i love brasil!!

here's some details, us$=r$3.1, ratings are imho of course (i'm quite picky, and i live/party in south beach):

sampa-
visited here at least 3 times. small cover, maybe r$10. girls are 5-8s. all girls we talked to started at r$150 for various times, 2hrs or all night. i suspect all would stay the night, unless you take one out very early and she has a mind to go back for another shot - which i did see happen the one night we stayed for a long time with our girls. i talked one down to r$125. the lesser looking ones might go for less, if you talk them down i suspect. exit fee of r$15 for taking a girl home. a call vodka is about r$15-10, a red bull maybe r$8, a beer about r$8, if i remember correctly. optimal arrival for me is between 11-midnight, say 11:30. get there after say 12:15 and you won't have your choice of location. after 1a some good girls are already taken.

bamboo-
visited here many times. no cover, no exit fee. girls are 4-7s. maybe an 8 there. girls are not quite as clean as sampa, and more likely to not have had dental work. r$100 seems to be asking price, though i suspect the lesser looking ones get less. limited quality liquor choices, but drink prices are very inexpensive. 10 oz draft beer is r$1!! 20 oz german bottle is maybe r$7. get there about midnight. after say 1:30-2a the best ones are taken, but not always, some arrive late.

av conselheiro aguiar-
i found it very fun flirting with these girls. but it's a serious drop in quality, say the best might be a 6. of course, very cheap, r$50-75 at most. but these girls are not too clean, and likely haven't improved their dental status.

beach, in front of recife palace and from there in both directions-
gotta love brasil. all a gringo has to do is sit/stand around and the girls start trying to make eye contact. pick one out, if she smiles back she's yours. worst case scenario is you get a phone number or you have to work through a couple of dates (ie she's not into taking money), otherwise you can likely get her back to your apt, whether she's a girl from the scene or a girl trying to make some money on the spot.

cuba club-
or something close to that. it's well south of boa viagem, on the other end of piadade. i think the girls wanted maybe r$200 for 2 hrs? my friend took one, and she did leave after about 1.5 hrs, he worked her ;-) anyway, a local friend of mine brought her to lunch a couple of days later, and what i thought was just a lunch date (he kept telling me we won't have to pay them) was followed by 2 hrs in the sack. i paid her r$50, though she never asked me for money, she did ask my friend for money from me... i didn't see many good girls in this cuba club, but i only saw like say 6 girls. 4--6 or -7 with a 7-for-sure i guess.

i stopped by one other place, but i don't remember the name. it was towards the airport, but not the place many of the locals all say to go to, which is right by the airport. this was an outdoor place in what looked like a bad neighborhood but was probably just a typical neighborhood. it was surronded by walls, of course. it looked like there were some good girls, 5-7s, i saw an 8, but we got there late. my local friend said it opens at 5p, and we wanted to hit it at like 8p, but never made it. they did want a cover, don't remember how much.

we also spent many times at the bars and clubs, chasing the other crowd. fasion club, teatro, bar do bode, some foho/pagode outdoor dance thing that happens only on sunday (but it's a huge gig) about 20-30 minutes into the city away from boa viagem (i thought this was a good gig - tons of girls of the other type).

food-
the best restaurant is boi preto (black bowl). about r$30 for the best meats and buffet in town! there are many good self-service (buffet) spots in town, for very cheap and excellent food. a great one is only about 3 blks from bamboo, it's called chica pitanga. you'll struggle to spend more than r$15, and for say r$10 you get a great plate full of your choice (choose what you want from say 3 meats, 2 chicken, 3 seafood, 2 fish, many veggies, maybe an ox or goat or rabbit, and killer deserts). for a nice regional food (if you want that) self-service, go to parraxaxa. about same price as chica pitanga, but i liked c.p. better. we had a killer meal at some restaurant right on the beach (over looking a paved bball court that the kids were playing soccer on) in piadade. the parking lot was across the street from the place, and the taxi drivers stayed in the place while you ate and then gave you a ride home. i mean, tell this description to a taxi and it'll be enough to get you there, without the name of the joint. the fish with shrimp sauce (whole fish stuffed with shrimps) was maybe the best thing i ate the whole time, maybe r$12.

hotels-
we stayed in the suite at the recife monte for a week. then i moved to canarious, about 1 blk away, for 3 nights after my friend left. the monte was totally girl-friendly, but made them register (where in recife doesn't require registration?). canarious, hmm, did they require registration? i don't remember. but they were certainly allowed the girls up there. we checked out some other hotels, and they were not girl-friendly. this included the tall hotel acorss the street to the north (not the dive to the south) from the old church (church is at praca do boa viagem, or at rua novegantes & rua barao de sousa leao). i've heard the palace is not girl-friendly.

i went to porto de galinhas also. a good place for a real resort scene. no real girl scene though, so bring one from recife. nice usable beach, sailing, snorkelling, surfing (maracaipe beach about 2 mi south). good inexpensive gifts for the girls can be found where the main street hits the beach, or in the little "mall" of 6 stores about 2 blks from beach on this street on the north side. things like cool stone necklaces r$10 or bracelets $r3 or nice little earring stuff r$1-3 the girls all love.

the ocean at boa viagem is not usable. first, it's always very windy, so don't be thinking carribean-type ocean. also, in 1993 or so they build a new jetty out of the port, which changed the way the run off and polution moved into the sea, which killed many microscopic sea life, which caused small fish to move, which caused the big fish to move. thus, all the tiger sharks now congregate at boa viagem. it is not safe to swim, let alone surf. people die in the sea there every year. it was not like this before they modified the port or what ever they did.

good laundry / dry cleaner across from the old church (to the south). second day return, low prices (half my suitcase for maybe r$30).

internet cafe down the alley across from the old church is cheap - r$3 for 1 hr!

pharmacies don't require perscriptions! (except for narcatics like valium, etc). so plan to load up, if that's your gig. viagra (make sure you get the 50g doses, the 25g doses don't save you 50% money) is like 4 for r$70.

we also met many girls (amateur) at the recife shopping mall.

hope this helps my fellow hobbiests!

Thanks for the report flmonger
Did you fly direct from Florida (airline?) or did you fly from Rio or SP?
How would you compare Recife to other Brazil cities hobbywise?

i flew mia/gig/rec,
then out rec/gru/eze

i like the smallness of recife (still a city of 1-2 million), compared to rio... girls are less 'conditioned'. but the selection is better in rio. i have yet to visit natal, forta, or other northern cities...

us$=r$3.1 If you just went recently it's been higher than that for a weeks. Are you sure you didn't get ripped on the exchange.
on oanda I see it as:
Minimum price = 3.56500 / 3.56500

dracul, my trip for the original post here was in aug-02... us$=r$3.1 was going rate then.