boystown, reynosa made for a long friday at work

boystown... to me "boystown" is some 1-800 number that is saw commercials for in the early 90's for troubled teens. as an adult near the mexican border, it takes on an entirely different meaning. apparently over a century ago, mexico developed "zones of tolerance" where prostitution was basically allowed in a controlled and monitored environment. these "zonas de tolerancia", later referred to by the regular johns as "boystown", sprung up in mexican border towns pretty rapidly. the one in reynosa is reportedly about 150 years old.

some of the crew from site were planning a trip over on thursday night (the strip clubs don't open until 10:30pm), and i went 1) out of curiosity and 2) to hang out with the guys a bit, they usually have some great stories. the plan was to go home from work, take an hour nap or so, grab dinner, and head out around 10pm, and be home by around 1:30am or so to get a bit of sleep before work. it ALMOST kinda worked out that way, as far as leaving at 10pm, at least. we drove to the border and parked our cars at the border lot for $4 (there were 4 of us and we ended up meeting 2 other guys from site while we were there). we then walked across a bridge very similar to the one we crossed to get into nuevo progreso and paid our $.50 immigration fee to the window toll person. just after that, there is a sort of plaza where the taxis line up to take gringos around reynosa. two of the guys made a quick run to one of the 24-hour pharmacies to purchase a few cialis' for a night's fun. they returned, we squeezed into a taxi, and in 5 minutes, we were at "boystown".

the taxi pulled into the only road in or out of the compound (at the bottom of the picture above, there's a little booth in the middle of the "road"), where we were stopped by the police to pay them our entry fee of $2/person, and the taxi dropped us off at our beginning destination, lipstick. lipstick is a strip club like no other. there is no cover charge, the beers are $2, and the girls are pretty much model-caliber, even the B- and C-teams. one of the guys we were with is a VIP there, as he knows all the bouncers, the managers, maitre' d's, and more importantly, most of the girls. within minutes, we were seated in a nice VIP booth, had beers in hand, and he had a few girls over talking to us. strangely, it seemed, only a few of the girls were bilingual. i figured in that kind of business, conversation would be a good moneymaker, but i guess, in all reality, they're "moneymakers" are the real moneymakers. silly me. here, chair dances on the main floor are $20, but they are unlike dances at any other club. i DID NOT experience this first-hand. jules was trusting and understanding enough to not be threatened by me basically going to a whorehouse just to hang out, so i shot down all offers immediately, but one of the guys i was with saw a girl he liked. one of the bouncers got her attention, and she came over and danced for him. typically, at a US strip club, there are strict "no touching" rules... that rule was thrown out the window, ran down the street, sloshed across the rio grande, and now waits for work every morning outside of the local home depot. there was full-gropage of bewbz, butt, and crazy-heavy nether region fondling by BOTH parties. if i was a single man, it would've been the best lap dance in the history of lap dances. the dances are so, um, vigorous AND inexpensive because it's kind of like an audition. the girls are showing the guys their skills, and for another $200-$300 + room charge, you can take her to a room in the back of the club for an hour, and she'll share her "moneymaker" with you as many times as your cialis lets you (which leads me to think, i bet the girls don't like those pills as it's had to have generally increased their "session/hour" average).

TheVIP doesn't come to mexico for "economical" women, he comes for the high-class ass, per se, so he spends most of his time in boystown here at the nice club. the guy who got the dance (we'll call him TheTroublemaker) is more economical (until he got that dance, then he changed his mind a bit), but he held out, so he and TheHippie decided to show me around the compound. the compound, as you can see from the picture, is just a walled off section of town, 2 blocks x 2 blocks. in this compound there are maybe 2 "proper" strip clubs, 4 or 5 hole-in-the-wall bars that happen to have naked girls dancing in them, and then the "booths". the booths are tiny rooms, just big enough for a bed, a fan, and maybe a radio, that line the street. they are more like dormitory rooms. you walk around the dirt road since there's only a handful of cars in the compound. the girls stand in their doorways in their lingerie. this night was a bit chilly, so a few of them stood around tiny little hibachi fires to keep warm in between tricks. some of them were actually quite attractive, though most looked a bit on the young side. TheTroublemaker was looking for something in particular, TheHippie wasn't so he dove in early, found a girl, and disappeared. there is a rule though, that no one goes alone. so we stayed in the general area waiting for him to come back out. TheTroublemaker was striking out on his efforts, that is, he couldn't find anyone he was happy with to do what her wanted. TheHippie was finished, we walked around some more, stopped at one of the "bars" i mentioned earlier. there, some larger, i'm guessing, more "experienced" girls were sitting at the bar, complimenting me on my hair, when we ran into another guy from site, ThePartyBoy, who came a bit later. at this point, TheTroublemaker had disappeared. if you walk out the back of the bar, there is a courtyard of sorts set up very similarly as outside, with doors opening into it, and the girls take you back there. i was sitting out in the courtyard, drinking my beer, when TheTroublemaker pokes his head out from one of the rooms and calls ThePartyBoy over. they talk for a minute, kinda hushed, but TheTroublemaker is getting progressively louder. ThePartyBoy goes to find one of the bartenders or someone that TheTroublemaker can talk to. before he gets there, TheTroublemaker is barreling out of his stall, butt-ass nekkid, with his clothes balled up covering his junk. he is a tall, skinny guy, and it wasn't really a site to see, though i wouldn't really call ANY man walking naked 'a site to see'. well, he was unhappy with the, shall i say, hygiene, of the girl. he wanted his money back, wanted the blankets changed, etc., and was shouting all this as he stumbled to the shower. as he stumbled to the shower, some other girls followed him in. i guess they were thinking, hey, money's money, and he's already naked. he didn't partake. so he clothed and stayed with ThePartyBoy, TheHippie and i went back to lipstick to find TheVIP.

TheVIP was nowhere in sight. we later found out that found himself a girl he knew from a few past visits, and they went back for most of the night "reminiscing". TheHippie was starting to pass out in the booth, so i asked if he wanted to go back, to which he agreed it was a good idea. so, he stumbled back to the border (i knew i would have to drive home, so i was sensible), we paid our $.75 to cross back into the U.S., and were on our way home. TheHippie was passed out as he was pouring himself into the passenger seat. his head knocked off the window a million times on the way home. he was oblivious. i dropped him off at his hotel, made him call the guys to let them know we left and were safe back in the states, and i got back to my hotel around 3:30 in the morn, only to get up a few hours later for work.

so, that is my brothel entry in this, my electronic memoirs. my first time visiting one, and it was definitely an experience we laughed about the next day at work. who'd've guessed my job would've taken me to such strange places.

sorry for the non-chronological entry of this post. this happened about a month ago, and i forgot i'd started the post. the one picture kinda sucks because it was on the sly with my camera phone. i didn't wanna just outright take a picture like it was a flesh-zoo. and in the second, the red box is the compound with a gate on the south side.