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Other entries in Buenos Aires

Well it had to happen, the Brothel episode

I was not planning on doing this but since Noah already let the cat out of the bag, I suppose I have to come out and publish my own version of the Brothel(s) story.

On Monday evening, Noah and I sat eating our homecooked Asado with Chimichurry, when our new friends Franz and Nelson appeared. We began chatting and found out that it was Nelsons last evening in Buenos Aires, and that he had finally been convinced by a cab driver to check out the Cabarets in town (cab drivers here are constantly asking male passengers if they want to go to these places). I agreed to go because I really liked Nelson and also because I figured that a cabaret at best might be quite an entertaining show and at worse just like a strip club. So after a few bottles of wine, split between Noah, Nelson, and I, we ventured out to catch a cab to one of these cabarets. As soon as we got in a cab Nelson asked for a cabaret in the Recoleta district, and in response the driver didnt say much intelligible, he merely pounded his fist into his open palm, said in english ( i think) girls and looked for assent. Nelson nodded, and even though I assumed that the hand motion meant that we were headed for a brothel, I was still interested to see where we were going. Now, just because this is sort of a bawdy tale I might have recourse to justifications, yet I feel no need to explain why I wanted to see a cabaret or a brothel, so I offer you no good reason. (feel free to make up your own). On our way, I leaned over to Noah and told him that I was pretty sure that we were headed to a brothel, and he merely shrugged his shoulders in respone. What was there to do, we were in this for the night, and at least we were in it together.

When we arrived at the club we paid our 30 pesos and snatched our two free drink tickets. Immediately we were ushured into a dark bar area with small dance floor in the middle. Many scantily clad women lounged around, some draped over men. As we advanced toward the bar speaking english, a man tapped me on the shoulder and asked in an obviosly north american accent where I was from. I told him the U.S. and immediately he told me about all the great places to find girls here in Buenos Aires, the best one was down the street, over there the girls could do THINGS, but the girls were too young for his friend. I looked the guy over once, noticed his tucked in flowered shirt and his penny loafers, and decided that this guy was probably here for two things, business and sex with argentinian whores. I responded as curtly as I could, because this guy creeped me out, and turned toward the bar to get my drink. Soon we were sitting in the corner trying to take in the whole place, and generally chattering in amazement about the fact that we were actually in a brothel. Soon, the show started. An older woman (not old mind you) came out in a red dress and started singing in a raspy voice, she I supposed was the show, so I was actually quite interested to see what would happen next. When she finished though, she was merely preceeded by strippers, so I supposed the cabaret portion was finished.

As we sat, I noticed several solitary women trying to make eye contact with the guys at our table. I suppose our friend Nelson made contact with one, and soon she was over at our table rubbing his arm and introducing herself. As soon as this had happened, another one came over and attached herself to Noah. Now, because I was right in the corner and completely blocked by both Noah and Nelson (i had done this on purpose) No one came over to me, so I had the pleasure of watching both of the hookers attempt to seduce these men. Noah struggled to let the woman talking to him know that he wasnt going to pay for sex, yet I think he didnt want to be blunt and just tell her. Meanwhile our friend Nelson was chatting with the woman next to him and enjoying it enough to buy her a beer. When the drink order returned, the beer cost a shocking 40 pesos, and when we asked what the high price was for, we found out that it was a kind of downpayment on the womans time. Even though it became quite evident to this woman now that Nelson wasnt THAT interested, she stayed and chatted with him while she finished the drink, the woman hitting on Noah wandered off to find a more lucrative customer. Meanwhile the next show came up, it started with a tango show, but again digressed to mere strippery. Soon we had run out of drink tickets and had made it obvious that we werent there for sex, so as we felt a little unwelcome we decided to get out of there and head to a regular bar.

As soon as we exited this place, we were assaulted by other guys promising us great girls and the like,  and had to walk about two blocks until a guy promised to take us to a great (regular) club, which was famous as a favorite hangout of the great futbalista Maradona. When we arrived our cabbie, who supposed we were stupid tried to charge us three times the metered rate, but relented when we protested. We then got out of the cab and walked up the stairs into the club, as soon as we were in there Nelson, unbeknowst to us paid another cover and got us each a drink. At this place, there were a lot of beautiful girls, and some clearly prostitutes, but it was not a strip club nor was it clearly a brothel. So we relaxed and waited to see what would happen. Soon enough a woman was talking to Nelson, and soon enough the subject of a drink came up, when nelson asked her what a drink cost at this place, he knew immediately that we had been taken to another brothel. We stood and finished our drinks and mused over the situation, meanwhile Nelson and Noah continued to fend off strippers with words, while I fended them off by pretty much staring into my empty glass. After a while there, we in my words got the fuck out of there while we still had our morals, and went home to have a late night burger.

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