Dez's Digital Nomad Thread: Colombia (1 Viewer)

I've been married to the same woman for over 22 years so I haven't had to deal with this, but I don't think I would have the energy or patience to deal with all of the drama.  Tough to determine if the payoff is worth it without pics of the chicas. 

Thanks for the updates Dez!

greedygoat said:

I've been married to the same woman for over 22 years so I haven't had to deal with this, but I don't think I would have the energy or patience to deal with all of the drama.  Tough to determine if the payoff is worth it without pics of the chicas. 

Thanks for the updates Dez!

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Yes, it is exhausting and wears on your patience.  I seem to have hit the ground running this time though so that takes a lot of the pressure off.  Sometimes you get the bear and all that.

PM Sent.

Yesterday Colombia lost to Peru in a World Cup qualifier that was played here in Barranquilla.  They had way more chances but couldn't convert, and the Peru goalie stole them of a couple (one a great play with his foot that was probably mostly luck), then they gave up a soft goal in the waning moments.  Colombia hasn't fared too well and I fear they won't qualify.  That would be a shame because I was here during the last two World Cups and it was great.  In 2018, I was in Cartagena watching them play against England where Colombia scored in the last minute on a corner kick to send the game into extra time.  In 2014, I was in Bogota when they played against Brazil in the semi-final.  Exciting times.  I hate soccer but I pull for Colombia and like to see the excitement and joy of the people.

Colombia vs. Peru highlights
You can kind of see the kick save here at 6:00.  Not sure why it doesn't show up in the other highlights because it was huge.

Yesterday I checked in with Maria in the afternoon.  She told me that she was watching the game with some friends but we would get together afterwards.  About 7pm she wrote and told me she was finishing her beers, then around 8pm she said she was going to head for my apartment.  That seemed a little strange for her but it turned out that she and her friends had gone to a bar close by to watch the game, and they had a car and dropped her off.  I went down to get her and she was looking very cute in a little black tube type top and jean skirt.  She said she had to go to the bathroom badly so we started up but the portero said she had to register first.  She was dying to go to the bathroom but we got her registered and hopped on the elevator.  She seemed pretty well lit to me and said that she'd had about 8 beers.  We got upstairs in time with no issues, then went walking over to Buenavista to find some food.  She told me that she had class at 7am the next day (today), so I figured she was telling me right off the bat no late night.  I asked her several times if she was ok because she was not quite stumbling, but having some balance issues walking.  The whole time from when we got on the elevator, were in the apartment a bit, and walking, she was leaning on me, putting her arm on me, putting herself in position for me to put my arms around her, etc.  When I saw her a couple of times back in Sep. she was very affectionate in this way as well, it was just there was no payoff at the end lol, barely even a kiss.

We got over to the mall and the food court was packed with people who had been out watching the game.  A sea of yellow jerseys.  We found a restaurant to sit in and ordered food.  She literally ate her meal with her left arm around my shoulders, her left leg on my right knee, and her head laying on my right shoulder, just using her right hand for the food.  At times when she put the food down she would put her other arm around me as well.  We had some Cokes and after a while she seemed more tired than drunk.  We finished up and walked back to the apartment, she went to the bathroom again and I turned on some music.  She came out and got on the couch next to me, laid down, and put her head in my lap.  We listened to music for a while, she was reaching up playing with my hair, I was kissing her shoulders, rubbing her leg, etc.  After a little while she said she had to go and pulled out her phone to call a car.  It needed charged so we stood up to plug it in and while standing she started dancing with me to the music that was on, doing all that sexy latina stuff.  After a few minutes of that she checked her phone, hit the app for the car, and within 2 minutes there was a car outside waiting.  When I saw her in Sep. she had insisted both times we went out for me to ride a car to her place to pick her up, and this time she wanted me to accompany her home.  As an engineer I find that annoying, as I'm paying double for no reason, but it's a $5 round trip so whatever the lady wants I guess.  We went out into the hall and before she put her mask on I went in for a kiss.  She reciprocated there and in the elevator, but no tongue .  On the way home she said something about being able to see me again today but we didn't make any official plan.  I'm not sure what to make of her, exactly.  This was the third time we've been out, she's always acted interested in seeing me and been super affectionate each time.  But little in the way of kissing and certainly nothing more.  Going slow?  Maybe inexperienced (though that's hard to believe from just about any girl these days, much less a colombiana)?  I'm starting to question how much fun she would be , but she seems like a good person and I have fun hanging out with her so I shouldn't think like that .

Got back to my building and asked the portero about registering her, because it seems like sometimes they do and sometimes they don't.  He said that they're supposed to register everyone and that the administration is always looking on the cameras, so he tries to register everyone, especially at night.  We talked for a while then I got in the elevator to go up.  I was almost to my floor (in between my floor and one floor down) and I heard a boom, the elevator shuddered slightly, and the lights went out .  I was on the elevator, between floors, in the dark.  I said you've got to be kidding me, then thought if only I'd stopped talking one minute sooner .  I remembered the last time I was here one of the porteros had told me that there was a backup generator in the building that was used to power the lobby, the lights at each landing, and the elevators in case of a power outage.  I tried to wait calmly, hoping that the guy downstairs would remember that I had just gotten on the elevator in case I ended up stuck.  After about a minute, the lights in the elevator came on and it slowly started inching downward in small start/stop movements.  When it got to the floor below mine, the doors slooooowly started opening and as soon as I could squeeze through I got out of there and headed up the steps to my apartment.  The power was out in there but it came on about 20-30 minutes later.  30 minutes after that it went out again, and it was about 12:30 by then and I decided to just go to sleep and hope it was fixed by the time I got up.  Actually, from my balcony I could see some guys working on the lines across the street.  I'm up and writing this update now, so all good!

I was in Argentina for the World Cup. Went to a little bar for the England game. Argentina won. The entire country went bat #### crazy.  one of the best times I’ve  ever had, watching any sporting event. 

Didn’t hear from Maria all day Saturday, even after I sent a message in the afternoon asking how her class went.  I sent another message Sunday (yesterday) in the early afternoon and she responded and said all good.  She asked what I was doing and I told her, but didn’t get any response from her after that .

Around 7:30pm on Saturday I sent Vanessa a message saying that I’ve been here a week already and she still didn’t want to see me.  She just replied with “soon, dear” and then at 3am Saturday night she posted a video from a bar with a bunch of people dancing and carousing and then a couple of pictures of her outside in her little black dress.  So I guess she’s got better things to do.  As a reply, I posted a video from back in Oct. of me dancing with Jessica when I went out partying with the girls in Bucaramanga (as if it had been that Saturday night or something), and Vanessa commented later that I looked lindo in the video.  So this may all be played out at this point and I’m rapidly losing interest.

I wrote to Taylor around 8pm Saturday night (yes, shotgunning as it got later and later lol).  She didn’t reply until Sunday and said that she had worked all day and went to bed early.

I had written to Mary (Sunday girl, not sure if I was going to see her this trip) last week telling her I was here.  But that was the last I’d heard from her until I sent her a note Saturday afternoon and asked her when we were going to see each other.  She said you’re here? and I re-sent the message from last week (where I told her I was here) and said yes.  She said she’s been busy and apparently had missed that part of our brief conversation.  On Sunday (yesterday) she wrote to me at 7pm asking if we could see each other that evening.  I said sure, and she replied that she would get ready and come on over.  I hopped in the shower and she ended up arriving around 8:30pm, looking suuuper cute in a little white top that was sort of a small piece of cloth kind of wrapped around her several times.  She’s definitely cuter in person.  We caught up while watching the rest of the game, and she explained why she had barely written to me while I was gone the last almost three months.  I’m not sure I completely bought it but I took it at face value.  After the game ended we got comfortable on the couch and after a little while .  She ended up leaving around 12:30 and I stayed up until she got home, so another brief night of sleep, but I'm not complaining .

Update from Delight: she's got a new job that allows her to work from home from anywhere, so she's moving from Bogota back to Riohacha which is about a 4-hour car ride from here.  I told her she should come work from my apartment for a few days after she moves and she said she would like to do that.

Dez89 said:

Didn’t hear from Maria all day Saturday, even after I sent a message in the afternoon asking how her class went.  I sent another message Sunday (yesterday) in the early afternoon and she responded and said all good.  She asked what I was doing and I told her, but didn’t get any response from her after that .

Around 7:30pm on Saturday I sent Vanessa a message saying that I’ve been here a week already and she still didn’t want to see me.  She just replied with “soon, dear” and then at 3am Saturday night she posted a video from a bar with a bunch of people dancing and carousing and then a couple of pictures of her outside in her little black dress.  So I guess she’s got better things to do.  As a reply, I posted a video from back in Oct. of me dancing with Jessica when I went out partying with the girls in Bucaramanga (as if it had been that Saturday night or something), and Vanessa commented later that I looked lindo in the video.  So this may all be played out at this point and I’m rapidly losing interest.

I wrote to Taylor around 8pm Saturday night (yes, shotgunning as it got later and later lol).  She didn’t reply until Sunday and said that she had worked all day and went to bed early.

I had written to Mary (Sunday girl, not sure if I was going to see her this trip) last week telling her I was here.  But that was the last I’d heard from her until I sent her a note Saturday afternoon and asked her when we were going to see each other.  She said you’re here? and I re-sent the message from last week (where I told her I was here) and said yes.  She said she’s been busy and apparently had missed that part of our brief conversation.  On Sunday (yesterday) she wrote to me at 7pm asking if we could see each other that evening.  I said sure, and she replied that she would get ready and come on over.  I hopped in the shower and she ended up arriving around 8:30pm, looking suuuper cute in a little white top that was sort of a small piece of cloth kind of wrapped around her several times.  She’s definitely cuter in person.  We caught up while watching the rest of the game, and she explained why she had barely written to me while I was gone the last almost three months.  I’m not sure I completely bought it but I took it at face value.  After the game ended we got comfortable on the couch and after a little while .  She ended up leaving around 12:30 and I stayed up until she got home, so another brief night of sleep, but I'm not complaining .

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Really need a PM with pics GB.

Alex P Keaton said:

Really need a PM with pics GB.

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That's funny, I thought for sure you had already gotten one from before.

PM sent.

Update from Dana: She's the one from Cartagena that was supposed to come to visit me, but then made a bunch of drama and cancelled, and then later that same day showed up in Barranquilla anyway and I saw her for a brief time in the lobby.  Anyway, she had told me last week she was leaving for somewhere, and yesterday she wrote and revealed that she is in Germany, dying from the cold, working for some single guy taking care of the house and his kid.  It's only been a week and it sounds like the kid (6 years old) is driving her nuts.

A lot of girls here do this because it seems like a good jumping off point to get to another country, work (ostensibly) legally, even get to study there, etc.  But I've heard and read horror stories as well.  A very good friend of mine from Bogota did this off of a non-sanctioned website and she almost ended up a prisoner in this couple's home (to hear her tell it).  They took her passport, had cameras/mics everywhere in the home, tracker on the car, etc.

Oh wow, I'm kind of right now.  Yesterday evening Vanessa posted some pictures that quite clearly showed her hanging out with someone (the chicas never show guys in the pics, but it's evident when they are dressed nicely, on location, and the only one in the pic).  So I would say likely the same guy she was hanging out with over the weekend.  I sent her a message asking where she was and with whom, and last night she replied saying I didn't tell her who I'd gone dancing with.  I didn't see that until this morning and said yeah but I'm not hanging out with someone for a few days.

Right after sending that I noticed she had posted more pics last night, and one was from one of the main attraction spots in Barranquilla.  And the part that set me off is the pictures after that were from Buenavista.  So she was at Buenavista last night with whoever.  I don't know if it's a foreigner (maybe not because there was one guy in the video the other day that appeared to be latino) but all the evidence points to someone not from Barranquilla and that she's been hanging out with him for a few days.

So I basically sent her a message telling her to #### off, and guess I can wipe my hands of that one now.

Dez89 said:

Oh wow, I'm kind of right now.  Yesterday evening Vanessa posted some pictures that quite clearly showed her hanging out with someone (the chicas never show guys in the pics, but it's evident when they are dressed nicely, on location, and the only one in the pic).  So I would say likely the same guy she was hanging out with over the weekend.  I sent her a message asking where she was and with whom, and last night she replied saying I didn't tell her who I'd gone dancing with.  I didn't see that until this morning and said yeah but I'm not hanging out with someone for a few days.

Right after sending that I noticed she had posted more pics last night, and one was from one of the main attraction spots in Barranquilla.  And the part that set me off is the pictures after that were from Buenavista.  So she was at Buenavista last night with whoever.  I don't know if it's a foreigner (maybe not because there was one guy in the video the other day that appeared to be latino) but all the evidence points to someone not from Barranquilla and that she's been hanging out with him for a few days.

So I basically sent her a message telling her to #### off, and guess I can wipe my hands of that one now.

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Sounds like you need a hug  

Dez89 said:

Oh wow, I'm kind of right now.  Yesterday evening Vanessa posted some pictures that quite clearly showed her hanging out with someone (the chicas never show guys in the pics, but it's evident when they are dressed nicely, on location, and the only one in the pic).  So I would say likely the same guy she was hanging out with over the weekend.  I sent her a message asking where she was and with whom, and last night she replied saying I didn't tell her who I'd gone dancing with.  I didn't see that until this morning and said yeah but I'm not hanging out with someone for a few days.

Right after sending that I noticed she had posted more pics last night, and one was from one of the main attraction spots in Barranquilla.  And the part that set me off is the pictures after that were from Buenavista.  So she was at Buenavista last night with whoever.  I don't know if it's a foreigner (maybe not because there was one guy in the video the other day that appeared to be latino) but all the evidence points to someone not from Barranquilla and that she's been hanging out with him for a few days.

So I basically sent her a message telling her to #### off, and guess I can wipe my hands of that one now.

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Now today she posted a picture in Cartagena.  So definitely with a foreigner.  She wrote to me earlier about the girls I was dancing with, saying she guesses they were ghosts since I didn't acknowledge any of it.  I didn't bother replying.

Dez89 said:

Now today she posted a picture in Cartagena.  So definitely with a foreigner.  She wrote to me earlier about the girls I was dancing with, saying she guesses they were ghosts since I didn't acknowledge any of it.  I didn't bother replying.

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Time to move on dude.  So many fish in the sea.

Alex P Keaton said:

Time to move on dude.  So many fish in the sea.

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No doubt.  I'm cool with playing games while accepting that we're seeing other people and all that, but she's been super disrespectful to me since I got back here.  Not cool.

Dez89 said:

No doubt.  I'm cool with playing games while accepting that we're seeing other people and all that, but she's been super disrespectful to me since I got back here.  Not cool.

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I wouldn’t give her another thought. Who cares. 

Went to the gym today and mannn I still can't get over how the chicas dress there.  So nice.

Stopped by the Cruz Verde pharmacy on the way home to ask about some Ivermectin and ding! ding! it's miercoles de medicamientos (Medicine Wednesday)!  20% off everything so I went ahead and stocked up on some "vitamin C" as well.

Vanessa wrote to me twice today, once a little before 1pm and the second time a little after 6pm.  The second time she asked if I intended not to talk to her.  I haven't answered.

Funny little story I forgot about Mary.  When she was over here the other night she asked me if I had gone out with anyone else and I said that I'd been out to dinner with someone.  She said why don't you ever invite me to dinner?   I said well because the first time we met you said you were coming to the apartment and things went well so now that's our thing, but I'd be happy to take you to dinner too.

I went back and talked to the pharmacist today.  He said 3 mg every other day for Covid prevention. Who knew the entire rest of the world were Joe Rogan fans?

Vanessa tried video calling me this afternoon but I didn't answer (I was working anyhow).  She didn't write to me afterwards so I think she might stop trying.

Heading to Cartagena for the weekend so I'll try to take some pics.  If any of you ever decide to visit Colombia, I recommend going to Cartagena for your first trip.  Lots of culture and history there, big tourist spot for Colombians and much of South America.  I'm going to visit some good friends there, but of course hopefully I'll see a chica or two.  Angie wants to see me while I'm there.  She was the girl who came to Barranquilla last time I was here but gave me a runaround and I only saw her for about 5 minutes over at the mall, and in the end turned out to be just looking for a sugar daddy.  She started sending me messages after I got back to the U.S. acting like she's more than just an interesada but who knows.  She knows I'm not interested in buying her clothes or supporting her or anything like that, so we'll see.  Really hoping to see this girl Martha who I've been talking to for 2 years but have never met.  She's definitely a girl with some freaky fetishes, but she doesn't really seem interested in me at this point.

Also, I bought a plane ticket today for Ecuador!  I'm taking an extra day off and going to Quito in a couple of weeks, over Presidents' Day weekend.  I've been wanting to go there for a long time and thought it might be a good opportunity to go while I'm close by.  I know an Instagram model there (I guess that's what you'd call her, 45k followers) who I met in Mexico City a couple of years ago and she said she'll show me around for a couple of days.  It ended up being more expensive than I thought it should have been.  You search for the ticket and it's ~$300 but that's for no carry-on, etc.  By the time I did the normal stuff I was looking at $450.  But the accommodations are super cheap.  Take a look on Airbnb and the places look awesome for like $30-50/night.  Quito looks very interesting and I'd like to check it out to maybe fit it into the rotation at some point.

Friday: Tried to finish work up early so I could get to Cartagena fairly early since I was supposed to see Angie.  Vanessa wrote to me while I was packing and I responded, then spent an hour arguing with her about what happened or didn’t happen.  I hadn’t been able to find a puerta a puerta (door to door) service that left that late, so I took the bus.  I’ve been to main terminals before, but always with someone else, and as it stands I would never ever go by myself to a terminal.  It is total chaos and immediately fills me with anxiety.  However, there are smaller offices for the main carriers, and I traveled between Cartagena and Barranquilla once with someone to/from those offices and it was surprisingly easy.  So I’ve done that trip several times solo since then.  There’s a Berlinas office very close to where I’m staying, and that’s the office I’ve used several times.  There’s also Marsol, which I’ve used, but Berlinas seems a little better and has wifi on their buses so it’s an easy choice.

I got over there and paid the 30,000 peses (~$7.50) for a ticket to Cartagena, which is about a 2-hour ride.  Buses leave about every 15-20 minutes for Cartagena and back, all day, every day.  Mine was supposed to leave at 4:30 but ended up leaving closer to 5pm.  I spent the first hour of the trip continuing to argue with Vanessa.  She tried to tell me how excited she had been about me coming back and that she wanted to see me that evening.  I pointed out that she’d had two weekends to see me up to then but she had chosen to spend them with her “amigos” instead.  She didn’t really have a good explanation as to why, but the most convincing thing she said was I didn’t think it would affect you that much or be that big of a deal.  That was the only good point she had.  She asked if I could see her and if I wanted to, and I said no to both questions since I was already on my way out of town.  Later on during the ride I wrote to Angie and she said she was busy with things at home and couldn’t see me but that she could see me at some point while I was in Cartagena.  I said ok no problem (I think I’m getting better with handling the flakiness).

Got to Cartagena and took a taxi from the Berlinas office to the Airbnb in Bocagrande.  That’s one of the major tourist areas with lots of hotels, restaurants, bars, shops, casinos, etc.  I was disappointed in the apartment, but the price was right and they allow visitors (just in case).  Sex tourism has gotten bigger there (though I’d say it might be the public profile/perception that’s gotten bigger, you guys may recall an incident with the Secret Service prior to an Obama visit) and over the years the building restrictions have gotten tighter and tighter.  I put my stuff down and went out to walk the Bocagrande strip.  Found a steak place and had a 11 oz. beef tenderloin for about $14.  Afterwards walked the length of the strip all the way to Laguito which is an adjacent area but almost exclusively residential.  On the way back to my apartment two girls walking down the strip gave me the “sst sst” and stopped me to see if I wanted a massage from both.  Maybe later lol. 

I got back to the apartment, sent messages to a couple of other girls I know there, then hit Tinder for a while.  You have to be fairly mindful with Tinder in Cartagena, as many of the girls you match with will be the working type. They come from all over and stay a weekend, or even a few weeks, to earn a little extra for their studies (or whatever their motivation), then leave until the next time.  After a while I matched with 21-year old Paula and we started chatting.  She’s studying psychology and said she might specialize in sexual psychology.  I told her I’d be happy to help her study.  She said she was hoping to find something formal but that she’s not against having fun.  Her pictures looked cute, but I also got the impression they were hiding something.  We left it at maybe getting together on Sunday, and I went to sleep.

Saturday: I got up and went over to the nearby Crepes & Waffles for breakfast.  I don’t know what’s so great about that place but Colombians love it, so when in Rome.  Got some great scrambled eggs, a waffle, and maracuyá juice for about $5.50.  I was supposed to go to the barrio to visit with my friend and her family at around 11am.  It’s at least a 30-min ride from the tourist areas and she was trying to tell me what to tell the driver.  I was like isn’t there a number on the house and she said there isn’t, so I was supposed to go to the main entrance to the barrio and have the driver drop me off at the little police station nearby, and her mom would come look for me there .  You guys were talking about addresses in the Nicaragua thread, well it took me years to understand addresses here.  Basically the way it works is the address is the corner of two streets and then a number to tell you how many meters from the corner to go.  I’m still not sure how you’re supposed to know which direction from the corner.  So I tried to find an Uber for a while, the fare was $5-6 but no one was biting as this was heading way out from the tourist area.  Uber here on the coast isn’t that great, they mostly use another similar app.  So I upped it to Uber comfort (closer to $10) and found a driver.  Ended up getting there a little before noon, and as soon as I got out of the car my friend’s mother was walking up .  Had a really great visit with the family at their house, they are wonderful people.  I tried to get some pictures and a little video of the house and the area, but it’s generally not a good idea to have your cell phone out while you’re in the street. Later on I’ll post some of what I was able to get.  It’s a different world in the barrios on the coast, especially on weekends.  There’s music on every corner, tons of people and noise.  It’s a little intimidating, but a pretty cool and exciting atmosphere.

About 5pm my friend and I left to go to her friend’s house, as they had decided to have an asado (grill out).  They are both teachers at a Spanish school that caters to foreigners, and had invited a couple of their students also.  The friend lived in the same barrio and so we went walking.  I could hear some of the guys sitting outside the bar/tienda across the street calling to me “Hey! Hey! Where ju from?” but my friend didn’t seem to hear them and there was enough noise and loud music for me to act like I didn’t hear anything either so we just kept walking.  A ways up the street we encountered some sort of a ruckus.  A lot of people were gathered around watching something, with several of them taking videos on their phones.  As we passed through we saw a standoff at the entrance of a small restaurant between two guys in hard hats and reflective gear and two apparent workers/owners of the restaurant.  There was some shoving and throwing of things and a lot of yelling.  We kept on moving through and my friend said from what she could hear from the people talking it sounded like the two guys were from the gas company and attempting to turn off the gas to the restaurant.  We stopped at a supermarket to pick up some beer and I snapped a picture of a stack of 50-pound bags of white rice, which I found peculiar.  Colombians like their rice. 

Finally got over to the friend’s house down a little dirt side road and started hanging out.  About an hour later the two students showed up.  One was a dude from Hungary and the other was a 21-year old girl from England, and omg she might have been the hottest girl I’d met yet on this trip.  She’s been in Cartagena since October and he’d been there for one month but was leaving the next day to go home.  They were obviously together and pretty tight, but I sort of got the impression that he was her flavor of the month based on the logistics, gossip, etc.  They seemed to be the typical young crazy traveling European types, him with his partially shaved head and tied up dreads and her not seemingly afraid of anything.  After a while my friend’s friend pulled out the little grill, a tiny little charcoal thing typical of what I’ve seen before here.  I don’t think they have lighter fluid here so they got it lit then pulled out a fan and then a hair dryer to fan things until it took (that’s not the first time I’ve seen that, so I guess that’s how you do it).  My friend’s friend grilled up some steaks and corn on the cob and chorizo and it turned out pretty good.  Had a great time eating, drinking, listening to music, and dancing .  Around 10 or 11 my friend and I were ready to go, but the couple were ready to keep the night going at some bar nearby where they had all gone dancing previously.  I was ready to head home but left it up to my friend and she finally relented and the five of us headed towards the bar.  We walked in and wow, I’d be hard pressed to think of a time when I felt more out of place.  It was a fairly small bar, but jam packed with every table and seat filled.  For some reason the group decided we should walk all the way to the back where the little dance floor was, and all eyes followed lol.  We stood there right in front of the speakers, which were blasting, and I was looking at my friend thinking there’s no way she’s going to want to stay here any more than I do.  After a few minutes they conferred and the decision was made to leave.  We got outside, said our goodbyes, and me and my friend headed back to her house while the rest headed back the other direction to the other friend’s house.  We got to her house and she called a car for me on that other app and I headed home.  On the way I exchanged some messages with Angie, who was out with friends but in another part of the city.  Got back to the apartment, exchanged flirty messages with Paula for a while, then went to sleep.

Thanks for the thorough updates Dez.  Hopefully there are more and less in the next one.  Keep fighting the good fight!

greedygoat said:

Thanks for the thorough updates Dez.  Hopefully there are more and less in the next one.  Keep fighting the good fight!

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I'm trying to give you guys some culture too!

Sunday/Monday: I got up Sunday and went back to C&W for a late breakfast and wrote to Paula to see what the plan was going to be.  She was outside the city staying with a friend from the night before where they’d had a bachelorette party at the friend’s house.  Long story short, I killed time until we ended up meeting at 5pm at a Serrezuela, a fancy new mall in the historic walled Old City of Cartagena.  I walked in and saw her and my suspicions were realized.  She was definitely bigger than I’d hoped.  I had a worse case in my head based on her pics, and it ended up being worse than that.  But that’s me being superficial, and we had gotten along great over messages, and I already felt committed at that point anyhow.  We walked around for a little bit and ended up at the famous Andres Carne de Res.  It’s a Colombian chain that started in Chia (the town I went to visit a friend of mine last time and posted pics of the mall there) outside of Bogota and they opened one at the new mall in Cartagena.  It’s probably worth checking out once but it’s way expensive (two milkshakes and a small dessert cost $16 compared to my $14 beef tenderloin at the other place).  We talked for a while, things got a little sexual, and we got up to leave.  On the escalator ride I leaned in and asked her if she wanted to go and she said yes she did.  Called an Uber, headed back to the apartment building, got her signed in, and started making out on the elevator ride up.  Yadda yadda yadda .  Hung out for a while after until she was ready to go home.  Called a car and walked her out.

After getting back inside I checked my messages and Angie had written to me about 4-5 hours earlier asking where I was and what I was doing.  It was now almost 11pm and I wrote to her.  She told me she was out with a friend but if I came to where she was she could come say hello for a few minutes (not join them).  That made wonder who the “friend” might be and I said it didn’t make sense for me to go all the way for that.  She said ok and that she could come visit with me in the morning before I left.  I told her if she could be there at 9am we could go get breakfast and then I had to check out at 11am.  She agreed.  Got up this morning (Monday) and about 7:30 I checked and she was online.  I wrote to her and she said she was up because we had agreed to see each other, and she was planning to be there at 9am.  I said ok, took a shower, and got all my stuff packed up.  It was almost 9 and I hadn’t heard from her so I called and got sent to voicemail.  A couple minutes later she wrote and said she was talking with an amiga who was having some problems and didn’t want to leave her.  She said she could see me in Barranquilla when I invited her down or if she went to see her friends there.  I said ok, no problem (again, getting better at handling the flakiness?) and headed for the Berlinas office and back to Barranquilla.  Was back in my apartment here by noon.  Taking it easy the rest of the day and back to work tomorrow.

so exhausting...keep it up!!      

Dez89 said:

Also, I bought a plane ticket today for Ecuador!  I'm taking an extra day off and going to Quito in a couple of weeks, over Presidents' Day weekend.  I've been wanting to go there for a long time and thought it might be a good opportunity to go while I'm close by.  I know an Instagram model there (I guess that's what you'd call her, 45k followers) who I met in Mexico City a couple of years ago and she said she'll show me around for a couple of days.  It ended up being more expensive than I thought it should have been.  You search for the ticket and it's ~$300 but that's for no carry-on, etc.  By the time I did the normal stuff I was looking at $450.  But the accommodations are super cheap.  Take a look on Airbnb and the places look awesome for like $30-50/night.  Quito looks very interesting and I'd like to check it out to maybe fit it into the rotation at some point.

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Ecuador is awesome but I wasn't very impressed with Quito. Very much preferred Cuenca. I also hear Guayaquil area is great if your Spanish is passable. 

Had a couple locals showing us around for a day. Not bad, just nothing stood out to me. Hopefully your experience is better. 

[icon] said:

Ecuador is awesome but I wasn't very impressed with Quito. Very much preferred Cuenca. I also hear Guayaquil area is great if your Spanish is passable. 

Had a couple locals showing us around for a day. Not bad, just nothing stood out to me. Hopefully your experience is better. 

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From what I can tell it looks very historic and pretty, but I won't know until I see it.  I get the idea that it's probably a lot like Bogota.

Guayaquil seems a little crazier and more dangerous.  That first part might be better for chicas, not sure about the second part.

What did you like about Cuenca.  Lots of gringos retiring there, right?  I heard it's kind of hard to get things there.

Dez89 said:

From what I can tell it looks very historic and pretty, but I won't know until I see it.  I get the idea that it's probably a lot like Bogota.

Guayaquil seems a little crazier and more dangerous.  That first part might be better for chicas, not sure about the second part.

What did you like about Cuenca.  Lots of gringos retiring there, right?  I heard it's kind of hard to get things there.

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Cuenca was very pretty.... Spanish influence in architecture. People were very friendly. More English-friendly but definitely still a LOT of locals. Food was great. Wanted to catch a soccer match but timing was off. 

It may have helped that we were kind of Celebrities there and were being hosted by a big marketing company and the owner of a couple of the top restaurants in town... so we had everything we needed brought to us (Everything...sniff sniff). 

Vanessa has been bugging me ever since I got back today, asking if we can see each other.  I asked why and she said she wants to hug me one last time.  I said ok, that's fine.  She asked if she could come today and I asked her if she had enough for the taxi both ways.  She didn't like that.  But she said she did and that she's going to let me know when she's on her way...

Dez89 said:

Vanessa has been bugging me ever since I got back today, asking if we can see each other.  I asked why and she said she wants to hug me one last time.  I said ok, that's fine.  She asked if she could come today and I asked her if she had enough for the taxi both ways.  She didn't like that.  But she said she did and that she's going to let me know when she's on her way...

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let that one go.  too much work.

It was 7pm when I told Vanessa it was ok to come over.  So of course she didn't show up until 9.  She wrote to me that she was downstairs so I headed down.  She was actually waiting outside and omg she looked so hot, wearing tight low rider jeans and a semi-crop top showing off most of her abdomen and 3/4 of her back.  Oh that beautiful mocha skin.  I am a weak, weak man.  We stood out there glaring at each other for a few minutes and she asked if we could sit down and talk.  I told her I had brought a few things to give her so let's go up to the apartment.  We sat on separate couches and argued for a long time.  She didn't understand why I was so mad, especially since I was seeing (and more) other girls.  I wanted to know why she chose to be with that other guy instead of me and she just kept saying she didn't know, she didn't have an answer, it just worked out that way and she didn't know it would be that big of a deal to me.  Turns out I was right about all of it, guy lives in the U.S. (but supposedly from Bogota), she's been talking to him on and off for a while, he was in Barranquilla for the first time and she spent a long weekend with him showing him around (and other things).  She even told her sister that she was with me so that her sister wouldn't give her a hard time.

We went round and round for a while.  After we had gotten most of it out she asked me if I would come over to her couch and hold her.  She looked so hot.  I went and sat next to her and put my arms around her and we stayed like that for a while.  Then I put my head in her lap and she started playing with my hair.  After a while we shifted a bit and got comfortable on the couch, yadda yadda yadda .  I am a weak, weak man.

She asked me what are we and I said amigos con derechos.  She basically said that she doesn't want me to see Mary (that's the only one she knows about) anymore while I'm here.  In general I guess she wants to be exclusive while I'm here.  I didn't really give her an answer.  She didn't leave until after 1:30 in the morning and I fell asleep around 2.  At 5 all the daily city noise and stuff started up outside and woke me up.  I've been up since then so hurting pretty bad today.  Was supposed to see Heide this afternoon after work but I cancelled.

putting in work…now….about that culture…got any pics of the barrio?

 

DA RAIDERS said:

putting in work…now….about that culture…got any pics of the barrio?

 

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Yeah, tried to upload all that yesterday but Imgur had some kind of problem. Will try again this afternoon if I can stay awake. 

Bus office and ride

House and barrio.  They've made some improvements since I was there 2 years ago.  Before, the ceiling was open to the slanted (fiberglass? aluminum?) roof.  But they had a concrete platform installed so that they can build another floor or two above.  The kitchen is also new.  Apologies for the poor videos.

Asado.  First pic is the stack of 50-lb. rice bags.  The friend's house.  Note the little kids playing soccer in the dirt road.  Doesn't get more authentic than that!  The little white wedges in the picture with the grapes are slices of sugar cane.  You chew on it to release the sugar then spit it out.

Dez89 said:

Bus office and ride

House and barrio.  They've made some improvements since I was there 2 years ago.  Before, the ceiling was open to the slanted (fiberglass? aluminum?) roof.  But they had a concrete platform installed so that they can build another floor or two above.  The kitchen is also new.  Apologies for the poor videos.

Asado.  First pic is the stack of 50-lb. rice bags.  The friend's house.  Note the little kids playing soccer in the dirt road.  Doesn't get more authentic than that!  The little white wedges in the picture with the grapes are slices of sugar cane.  You chew on it to release the sugar then spit it out.

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Awesome pics! Love this kind of stuff. 

Accomodations certainly look quite rustic. I'm all good with that but may take some work to sell the GF on the idea.   

The giant bags of rice made me smile. Lots of the same in Costa Rican grocery stores, as rice is absolutely a staple there as well. 

Sugar Cane is surprisingly good! When driving through the countryside around Monteverde, CR we'd see construction crews taking brakes sucking on sugarcane. Had a chance to tour a farm. We used a handcrank press to fill a hydroflask with sugarcane juice and used it in our coffee for the rest of the month  

Great Stuff... keep it coming! 

JUST got notifications from Scotts Cheap Flights (VERY worth it btw)... 

Flights to Colombia on sale: 
Cartegena $294 RT
Cali $267 RT
Barranquilla $273 RT 
Medellin $272 RT

 

[icon] said:

Awesome pics! Love this kind of stuff. 

Accomodations certainly look quite rustic. I'm all good with that but may take some work to sell the GF on the idea.   

The giant bags of rice made me smile. Lots of the same in Costa Rican grocery stores, as rice is absolutely a staple there as well. 

Sugar Cane is surprisingly good! When driving through the countryside around Monteverde, CR we'd see construction crews taking brakes sucking on sugarcane. Had a chance to tour a farm. We used a handcrank press to fill a hydroflask with sugarcane juice and used it in our coffee for the rest of the month  

Great Stuff... keep it coming! 

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Again, I was in the barrio.  You and your GF can find really nice places to stay for sure.

I wasn't too impressed with the straight sugar cane but yes, yes, yes the pressed sugar cane juice (guarapo) is really good!

[icon] said:

JUST got notifications from Scotts Cheap Flights (VERY worth it btw)... 

Flights to Colombia on sale: 
Cartegena $294 RT
Cali $267 RT
Barranquilla $273 RT 
Medellin $272 RT

 

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It could be time!  Is that from Miami or elsewhere?

Dez89 said:

Again, I was in the barrio.  You and your GF can find really nice places to stay for sure.

I wasn't too impressed with the straight sugar cane but yes, yes, yes the pressed sugar cane juice (guarapo) is really good!

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Oh I get it! yah we saw some flat out AMAZING places in Cartagena and further down the coast. 

Very cool stuff. Thank you for sharing. 

Dez89 said:

It could be time!  Is that from Miami or elsewhere?

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That's out of Atlanta. I monitor flights out of MEM / BNA / ATL / TPA as those are all airports I frequent and/or are every easy to get. 

[icon] said:

Oh I get it! yah we saw some flat out AMAZING places in Cartagena and further down the coast. 

Very cool stuff. Thank you for sharing. 

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For great views, stay in the new buildings in Bocagrande.  Wake up every morning with views of the ocean and the Old City.

As cost doesn't seem to be an issue for you, there are some really awesome looking places in the Old City for large groups.  I'm sure those are the ones you've come across already.

Plan to post more pics of the city at some point.

[icon] said:

That's out of Atlanta. I monitor flights out of MEM / BNA / ATL / TPA as those are all airports I frequent and/or are every easy to get. 

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Forgot you're heading out soon for Nicaragua.  Too bad you won't be able to take advantage of those great prices!

[icon] said:

JUST got notifications from Scotts Cheap Flights (VERY worth it btw)... 

Flights to Colombia on sale: 
Cartegena $294 RT
Cali $267 RT
Barranquilla $273 RT 
Medellin $272 RT

 

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Love that I'm familiar with all these places from watching Narcos. 

I went through all my old pics of Cartagena to find ones to post, I hope you enjoy.

Here are some pics of Bocagrande.  You can see the view from the high rises on the beach.  That's the Old City sitting on the peninsula.  I threw in an extra pic at the end of another good view I had once.

Pics of the Old City.  There are a ton of them, sorry for so many.  They were taken at different times, so I apologize for any repeats.

The Castillo de San Felipe, construction started in 1536.  Views of the city from the Castillo.

Pics of the Old City at night.  Any time of the day or night, the Old City has a really great vibe.

i still havent backpacked yet in South America 
only done DR ,Cuba and Costa Rica 
enjoying following along your trip 

Maria wrote to me yesterday about 6:30pm and asked what I was doing.  I said nothing and you?  She said she wasn't doing anything either so I said come on over and let's watch TV.  She replied that she would look for money for the taxi, then I never heard from her again.  I was dead tired from the night before and asleep by 9pm.  This morning I sent her a message saying so I guess you're not coming.  She replied and apologized and said she didn't have the money.  I told her she could have told me that or at least told me she was or wasn't coming.  Or if she had still wanted to come I'd have paid the taxi.  I guess maybe I was supposed to say that right off the bat at the time but I was tired and it went right over my head.

Anyway she wrote to me this afternoon a little before 5pm and said she was finishing classes and asked if she should come over.  I said sure come on, so she came over (I paid  the taxi) and we watched a movie and ordered in from Big Bites.  Hadn't heard of them before but it was a totally American style menu and really good.  We got the two hamburger combo, and with delivery it came to $15.  Seems pretty high to me, but American style places like that charge more.  We ate and watched the movie snuggled up on the couch.  My hands wandered a lot, mostly on her exposed midriff and back (God, I love how they dress on the coast) and she didn't protest.  She had told me earlier she had to be home by 10pm to study and at quarter til she was calling a taxi on her app.

She's fun to hang out with, and as long as she doesn't mind my wandering hands and lips then I guess I'll just lower my expectations and just enjoy the time with her.  Having someone to do things with during the week is also a plus so maybe that will continue.  The last time I was here everyone (including Maria) wanted to make plans on Friday or Saturday (mostly Saturday) which jammed things up and left me with nothing to do the rest of the time.

Dez89 said:

Maria wrote to me yesterday about 6:30pm and asked what I was doing.  I said nothing and you?  She said she wasn't doing anything either so I said come on over and let's watch TV.  She replied that she would look for money for the taxi, then I never heard from her again.  I was dead tired from the night before and asleep by 9pm.  This morning I sent her a message saying so I guess you're not coming.  She replied and apologized and said she didn't have the money.  I told her she could have told me that or at least told me she was or wasn't coming.  Or if she had still wanted to come I'd have paid the taxi.  I guess maybe I was supposed to say that right off the bat at the time but I was tired and it went right over my head.

Anyway she wrote to me this afternoon a little before 5pm and said she was finishing classes and asked if she should come over.  I said sure come on, so she came over (I paid  the taxi) and we watched a movie and ordered in from Big Bites.  Hadn't heard of them before but it was a totally American style menu and really good.  We got the two hamburger combo, and with delivery it came to $15.  Seems pretty high to me, but American style places like that charge more.  We ate and watched the movie snuggled up on the couch.  My hands wandered a lot, mostly on her exposed midriff and back (God, I love how they dress on the coast) and she didn't protest.  She had told me earlier she had to be home by 10pm to study and at quarter til she was calling a taxi on her app.

She's fun to hang out with, and as long as she doesn't mind my wandering hands and lips then I guess I'll just lower my expectations and just enjoy the time with her.  Having someone to do things with during the week is also a plus so maybe that will continue.  The last time I was here everyone (including Maria) wanted to make plans on Friday or Saturday (mostly Saturday) which jammed things up and left me with nothing to do the rest of the time.

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Seems to me there's a sticking point around the cab fare. 

I'd likely get a couple numbers of drivers, and send a car for them. Run a tab with the driver. Few bucks and makes life much easier, no?   Then again if you're avoiding on principle, I get it. 

[icon] said:

Seems to me there's a sticking point around the cab fare. 

I'd likely get a couple numbers of drivers, and send a car for them. Run a tab with the driver. Few bucks and makes life much easier, no?   Then again if you're avoiding on principle, I get it. 

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Oh no, I've got no issue paying for the taxi.  I've been coming to Colombia for years and it's mostly just understood.  Every once in a while you come across a girl who prefers to pay their own way, which actually seems to end up being more frustrating at times (when they don't have the money and don't let you pay).  With Maria the other night I think that was a hint from her and it just went right over my head.

Was supposed to meet my friend Sara E. for dinner yesterday after she got out of work at 7pm.  At 7pm she told me she was still stuck there and then I didn't hear from her again until 10pm.  So that didn't work out.

A friend of mine who has gotten into American football recently is working on a place for us to watch the game Sunday.  She found a pretty cool looking new sports bar, so I think we're going to reserve a table there.  Food looks decent.

I'm one week out from my long weekend trip to Quito.  It occurred to me yesterday that I needed to hit the Tinder there to start working on backup plans.  My Instagram model has been in regular contact, so hopefully I won't have any issues.  She's a little older than the girls I'm usually dealing with (30, I think) and the older ones tend to be more reliable.  Even so, it's always a good idea to have backup, and I don't know if she plans to spend the whole time with me, nights, etc.  At first I thought the quality on Tinder was going to be disappointing, but after a while holy cow I started seeing some very attractive chicas.  No idea how I'll fare there vs. here but we'll see.  Finally got my first match this morning.  Also, it seems like just over the last week Ecuador has gone from requiring a PCR test, to requiring a PCR test OR antigen test, to now only requiring a vaccination card and no test at all.  Nice!

Wrote to Apartment Girl on Friday night to see what she was up to.  She was going to eat with her cousin over at Buneavista 3 and they invited me along.  Had a nice time with them.

Didn't do anything all day Saturday and Maria wrote about 7pm asking what I was doing.  Nothing, you?  Nothing.  Wanna come over?  What would we do?  We can watch a movie or go eat or go get drinks, what do you want to do?  Long silence until 8pm and she says wait until my friend leaves.  At 8:45 she says she's making something to eat because she hasn't eaten all day.  I ask if she's coming over after that.  No reply.  At 10pm I send an hola, no reply.  At 11pm I say ok with a and go to bed.  Sunday morning at 9am she tells me she fell asleep.  Whatever.  I didn't reply.  At 2pm she says hola again, and I didn't reply.

Went over to Coliseo 84 to watch the game last night.  Pretty cool place.  Had some nachos and ribs and they were pretty good.  Full house there to watch the game, which is fun and always good to see here in soccer world.

Wrote to Maria when I got back at 10pm and we're chatting today.  Not sure about any Valentine's Day plans.

Have only made about 3 matches so far in Quito.  It can take a while to get things moving, so I doubt I'll get too far.  Hopefully things go well with my Instagram model.  She already said she'll bring her bathing suit to enjoy the pool and jacuzzi in the building, so there's that.  Still not sure if she's planning to stay or not, not sure whether to ask or not (leaning no).

Maria wrote to me this afternoon asking if I had plans today.  No, you?  Etc. etc. and she said she wanted to get together and was in the mood for wings.  A brilliant idea popped in my head.  I'd read about a gringo-owned wings place here in Barranquilla a while back that had great reviews and I've been wanting to try it.  I've really never had good wings in Colombia before.  So I figured that would be a great surprise for Maria.  She didn't show up until almost 8pm, we hopped in an Uber and the guy took us to some corner and dropped us off.  No restaurant.  Looked at maps on the phone and it looked like he dropped us off a little too far.  We went walking up and down the street but couldn't find it.  Every time I looked at my phone it seemed like we were in the wrong place.  We finally asked some guy who was working one of the restaurants nearby and he said that it had been there but had closed some time ago .  Not a great start to my Valentine's Day date.

We decided to go to a staple here on the coast, El Punto Multiple de Sabores.  They're all over the place.  I like the pizza there but she wanted wings so we got some.  They were actually cooked pretty well, but breaded with sauce on the side.  We ate, had a nice time, she held my hand a good bit.  She's really always so affectionate.  We finished up and left for the apartment.  She has class at 7am tomorrow morning and it was a little after 10pm so I really figured she'd just want to drop me off and head home per her usual MO.  She surprised me by coming up the apartment and we got comfortable on the couch.  After a little bit we started making out, way more than I'd gotten out of her ever.  I finally asked her why no tongue and she said she doesn't know how to use it when kissing.  I said just do this and we started back with major improvement.  She sort of kept forgetting, but hey, progress is progress (in more ways than one).  My wandering hands decided to push things beyond where they have been before but they were summarily blocked.

About 10:45 she said she had to go and called a car.  Sunday is the only day she doesn't have class and she actually said something about maybe staying some Saturday night.  I had suggested that last week over WhatsApp but she didn't acknowledge it at the time, but I guess maybe it stuck.

Supposed to get together tomorrow with 21-year old Luz from Tinder.  We've been talking a couple of weeks and she seems to be open to letting everything flow.

Met up with Luz over at the mall today.  We walked around a little bit looking for something to drink.  She has some sort of stomach issues so we were looking for somewhere to get natural juices.  Couldn't find anything that she liked so we ended up on some kind of couch in the mall and talked for a while.  She said her mom was 18 when she had her and her dad was 58.  He doesn't date anyone 30+, he's now 80, and has an 18-year old girlfriend.  I told her I needed to meet him and get some advice.

We had a fun time talking.  She asked me how old I was and guessed that I was 34.  When I told her my age she didn't believe me and asked my secret.  I told her colágeno which means collagen.  Obviously, people take collagen for skin, nails, etc. but here on the coast that's a euphemism for when an older guy dates young women.  She laughed and said oh, you steal collagen.  So later on I asked her what she wanted to do and she said she didn't know, I said we can take a walk, she said ok but where to?  I said we can go to my apartment if you want and she said sure.  I was feeling my oats a little and said and I can steal your collagen.  She laughed but said maybe on another occasion.

We came back to the apartment and put a movie on, and after a while started making out.  She was clear that it wasn't going to go any further tonight but we can see each other again if I want.  I said yes of course.  No complaints from me, making out with a cute 21-year old.