larryste has left 20 comments

larryste comments on Blackberry coverage in Colombia..

Thanks for the info. I have the curve from t-mobile too. I know about the international blackberry plan. I wonder if it would work in colombia. I wonder about hooking the blackberry up to computer and use it as a modem. I think it would be cool.

larryste comments on divorce in colombia

Get a attorney but this is what I understand about the law
I might cost you a lot to divorce. It used to be it cost you $35 to marry and $2500 to divorce. They wanted keep families together so the father would support his kids. They was alot of people wanted to divorce but did not have the money. My wifes sister was separated from her husband for 5 years but did not have the money for a divorce. When she wanted to remarry she had to borrow the $2500 from the family. I think they change the law because of spousal abuse. They wanted to make easier to divorce. They also have child support laws. But colombian is not one of the countries with an child support Reciprocating law with the usa.

larryste comments on Money problems with family

The Money rant The problem is people who live in other countries they think in america money grows in trees. How you fix the problem. Everytime they call rant and rave about money. Tell them how much every costs and about your bills. Then about you car just broke down and your kids are sick. Then go on about those costs. Then talk about you do not what you are going when your husbands job gets sent india. You both are going to have to get a jobs Mcdees flipping burgers. Then you still will have to live on the streets. Then tell them about you are one pay check from living on the streets. You sure hope you husband does not get sick. Be really negitive. Then start on start on about how much money you have gave them in the last 20 years. Have dates, times and amounts. Then go on about the last amount of money you gave them. Ask them what they spent it on. Then go on about then wasting the money, it is time for a few gult trips too. For example I gave you $20 last month and you spent it on shoes. With that money I could have used for my kids medical bills. Another good thing to do is every time they tell you the price of any thing rant on and on about the cost of it. Make total money rant last for at least an hour. The at the very end tell them if skip a couple of meals and not pay this months rent. You could possiablly have an extra $20 next week to give them, but you do no know. They are going to have to call you again next week. Next week give them the rant again. Make sure then are paying for the call. I think at .25 a min. they will quit asking for money fast.
Do not take me serious I am being funny. But some of it could work.

larryste comments on Colombiana traveling/living in Middle East

usa visa I am living on a island in the middle of the pacific ocean. The country I am in would give my wife a visa But my colombian wife can not visit here. Because you have to have fly thru guam or hawaii. You need a usa visa to transit thru each way. I bet you would run into that in the middle east. You might want to contact a travel agent in colombia. They deal with that all of the time. They could tell you if your girl friend to goto the country you a in.

larryste comments on ATM difficulties: PLUS vs Cirrus

atms I had that problem before. What is bad the atm system only have x amount of lines out of the country or city. When they go down or they are busy you are screw'd. One time they were down for 3 days. It alwas happens at the wrong time. Over the weekend or holliday. When really need money bad. It is a good idea not to wait until you have no money to visit a atm. I alwas pay for my hotel bill a couple of days before I leave. I never had it happen. But it would be really a nightmere for the atms to go down the last day before you fly.

larryste comments on Using North America DirecTv in Cali

no signal I was hoping to do the same thing with directv. Tring to find out information is really hard. There web site that shows the sat footprint. You can get strong signal northern mexico. You see a some web pages about getting usa directv in mexico. The footprint go to soutern panama. It may be posiable get the singal if you have a big dish. Getting local usa channels may be a problem. They beamed to regions. You can not get tampa stations in new york. You have to have a usa addres

larryste comments on colombia a inglaterra en barco?

Cargo ship travel I do not think there are any ships that go to cartagena from europe. You might want to try cargo ships. Some take on passagers. But they can be really costly.

http://www.freightercruises.com/

larryste comments on Cyber relationships

Online dating I am glad that things worked out for you.
I read in the newspaper that online date is not a popular as it once was. People are starting think of it in a bad way. All of the dating .coms are starting to lay workers off.

larryste comments on Books in English in Bogotá

ebooks You might want to try ebooks. I travel alot and like to read. I can read my ebook on my pocket pc or a palm PDA. I have 5000 books on my hard drive of my notebook. I can have acess to them anywhere.


Here are some web sites
http://www.palmdigitalmedia.com/
http://www.fictionwise.com/
Free ebooks
http://www.baen.com/library/

larryste comments on Reputable jeweler in Cali

the ring I went threw the same thing 2 years ago.

If you want to find out about jewely stores ask any women. It is like asking a man about hardware stores.

I bought my ring in the usa. I consulted my sisterinlaw about rings. She said the best place to buy rings in sams club. I was surprized. When went to every jewly store in town including the mall. I ended up buying from sams club. Then I asked her about ring size. I thought it would be a big thing. She told that it is really easy to get a ring resized at a jewly store. It cost $30-40 in the usa. When I got to cali I gave my girl friend the ring. It was too large. We went to chippchappy mall and had one of the jewly store resize it. It took 24 hours and cost $15 to get the ring resized.
I asked my girl friends sister about the ring. I ask her what it cost in cali. I ended up saving $200 buing in the usa.

larryste comments on Deportation - A True Story - does the penalty fit the crime

Deportation It seems to me that there were a lot of poor choices in this chain of events.

1)The woman is this story should have gotten more information from the consulate about the visa.

2)You would think that in San Diego, California somebody in the family, friends, or co-workers of the couple would have some immigration visa experence. They could have told them that it getting married without the right visa was a bad idea.

3)I can not beleve that a engineer, a professional person would not have looked for some information about a visa. It does not take to much searching on the internet find the information and the horror stories of the people who were screwed over by the government. Then there is the libary I would think that San Diego would have 30 books about the k1 visa.

4)having a child before resolving the visa problem is criminal

It is really hard to say what the real story. We are just seeing the end results. Most people when they screw up put a good spin on it. They are not going to say that knew what they were doing was wrong snd was tring to get away with it.

I feel sorry about them but I really feel sorry about the child. I wish them the best of luck.

larryste comments on Modem from US in Colombia?

surge protector I would use a good surge protector when you connect to the phone line. Some of the houses not wired up very well. My girlfriend appartment I could only connect 1200 bps at her parents house. I could not connect at all. At the hotel I could connect at 3300

larryste comments on AIRLINE TICKETS TO COLOMBIA

too many variables I think the idea is a good one for a general guide. But there too many variables.

For example these are some of the variables

Tuesdays and wednesday are really discounted.

If you buy a ticket more than 30 days you are not getting a good discount.

The airlines heavly discount from 14 to 29 before a flight.

The time of year is a one variables too.

The price from a gateway city like maimi the ticket prices change a small amount like $140+/-. Because of international flight prices are set by international law.

What is really cost the connecting flight to the gateway city. The ticket prices are really variable they can change $1200. That is what you save the most if you buy smart.

If I bought a ticket to cali tomorrow it would cost me $1700. I bought the ticket 20 days befor the fight it would cost $500

Where I live is 2 conecting flights from maimi. So I am really screwed when I comes to buying tickets

What gets me there is no one web site for the best ticket prices.
One time it would be priceline the next time it would cheap tickets dot com. Then the time after the next it is expedia.

You best bet in finding good ticket prices is go to all of the web sites and check there prices. If you have fexiable travel plans try differnt dates.

larryste comments on US nice guy in Colombian Jail?

Bars are trouble If you want to stay out of trouble you might want to stay out of bars. If you want to go a bar make sure that you leave a couple of hours before closing. Most trouble starts at close to closing time. Because everybody is drunk and then if you do not have problems in the bar. You have worry about the robbers are waiting for the drunks leaving the bar.

I have been going to columbia for 4 years I have never had any problems. I have never seen any fights.

larryste comments on English lad thinking of moving to colombia

Wet blanket I hate to be a wet blanket here. But I would go jumping off the deep end yet. I would try spending a few weeks in columbia. To see how I would like the country and do market research. Also try to find clients.
On the supply side of things you will have to adjust you thinking. You are not going to have a wide selection of decoratoring items. Finding items might be really hard you might have to spend all day tring to find an item that is common in england. You might have to import some items. Then tring to find rich clients might be hard because security and fear of kidnapping. There is no top 100 list of richest columibians. Finding a directory with all in it would be hard.
A good story I could tell you is. My girlfriend cousan is a realtor in columbia. I took a ameican real estate magazine and give it to her. The magazine had pictures of the real estate agents and the houses that they were selling. After she got done looking at the magazine she told me she did not understand. How do the people in the magazine keep from getting kidnapped. The magazine has the owners and the houses that the own. I thought that was kind of sad.

You are going to be in a bad fix if you drop everything and come to columbia and marry your girlfriend. Then if you can not find work and she does not like england. You are going to have a problem.

larryste comments on Cops in Colombia?

"Just friends" game Columbia might have the right idea about the roles of men and women.
At least there are rules and obious signals. So nobody gets hurt.

A friendship between men and women is alright as long as everybody is honest.

But sometimes that is not the case.

I have seen and have been a part of just friends gone bad. I can not tell you how much it hurts when you think a woman is serious and she is in the "just friends mode"

A guy will put a positive spin on everything involing women who they are interested in. Oh she smiled at me, Oh she firts with me. She talk about personal things about me. She spends time with me.

SHE MUST BE REALLY INTERESTED IN ME.

Once a guy is smitten his brain and logic is gone.

Even without that it is sometimes really hard to read the signs to tell if a woman is interested in you or she is just being really friendly and flirty.


They are some women like to be a object of attention. It stokes their ego. Some women really let it get out of hand. Somebody gets really hurt. Everything would have been much better if she would have been honest.

Then women who just use men. In between boyfriends they will find a shy or a less attractive man. They will use him for entertainment and fun. He will spend alot of money and time on her. Then when she finds a boyfriend. The guy is nursing a broken heart and she just can not understand why "because they were just friends".

I might sound like a dog here but after getting hurt a couple of times. I had the 3 dates rule. If I was dating somebody and did not have sex by the 3rd date. I knew the women was not wanting to be serious with me and wanted to "be just friends". Then I would not let myself become emotionaly envolved. If I enjoyed her company I would continue "being just friends"

When I first came to columbia before I met my girlfriend. I really had trouble reading columbian women signals looking threw ameican eyses. I thought the ones that were interested in me whanted to be just friends. Then I found how much easier it is to read signals than america. If a women goes out with you she is interested in you.
If you with her and a group of people she is serious about you. If you go out alone with her she is really serious about you.

The point I am trying to make. And I am really sorry it is taking so long to get to is. A columbian man has not been shell shocked in the war between the sexes like an american man.

An american man would find out really quick you were just "PLAYING"

Look at it from the columbian guys point of view. You went out with him alone, you let him kiss you, and you carried on a relationship for 2 years. If I was that guy I would think you was really serious. Even thinking as a american, I would think that you are serious.

Having a columbian boyfriend, you should have known the culture.

I think you knew what you were getting into. Because you knew that telling him you had a boyfriend would turn him off.

I think you setting things up for something really nasty. Unless you the type of woman gets off on men fighting or getting shot because of you. It is time to come clean. I would be honest and tell the truth to the "cop". You might have to be really blunt and tell him more than once. Because for 2 year he thought you were serious.

Nothing good is going to come out of this mess. But the longer you are going to put off being honest to the cop the worse things are going to be.

larryste comments on Detailed Maps of Colombia?

mapa The University of Texas at Austin online map colection

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/index.html

I alwas thought it was funny that central and south american countries do not have accute maps. Here my ideas why.

1)They are not a car culture like ameicans and euroupeans. Nobody packs the kids in the car for the summer vactions and drives 1000's of miles.

2)When you have one road into town and one out of it is hard to get lost.

3)Most bus and truck drivers use the same road for years they do need a map.

4)The countries do not want to give the people any information they want to keep the people down. If anybody accute maps they might start a revolution.

5)Some neighborhoods started out as squater camps. People just made roads without no government planning. The government is too poor to make maps.

larryste comments on expensive stuff safe?

Camera Time If I want to take pictures and it is a place that I do not feel safe. I go in the early morning. Most crackhead and robbers do not keep morning hours.

What you have to think about is if you have a camera that costs $2000.

Lets say that the average columbians make around $50 a month. The camera you are flashing around is worth almost 4 years of pay. If you say that the average americans make a $22,000 a year.

It would be like walking around bad areas of new york with a $73,000 dollar camera.

Same gos with the the watch. How much is your life worth.

I am not saying everybody is a robber. It is not a good idea to tempt them.

Get you a cheap watch and digial camera. I spent $150 on a digial camera that takes great snap shots.

larryste comments on Panama?

Panama City I have not spent much time in Panama City just one or two days going threw the canal. I have been threw the canal 10 times.

I never did like Panama City very much. You can not walk down the street with being bothered. The taxis driver wanted to drive you, Street venders try to sell you something, Then people want to fix you up with a woman. You be walking around 5 people will be following you around. I just felt like everybody was tring to scam me.

On the plus side the city is setup like an american ciy. They have the same banks and same stores as america.

larryste comments on Good cable service or satellite disk in Colombia

I was looking on the internet last year about getting the english Direct Tv in columbia. There are some Direct Tv sats foot prints whose edges fall in the middle of central america and north of part of columbia. Some people in central america and mexico can pick it up. You have to have a bigger dish. There is a web site that has information about doing that. I lost the like you might want to check the web. I was thinking about taking an american Direct Tv reciver and try it.