Rio Tips...

[Shep1302]

After spending four months in Rio last summer, here are a few things I picked up as I Forrest Gumped my way along. These are only my personal observations I gathered during my four month stint there last summer.

1. If you buy a girl a drink in Rio (that you don't know but are trying to chat up), and she accepts, she is most likely a golddigger or a prostitute. (Normal girls would never let a stranger buy them a drink, no matter how attracted or interested they are in him.)

2. If you are a Gringo, and you are around other Gringos, the program girls will appear out of thin air. You can spot them from a mile away because they look "needy" (This is really unexplainable, but you'll know when you see it.

3. The locals you meet will open the city up to you. Locals are suprisingly easy to meet, and indispensible for getting outside the Gringo bubble.

4. The Gringo bubble has two forms in Rio:
1. The Monger World. This world of sex tourists centers on the Copacabana Beach around Help Discoteque and the strip clubs along Princess Isabella street in Copacabana. It usually consists of fat European guys picking up extraordinary looking pros that hang out in Copa. Along with the prostitution, every concevible form of con-artist and criminal will prey upon these guys because they are concentrated heavily in two areas in Copacabana.
2. The Expat/backpacker world. This is a catch all for every other type of guy who came to Rio for other than mongering. This includes men that work for multi-nationals, english teachers, the retired, and long term vacationers or guys simply on the run from something. They hang out at Shenanigans, Lord Jim's English Pub, The Irish Pub, Barronetch, and other assorted bars and discos in Impanema and Leblon.

5. If a girl approaches you, there are strings attached (she is a program girl) or your being set up for a con. Normal girls will give you a little bit of eye contact and that's about it. You are expected to grab your nuts and walk up to them and spit game. Luckily, most girls there are very nice. They will smile and give you at least 10 minutes to run your mouth even if they are not interested.

6. The longer you are in Rio, the more of a commodity you become. The locals are so used to tourists swooping in for a one week whirlwind of drinking and whoring that they usually ignore them for the first two to three weeks. After 2-3 weeks, you will suddenly begin to register on their radar and they will begin to embrace you.

7. Rio is an amazing juxtaposition of the 1st and 3rd world. Urban ghetto squalor and "the good life" are often only a block or two apart. (note how close Sao Conrado and Rochina are to each other)

8. There is only the appearance of civil order. Rio is actually a benevolant anarchy. People park on the sidewalk. Traffic lights are suggestions. All the cops have a price. When you go out and party there, you really need to understand your safety is at the mercy of everybody else around you. Its very important to keep good company.

9. Buzios (a small town 100 miles north of Rio famed for its beaches) is Brazilian Cancun. This is where the middle and upper class Brazilians from Rio and Sao Paulo go to party (especially during their summer). This is a really untapped gold mine for meeting beautiful, upper class chicks who want to party.

10. Rio's combination of urban beach, beautiful women, abundant nightlife, and cultural attractions make it an unbeatable combination. The women (especially compared to other places in LA) are difficult and you will run into an established network of golddiggers and program girls, but the confluence of all of these positive attributes makes Rio worth it.

11. A basic knowledge of Portuguese will open doors the average tourist would find unimaginable.

12. Beautiful, well mantained, educated, upper middle class women around 30-years-old are the real treasuer of Rio. Everybody goes for the 21-year-old supermodels in the discos. If you look around and discover the 30-year-old single career girls, you won't believe your good fortune. They usually have a working knowledge of English and appreciate a good conversation. They will take you out, treat you well, and completely make your Rio experience.

[Kalel21]

Good tips man.

The 12 step program to Rio de Janeiro. Chris is the man. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[John]

Excellent practical tips, Chris. Thank you.

Chris,

About the program girls, like you said, some are quite stunning. How do you control yourself from not getting involved with one, seriously that it is?

Believe it or not, there's a small minority of Gringos, mostly black men from DC/Chicago/Atlanta/south-central LA and Italians, they hit up RJ and Salvador and marry program girls. These guys don't seem to care that their wife-to-be has bedded hundreds if not thousands of men.

I have had problems trying to control myself from not getting too involved with program girls, but it's very hard because some are drop dead beautiful, like Chris says, “stunning“.

A question for Hall of Famers and Vets...

In Brazil, Colombia or wherever, say you met your dream girl - a drop dead 10 and you both had “chemical“. She liked you and vice versa, but she's a Program Girl or Prepago and she's bedded possibly hundreds if not a few thousand men, would this bother you and if not why?

[John]

"In Brazil, Colombia or wherever, say you met your dream girl - a drop dead 10 and you both had “chemical“. She liked you and vice versa, but she's a Program Girl or Prepago and she's bedded possibly hundreds if not a few thousand men, would this bother you?"- Ray

Easy question, but complicated to answer. But I will keep my answer simple and to the point:

Let's assume that, the "you both had “chemical“. She liked you and vice versa" part is 100% sincere, heartfelt, and genuine, AND that the "she's a Program Girl or Prepago" part has now completely disappeared from her life because of her new found treasure- me, and that her new attitude's friends are now faithfulness and loyalty.

For the sake of debatement, let's also assume that she 100% free from STD's.

Now, the question: 'would this bother (me)'?

The Answer: Probably not. I am also VERY far from being a virgin.

[Shep1302]

Ray,

Like I said. I "Forrest Gumped" my way through Rio. Therefore I made many mistakes along the way, but for some reason, everything came out smelling like a rose.

Yes, I have fallen for the program girls on a couple occasions. You can't help it. I can't beat myself up about it. I will give you a Lord Jim's example from my first week.

There is an incredible grey area of program girls/golddiggers in Rio. All of these girls are individuals and need to be judged individually.

A couple of Rio mating ritual rules:

1. Public Display of Affection, PDA, is not a social taboo in Rio. Brazilians make out everywhere. Street corners, restraunts, bars, the court house... Nobody cares. Also, its pretty common that if you are chatting a girl up after just meeting her, and you don't kiss her within an hour or so, she will probably think that your not attracted to her. Its weird, but true. I didn't figure that rule out until three weeks into my trip.

2. Another thing to help me rationalize this stuff. Think of many of the casual program girls as Gringo Groupies. Certain chicks like firefighters, some like military guys. When I was in the Corps, we had groupies that hung out at bars next to the bases in Cali and Hawaii. Some of these girls simply like Gringos and are fairly indifferent towards Brazilian guys, even the well off ones.

I met a girl at Lord Jim's one night three or four days after I got to Rio. Let's call her Adriana. She was an 8.5, 26, spoke basic english, and was a physical therepist (so she said. I hit it off with her and we made out like teenagers in a closet while the rock and roll band attempted to cover Creedance Clearwater Revival. I got her digits, called her the next day, and invited her to dinner. (By the way, I offered to buy her a drink, but she politely refused. Good sign.)

I met her in Ipanema and she suggested we go to a restraunt there. Bad idea. She picks one of the most expensive Italian restraunts in Ipanema. We have a lovely meal until the bill arrives (about $100 US). But little old pussywhipped me didn't care. She was smiling and laughing at every stupid thing I said. We then went to a nice martini bar next to Nova (a disco) and got fairly plastered. (Again I paid. Another 40 bucks for Grey Goose martinis)

After that we were going to split a cab home. (which she paid for!!!) I started spitting a lot of game at her. She tentitively agreed to go up to my apartment. We did, and after a lot of forplay and sweet nothings, (I will leave it to your imagination). She left around 5 am because she was worried what my doorman would think, her building's doorman would think, and what her mother would think if she didn't get home before the sun rose.

I thought that was kind of cute though Women crack me up.

My date cost me about 145 bucks! I could have gone to Help, got ****faced, and picked up a supermodel for about $120 - and she would have gotten up and cooked me breakfast the next morning!

We went out on a couple of other dates (where I purposely tried to keep it casual) and it just didn't work out. She kinda lost interest pretty quickly after I didn't fork out big cash on the next two dates. (one was a movie, the other was a walk in the Botanical Gardens. This is a great, great date idea by the way!)

With semi-program girls, the money is the catnip. Hooking up with a girl and having a great time is great and all, but the real **** test for whether she is a program girl is the money you spend on her. If you start out forking out a lot of cash, she will expect it.

Moral of my long story: You will meet program girls and Gringo Groupies. You just need to sift through them and figure out what their individual motivations are. Some are after money, some are after love, some are after the fantasy of a knight in shiny Gringo armor.

You never know until you start wading into Big Muddy...

[Chris Swanson]

Interesting post Shep, well wrtieen , insightful.

Just how good looking are these girls anyway?
Are there some examples of these Rio disco websites?

[Shep1302]

Chris,

I am not going to bull**** you about this. In my opinion, the girls in Rio are about as good looking as the women in San Diego. There are a lot of hotties, but it isn't a Persian harim.

The discos and the beach draw out the hotties, but the supermodels require much game.

I think, on average, the women in Rio are much nicer than the girls back home. Often, I find them much smarter and in tune with current events too. But the hotties, like anywhere, can have serious "tude."

Check out the girls at Nuth in Barra. There are always "choice cut" girls there and they know it

http://www.nuth.com.br/fotos_new.htm

I was in Nuth about a month ago. I think when Chris says "game", he means "funds to produce good times".

Game = American Dollars + Big Butt Carioca = time of your life.