When my brazilian friends learned about my blog, they all immediately insisted that I write up the brazilian motel as a man-shopping topic about which my readers should be informed. At first I was confused. Motel? What could possibly be so culturally significant about motels, I thought to myself.
As it turns out, understanding the motel is key. Ladies and gentlemen, according to what I am told, don’t even thinking about man-shopping or lady-shopping in Brazil without knowing your motel options.
Apparently, everybody lives with their families and/or parental units, including adult singletons. When privacy is needed for amorous activities, it’s obviously uncomfortable of the couple when families are living on top of each other, so brazilians need a neutral location where they can cavort freely.
Hence… the motel.
They are geared specifically for sex and are not meant to be stand-alone accommodations like hotels. Rooms are rented only by the hour, and depending on the establishment, customers usually choose from rental options ranging from two-hour to four-hour chunks, although overnight and lunchtime deals including meals can also be found. You can order room service, you can order whatever you want, apparently. What really tickled me pink was the fact that, in addition to the minibar, sex toys are made available for purchase, and porn is often provided for free. How convenient!
In Brazil, everybody uses motels. They are not roadside lodgings that are found exclusively off desolate stretches of highway, as I, as an American, tend to think of them. They are a way of life in Brazil.
While there are, of course, seedier love motels, I was also told tales about fancy multi-level love motel rooms, about expansive skylights, plush velvet wonderlands…
Whether you opt for a dilapidated little establishment on the side of the road or whether you decide to splurge for the Disneyland of love motels, there is apparently something for everybody here in this sexually liberated country.
What is this strange world? A bizarre alternate reality in which puritanical values do not demand that people hide their need and desire for sex?
Oh, this would never happen in America…
Thank you, Marina, Marta, Milena, Camila, Nicole, Wagner, Mario, Elliot, and Gabu for enlightening me about your wondrous country. Next time I promise to actually visit a love motel instead of just being lame and writing about it months afterward…