Feb

2

Carnival Calamity: South America’s Biggest Sex Palace Shutting Down?

Filed Under GFE, Help Discotech, Rio de Janeiro, girlfriend experience, prostitutes, sex tourism, sex travel | 5 Comments

If anything can dampen the mood for sex tourists at Carnival, it’s this: Help Discoteca, Rio de Janeiro’s hooker central, has been targeted for extinction. This huge nightclub across the street from Copacabana Beach is a magnet for working girls and gringos. I’ve met some of the most extraordinary women there, including one who was “off the clock.” Like most of the girls at Help, Bettina was a prostitute. But she wasn’t working that night. Then why was she there, I wondered. Just because a sex professional’s off-duty, she reminded me, she still has certain “needs.” I’m sure any guy there would have volunteered to fill her needs, especially if they knew her price for that night: Zero. I guess my timing was right, though (not to mention the vagaries of “chemistry”), because much to my surprise, Bettina chose me.

We hit it off well enough that we started dating. It’s the only time I had a bonafide romance with a Brazilian prostitute without paying for the first encounter.

Asshole that I am, I fucked up a great relationship by standing Bettina up one night. By that time our relationship had become “normalized” to the point where we would have gone out for dinner/drinks, maybe a nice stroll around Copacabana, then return to my apartment for passionate — and here’s the key point – free sex. Instead I opted to blow her off to pay for sex with another girl I knew from Help. I called Bettina the next morning and tried to BS her that I’d gotten too drunk to make the date. But she knew I was full of shit. She told me never to call her again, that I was just going to keep hurting her. She was probably right, of course. One of the reasons I’d become such a dedicated sex tourist was my inability to sustain “normal” relationships. Not that I was really into cheating on my girlfriends. Just that once things settled into a reliable pattern, the original electricity was gone. Rio became a refuge — a never-ending parade of hot women available for sex at relatively bargain-basement prices. With so many to choose from, how could you ever get bored? The conundrum for me, though, is that I like the idea of romance, of building something substantial with a woman. And I don’t care if she’s a Harvard-educated doctor, or a Brazilian prostitute. As long as there’s chemistry.

But I digress. According to Brazzil Magazine, Rio’s governor has expropriated Help’s building and intends to use it for the city’s Museum of Image and Sound. This is a shattering development to those of us who consider Help one of those magical bridges between earth and Paradise.

Jan

26

Sex Tourism: Everyone’s a Stud in Rio

Filed Under Rio de Janeiro, prostitutes, sex tourism, sex travel | 1 Comment

[Here's the text of an article I wrote for now-defunct Rockstar Magazine]

How would you like to be fucking girls as hot as the ones in this magazine? I’m not offering you a course in self-esteem or a bunch of “surefire” pick-up lines? My solution is more basic: Dive prick-first into the flesh markets of Rio de Janeiro.rio sex tourism article Read more

Jan

25

Sex Tourism: Cheap Thrills in Brazil

Filed Under Rio de Janeiro, sex tourism, sex travel | 2 Comments

[This was my first article on Rio (minus a few editorial changes in the magazine version), originally published in Hustler Magazine in Nov. 2004. Here's the published version, if you prefer.]Huster Magazine sex tourism

Forget that giant statue of Jesus welcoming you to Rio de Janeiro. (It’s a wonder the Vatican hasn’t ordered it airlifted to a saintlier place, like Vegas.) A monument to Heidi Fleiss would be a better symbol of what awaits you.

From its beaches to its business district, Rio is one huge legal brothel. And we’re not talking crack-whores. Gorgeous “garotas de programa” (”program girls,” Brazilian slang for hookers) are yours for the taking. Read more

Dec

20

No sightseeing. Just sex.

Filed Under Rio de Janeiro, prostitutes, sex tourism, sex travel, sexcapades | Leave a Comment

Here’s the text of a piece I did for Britain’s Front Magazine. (The motherfuckers went bankrupt–hopefully my article wasn’t the reason–before they paid me for it.) A scan of the published version is here.

Some will rightly take me to task for not mentioning in the article that I’m a patron of Rio’s prostitutes. It was mainly to make the article more objective–in reality an impossible task–by keeping myself out of the story.

—————————————–
Front Magazine Feature: Sex Tourism
Headline: “I HAVEN’T DONE ANY SIGHTSEEING. JUST FUCKING” …
You want a holiday full of sun, sea and sex? Or just the sex? Rio de Janeiro will give you whatever you want … For a price. Read more

Dec

17

How I Became “Addicted” to Brazil’s Sex Scene

Filed Under GFE, Rio de Janeiro, girlfriend experience, prostitutes, sex tourism, sex travel, sexcapades | Leave a Comment

Until my first trip there in March 2003, I essentially had three images of Rio de Janeiro: Carnival debauchery, a huge statue of Christ, and pristine beaches whose names I didn’t know. Copacabana to me meant Barry Manilow. I knew the song “Girl from Ipanema,” but I didn’t know it referred to a beach in Rio. Half the time I’d confuse Rio with Buenos Aires.
Read more

Dec

13

Hooker Confessions: It’s Your Money We Love, Not You

Filed Under Rio de Janeiro, sex tourism, sex travel | Leave a Comment

Ariana is a regular at Help, Rio de Janeiro’s hooker central, the hub of sex tourism there. I’ve known her since my first trip to Brazil in 2003. I started out as a client, but we’ve since become good friends. I adore her. On my latest trip, we went to eat at a 24-hour diner in Copacabana. (Funny how I never knew about that diner before. The place is so Americanized.) I was telling Ariana about my latest “drama” with a working girl, Emma. I’d also started out as Emma’s client, but we quickly evolved into something more “substantial.” Now, though, Emma wanted to take it back a notch, insisting that I pay each time for her company. Wake up, Joe! Ariana told me. “Don’t you know by now that all of Rio’s prostitutes are actresses, and this stuff about love is all an act?”

When does it become more than an act, I asked her. What if you end up meeting a working girl and staying together for six months or a year, and there’s no money involved anymore except the usual boyfriend spending on girlfriend kind of stuff? You still can’t be sure, Ariana said.

What if you end up marrying the girl and spending a life together? Is it still all an act? If that’s the case, then all relationships involve a degree of acting. Maybe there’s no such thing as genuine love. Only people convincing themselves–and each other–that they really love their partner. I think Ariana agreed that I might have a point.