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Thinking of a move to cartagena, concerns......

I´m a US born citizen, my wife is colombian and we have two young children. We are thinking about moving to cartagena with her mom and dad in a few months. I can see all of the positives, I would have virtually no morgage, car, or any other major payments and probley only have to work parttime, which is another question. Now the concerns I have is that my spanish sucks, BAD, will I be able to work, but the No.1 concern I have is for my family and myself. I will stand out without the language, my kids are just starting to talk so they´ll be ok. I am just cocerned with the safty of my family and I if I was to live in cartagena, also will I find work, safe work that is. Any comments or help would be appreceiated, Thank You.

By hinkley23 on Aug 28, 2005, 06:00 in Friendly Talkzone.

kernow62 says on Aug 28, 2005, 06:20:

You could work part-time as a street tout, English would be a benefit in that field I suspect.

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hinkley23 says on Aug 28, 2005, 07:28:

what is a street tout.... street tout, not sure what that is, and I´m really more concerned with the safty issues.

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tomtom33 (☼Travelguide writer) says on Aug 28, 2005, 08:15:

Try a visit If you don't know what a tout is, you have never been there. Since the vast majority of visitors are other Colombians, English won't help much. Your first job should be to learn some Spanish.

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kernow62 says on Aug 28, 2005, 09:40:

Just looked in Webster's Dictionary of the American language and I see why you don't know what the hell I am talking about. The silly buggers left the word out of the dictionary. How the hell do they expect anyone to speak English if they leave half the bloody words out of the dictionary!!!!

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hinkley23 says on Aug 28, 2005, 10:44:

forget the job forget about the job, how about the safty, lets not get hung up on the job issue. I'll have an extended family to help me get adapted to life but can anyone answer the question of how dangerous it is????? by the way thanks for the tout defenition, the two of you were a great help, next time don't put forth so much effort.

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tomtom33 (☼Travelguide writer) says on Aug 28, 2005, 11:12:

Safety is not much of a concern in Cartagena. There are parts of town you want to avoid like any other place. I can walk alone pretty much anywhere in Laguito, Castillo Grande, Boca Grande, or Centro at 3:00am without a problem.

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kernow62 says on Aug 28, 2005, 12:24:

hinkley23, don't mention it, glad we could be of help.

Cartagena is as safe as houses, unless you are the sort to get the screaming abdabs. If you don't need nowt then skive off your family.

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soccerstud says on Aug 28, 2005, 20:40:

very safe cartagena is extremely safe my boyfriend and i are planning on moving there as well and he's a u.s citizen i'm colombian. i think the best thing for u to do is try and stay pretty central not towards the outskirts. the walled city is basically a fortress nothing will ever happen to u there no matter what time a day it is or if u r alone. as for a job my suggestion would be get certified to teach there's a lot of bilingual schools there.

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poco says on Aug 28, 2005, 21:16:

Street Touts Are you sure this isn’t part of a fanciful dream? Have you spent any time in Cartagena? Well, I have and I was bored after one week. Living my life there,, why? I’d think of Cartagena as a “base of operations” or somewhere to visit on Easter. If you’re coming from the U.S. Boca Grande would be about the only place to live. There are some other nice areas. I’d go spend a couple of weeks minimum to see if what you “THINK” matches Reality.

If you don’t have the money to “get out of there” about 6 times a year and NEED to make some money while there,, then good luck. If someone said “live your life here and work”, I’d shoot myself.

Safety issues: Maybe better than most Colombians cities,, BUT it is a tourist area and they patrol. Fly in and look out the window of the place,, notice those military guys with machine guns patrolling the perimeters,, this is NOT make busy work. Don’t forget to look out the plane window at the 90% of the city you will hopefully NEVER visit.

Street tout: I thought that was one of those “pesky vendors” following you around asking to go have a “look” at a “time share”,,,, or something similar. If that isn’t what they are called it should be.

"When you men get home and face an anti-war protester, look him in the eyes and shake his hand. Then, wink at his girlfriend, because she knows she's dating a pussy." Quote - General Tommy Franks

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kernow62 says on Aug 29, 2005, 04:24:

Bingo! Poco knows what a tout is.

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Gator says on Aug 29, 2005, 08:05:

The wife calls them... (soccerstud) moscas sucias (dirty flies).

soccerstud, if you believe that about safety you need to put a rubber band around you head and snap out of it. While Cartagena is considered very safe, by Colombian standards, you still need to be cautious.

"Credidi pretio parvo emere et magno vendere tibi in animo fuisse!" .

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tomtom33 (☼Travelguide writer) says on Aug 29, 2005, 08:09:

Poco I am always amused with people who bore easily. I have lived the better part of the last 2 years in Cartagena(Laguito). When am I supposed to start getting bored? I love beach, water, heat, and history.

I know a guy from Ireland who has been visitng CTG for over 5 years for months at a time. He rarely leaves Laguito. He'll be back next mnonth looking for an apartment to buy in Laguito.

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cam0940 says on Aug 29, 2005, 09:57:

Have to agree with tomtom33 on this one I can't imagine how you could get bored in Cartagena. And as far as looking out the window from the plane on the way in, what airport do you know of that's built in the cities' wealthiest area? And it's not 90%. I wonder who this guy spent his time with and what exactly he did while in CTG. You could get bored in NYC if you didn't know where to go or what to do.

A question about street touts. Most of them are adolescents. My gf calls them something that sounds like "pelaus" I know that's obviously not how to spell it. I picked the word up, and I use it in sentences and everybody knows I'm talking about like a teenage kid. Does anyone know how to spell it?

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IMorcombe says on Aug 29, 2005, 10:17:

Pelados... that's the right spelling for those guys. Although a lot of people just call them "pelaos"...

Maria Ines

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Gator says on Aug 29, 2005, 12:55:

Pelao(s) Means... someone who has no money-like not even a centavo or a young kid 8,9,10 years old.

"Credidi pretio parvo emere et magno vendere tibi in animo fuisse!" .

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soccerstud says on Aug 29, 2005, 17:15:

gator i'm colombian so nobody pays attention to anything i do so nobody ever bothers me. it's always been safe i would go out to bars with a friend and we'd walk around drunk really late and nobody even came up to us or anything.

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