Local officials have bulldozed tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest to ease traffic for the annual eco-conference
Brazil’s “love motels,” known for “dance poles and leopard-print walls,” are preparing in case they have to house attendees of this year’s U.N. Climate Change Conference as organizers struggle to address a lodging shortage, according to the New York Times.
The erotic motels, normally reserved for “lunch-hour trysts, clandestine affairs and passion-struck lovers seeking a few hours of privacy away from cramped family homes,” are now getting ready for hosting “diplomats and climate scientists, civil servants and environmental activists,” arriving in November for the U.N. climate conference, the Times reported.
The news comes as the 12-day summit, set to draw tens of thousands of attendees to Belém, Brazil, has left the Amazonian city scrambling to meet lodging demands amid unfinished construction and soaring hotel prices. “With less than four months to go, much of the new lodging is still not complete and the city is thousands of beds short of its target,” according to the Times.
Local officials faced scrutiny earlier this year for paving over tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest to build a four-lane highway aimed at easing traffic to the climate conference. The deforestation undermines the very purpose of the summit, critics said. Last year’s conference also made headlines when a beer brewed from recycled toilet water became a hit among attendees.
Ahead of this year’s conference, some owners of “love motels” are trying to reassure potential guests that the motels aren’t so different from any other hotel.
“People think it’s like a brothel … but it’s just a space like any other,” said Ricardo Teixeira, who manages two such motels and is not sure if he will stop offering sex toy rentals in the rooms.
Other owners aren’t so sure about catering to the conference attendees.
Yorann Costa, the owner of Motel Secreto, said he is “taking out anything too erotic from the rooms,” but added, “I have to think about what comes after [the summit]. I can’t just spend a ton of money and tear everything out.” As Costa took Times reporter Ana Ionova on a tour of the motel, the two heard “loud moans.”
“This might be a bit awkward,” Costa said. “There’s lovemaking going on.”
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