Iain has left 35 comments

Iain comments on "I would marry you but you have to promise to not take me away from Medellin"

miamimike, what do they (col divorcees) do when they end up in Miami? I guess there is a big kind of networkd where they can get into menial jobs etc...?

Iain comments on Air Comet-Is it as bad as all the reviews say

I flew with them to Bogota two years ago from Madrid, my wife had already arrived in Colombia two weeks before me so I was travelling on my own. Anyway we left Madrid 1 hour late (ok no big deal) and while half way across the Atlantic they suddenly told us that we are stopping at the Dominican Republic and and picked people up there (it was suppost to be a direct flight so the travel agent and my ticket told me). Anyway we arrived at the DM and stayed there on the plane for 2.5 hours then left for Bogota arriving 3 hours late and thus missing my connection to to Cali. They did put us up in a nice hotel for the night so that we could catch the connection the next day. The flight back was on time and with no surprises. My wife's flight from Madrid to Bogota was direct. A good place to find flights is www.edreams.com I seen tickets from Madrid to Cali on Iberia for 700 Euros (last Monday when I checked); the prices fluxuate as they are updated 2 or 3 times a day and go on seats available throughout the day and what they think they will sell on that day. The same flight above was listed for 1000 euros on last weekend (guess because alot more people look and buy tickets then) but then was 700 on Monday night. Its good to check your same dates on edreams over a few days, if you are flexable about dates then its even better. You can buy the ticket online and you get a eticket number, so no more paper tickets. Also August is an expensive month to travel as a lot of Colombian go back at this time for a couple of weeks from Spain. If there is a good saving to be had then I would book with Air Comet again. Delays and planes not being ready are just something that can and does happen. I flew from San Fran to the Cooks Islands and had to pick up the Air New Zealand flight in LA. However when I arrived in LA from San Fran the Air NZ plane had broke down and they had to fly another one up from NZ so they put us in a hotel overnight and gave us $20 for dinner. So it can and does happen to even the most reputable airlines.

Iain comments on Hugo Chavez: Baywatch, SI! Los Simpsons, NO!

Hugo Chavez: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U3yCjMHNPU&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_icrKKFMSV0&feature=related Excellent!

Iain comments on Mike Newell's 'Love in the Time of Cholera'

I don´t care what the critics say, I thought it was a good movie. Must say Javier Bardem was excellent in No Country for Old Men, one of the best movies I´ve seen in a long time.

Iain comments on

I have to agree with miamimike that the UK is such a depressing place what with the weather and the Brits are not the most exciting people in the world (I know I am one), not as boring or straight laced as the Germans but close. In fact all northern European countries are like that, cold, wet and the people miserable. Generally the sunnier the place the happier the people are. I left the UK 10 years ago and would never return. I could not see many south Americans enjoying living in the UK as it is the complete opposite to what they are used to. Miami would be more their thing if just for the fact it is always sunny. By the way I thought Colombians and Cubans couldn´t stand each other, the Colombians think the Cubans are a bunch of loud mouths... There are a lot of Colombians and other south Americans here in Spain but the Spanish do not like them and look down their noses at them. For this reason it would be better in Miami for a Colombian as there is not so much racismm like they get from the Spanish.

Iain comments on

If she had a British passport then she would have arrived under the visa waiver program which only gives you 90 days as a tourist. So I guess she just overstayed... and if thats the case then I don´t see how she could then get a green card even if she married a Cuban or Puerto Rican as she would be in the country illegally which means an automatic 10 year ban and she would never get a visa again. So basically she can never leave as she would never get back into the USA so she won´t be seeing much of the kid. I know there are a lot of South Americans in Florida who just overstayed but with families back home which they can never go and visit unless they are willing to except that they will never get back into the USA if they left to visit home.

Iain comments on Maria full of Grace UK DVD release?

Get it here If you have broadband then you can download it from:

http://www.torrentspy.com/

Simply type in 'maria full of grace' in the search box and then there are 3 available, two which are divx (about 750 megs)and one which is a dvd rip (4.5 gb).

To do this you will need to install bittorrent client sw from here:

www.bittorrent.com

and then use a GUI to add and the torrent file(s) to download them, I use ABC add the torrent file then download them, you can get it from here:

http://pingpong-abc.sourceforge.net/

Done!

Iain comments on Immigration to columbia

It actually irritates the hell out of me too I'm sure it irritates the hell out of some Colombians when some dumb ass foreigners come here and not even being able to spell their country's name correctly. FFS if you come here claiming you want to move there etc at least get the spelling correct of the country you claim you want to move to.

Iain comments on Immigration to columbia

Aye... ...and contacting the "Col U mbian Embassy" won't get you one either because a "Col U mbian Embassy" doesn't exist.

Really why is so hard for some of you to spell the country correctly?
Not being funny but it does amaze me the # of N Americans (no offense to the ones who can) that come on here and just can't spell the country correctly.

Iain comments on Immigration to columbia

Columbia You would have to contact the Canadian Embassy for that one, below is a British Columbia site:

http://www.gov.bc.ca/bvprd/bc/home.do

Good luck

Iain comments on Age gaps in relationships between women and men from Col. and abroad

"There are sooooo many more important things that determine the success of a relationship than the age of the people involved. Geez, Did I really have to say that?"

I guess you need to keep on saying it to convince yourself of it?

Of I keep forgetting that you are talking about *your* experience of long term marriage with large age difference jaja.

It easy for the people who are 50 odd and are living with their early 20's chica in the US to spout out how great it is *so far* but in the long term she's gonna dump your old ass!

Now as a couple of other bods have pointed out, they would rather have a few years with some hot chic than none then that's another matter. At least they do acknowledge that it probably won't last more than that and are honest about it.

Iain comments on Poll - Getting fat in American?

Fat Yanks I lived in CA for 3.5 years and I enjoyed my time there but I have never have seen sooooo many fat tubs of lard waddling around in my life! I'm not talking about people being a little over weight but obese and alot of them young too.

Iain comments on Age gaps in relationships between women and men from Col. and abroad

Married twice ? From bondjames:

"You can catch them,but unfortunately cannot keep them for too long. You have already married 2 Calenas,both gone!"

calipro, I thought I read it from you somewhere that you were previously married to a Calena but I didn't know you have been twice, unless bondjames is wrong. Well if the above statement is true then it really does go towards proving my point about the almost non existent probability of marriages where large age differences are present lasting. I would imagine that your marriage(s) were not even of the large age difference that I was refering to either.

Also the picture that bondjames paints of you is oddly also same as I had of you. I just hope that the original poster widowerfromcanada is sensible enough to ignore your comments to his original question.

Iain comments on Is buenaventura, Colombia a good place to live or visit?

Asked my wife again And shes been there a good few times and she has just re-confirmed that it is a shithole. Mind you she wasn't wearing any rose tinted specs at the time that desi was!

Iain comments on Age gaps in relationships between women and men from Col. and abroad

Dodging the facts with jokes calipro you completely ignore the facts as they are put to you and instead make jokes and question if I am "man" etc. That says a lot about and how much you know about the almost for certain problems that will arise with such huge age difference. I believe (if what you say is true) all you do is go down to Cali to "bang" as many girls as you can which says a lot about you and the respect that you have to offer them. So if I was the Canadian guy asking the question I think you would be the first person whose advise I would ignore.

If the older guys on here think they can go down their and marry a 21 year old when there is a 30 year age gap and think that there won't be any issues then they are living in denial. With that in mind nothing more will change their minds as they will only see what they want to see. As miamimike said it might fly down in Colombia if you stayed there but as soon as they get to the US they will dump your old ass.

tbone you say:

"am i afraid she'll leave me? i've never been dumped before but there's always a first time"

Well you have never married a girl who is 30 years younger than you before either. You trying to tell me that it has never crossed your mind the huge age gap and how long she will stay around? C'mon sure it has.

But if you say that you would have 5 years with a gorgeous girl than none at all then at least you are are being realistic about the possible length such a union would last.

Iain comments on Is buenaventura, Colombia a good place to live or visit?

Buenaventura My wife's family and my wife tell me that it is an ugly place, very very hot, very very humid and very run down. They said the population is mostly black so if you are a blue eyed gringo you will sure attract a lot more attention than other places (which is a lot anyway). So all in its not on the "must visit" list.

Iain comments on cost of apartment ,Medellin

A painful read Jack,

With all due respect I've never seen such bad use of the English language from a native speaker. If I was you the money you paid for your education I would ask for it back! Well at least you spelled Colombia right which is a lot more than some of your fellow country men can manage.

Pete, perhaps you should add a spell checker?

Iain comments on Age gaps in relationships between women and men from Col. and abroad

From another thread Here is a post from miamimike:

http://www.poorbuthappy.com/colombia/node/4988

"My Buddy is Divorcing after 16 months of marriage to an attorney from Barrinquilla. Things did not go well. His age and hers is a big gap--he is around 70, she is 42."

and a another one of his replies:

"Ha! Ha! Who knows what happened?? No she did not get the green card, money, who knows?? I think the age was too great of a difference. Sure there were other issues I have been told about."

And she dumped him without even getting her greencard!

And he states another fact:

"have been under the cultural mores of the land but once the colombian ladies fly here-MAN do they change. And they do !! Personally--I am 58 and my ladyfriend is 51 and I would not be interested in anyone 45 or less. I beleive once they hit that 45 yr. mark they tend to stabalize and they are less likely to "Fly the Coop" as we say. They will think twice before leaving whereas a pretty young colombian woman simply will b not stick around with their much older husband once she gets acclimated here in the US. It may work in colombia but for sure-it will NEVER work here-not in the long haul anyhow."

Sorry but I like miamimike just don't believe that this type of age difference is ever going to work. Sorry tbone but you are chasing an illusion and if you can't see a 51 year old guy to 21 year old girl is simply not going to work then its time NOT to follow your heart and to use your mind. I can imagine that great levels of conversation a 51 year old guy and a 21 year old girl would have! Not forgetting to mention that you are pretty much stealing her youth.

I really can't believe that there are you type of guys that actually believe that this is doable and that they are actually with you because they love you. Time for a reality check here. Call me judgmental if you wish but I believe that all marriages with these types of age differences are doomed to failure. Certainly if you take them back to the US anyway.

Iain comments on Age gaps in relationships between women and men from Col. and abroad

Oldgringo you are miles ahead of this guy Yep 20 "year" miles ahead of me !

"Is still rationalizing why they ended up with what they got and not what they really"

Eeeerrr No, not quite, I'm very happy with what "I've got"

"Can you imagine calculating how long your wife might live after you die so you can feel good about who you married. hehehe!!"

Life is full of calculations like:

Shall I talke this job or that one etc
Is this new girl I met my type, does she share the same outlook, do we get on, is our age diffrence going to be a factor.
Is it safe to go to this part of Colombia.

We see it all the time on this BB, people asking is it safe for a blond blue eyed gringo to go to Colombia.

This current thread is being used by widower from Canada's own calculations on girls from Colombia.
And there's probably a 100's of others you could list.

If you can't afford to make a few rough calculations on important choices in life (and none more so than your future partner) then well what I can I say!

Iain comments on Age gaps in relationships between women and men from Col. and abroad

oldgringo I'm glad that your relationship is strong but I still stand by my opinion that a 20+ year age gap is for the most part (99% of the time) is just too big.

Also you say that you have a 31 year age difference, with all due respect oldgringo you are both hardly going to enjoy your old age together. So if you live to 80 she will be 49, c'mon even you can see that a 49 year old is hardly going to want to hang around emptying your colostomy bag! Not to mention the fact that you will die 40 odd years before her !

The widower from Canada asked the BB for opinons and he got them as it sounds like he is planning a trip down to Colombia to find a wife. I'm merly saying that if he is say a 50 year old guy then he would be better off finding someone in their late 30s or early 40s. A 20+ year old girl just does not have the life experiences that a 50 year old guy does and there would be very little in common. Lets remeber here a 20+ year age gap is a whole GENERATION. I'm sorry if the fact that I find 50 year gringoes flying down to Colombia to chase up a 20+ year old girl for marriage pathetic offends you.

I also believe most Colombian girls in Colombia marry guys that are near their age within 5 to 10 years. Although I also understand that many husbands will play the field with younger women but that is a another subject altogether.

Iain comments on Age gaps in relationships between women and men from Col. and abroad

Personal Experience Well I'm 37 and my wife is 25 so I am 12 years older than her, it is not a huge age gap but it is as large as I would personally want it to be, its just me and how “I” feel about it. We get on great and I am a young 37 year old. I personally think an age difference of 5 to 10 years is just about right and in my case 12 being an absolute max. This is just for me though and others are different. I could never be say 40 and chasing 20 year olds for a serious relationship as I just think a 20 year gap is way too big. As for 50 year old gringos going after girls in their 20’s is just nonsense. I just wouldn’t feel right walking down the street with a wife 20+ years younger than me. So basically if you are 50 then you should be going for a woman in her late 30s.

Just my $.02 !

Iain comments on WHY IS THE FOOD AND HYGIENE SO BAD IN COLOMBIA

Steve in Canada Ok being British myself here are my comments on Steve's comments:

1) Food so bland and tasteless that it has to be chocked down.
Yep pretty much the case, we are not famous for our food.

2) Everything is way overpriced.
Absolutely, too damm expensive

3) The air quality is horrible.
Not sure about that, but I would think any large city in any country can be labeled with bad air quality.

4) The people are boring and emotionless. (They are still not as bad as the French though).
Yep, but you should see the fcuking Germans !

5) The best part about England is a trip to the airport to leave the country.
I don't live there anymore and can't say I miss it too much.

I lived in the US for a few years so here goes:

1 Too much junk food but lots of good restaurants

2 Never seen so many obese people in my life, really amazing how a lot of them are sooo fat

3 Their education levels are not too great (Steve in Canada spelling Colombia as COLUMBIA is a prime example of North American education), certainly in terms of geography, I even had one yank ask me where I learned to speak English, I stopped short of telling him that we invented the fcuking language.

4 If news is not US related then very little coverage of anything outside of the US

But having said all that I enjoyed my time there but I'm just glad I'm not one of them.

Iain comments on Maria full of grace out on VHS / DVD

Post deleted my previous post went in twice

Iain comments on Maria full of grace out on VHS / DVD

Actually ...that is the original Spanish title but the English title is just like the guy said

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002TT0MI/qid=1106084312/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/102-8324117-2095308?v=glance&s=dvd

Anyhow its got good reviews so I'm downloading it now !

Iain comments on some thoughts on my last trip to Cartagena

European And every white European is assumed to be American, and we are quite different in culture etc from Americans.

Iain comments on Property prices

Silicon Vally CA I worked there for 3 years doing Java, I was a European on an H1b visa which are usualy 99% held by Indians. Had a great time there and I was lucky enough to never have more than a 15 minute commute against the traffic flow to work! I prefer Spain tho.

Iain comments on Property prices

Cali is good choice for the future Lionheart, Thats an interesting observation from you about the technical side etc. I have been in IT for 8 years (since graduating from university) and currently have been contracting for 4 years doing J2EE. Before that I worked in the US for 3 years where I met my wife before returning to Europe. I guess you are in IT also or something pretty close to it? It would certainly be something to consider as I'm sure there must be a pool of talent there.

Iain comments on Property prices

Thanks for all your comments, this is exactly the type of info I'm looking for. If we do buy an apt it would certainly be a newer one most likely part of a complex. It would not really be viewed as an investment and we would be in it for the long term so we would not be looking at trying to make a fast buck as such. Also the rental money would not be sent to myself as we would just leave it in a bank account over there.

Iain comments on Property prices

Thanks for all your comments, this is exactly the type of info I'm looking for. If we do buy an apt it would certainly be a newer one most likely part of a complex. It would not really be viewed as an investment and we would be in it for the long term so we would be looking at trying to make a fast buck as such. Also the rental money would not be sent to myself as we would just leave it in a bank account over there.

Iain comments on Property prices

Pounds shillings and ... Euros ! I put US dollars in my post as that is what most of you think in but I actually have about 80% of my savings in British pounds and the rest in Euros. No yanky greenbacks for me.

Iain comments on Property prices

juan has a point Thanks for your replies, my wife's family are from Cali with some in the US. I know a good few people in Cali also some who are expats so Cali is the first choice (well definitely for my wife). I don't really want to start a discussion on safety issues like kidnapping as I am well aware of what not to do etc. Really just looking for adviceinformation on the property side of things. If I owned a property and for some reason later on we decided to move on then we would just sell it. Is there anyone on this BB that owns property and rents it out through an agency? If so is it fairly easy to rent out etc?

As I mentioned before we live in Spain and have been here for a few years but I figured if I keep on contracting at the rate I have been then in a few more years I could afford to get out and live in Colombia on x amount of $. I couldn't do it in Europe tho.

Iain comments on Is Cali dangerous???

Article from Escape from America Hola a todos,

I don't post here often but do check in weekly to see whats going on etc. Well this thread caught my interest and I remember reading an article from the ezine "Escape from America". This is from a 'gringo' who has been living in Cali for a good few years:

http://www.escapeartist.com/efam/38/Colombia.html

Also here is another article for Cartagena:

http://www.escapeartist.com/efam31/Cartagena.html

Hopes these two help.

I live in Spain with my wife who is from Cali which I have visited a few times and I personally never have had a problem there. I kept out of the 'poorer' barrios and never walked around on my own after say 8pm. Never at any time did I feel paranoid. We even have traveled outside Cali by car to Lago Calima and Armenia both of which were around a 3 hour drive.

I know couple of non Colombians who live there and they generally follow common sense. They have taxi drivers that they know and use and don't advertise their expat status and don't /act like tourists.

I think the biggest problem would be the opportunist ladrons which for the most part you can minimize simply by using common sense. There is the remote chance of kidnapping if you are stupid enough to go to areas that are no go, personaly kidnapping would be the least of my worries unless I worked for a well known multi national etc. There are be roads that I would not travel, like the one from Cali to Buenaventura or from Cali to Popayan.

Cheers!

Iain comments on Any Software Developers Here????

J2EE Hi all,

I'm a J2EE developer and have been contracting for the past 2+ years here in Spain. I am British but I lived and worked in CA for Pacific Bell for 3 years before returning to Europe. I am in my mid 30's and my wife is Colombian and we both currently live here in Alicante, Spain although we did spend one year in England before comming here to Spain.
Before I did Java I was a C++ programmer.

libdigital, how did you find yourself in Scotland? My mother is Scottish and she lives in Stirling. I woundn't think there would be many Colombians in Scotland?

Iain comments on dengue fever's presence on colombia's caribbean coast

Immunity There are four strains of dengue: DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3 and DEN-4, once you have had one you are immune to that one but you can still get the other three. So persons living in a dengue-endemic area can have four dengue infections during their lifetime.

Also the second time round is not fatal but can be only if it leads to Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF) even then only about 5% of DHF is fatal and usually amongst children. See the quote below:

" Multiple infections are possible because immunity to one virus serotype does not provide immunity to the others. In fact, previous infection from one dengue serotype or a sequence of infections can contribute to the risk of contracting the more severe DHF [6]. Approximately 5 percent of all DHF cases are fatal, mostly among children [7]. Although dengue is still rarely lethal, its contribution to disease and ill health, especially among young children, should make dengue control a primary public health concern."

Iain comments on dengue fever's presence on colombia's caribbean coast

I got Dengue on one of my visits to Cali in 2001 and had all the classic symptoms: Severe headache behind the eyes, severe joint aching, rash on chest, cold sweats and being completely zapped of energy along with fever. I had quite a few mosquito bites while I was in Cali and the fever came on about 2 - 4 days after my return to the US.

Most cases happen in urban areas and its as the other user said, a very bad case of flu but luckily it doesn't last long. My fever and pain was over after about 3 -- 4 days but took about another 4 days to get all my energy back. Definately one to avoid !