First off, major props to my wingman for the trip, a gentleman known as "Ron Medellin" on the CRT board (and "RM" in all further references here). His last-minute decision to make the Rio trip forced my hand and provided the impetus for switching my own plans from an already booked free trip to Peru using my Taca miles. Interesting how our contrasting styles/philosophies played out - mine: maximize the experience/bang-for-the-buck (after all, you pay cover to get into all these places) by pushing yourself to your physical limits to wring the last iota of pleasure out of every venue/encounter; his: play it cool, only pulling the trigger when truly inspired to, maximizing the experience by saving your energy reserves for when it really counts. Given our twenty-year age difference (me being on the long end) you'd think it might have been the opposite, but we made it work nonetheless - though I was perpetually lagging behind due to my tendency to pull girls out of Help and keep them for extended periods the next day.
Okay - first off, booking the travel. Since this whole trip was so last-minute, we had to scramble a bit both for airfares and living arrangements. From a cost standpoint, the only days it was still feasible to fly were Xmas Eve and New Year's Eve. Which meant that on both our arrival days (Xmas) and departure days (New Year's Eve) the termas would be closed. Bummer - but that still left us with five good days, although two of them were weekend days - not ideal either, since the Centro termas are closed both days and Centaurus on Sunday. Fortunately, Help was open every night including Xmas.
Finally pulled the trigger on a fare of just over $1300 total on American, connecting in Miami on the way down, and then Sao Paulo and Dallas/Fort Worth on the way back. In the meantime, RM had reserved another itinerary for me for less than $900, which I could have switched over to for a $200 change fee. It connected in Sao Paulo and Santiago, Chile, on the return, before flying direct to LA. Sounded great - however, it meant leaving Rio six hours earlier than the itinerary I already purchased. And so I had to ask myself - is it worth $200 just to spend an extra six hours in Rio? The answer - hell yes it is.
Next issue - living arrangements. And for a while, it looked bleak indeed. Tried Ipanema Towers - totally booked. Tried a bunch of referrals from friends, but it seemed no matter who we called they either had nothing available, or else something ridiculously expensive. Furthermore, most insisted on us booking an entire 10-day time slot going past the famed New Year's Réveillon celebration that was pulling in all the tourists.
Then a stroke of luck - referred back to my "Bwana Dik Rio Guide" (indispensable, BTW), and decided to give Don at Amerioca Tours a call. Miraculously, he still had a modest two bedroom place in an older building in Copa just a half-block around the corner from Help that he was willing to rent to us for a total of $960 for the six nights. Despite some misgivings about safety in that area, we had no choice at that point and jumped on it.
RM and I met up in Miami and shared a nice exit row on a half-empty plane (thanks to RM's gold status) for the long, smooth and uneventful flight to Rio. Don's driver was right there at the appointed time to chauffer us into Copa for just R60. Met up with Don in his office (talk about "laid back" - Webster's probably just has this guy's picture there instead of a written definition), who checked us in and escorted us to our digs a few blocks away.
Were pleasantly surprised by the apartment - an older place to be sure, but with some character, good space, decent furnishings, full kitchen, nice TV/sound setup in the living room, good shower and plumbing, free (wired) Internet, and two nice-sized bedrooms - one with a king bed, the other with a queen. Having booked the place, I took dibs on the larger of the two bedrooms, which with its decent king bed and adjoining alcove, beat the hell out of the small room with two twins pushed together that I got stuck with in Ipanema Towers on the last trip.
After unpacking and settling in, ventured out to see what was going on. And as one might predict on a Christmas Day, almost nothing. A virtual ghost town (by Rio standards). Just about everything except the farmacias and a few restaurants was closed - preventing us from even hitting a grocery store to stock the fridge.
But it was a nice enough day, so after taking a few photos outside Help for posterity (nice momentos in the event the planned closing happens) we decided to hoof it all the way over from Copa to our typical hangout at Posto 9 in Ipanema Beach. Decent day with a decent number of people out there, but nothing like we would see later on in the week. Taxied back late afternoon, cleaned up, and decided to head over to Meia Pataca off Atlantico Avenue in Copa for refreshments and dinner - a popular hangout for GDPs looking for an early evening score.
Help Discoteca
And sure enough, within ten minutes of sitting down, an attractive brunette appeared and smiled in our direction. I invited her over, and then it dawned on me - it was Rosangela - one-half of my last night dupla on the Thanksgiving trip. Far from the tightest body by garota standards, but beautiful dark eyes and hair, "bundao" in spades, and best of all - an absolute nympho freak - in particular, easily the most dedicated and enthusiastic salad tosser I've ever encountered. (I cracked up RM a few days later on Ipanema Beach when I told him "If nothing else, I'm going to go home with the cleanest ass I've ever had"…)
Photo: Rosangela 01
Rosangela
Photo: Rosangela 02
Rosangela & "bundau"
(BTW - this is the same girl who had actually given me a "performance guarantee" in Help on my Thanksgiving trip - saying I could pay her and her svelte friend Erica either R175 or R250 each, depending on how I liked the session. They got the higher figure.) On this barren Christmas day in Rio, she seemed like manna sent from heaven. Little did I realize at the time how fateful this little encounter would turn out to be…
Photo: Erica & Rosangela 03
Erica & Rosangela outside Help
We wasted little time reacquainting ourselves (she later claimed to have had an orgasm while we were making out at the table) - meanwhile her friend Simone showed up and joined us. It looked like RM and Simone were getting along fine, so we finished off dinner and headed back to the apartment for our long-awaited first bunda of the trip.
Over the next ten hours or so (with a few hours at Help sandwiched in between), Rosangela and I hit it no less than four times - phucking on practically every surface in the apartment - living room sofa, computer table - even the kitchen counter (her idea). Her salad tossing skills were in fine form, and we quickly added anal to the mix for variety.
Later I would wonder if this fortuitously fateful encounter had happened completely by chance, or if "garota net" might have actually kicked in already at that early point in time. Who knows - anyways, Christmas was over and time for RM and I to kick things into high gear…