PBH / colombia (travelguide, pictures) / post

cali travel blog

I justed arrived in Cali this week. I'll post about my observation that stands out, again hopefully this enlighten and entertain. On the flight down i meet two colombian, one gal and one guy returning from visiting the US to cali. The girl was very hot(ex-model) but dress down, so she didn't stand out as much. She was visiting her COL husband who was living and working in Orlando. They have a 2 yr daughter, they met in Cali, she spoke VERY good english, goes to school. What was interesting about her was her story about her relationship with her husband. I asked her why didn't she move to the US with her daughter to be with the husband, afterall she could finish college in the US, instead of finishing it in cali and having to start over. She proceed to tell me that she will ending the relationship formally after the new year, because of his infidelity and jeolousy. She said that he cheated on her twice when they were in cali and has a current girlfriend in the US, they broke up for period and she was seeing guys, but her husband had major problem with it, BUT had no problem seeing other girls! ja, ja.. What was funny to me was that she said, she is returning to orlando in DEC, but that was going to be the end of it. She was going to give me her number in cali but last thing i want is to get stuck between a husband/wife having problems, especially if the husband is jelous type. She was very sweet and good looking, ohh well...

Second person i met on the plane, was a colombian plant manager who was returning from a business trip to NYC. he was older(in his 40's) divorced, proceed to tell me about life as a COL guy with money(easy girls, fun, etc.,), BUT interestingly he mention that in CALI it was safer to be in a monogamous relationship versus a polygamous one. Because he mention if you're not careful you meet "bad" girls. He had couple of friends that were playing around with the wrong girl, got drugged & robbed. We had a great conversation on the flight down. He offer me a ride to the apartment i was staying at, instead of taking a taxi. I felt safe with accepting the offer, he also took another foreigner to his hotel at intercontinental. I owe that guy a dinner next week.

During the week i was walking around avienda sexta trying to find an address, got some people giving me the wrong direction(they just made a guess, not trying to do it on purpose(i hope)). Then I asked a guy on street, and he proceed to walk with me for 10 minutes until we found it, he had to ask several people also.

Met another gringo staying at the same apartment, he was here trying to going on dates. Nice guy, speaks fluent spanish, was meeting several chicas for dates. He had one amiga that was JUST friends he knew from past trips. She presents herself as a professional, smart, speaks very good english, etc., Well, yesterday we went out to lunch with her and her friend. She was buttering him up for something, because she kept talking with him(while ignoring her friend) and stroking his arm. Well at the end of lunch as we were walking to chipichape, she hit him with "my rent is up due, and i dont get pay for another month, could you help, i need $350k peso" ja,ja. He was very shocked and disappointed because she was just a friend, he had NO romantic intentions for her. AND this was after he took her and her friends out to lunch, dinner, coffee, drinks, etc., during the course of several days last week.

While we were at Chipichape having a beer(desi will love this) we met three gringos, one of them was with his sister-in-law, both are from atlanta, the sister-in-law is colombiana fr cali but moved to US after marrying the brother. The sister-in-law proceed to tell me(in a conspirator tone) that she knows many gringos coming to cali to meet girls(wife). ja, ja, no kidding! LOL! Talk about timing, 5 minutes after she left, 2 gringo come over and sit in our same bar, when i heard them talking english, i say hi and introduce ourselves. They were here with on of the agency trying to find a wife, both are decent looking guys, they proceed to tell me and my buddy all about their problems with the gals the agency hooked them up with. One said, in 12 dates that he got, 11 asked for money(money for babysitting(40k), phone card(10k), taxi(20k), etc.,) i told them to try other source to meet chicks. I mention to them that it's unfortunate they're meeting those types of gals, but there's LOTS of greats gals out there, because i know several. BUT i'm not interesting in anything beyond friendship(or special friendship, ja, ja).

As for my trials and tribulation w/ dating in colombia.. i had one gal never arrived for a date, and when i call her one hour later, she was sleeping and apologize and want to reschedule. ANyway, Later that night, my buddy and i went to meet another amiga for date with her and her sister. well, my amiga DIDNT SHOW UP, BUT her sister did, her sister said her little sister(my amiga) had to go to MASS at the last minute, so couldn't make it. What type of mass is last minute? anyway, the older sister(22) was very cute, so my friend proceed start up a conversation with her, they seem to hit it off. BUT she has a complicated situation. She is "married", living with the husband and their 3 yr son, BUT she told us that she was ONLY staying with the husband for the son.(i suspect that in a few years, she'll move out when she realize it's not worth staying in a unhappying siutuation purely for for the son) Anway, she basically gave my buddy the greenlight to hit on her, they're going on a date tonight! ja, ja.. man i'm having more luck setting up friends that meetig girls for me! ja,ja..

Hope you guys like my stories, my objective is to show the readers a balance view on colombia people and society, that there are some wonderful people and aspect of the society, but also, some wacked folks and stuff that goes on here.

By caslug on Oct 14, 2005, 11:23 in Visa & paperwork.