Team damaged held its annual summit conference in South America this year. Being cautious types they dedicated most of their time to Buenos Aires and one weekend to São Paulo. As well as making important and positive strategic decisions on the future of discodamaged, they managed to fit in some leisure time. If they have their summit in South America next year, they will avoid Argentina. Sao Paulo was more prosperous, more fun and the people were much more into partying. Read on for what they found and some of their adventures.
Buenos Aires
In a nutshell: 200 pesos (40€) will give you a good night out. Good food at cheap restaurants (7€ for a good meal with wine in a nice atmosphere, but you have to look around a bit); Warm in February; Cheap taxis and food but not beer or clothes. Looks like a bombed version of Madrid with lots of begging and poverty. Old school Spanish style music and clubs are not that interesting. Surprisingly, there is very little outdoor bar life. If you go, stay in Recoleta, it’s reasonably civilised. Most of the outdoor places are by Recoleta cemetery, but they are swamped with tourists, including team damaged.
Most gay venues open late – after 11pm – and they often seem to be in unmarked basement venues, so don’t forget the street number when you go look for them. Gay info websites are of dubious quality, so try and find a gay listing magazine. Even these list clubs and bars which are not open. So have a backup plan or two. In Buenos Aires rent boys are called taxi boys and sometimes when sex is in the air, you discover the other guy wants to give or take money for it. The sexiest member of our party was offered 300 400 pesos (€130 - 4 times the going rate, chief editor has corrected) for his services. It’s also not uncommon to complete sexual assignations in a sex hotel, whether they are with a taxi boy or not. There are two of these close to KM Zero and charge up to 60 pesos for a small room for the night. KM Zero is a good case in point. On Wednesdays they have a cabaret starting about midnight. After that it’s a busy disco. Typically for Argentina the music is Spanish dance – not inspiring. In this case your reporter Jack left boy friend Albert watching the show. Jack thought that there was a good half hour to go. He went to the bar and was pounced on by an enthusiastic young local who invited him out to a sex hotel. Mainly out of curiosity, Jack followed. The sex hotel was quite clean and decent. But it turned out that Jack’s fancy boy wanted 50 pesos for sex on top of the 50 pesos room rental, was a bit flabby and had a small limp cock. Jack gave him 20 pesos for effort and returned to the club. He had mis-timed it. The cabaret was over and boyfriend Albert had gone. So Jack continued his drink at the bar, where staff had kept it safely, and almost immediately another attractive man was talking to him. This one was noticeably different. He was wearing loose trousers, blatantly no underwear, and his hard cock was poking into Jack’s thigh. He showed Jack the darkroom at the back of the seating area in a long small dark storage room and fucked Jack there and then. They both needed more and retired to a different local sex hotel where there was a satisfactory conclusion. Jack returned home, rather hangdog, hoping that Albert was there too. Albert was waiting eagerly and the night got longer and better.
São Paulo
Team damaged had a weekend in São Paulo. It much livelier than Buenos Aires. They stayed in Avenue Paulista at the Ibis. 50€ per night and management were very easy going. Other prices were very similar to Buenos Aires. The IBIS is just by Rua Augusta and Rua Frei Caneca, which your team renamed gay street. The boys saunter up and down it looking beautiful and like they are having fun and they often take their tops off. Club Vegas is at Rua Augusta, 765. It’s small, sexually mixed but fun. Club Aloca (A Lôca) is at Rua Frei Caneca 916. It’s more gay, more fun, more rooms, even a very sexy small darkroom and they have issues cleaning the toilets. There’s a shelf at the back of each cubicle and they always had cleaning powder strewn all over. The team also went to The Week at Rua Guaicurus 324. Maybe their energy levels were too low. It was huge, impersonal (they didn’t speak English), two large dance floors, too many girls with hand-bags and an outside area with pool, but it rained.
Heathrow – be careful
On Jack’s return to Heathrow he was welcomed by a small dog sniffing people. The guy in front of him got embarrassing attention, but was not booked. Jack sailed through.
Buenos Aires clubs and bars
Flux bar, Marcelo T de Alvear, 980 http://fluxbar.com.ar
The exception to the rule, this one opens at 7pm. As usual it’s a basement bar and it was pretty quiet when we visited at 8 pm. The owners speak English, one is English, and so it’s a useful place to go to get tips for later.
Tom’s, Viamonte 638
Tom’s is a sex bar. Open 24 hours with reasonable facilities – darkroom / maze and cubicles, but not as good or busy as Zoom.
Zoom, Uriburu 1018, (Long street name: President José Evaristo Uribu), http://www.zoombuenosaires.com/
Zoom is the other sex bar team damaged found and their favourite. 15 pesos to get in, open 24 hours and they had a special free can of beer offer on Monday and Tuesday evenings which pulled the punters in.
KM Zero, Avenida Santa Fe 2516, http://www.kmzerogaypub.com/
KM Zero have a popular show every Wednesday. Drag queens, strippers and dancers perform. It’s a bit like the Royal Vauxhall on Tavern on speed with a small darkroom. Maybe that’s because the hostess was talking in Spanish and it just sounds fast when you don’t understand a word. The audience thought she was hilarious and her style was great. After the drag show it turns into a disco and it was packed with a fun, horny crowd. Your reporter lost his boyfriend here – see above.
Axel Hotel, 1095 Venezuela
Axel hotel – that gay hotel chain where we did not stay. They have a pool party every Sunday afternoon. We were late in the season, it was empty and drinks were very pricey for B.A.
Angel's, Viamonte 2168, http://www.discoangels.com.ar/menu.htm
Angel’s was the best club we found. It had two dance floors and the upper one had music that you might recognise. It was danceable and there were cute guys there. Prices were reasonable as usual. No darkroom.
Amerika, Gascon 1040 (www.ameri-k.com.ar)
Billed as the biggest gay club in Buenos Aires, this was a big gay disappointment. First it was 50 pesos to get in, which bites into the 200 peso per night budget. On the other hand drinks were free once you were inside, but they weren’t very good. Quelle surprise! On the third hand it was totally overrun with girls girls girls. There was an attempt at a darkroom, but it was feeble and girls were wandering through. One large dance floor with Latin tunes.
Contramano, Rodriguez Peña 1082, http://www.contramano.com/
There were more Latin tunes at Contramano and a mainly male crowd. Some team members were put off by the amount of blatant sexual financial negotiations. (Him what was offered 400 pesos.) There was plenty of space for meeting folks, there was a good mix of these and on the second visit the team got a better impression.
A Full, Viamonte 1770, http://www.afullspa.com.ar
Sauna that wasn’t very full on a Sunday morning / afternoon. But Jack had a relaxed time in the Jacuzzi, listening to Spanish chat and flirt.
Search bar, Azcuénaga 1007 was always shut, as was Men2men bar on Dr. Tomás Manuel de Anchorena 1347.
Favourite restaurants
1) La Alla de Felix, Juncal 1693. Small restaurant, small menu, good food, Felix is a gem.
2) On Junin, between Vicente Lopez and Las Heras. Cheap, cheerful and local.
Accomodation
We used http://www.buenosairesstay.com/. They did the job with expected South American chaos built in.
Sao Paulo
Club Vegas, Rua Augusta, 765
http://www.vegasclub.com.br
Aloca / A Lôca, Rua Frei Caneca, 916
http://www.aloca.com.br/
Hotels:
Ibis Paulista, Av. Paulista, 2355. Clean and friendly 50€ per night.
San Gabriel - Rua Frei Caneca, 1006. Looked OK from the outside. Cheaper than IBIS and right next to club A Lôca.
Web sites
Argentina
http://www.thegayguide.com.ar/
http://www.gayinbuenosaires.com.ar
http://buenosaires.queercity.info/about.htm
Brazil
http://madeinbrazil.typepad.com/madeinbrazil/
berlin 
Update: it was 400 pesos, one of our party was offered for sex and declined and that's 10 times the going rate - cheap if you're into that kinda thing. Also, if you're too tipsy/ edgy/ dribbling manic to bother carrying your own supermarket drinks back to your appartment in BA, they'll take it home for you if you tip them. If you fancy doing an excursion outta town, try flying to Calafate and do the glaciers/ iceberg thing or Iguazu for some waterfalls - stay on the Argentinian side, NOT the Brazilian side.
Posted by: Gavster | Sunday, April 12, 2009 at 18:18