cuidate has left 13 comments

cuidate comments on Renting a motorcycle

"car and driver"

cuidate comments on Renting a motorcycle

How about a card and driver? Is that available, even if only "locally"? If I want to hire a guide to show me the areas up the mountain from Santa Maria, wouldn't they have some sort of a car?

cuidate comments on Renting a motorcycle

Thanks for those links, Alma del Norte, but $110-170/day for a bike is obscene, imho.

cuidate comments on Room for rent

I'm looking for a place to rent in Medellin and near Santa Marta. I am turned off completely by the thought that someone advertising a room expects me to call from the US just to find out the price. That's not just suspicious. That's rude.

cuidate comments on Traveling safely from Panama city to Bogota Colombia.....

As has so karmically been the case on so many occassions, Terry, our interest paths keep crossing. I would love to think that I could haul that fifth wheel trailer I planned on dropping in Panama, all the way through Darien and into Colombia. Until I read your contraian suggestion that it might be do-able in the world of the you-will-be-kidnapped-and-die posts, I had abandoned the idea as being feasible. Given the spin Rueben Blades has put on retirees in Panama that essentially eliminates that country as the place I will next live on the planet, Colombia regains much luster. My big Cummins RAM diesel Dodge anxiously awaits a merger with an attractive fifth-wheel trailer to move profoundly south. The Darien Straits was the deal-breaker re Colombia. I welcome any input that suggests that has dissipaited sufficiently so as to plug that idea back in as a real-world option for me. TT is TT and the reasoning(?) of their moderators is often inexlicable to the logical mind. Why those links don't work, or why the posts were deleted, probably have more to do with the sorts of fellows who reflexively drive slow in everyone else's fast lane but religiously complain to the moderators. Look for my PM

cuidate comments on Am I in trouble for traveling to Cuba?

Anyone granted permission to live in the US is subject to all of its laws. That includes those that regulate travel to Cuba. Technically you ARE subject to all the same restrictions as any American, and could potentially lose your right to stay in the US. That being said, OFAC is a toothless dog that doesn't enforce anything anymore. It's been that way for years now despite the fear-mongering efforts of the Bush administration to pretend that that dog DOES hunt. Only a few people are ever fined out of the 100's of thousands that visit there regularly and illegaly. ALL of those illegal visitors had just as many stamps in their passports as you do and no one on any forum I have followed over the years has ever suggested they were even questioned about them. Even if you were asked, you have the right to refuse to answer. I have used it every time when asked by US Customs, "When was the last time you went to Cuba?" I have been asked that so many times that I came up with a standard response to such a self-incriminating question, "It was about the same time that you stopped beating your wife. When exactly was that?" You are not required to answer any question that might incriminate you. I have received two letters from OFAC over the years, both of which I responded with the standard "Fifth Amendment" Letter you can download from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in New York. That was more than five years ago and nothing has come from any of it, nor will there ever be. Don't worry about it. It's about as genuine as an "orange alert" and only intended to suspend you in a fictitious fear. Republicans like to do that.

cuidate comments on Salento and the palms of Valle de Corcora...

Nice pix, Terry, but trees, birds, horses, caballeros and jeeps aren't the sort of fotos I know CheersTerry to be famous for. Dónde estan las chicas ?

cuidate comments on PBH T-shirt design contest

I'm new here so I guess I misunderstood this thread. I came here looking for a "Sticky PBH T-Shirt Contest" I'm kinda disappointed not just because there are no fotos of chicas in Sticky T-Shirts, but 'cause I had imagined all sorts of interesting expressions for whatever P-B-H might have stood for. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

cuidate comments on Give papaya

Papaya has a very different meaning in Cuba Perhaps the reason the reason "Papaya" was chosen for this expression is explained by how it is used in Cuba.

In Cuba, the fruit is never referred to as Papaya. It is always called "fruta de bomba". Certainly it's because it is shaped like a bomb, but more importantly, the word Papaya is always used to refer to the female genitalia. If you ask for "papaya" at an agro mercado the people within earshot will laugh their collective asses off.

I wondered for a long time why a fruit shaped like a bomb came to be so firmly identified with female genitalia since they clearly bore no ne similarities to each other.

When I asked him about it, my cuban friend said, simply...............slice it open.

cuidate comments on Brief travel guide to Minca

Minca interests me. Thanks for your post Good post, kiwime.

Seems like things have changed a lot in recent years. I'm looking forward to visiting there.

cuidate comments on Brief travel guide to Santa Marta

Above Santa Marta I know little about that part of the world but I do know that 2000' is a lot cooler than 100' and that views ten to occur at higher elevations. The mountains seem to rise dramatically behind Santa Marta and suggest there might be some property there with good climate and good views. Anoyne able to suggest where I could find out more about that area?

cuidate comments on Loving Medellin? Why?

Interest Stuff I'm not a city boy and for sure would not want to live in either a high-rise or an enclave, especially one populated with extranjeros and designed to protect everyone from the natives. That's kind of the flavor I get from some of the posts here.

As an aside......what's a "prepago". I thought you were saying "prepaid" or some such but it's apparently one of those words in Spanish that isn't found in the dictionaries. Like Paisas.

Is a home in a rural setting an invitation to disaster in terms of the criminal element it might attract?

cuidate comments on Renting out apartments in Medellín

Thanks for the heads down I think it unlikely that anyone reading your detailed post will seek out any of those apartments anytime soon.

I would have jumped ship for even a couple of those negative factors going unresolved.

I'm glad to hear that it didn't deprive you of an opportunity to come to enjoy Medellin.

Great Post.