Of course, in my era (1960's -1970's) we had the tubs where everyone paid $3.00 and was a whore. I do miss those days. Now, from November through April The Squeeze and I spend spring and summer in his home town, Buenos Aires. He thinks it's small and provincial. I, however, find it to be working hard to be as sexually open as Rio or Sao Paolo.
One of our favorite places to go isn't a sex party. Instead, it's the most curious and entertaining venues for public sex I've ever been and I've NEVER discovered anything remotely similar anywhere in Europe, South East Asia, or Brazil (the rest of South America as well as Central America and most of México is far behind about being open and ignoring sexual activity, especially gay -- if anyone thinks I'm wrong, please correct me).
Anyway, Wednesdays at 12:00 we meet up at the porn cinema on Hipolyto Urigoyen just south of Avenida 9 de Julio. It's a tiny basement venue with two theaters, one straight and one gay, separated by a hallway. The real name of the place is
Equixx, but we call it
El Cine de los Abuelos (the cinema of the grandfathers). Wednesdays they knock of a whole 3 Pesos for a ticket that's good for 12 hours. And that 3 Peso discount really brings out the senior and mature gay men who live in the city, outer suburbs, and some guys as far away as La Plata, the capital of the province.
And why do we like it? Well, The Squeeze was simultaneously Otter AND King of the Bears of Buenos Aires for three years in a row until he bowed out of the bear scene. But as one of his official duties, he would make "appearances" as various gay venues representing the Bear Community. The first time we ventured to this little porn theater it was as if we had entered a sex party and we both felt a bit out of place. Practically everyone who goes there is 65 years old or much, much older. It's like a gay Senior Citizen sex party sponsored by AARP. And that's what I find so charming about the place. A variety of "mature" men show up who have obviously known one another since they were in their early teens -- now they are 65, 70, 75 years-old. They meet and greet each other with big warm hugs and kisses, jokingly feeling one another up and checking to see if anyone might be interested in friendly circle jerk or something more adventurous.
On those days The Squeeze and I show up we sit, kneel, stand, and bend over the front row in the gay theater and enjoy engaging in a display of public sex. Rarely does anyone try to interfere or bother us. In fact, both theaters are packed with senior citizens doing exactly the same thing. And we are
major voyeurs. It's rather amazing (and heartening) to see three or four old men (remember, most Argentines are reasonably fit, even when they are old) lazily hanging together taking turns sucking one another off, kissing, and passionately making out. It's the most innocent and romantic group sex I've ever witnessed. Hell, these men are porteños and there's no other gay culture quite like senior porteños who have lived through some of the worst oppressive political eras imaginable. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain by going at it like rabbits, if they still can.
To my amazement I've seen arthritic
men in their 80's with walkers being helped down the steep set of stairs by their friends. They check their walkers with the hat and coat check guy and . . . zooom, they're off to suck as much cock as they possibly can. But more importantly, they aren't being dangerously promiscuous. They usually meet up with other men they've known for most of their lives and the theater manager makes a point of issuing a condom with each ticket as well as provides trays of condoms in the hallways and entrances to the theaters.
Sometimes The Squeeze will look at me a decide, "patético, vamos" and we'll leave after just sitting in the theater lounge and drinking an espresso and chatting with some of the elderly gentlemen as we check out men in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and 50s (me, I'm still in my 50s!) who also show up to satisfy their grandpa fetish. But it's all rather amazing. These seniors show up, unzip their pants and keep their dicks whipped out for most of their stay. It's the sheer unbridled commradarie that amazes me. I've never seen anything like it anywhere in the world, except BsAs. And if some Walter Houston look-a-like comes up to you and bluntly cups his hand in your crotch, all you need to do is smile and say "Gracias, pero no." and that's it. He'll continue on to other prey without having his feelings hurt one bit.
Unlike the USA, Argentina hasn't forgotten that old men need a quickie and a bit of affection, too. I only hope that if I live to be 70 years-old El Cine de los Abuelos still exists, or another venue like it where I can shuffle around and get off my jollies. It's quite the place.