Strip Show in Buenos Aires / Rio?

[BgMstr4u]

Well, as I have informed the whole world on basically every other relevant part of this board, I am going to Buenos Aires and Rio for three weeks this month, and seeking as much info as I can get.

 

Are there any strip shows in BA or Rio? I understand that there are shows in some of the saunas in Rio... does anyone know which ones? And clubs in BA which have gay shows -- the drag thing doesn't interest me, but stripping definitely does!

[mjd]

In Buenos Aires there is a stripper bar, Titanic. It's in Recoleta and almost adjacent to a hotel that I'd recommend "Wilton Palace". It's a late night place, think it doesn't open until 11pm and shows considerably later. Start clothed or g-strings but end up naked with hard ons.

 

In Rio I've seen stripper shows in Pointe 202, Club 117, Meio Mundo saunas. Wouldn't surprise me if all didn't have them. But the whole idea of stripper show in a sauna filled with the most incredibly gorgeous hot guys already mostly naked and all willing to show you their hard on?

 

Hot gogo's at Le Boy but haven't seen em naked; supposedly to be shows at La Cueva bar but never happened on the nights I was there.

 

My favorite club in Rio is Incontru's which has three strippers for each of their nightly drag shows, usually around 2 or 230am. Each does a Chippendale type dance, coming out as constructon worker or some other costume and dancing. At the end of the show they all three troup out fully naked with raging hardons!

[crazy4u]

There are strip shows on certain nights in every sauna in Rio.

Le Boy has gogo boys every night and also sometimes shows with boys stripping fully down.

Incontrus has closed once and for all. They have started renovating the place and it will soon become a medical test clinic !

Too bad they closed Incontrus. I liked that bar better than the other bars, despite it was going downhill for the last years.

[Regina]

Your trip sounds great. Can you tell me how much it costs for a vacation in Buenos Aires/Rio? I mean travel, lodging, meals, that sort of thing. Also, how much for "expenses?"

 

Many thanks.

[BgMstr4u]

Happy to tell you what I can.

 

My flight was $681 to Buenos Aires on Hotwire. I looked and looked and this was the best. It would have been a little better if I hadn´t dithered a day or two too long. The quoted airline prices are much more. But for some odd reason it is cheaper to fly to BA than to Rio. The taxi in from the airport (don´t even think of doing it any other way) was 59 pesos, about US$20.

 

You can get a good hotel for $50 to $100. I am staying at the Bauen Suites Hotel, which is fine except that I can´t bring visitors to the room. But I am with friends some of the time and they made the arrangements, with a very good rate, so I´m not complaining.

 

The main thing to know about BA is the division between north and south, which happens more or less at Avenida Santa Fe. The north is generally quieter, more middle and upper class. My hotel is on Corrientes, a main east-west street south of Santa Fe, which I like, but is busy and noisy and full of people. There are quieter areas, like Recoleta. Taxis are very cheap and easy to get. I have yet to pay more than US$3. The Howard Johnson´s that is widely recommended is near Avenida Florida, a pedestrian shopping mall. I don´t like the atmosphere of forced shopping mall-style very much. Roberto (see below) says that the gay friendly guy there may not be at the HoJo anymore.

 

Food is very cheap. The nicest places I have been had the main course for something like 17-21 pesos. Many simpler places are half that. Basically divide by 3 and you have the US equivalent. I had a marvelous lunch in a very upscale restaurant on Alvear, one of the ritziest streets, for 33 pesos, steak, salad and wine (the most expensive glass on the menu). That´s about US$11. Argentine wines are wonderful. But the diet! The locals like beef, pizza, bread and potatoes, in that order. Fruits and vegetables are far down the list. This is vegetarian hell (I´m a carnivore). I can´t figure out why so few people are fat.

 

The Museo de Bellas Artes is free, as is a visit to Evita´s tomb in Recoleta Cemetery. Lots of things cost less than 5 pesos, i.e., less than US$2. Books are cheap. Argentina has a lively artistic and literary life. I have never seen so many bookstores, and so many people -- including young people -- buying and reading serious books. I hired Roberto for an afternoon tour, and he showed me around, things I wanted to see -- art galleries, museums, etc. A great tour guide. The minute gallery types sense you´re from the US, though, the prices are suddenly in the New York range. Robert said if you are serious about buying -- and I saw some paintings I would love to have -- get a local to make the arrangements. He himself is very knowledgeable about art.

 

I had always wanted to go to the opera at the Teatro Colon. They were doing Barbiere di Seviglia. You cannot buy tickets online or by phone, and when I got the the box office all there was were partial view and standing room. I bought a partial view for 7 pesos (try that at the Met!), and saw about 1/2 to 2/3 of the stage. This is one of the points where you realize how oligarchic Latin America in general, and certainly Argentina, still are. The good seats are simply not available. Ever. Any of them. You have to be born into the right circle to get them, or have friends, etc. They are all sold out before the season is even announced. The very architecture of the theatre segregates those in the upper areas, the cheapest seats, from the orchestra and more fashionable balconies, with side entrances and endless stairs. The two populations don´t even mix in the lobbies.

 

I had never been to BA before. I love it. It is like a busier, scruffier Paris, which was of course the idea of the Porteños who built it. My one complaint -- the sidewalks on Corrientes are in the worst shape I have ever seen. My guess is that there is no legal recourse for liability.

 

One small thing. The government has been artificially holding down prices before the general election in October. Politically the country is run by the Peronistas, and the current President, Kirchner, is a fairly typical Peronist ... subsidies to everyone, massive political corruption, actual discouragement of the economy in some sectors (export taxes on the most productive commodities, foreign investment monies that mysteriously disappear into political pockets, intervention into management, refusal of rational pricing, etc.). Several thoughtful people have told me that the private (state entities sold to private companies under Menem) firms which run many things fairly successfully are just waiting till after the election for the government to start re-nationalizing, so that they can get out from under a situation that is now stacked against them. That means that lots of things won´t work, or won´t work as well (telephone, for example). Everyone expects the current stability to last only as long as it takes for the 3 Peronista factions to fight it out -- there is no real opposition, the Radicals under Menem having pretty much discredited themselves when they had the chance. They are widely viewed as simply not competent to run a government, and massively corrupt. The Peronistas, who can´t unite around a single candidate (they don´t have to) are seen as only ordinarily corrupt, and actually more or less able to get the job done. Bottom line -- the longer you wait, the more likely it is that the current stable situation will unravel in some unpleasant way. The only good news is that ever since the generals were pushed out, the military has been massively discredited, and more importantly, underfunded.

 

I hope this is helpful.