very attractive out of the corner of my eye.

Well, coming out of the medical certification place were some really cute women, headed for Papagayo's; including one in a tight short blue dress thingie with this really cute butt/thighs--and I realized she was the one that had caught my eye earlier. It was funny but it was always that first look at her that kept grabbing me; although looking more closely I couldn't figure what it was about her that *always* grabbed my eye. She had not-quite-dark brown hair, shoulder length.

I headed meanwhile to check out Tamyko's, the Pagoda palace. I saw the same woman there I'd seen the day before--short hair and cute... She looked like she could be officiating but I went up to her anyway. She simply didn't understand me but a guy nearby said he's asking you to join him; still I somehow never could break into the conversation, plus she started looking somehow a bit less appealing; so I quit trying and left.

Eventually I headed back to Papagayo's, which was now more active. Again Miss Blue Dress sort of riveted me when I caught sight of her; and while I was trying to figure out why she always grabbed my attention, I found myself signaling her to come over; which she did. She sat immediately on my lap and her hand headed for my pants (loose shorts, thin material). Carla. 20 (very believable). From Monterrey, of course. She didn't seem entirely outstanding looking in the face, but was very nice. And I had the definite sense she was intelligent and kind of a live wire. She had been here 3 months. She had one son, aged 1. I asked her if she had a boyfriend and she rolled her eyes. Girlfriend? (Don't think I really made myself clear here). Did she come up here with friends? No. Has she made any friends here? Well, there's too much competition among the girls to develop that much trust, she said. She said her friends were the guys here. Actually, she said, not the guys but she liked their money and their dicks. Quite honestly, this, to me, is an absolutely *ideal* comment, given the situation. I liked her. It was fun negotiating with her because she was a consummate bargainer. And she drove a hard bargain--she wanted $70 for a half hour; I said that's for an hour. She said no, $100 for an hour. I offered her $600Mx (=70 US) for 45 min; she got me up to $700M. Then all the various room fees, and we were off to the towel lady and our room.

I dumped out my pockets onto the dresser I started showing her my various stuff--the two kinds of condoms (she approved). The Astroglide--she inspected it carefully and approved also. And another thing too--which I had also put down when with Maria but on which no comment had been made by either of us. A little "Pocket Rocket" vibrator I had bought at Brookstone, where it was aliased as a 'mini-massager'. "Do you know what this is?" I said. She didn't. "Look," I said, and turned it on--"Oh!" Then she really laughed and said "oh no no..." I said feel it, and put it against her wrist--she pulled away, like ick! I said ok, suit yourself and put it down. Anyway then she comes upon my wallet and asks for the money, which I pay her. And, she also wants another $10US or $20US as a *tip*... Ha, I said, tips only *afterwards*! Then she sort of looks at me and says, how much did *that* cost? Well about $10, I answer. And she sort of shyly and very cutely says, well then you can give me *it* as a tip... I could hardly contain my delight. "Uh...Of course! It's all yours..."

Anyway, she was wonderful, as you no doubt could have predicted. She actually kissed--real kissing. And nice little things like licking/blowing into my ears. And I went down on her and she clearly came. And then she wanted it al perrito and my god, she looked *so* fantastic as she got into position--I think I know why she always caught my eye. That went on for a long while and she really really got into it, taking over massaging her clit when I moved my hand to her breasts... then her on top, then even cowgirl... She was so great and also so appreciative, which in turn I appreciated so so so much. (Like saying "Oh! Mas! Mas! Mas!..." instead of "Are you close yet?") I was truly in heaven.

But then came the *really* good part. After a long while of this I got tired and thought I might start to flag... so we started playing with each other, I became very ready again, and she also got very turned on... and I can't remember whose idea it was--I think it was mine but maybe not--no, it was hers actually--she wanted the Brookstone thingie. Now I'm truly in heaven. She started to use it on herself while I'm licking her breasts and she gets this glazed look in her eyes. "Do you like it?" "Wow, it's very...relaxing.." She's murmuring, and in pretty short order she came, at least a bit. Then, she held herself open and had me apply it right to her clit, which was exposed; and she really got off. Then she took it back and used it on herself some more; and *then*--and for me this was best of all--she wanted to use it on herself *while* I got over her and did her mish-style.... This was so so so so so so so so so so so so awesome, and god it just went on and on and she was getting off very seriously. I was going nuts.

Meanwhile, we are just past the 45 minute mark (I think we officially only have the room for 30 min, given our room and towel fee) and there is a shortage of rooms, so various pairs are standing out in the porch area talking loudly but I had no idea if they were referring specifically to us, or how many rooms were being waited for. Anyway, we continued on... Eventually also, one of the weirdest twists yet happened for me... I simply couldn't come. It was like I was locked up, and even doing myself with my hands, with her pussy practically in my face, I couldn't make it happen. And here's the weird part. Recognizing that, I then *willed* myself to be done. And bang, my erection subsided despite no ejaculation, and I felt an immense and total feeling of satisfaction. At some point before that, she had said she was totally fucked and satisfied and couldn't go any further, and sth like oh! Eres muy muy buen... hearing these things are *so* much the focus of my sexual needs that I swear, they were what made possible that whole feeling of relief and satisfaction that I described. I know that this kind of clutching up is a sort of phase--and it was somehow an amazing physical recognition of how much I need to *be* good and to *give* satisfaction.

Carla wanted to know how long I was around and said she did overnight hotel visits if prearranged--but I was off for home the next morning, and she in fact was off to Monterrey for the weekend. Well maybe some other time I guess. (She also shook me down for "telephone money" and a few other things--ha!) I just feel so happy that somewhere in Monterrey, a very sexual,independent-seeming young woman has a new toy, and Brookstone Thingie has a loving mistress...

Meanwhile, I went back to the main bar and got a beer, gazing lazily at the women but feeling utterly no urges, except at one point when I saw a woman from behind with an amazingly nice butt and legs but oops! I realized it was Carla, back on the prowl. I left, saying goodbye as I passed her and went straight for a cab. Only in the cab did I think, hmmm, although I was pretty well shaken down by Carla, maybe I should have headed for a very cheap quickie at the cubes to actually uh, attain physical completion. It would have made for a chiasmic pair of evenings, I guess; and I admit I would have done it if I'd thought of it in time. But then, I guess it's pretty interesting that I *didn't* think of it.