I like to rent beachfront apartments, Vera Campos (vera@rioapart.com) found decent places at decent prices. This trip, as for the last three years, my cousin David and I shared an apartment (he was to leave after a month, so I arranged a smaller--and cheaper--one for Revillion). Both places were on Ave. Atlantica around Rua Francisca Sa, near Sindicato do Chopp at the south end of Copacabana Beach, about five blocks from Help. And I wanted to have a front-row seat for the fireworks New Year’s Eve.
Doing some early research, I stumbled on Club Hombre. Here, I found advice that seemed very useful even to someone like myself who’d been there, done that (at least to some extent). And reports of others making the same mistakes I had made--although I might still have made those mistakes even with the benefit of others’ experience--I knew it wasn’t a reasonable idea to send Paloma $250, even if I had fallen in love (lust) with her my very first night in Rio, and she seemed to want to be “my woman”--but I did it anyway.
Photo: Paloma 01
And I found I had been overpaying the garotas. My cousin had taught me the ropes as I knew them, he gave garotas a hundred-dollar bill for their time, whether it was overnight or an hour in the afternoon. This time, we had some heated markets on labor market distortions, I was seeing the effects some others have reported (asking prices going up). He rationalized his practice and refused to change because he was helping out impoverished disadvantaged people--charity.
I collected advice, and bought a number of supplies, some of which I used and some of which I didn’t. Best suggestion: Dimage Xt camera, better than my bigger Sony. Worst: Ghirardelli chocolate chips, I put them in the refrigerator and my cousin ate them. And he didn’t even kiss me (thankfully).
What made the most difference for me this time was learning some Portuguese. I had the first 8 Pimsleur lessons, and had listened to six of them last year. This time I got the rest of the first 30, and for 5 weeks before I left, I gave up talk radio while driving and got serious about Portuguese. I spent 1 to 2 hours a day driving and practicing. As a result, I was able to communicate--slowly, and not very articulately, and I had a lot of trouble understanding what people were saying, but it made a BIG difference. So big, I started reviewing the 30 lessons immediately upon my return while I order the next 60. And I’m going to get a tutor here (hopefully, a beautiful young nubile female, but definitely somebody a native speaker who is fluent in English and can explain why they express things the way they do). Most of my communication with the garotas was in Portuguese, simple as it was. Actually, I was more frustrated being able to talk a little than not at all, but that’s because I got a taste of the garotas I couldn’t otherwise get--only a taste, and I want more. But it was fun having them teach me their language, and I learned a lot beyond Pimsleur (like tenses).
Still, I used a translation program (Power Translator Pro 7.0 Translation Utility). It doesn’t work perfectly, but it’s better than nothing, especially since I understood enough Portuguese to be able to point at a phrase and say “nao bom” when the translation was off, and then try to express it differently to get a better translation. When I say I talked with a garota, it was either in my elementary Portuguese, often using a dictionary for some words, or with the help of the computer if we were in my apartment.
The other major factor was the help of a fellow Hombre who lives in Rio, Brazil_Specialist. Reading some old boards, I felt that he had been unjustly criticized, he seemed like an OK guy, and I made e-mail contact with him. After talking with him (I dialed a local [310] number that rings in his Rio apartment), it looked like he could help with some things I needed. I considered the services of the guides who provide translation and other services, and decided that they would be more useful for a first-timer than for me. Brazil_Specialist was incredibly helpful to me, most of the girls (and the best ones) that I hooked up with were with his help, he saved me a lot of money on garotas, let me use his facilities, and provided a lot of useful information I hadn’t found on the previous six trips.
One thing I had gotten excited about reading the boards was going to the termas--I hadn’t really gotten into them previously, but got a new perspective from this board. I planned my Terma Tour, going to each on the list twice, really evaluating them and writing it up. But I didn’t get around to that, I was too busy with girls who gave more time for less money in the comfort of my own room. Yes, a different experience, neither better or worse, I suppose. Maybe next time--but maybe not, too--I had such a good time with the garotas I was with, including many who weren’t putas, just regular girls with jobs who wanted a little extra money. We had so much fun….
And after reading about others’ experiences, I was more open than usual to my instincts , and not as intent on pursuing my own preconceptions. For instance, “my girls,” the college girls I spent a lot of time with, weren’t my preferred body type, but they were fun and there was just something fresh about them. So I saw them again, and again. And it got better and better. I hadn’t realized at first they were lovers, or that they enjoyed snagging another girl into our bed. But because I went with my feelings, I got to play out a major fantasy--and I’ll be seeing them again, next trip.