Steve and I had a quiet dinner at the hotel (we were both staying there) and went to sleep relatively early. There didn’t seem to be any prospects for female evening companionship of any kind among the guests at the hotel.
Friday December 5: Met Steve for breakfast, then we took the tour of the Argentine side and the boat ride on that side. Highly recommended! Similar to the one from the Brasil side, which I had planned to repeat, just with different views of the falls.
On the way back, we went to the Bird Park just outside the Falls Park. That was a visually incredible experience, also one I highly recommend. The toucans were friendly, posed for us (and one seemed to want to get into Steve’s pants, was nipping at him). The colors of the parrots, the variety of the birds, some endangered, and other creatures I’d never heard of before were all well worth seeing.
That evening, we took a cab into the town of Foz d’Igaçu for R$60. Edgar had suggested some places we could find working girls. I decided to do some research, and check out the places not reviewed on this board. Our first stop was the Captain Bar, which had a sparse smattering of people at 8:30 but nobody that looked like working girls--Edgar said it would have a mix of regular and working girls. The one English-speaking waiter said that it would be more crowded by 10. We walked a block down to eat at Emporio da Guza (or BR-3), a incongruously fancy restaurant which encouraged children (a kid was riding his restaurant-supplied Big Wheel around through the tables, others were making noise, the street was quite noisy with the town youngsters driving up and down loudly with blaring stereos). Food was authentic Paraná, good but not great, and the atmosphere sucked with all the commotion. Service was very elegant, and the food was well-presented.
We walked back to Captain Bar, which was now quite crowded, with tables overflowing onto the sidewalk. Some probable working girls eyed us, but the only attractive girls did not look like they were working girls, and they didn’t seem friendly. We didn’t make eye contact with the ones we wanted. Of the ones that looked possible, the two or three that were doable (barely) didn’t seem interested, and had only fleeting contact with our obviously mongering stares; the others at their tables were not attractive and/or heavy.
The next stop was Vicius & Manias, a few blocks away. Nothing was happening at 11 PM, it was actually not open ‘till 12 (they locked the door when we left, apparently it wasn‘t supposed to be unlocked yet). A woman who worked there said that it would not be a good place to find working girls (Don’t know who she was or how much she knew). It appeared to be a fairly small club, and there was another club we didn’t see next door, probably a gay club.
So, our research having failed to turn up anything new, we went on to Cristal. WARNING: Cristal may be much more expensive than you expect. Buy a girl a drink (or one for yourself), you’re out R$50 or R$55. We talked to the guy at the entrance, he said it was R$27 each for entrance fee, the girls went for average of R$180, some R$200 or R$300, no rooms on premises. Steve asked a lot of questions--but not some of the ones we should have asked (who knew?).
Once inside, Steve went up to a cute blonde, who apparently rejected him. He couldn’t believe it, so I went up to her and asked in Portuguese if she didn’t like my friend for some reason, he wanted to buy her a drink. She said OK, vino, so I introduced them. A minute later, Steve was back from the bar alone. They wouldn’t sell less than a bottle of wine, for R$160 or something. He walked away from that one, and the garota walked away from him, but we didn’t leave at that point.
We saw a pair of sexy spinners, and started dancing with them. Steve bought his a drink, later to find it was R$55. Mine (Patricia) wanted wine, and when I relayed the story about Steve’s first girl, Patricia said no, only R$55. I said I wanted to spend my money on her, and by the way, how much? Damn, she was cute, with a tiny, perfect spinner body (which included a nice bust). R$300 she said, I said R$200, she gave me a thumbs up. I helped Steve do the same for his girl and he asked for the bill to settle up (they don‘t make you pay as you go, they surprise you at the end!). That’s when we found out they also wanted R$100 bar fine each and we had to pay that AND the girls’ fees to him up front (before leaving). Soft drinks, R$8, water R$10, girl‘s drinks R$55. RIPOFF. And the manager was sleazy when we tried to talk to him, and Steve got pissed off. Really pissed, and I wasn’t too happy either. We paid the bill and left--regretfully, because the girls were HOT, but knowing that that kind of a set-up all to often is the prelude to a disappointing experience, and it would have ended up being a very expensive--and late--evening, what with taxis, motel or hotel charges, and all. My girl might have been worth R$300 for an hour or two, but having your values of fair play violated was not worth it. Alas, I’ll have to wait to get back to Rio tomorrow. Getting laid in Igaçu was too much trouble.
Saturday December 6: Steve and I had a leisurely breakfast, then I went for the walking tour of the falls on the Brazil side. A spiritual experience with the roaring falls above, a rainbow below, spray tickling my face.
Steve was going on to the Amazon, so we said goodbye. He was thinking seriously about returning to Rio instead of going back to Thailand next year. A Rappe tours guy took me to the airport.
Bottom line of the Cataratas d’Igaçu experience: not to be missed if you have time (and a few bucks), but bring your own garota. Don’t waste your time mongering where the pickings are slim and expensive, spend it seeing the incredible sights. Take either two days or three days, my two-day tour cost about R$1,800, including meals and tourism fees (and the Cristal debacle).