www.CostaRicaTicas.com

I thought it might be interesting to see how the numbers associated with travelers have grown with the board. I also thought since so many new members have been joining it would be interesting to see how many are going.

I first came to CR on pleasure/business/pleasure in Feb. 2007. I fell in love with CR but it was not until August 2007 that I was able to make arrangements to return, which I did for 10 days. I made trips in September and October and have airfare bought for a December trip. I also have a canceled ticket I plan to use in Jan 2008 but I have not used it yet.

I can see where a lot of guys move on to greener pastures from CR but I live in Michigan and I can get to SJO for usually under $300 r/t and the total travel time each way is between about 7 and 9 hours, including layover.

I can leave my house at 4:00am EST and be standing in the gultch at 2:00pm local time - I can't think of a faster way to find easy poosie.

I come for exactly the same reasons. There are better destinations if you are going for weeks but if you are an every 30 to 60 day long weekend easterner or midwesterner then it is sooooooo convenient and FUN!!!!!!!!!!!

I went for business. Was at the Melia Cariari, had dinner, talked to a few guys at the bar. Said they were going downtown, would I like to join them?? Nah, I was tired, but they finally convinced me. I was in and out of the DR in about 3-4 minutes, first porker that hooked on to me. How naive I was.................hooked on CR since...............

I have NEVER made a monger trip.

I made several trips to Costa Rica and I moved there before ever visiting the gulch.

I will admit to pulling a girl on the side a couple times, but never visited for the purpose of mongering.

My first trip was in 2004, I moved to CR in 2006

While conducting research to find a closer place besides Asia and Europe for P4P, a place I could go to for an extra long weekend, or full week, my choices were narrowed down to Venezuela, or the Dominican Republic. I then came upon CRT, and on May 24, 2004 I arrived for my first adventure in Costa Rica, starting with a good nights rest. I have since given up on Venezuela, but may someday go to the Dominican Republic.
ShyOne

It would have been even more interesting if you had at least included a range of dates going all the way back to the actual beginning of the board in 2003. Just because you first got here in 2005 doesn't mean there aren't a lot of other guys who had been going long before you. Besides there are 5 available options and you only used 4. As of this past September, CRT is going into its 5th year so, if you want to include a category for those who have yet to go, I think these options would be a lot more telling:
A) 9/03-8/04 or earlier
B) 9/04-8/05
C) 9/05-8/06
D) 9/06-8/07
E) just went or yet to go

Better yet, (particularly judging from the initial results) include some special ranges that even predate the start of CRT. After all, there were a few of us going there before CRT ever came around. How about these:
A) the 90's or before (the pioneer days)
B) 2000-2003 (the CRS era)
C) during the 1st couple of years after CRT was born (roughly 2004-2005)
D) just in the last year or 2 (2006-2007)
E) still planning 1st trip

BTW, for me my first (plain old) trip to CR was the winter of 2000. I wouldn't call any of my trips expressly "mongering trips", though mongering is often a big part of many of them. I had also mongered in several other countries long before that.

Great idea! In January when this poll ends. I only did it for 30 days. Why dont you set one up! I am sure it will be far more interesting and telling. I will be glad to participate.

This is something I have heard a few times and wanted to comment on. I have never mongered anywhere else and have every intention of going to a few other hot spots in the future. However, I would be very surprised if I found any place that would replace CR as my #1 vacation spot. Over the past few years I have listened to the stories of many world travelers. They have told me how much they loved the girls in Asia , Russia , PI , Brasil , etc. Sure, I could travel to these places numerous times and even become as familiar with the different cities as I am with San Jose. But, from what I have been told countless times, there is no other place quite like HDR. First of all, while I like Asian & Russian women, I still prefer Latinas to any other. Secondly, I am now accostomed to having a couple of hundred of them available to me on any given night and confined to a small area. Travelling across town for sex would seem like an inconvenience to me at this point. Dealing with non-latinas would also seem like a step down the ladder. Trying to look or act like the local men is something I refuse to do because I have no delusions about why I am there in the first place. Poosie! ...Not to show anyone that I have game or to find a wife. If some type of a relationship happens then it happens , but it won't be because I became desperate enough to change just to avoid the p4p part. Peru , Colombia and even the mountain towns of CR may offer some very nice prospects as far as keepers go, but I have yet to hear anything to convince me that any place in the world would be better for me personally...than the gulch. Greener pastures probably wouldn't look so green to me based on price & silicone alone. A place that could match the gulch in sheer number of LATINAS for hire is the place I would want to see. Still haven't heard of one.

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"With foxes, we must play the fox." ~ Thomas Fuller

Shawn,
For shear "numbers to variety" ratio with a big dose of convenience thrown in, I would have to agree with you, the Del Rey is pretty tough to beat.

That being said, with as many trips as you make each year I would suggest you make at least one trip to another venue just for a change of pace. You might find out what all the talk is about.

Knowing you as I do I would suggest you spend about four days at the Medellin Mansion. After that trip you could spend about 7 days in RIO.
Spending time with Paisas in their natural habitat or an evening (or 3) in a RIO terma are experiences I think you would enjoy.

Lima, Quito and Buenos Aires would all be places you could visit and still use your Spanish skills.

Just an idea.
Wit

Shawn4delrey wrote:


I guess you missed the part where I wrote several times in several trip reports that on any given night if you just sit in front of Terraco Atlantico Patio (pictures in recent Thanksgving trip) there are over 100 free lance ladies available. A couple hundred more will walk past by and go directly into HELP disco. So there are over 300 freelancers available, which is much more than the Delrey in just one place.

So from 8:00PM - 5:00AM HELPE disco is the place to be. From 8:00AM one small block from HELPE there is a "Hooker beach" where you can pick up an early in the morning freelancers. There should be 20-30 available. One block from HELPE and right across the street from "hooker beach", there is Meia Pataca beach front restaurant where additional 30-40 freelancers available. Just this "copa gulch area" has more ladies available compare to the Delrey.

To put this in a clear context. It would take you longer to walk from HDR to ZB, NF and SL than the 3 places in "COPA Gulch".

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Live today as it was your last day, for tomorrow may never come.

Yeah, Dino, but then he would be stuck with only hot, mouth-watering Garotas that would screw his eyes out and beg for more.
No Ticas or Nicas or Dominicans or Colombians or Panamanians with bad attitudes and stretch marks.

And where is this exactly please? I don't get out much. Of the DR that is.

_________________
"You can only keep a secret between two people if the other one is dead." Ben Franklin

How small an area do you really need? You can probably squeeze a dozen chicas into a phone booth but that wouldn't make it the best place to monger.

I'm not sure of the exact square footage but I'm guessing you could easily fit 5-6 Blue Marlins in the area that Helpe occupies (including its upper floor area). So just in terms of sheer size and space it easily has the BM beat (they aren't even in the same class). Does it also have 5-6 times as many chicas (or garotas)? Probably not and so, to some, at first it might seem that there aren't as many there, but then think about it.

Most of the BM chicas are wedged into the space right next to the bar area (where you can barely pass through at peak time) and so the place SEEMS to be overflowing with them. However most of the 1st floor of the HDR is still the lobby and casino and, while there are also chicas hanging out in those areas as well, they aren't nearly as thick. The bar area and the real "spillage" area immediately surrounding it is probably even smaller than my own home. Big deal if that gets filled up. There are lots of little non-P4P bars that get just as crowded.

Helpe is much more spacious. To fill all that space up would take a really huge business but Helpe does a pretty good job of attempting just that. They have one big main open area with an extremely high ceiling and a wide upper balcony with still more seating ringing the sides overlooking the large dance floor. So, for the most part, you don't feel nearly as confined as in the BM. Also unlike the BM, you can pretty much take in the whole place visually from anywhere in the hall. Paradoxically, this can create both the sense of more and less girls at the same time. More because of the hundred or so girls in your immediate area as well as the hundred or so more on the other side of the room, but less because, like the BM it also has areas that aren't as crowded and also seeing all this at the same time may make the place seem a little emptier as well. But there are also areas, particularly around the SEVERAL bar areas and on and around the dance floor, where you also have to struggle your way through the crowds, just like the BM.

So while the visual impact is much different and hard to compare, I'd guess on numbers if there aren't 5-6 times as many garotas to fill the place up, then there are at least 2-3 times as many. Besides its not sheer numbers that matter as much as ratios and quality, which compare very favorably with the BM and, with that many gals to choose from, there are easily more than enough real hotties to go around.

And that doesn't even take into account the patio area that Safa talked about. Again probably about twice the area of the occupied part of the BM and filled with tables most of which are occupied with garotas waiting to get into Helpe. I agree with Safa that this area is probably the best place to do your hunting.

And during the day both the BM and Helpe are closed or practically empty. What do you do then? Rio has the Termas, which can best be described as male pleasure palaces with many incredibly hot and available women. About the closest thing SJ has to that is 1 place (ZB), but ZB would just be another place in Rio.

While we're talking about P4P venues concentrated with dozens or hundreds of providers, why restrict ourselves to hotel bars or large discos? I know you prefer latinas but on your other point there are many varieties of places around the world where you don't have travel "across town for sex", try "to look or act like the local men"(?) to have "a couple of hundred of them available to you on any given night and confined to a small area". For example, Bangkok has several MP's where there are literally a hundred or more girls "on display" behind the glass just waiting for you to pick them (set price and no need to have to negotiate). They may not be latinas but with that many there have to be some you find appealing. And then in the same city there are adult entertainment zones like Soi Cowboy and Nana Plaza where the individual bars may have fewer gals than the BM, but if you add all the places up within the same block there are easily many many more girls to choose from than the BM even on its best night. And in Pattaya they have street after street each filled with dozens of such bars lined up conveniently one right after the other.

Sure, "there is no other place quite like HDR", but that doesn't make the BM, better only different. It isn't even really that special. If you want the emotional security and familiarity of the tried and true, then maybe you should just stick with the BM. You could do worse. But, if you limit yourself, you'll also never do better. For other people, the possibility of finding someplace even better than what you've already tried is motivation enough. For others, just the fact that it is new and different and fresh is what makes it better (until it too becomes old hat). But its not really about one place being better or worse than the other. Just because we find one really hot chica we really like doesn't mean we swear off all others for the rest of our lives. The same could be said about where we go to find these women.

And again, where is this place? In San Jose or another country?

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"You can only keep a secret between two people if the other one is dead." Ben Franklin