www.CostaRicaTicas.com

Been digging back in the archives a little recently checking out some of the posts from when the board first got off the ground in late 2003. One thing I was a bit surprised at is though the players have changed a lot over the years, much about the scene (or at least our impressions of it) hasn't changed all that much between then and now.

With that as a preface, I'm throwing up this little poll to solicit some opinions - especially from some of the long time vets - as to how much they feel the scene has gotten either better or worse during the time CRT has been around. I'm particularly interested in what you feel might be the peak year and why. Also as to which way you think things are currently trending and why.

Not to prejudice anyone too much - and maybe it's my 'newbie at the time' sentimentality kicking in - but for me, 2005 was definitely the best year I've experienced so far. And I'll list a few of the reasons:

1) Sportsmen's having just opened in November '04 - providing a unique, comfortable, monger-oriented lodging option and alternative to the Blue Marlin for hooking up with quality independents at a reasonable price.

2) The remodeling of Zona Blue with the addition of the new cigar bar in July '05, and corresponding expansion and improvement of the lineup. It's been a much better place to hang out ever since.

3) Oasis - in 2005 offering incredible talent at a bargain basement price. Nowadays, most of the stars there at the time (Pamela, Laura/Lorena, Johana, Karen, Jessica, Cindy) have long since moved on. It's doubtful anything else will come along to match the routinely amazing experiences to be had then for a mere $20/hour.

4) Kamur - in 2005 the class of the mid-level clubs, offering incredible talent (Kelly, Vanessa, Roxana, Chyna, Johana, Rubi, Ericka, etc.) and great on-site facilities before the unfortunate late-year management decision to convert the back rooms into costlier and less comfortable VIP lounges. Through two subsequent ownership changes, it hasn't been the same since.

And to the newer members - even though your perspective may be a bit limited, feel free to chime in as well...

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Check out http://weluvlatinas.com/ for the web's best info on the latin american monger lifestyle...

"Brick and mortar items" aside.........I can honestly say that every trip to San Jose is better than the previous, simply for the reason being that I continually make new chica friends who I am anxious to see, and who also seem genuinely happy to see me.

Zebra

Amigo,

As I am just approaching the first anniversary of my mongering life (May 6, 2006) I am certainly in the "newer member" category so I'm disqualifyng myself from voting in the poll.

However, I am not surprised at your comment:

One thing I was a bit surprised at is though the players have changed a lot over the years, much about the scene (or at least our impressions of it) hasn't changed all that much between then and now.


In my limited 1 year experience I have seen no difference in the scene. Yet when I strolled into the Del Rey at midnight 6 May 2006 for the very first time, I felt so ALIVE. I was in a truly and thorougly foreign environment and all my senses were at full attention and it was such a rush. When I sat at the rummy table and some gorda with a cara hermosa played the rub the pene game with me - it was such a unique and different (and intensely pleasurable) experience that it gouged out a deep groove in my memory. I didn't session with that girl that night, but picked up another and at 4am at the Balmoral I had my first BBBJCIM in Costa Rica, and both these memories are very vivid and fuerte and I expect that I will wax nostalgic about them for a long time.

As I pursued these experiences across 12 more trips, the newness of the scene wore off, but I became more efficient at finding my pleasures and identifying what worked for me. Now I can waltz into town, know precisely how to float my boat, and do it, and yet since I am familiar with the scene, I don't experience the same intensity. I'm quite confident and content with the status quo, at the moment, but I suspect that I won't have those "nostalgia" feelings over the current trips and over time I may even forget about them, as gratifying as they are.

I think that eventually, one gets so used to a certain routine, that you start to go through the motions with less and less consciousness and feel almost like your sleepwalking through it. At this point, as the saying goes, familiarity breeds contempt, and you will no longer be able to get your rocks off like the good old days. Like building up a resistance to a drug.

(As in "ZB...not feeling it")

And then perhaps a paradigm shift is needed.

Pattaya, DR, Medellin, Rio, Prague, a novia o un otra cosa.....no se

So I agee the scene doesn't change much. We do. We as indviduals are in a constant state of "becoming", changing every moment. It's up to each of us to subjectively find new and challenging elements of this mongering thing (la cosa nostra) in order to keep it fresh, feel alive and continue to enjoy the high of the ride.


PHX

_________________
Why settle for just one woman when you can enjoy them all?

....Hmmm not very scientific... But

The older I get the better looking a 20 year Chica looks over, under,
in front of, or next to me....!!!

Sometimes I have to pinch myself to see if I'm still alive for it's hard
to believe I get to do this and live like this....

PIDD

YO Yesteryear:

The chica factor except for dinero is about the same if you limit it from 2003 to date. The stampede of CRTers has grown abundantly. The expense and hassles of flying there has also grown a bit. Sadly the overall atmosphere, in my opinion, has eroded and it's no longer the hidden jewel it once was. Yea, it's difficult to see it from those eyes that have just discovered CR or have only a few years of travel there. I still miss pre 1990's and 1980's but then again my pecker misses those years also. Wish this group was around 20 years ago beating the bricks on Avenue Central.

An PIDD, you RR track slut......I just know you are like a fox in the hen house now that you are living there.

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Damn if I'm going to repeat this shit again. I need a drink.
I've been drinking vodka every day for 45 years and I have certainly never found it to be habit forming.

While I can not comment on the scene in the 1980's have to agree with Circus. The early 90's were a great time for mongering in San Jose. The prices were much more reasonable and the chicas were certainly much less hard core. They also had two things, that I prefer, that seem to be gone forever. 1. Natural breasts. 2. A bush.

The main improvement in my opinion is having a group like CRT. In the old days you had to mesh schedules with a wingman or fly solo. Today you can also arrive solo and find great wingman.

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Pura Vida
Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four
essential food groups:
alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.
Alex Levine

I fully expect Circus is right that the 80's and 90'a were much better than the present era prior to all the internet exposure. I unfortunately was not in a position to experience that era but for me 2005 may have been my best year in CR. I had gained enought experperience to have the real quality time wiht the ladies but it was also still fresh as I had just started the hobby early 2004.
On anouther note last year may have been better overall due to expeincing new places like Peru and Philippines and this year may be even better.rbc100

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In Search of Fine Kittens,
Please... Bring back the Muff

I suppose the most noticable change came after Al Gore invented the internet [ ] and Pfizer invented viagra.

I agree with Circus. Actually, I'm a bit surprised there are so many votes somewhere in the middle. Since you restricted this poll to such a short timeframe, it really comes down to whether one in general thinks things have trended better or worse. Any fluctuations a little worse or a little better along the way are so subjective that I would think it would be hard to pick out any particular year in the middle.

I think it has to be more than just a coincidence that the best year for GR also happened to be right after he joined and that the "'newbie at the time' sentimentality" is no small part of his assessment. True, he cited some brick and mortar and some personnel changes that occurred around that time, but SJ has been constantly changing. Why not cite the year Arte's Sauna closed (the "Oasis" of its time and far closer to the Gulch) or how about when the Park Hotel closed and they stopped doing the infamous Oil Show?

The bigger qualification to the "either its all been getting better or its all been getting worse" hypothesis is that some of those who are in the things were getting better camp might see 2006 or maybe even 2005 as the peak year since the big increase in airfares has really only occurred in the last year or so. And I think Circus is right about that. Even if you think things were getting better the airfare aspect has really radically shifted the value equation in a negative direction even if it was not already going in that direction already.

The other problem I have with some of the posts is that it seems clear that some of those posting really weren't there in 2003, so how can they fairly say. They'll either think their starter year was the peak (like GR did) or that things have changed for the better in that even shorter time frame. And how can you really assess such global changes over just a a few short years.

Part of what we are seeing is the adding of a personal dimension to what suggests it is more scientific, objective and generalizable.

"Out of the past five years, in which year did Costa Rica offer the best overall mongering experience - considering overall variety, quality, value, etc.?"

"Best" is an absolute term but it is also highly subjective. "Best" for who? For mongers in general, for newbies, for vets or for just the person replying? Things probably have gotten better for particular individuals in at least some respects since they gain experience, knowledge and contacts with each subsequent trip, as Zebra has suggested for HIMSELF. But does that mean it has gotten any better for the average newbie fresh off the plane on his first trip ? At the other end you have Phoenix who has gotten somewhat jaded by it with each subsequent trip AND HE'S A RELATIVE NEWBIE. How much more jaded could an old vet get who has been around even longer? And, as before, despite our loss of excitement since that initial burst of discovery and thrill we had on our first trip, does that mean it is any less exciting for a newbie setting down in CR for the first time today? I'd think that aspect of initial excitement is if anything much greater today than it was even just a few years ago. And I'm an older vet of the "things have been getting worse" camp but I'd still have to concede that point. And finally, Pidd talks about how its gotten better because HE has gotten older and thus can appreciate the young chicas even more. I can also see that point myself but again it is referring to a change in ONESELF and not any particular change in CR

The big gripe I have with CR is this. Yes, new venues have opened up and there has been a flood of new girls from all over the place flooding into that market. But which came first the "chick" or the egg? I think the egg came first, in this case the flood of new mongers that attracted and fed into the flood of new chicas. So while you have greater variety and "quality", you also have much more hustle. Since many of these new guys to CR are newbies to international mongering let alone never having read boards like CRT, they make newbie mistakes in terms of pricing and negotiation. And that has spoiled it for the rest of us. The girls at the HDR ask and often hold for cien because they can often get it and not because they're any better than they were just a few years ago. And even when you can get a chica for the same price you paid for similar quality girls on earlier trips (I'm not going to talk about the lower price you can get with chicas you've seen before since that brings the question down to the personal level that I explained about above) those girls generally don't perform at the same service level that they once did. I think this realtes to the excessive tips that many (even many CRTers who should know better) have lavished on these gals. Instead of seeing GFE as a service level that is expected as a matter of course and a tip as a reward for TRULY superlative service, they expect a large tip as an entitlement to be expected for even the basic GFE quality that I at least always expected was part of what I had negotiated at the bar. Does anyone really expect anything less than BBBJ, DFK and no-rush as part of their basic service? Why should we have to tip just to get that?

Even at the newer GRINGO places like ZB and NF, some have reported running into CBJ's and hold outs for large tips to take it off. And those places START OUT at MUCH higher rates than the tico places. True the girls at those places are often (though not always) more attractive and perform at higher service levels than the tico places, but that is why you are paying double the basic fee. Why have they changed so much? Is it because some guys see nothing wrong with dropping a 25% or even 50% tip for basically the same quality service that all the girls are providing at those places? Or its because these gals know the even more ridiculous amounts that chicas are asking for and far too often getting at plces like the HDR/BM?

Guys, it doesn't have to be this way. There are still places in the world that are unspoiled by the flood of newbie mongers. I just won't make the same mistake next time of letting the cat out of the bag.

Pro.....Good points. Makes sense.

Prolijo,

Excellent post and helpful differentiation between change in venue vs change in personal point of view. I am more in the PhoenixRising category (also a good post) at this point due to my relative inexperience but growing interest.

I hope for my sake and that of the newer mongers that your impression (that things have gotten worse in CR) is incorrect to the extent that it implies that things will continue to get worse. After all, Costa Rica seems to me to have so much more going for it than any other venue in the hemisphere.

GR, good poll for thought provoking discussion.

Ciaociao

Prolijo's post and some of the other replies point out the need to better define the criteria I'm looking for here. Since everyone's personal experience is indeed different, I was actually looking for a more or less "objective" assessment from the perspective of the best experience for a newbie arriving in CR for the first or second trip.

Naturally, one can only take into account their own time spent in CR in making such an assessment. Personally, I wasn't around during the time of Arte de Sauna, so I have no idea if it was as good or as good a value as Oasis in 2005. But activities like the Park Hotel oil show (and the infamous Europa Hotel show that I attended once in 2005) aren't my cup of tea at all - though maybe for others they were a key part of what made the scene special to them at the time. So I guess some subjectivity will always figure into it.

I still maintain that 2005 stands out "objectively" in my experience, even though personally, my late-2006 trips were probably more rewarding overall due to the deeper connections made and more "quality time" spent with several of the girls. But for a newbie I think 2005 remains unique as the year when the scene first began maturing into it's current form, with an expansion/upgrading of key venues and huge influx of great talent. And much of that talent hadn't been around long enough at the time to acquire any sort of jadedness yet. Girls like Pamela or Lorena had only phucked a few hundred guys at that point rather than over 1000. Fab Five girls at Sportsmen's were charging $50/hr without any negotiation required, and routinely hanging out and partying in your room for hours afterwards instead of immediately heading for the door.

And as Prolijo already noted, with the recent explosive growth of the monger scene, much of this talent has now been spoiled by the lack of discretion with prices paid and tips doled out. Getting solicited for tips at ZB used to occur rarely or not at all - now it's pretty much common practice. And "cien" hadn't yet become the standard mantra for every puta in the Del Rey.

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Check out http://weluvlatinas.com/ for the web's best info on the latin american monger lifestyle...

There were 6900 registerd CRT users in May 2006 when I joined. I think there about 10686 today. That's a 55% increase in a year.

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Why settle for just one woman when you can enjoy them all?