home > user posts

Pst! Don't go to the easy 7 second sign up. Existing users: sign in.

TRAVELER PROFILE

Leeroy has written 28 posts

More photos of Bogotá (here goes)...

A woman selling balloons - Zona Rosa A fountain, woman, and a shed - Parque 93 "The Boss", Bogotá Beer Company - Calle 85 (post-photoshop) Cyclists, Ciclovia - Carrera 15 Girl on a swing ...

A few Bogota photos:

http://www.photographycorner.com/galleries/data/1518/IMG_0807.JPG http://www.photographycorner.com/galleries/data/515/IMG_1051.JPG http://www.photographycorner.com/galleries/data/1518/IMG_0946.JPG http://www.photographycorner.com/galleries/data/515/IMG_1198.JPG http://www.photographycorner.com/galleries/data/1518/IMG_0879.JPG http://www.photographycorner.com/galleries/data/515/IMG_1013.JPG http://www.photographycorner.com/galleries/data/1518/IMG_0874.JPG And if anyone could explain how ...

Some jokes about Colombia you've probably never heard:

http://www.theonion.com/content/atlas/ Ahem...

Mar Azul & San Luis hotels in San Andres

Anyone been to these hotels? What are they like? Thanks

Happy love stories

We all know the drill... Naive gringo meets opportunistic Colombiana... ...she keeps demanding money from him for dubious family emergencies ...they get married, go to the states, then she leaves him (taking half his stuff) etc... Any happy stories out there? Any gringo/colombiana (or gringa/colombiano) stories that have a happy ending, or at least that are going well so far? I bet there are some... ...

Being safe but not paranoid

Inspired by another thread... So - how to be in Colombia and stay safe/not get robbed? Normally people use the obvious soundbites - "exercise caution", "be aware of your surroundings", "don't be a moron", etc.. How could this be translated into actual sound advice? I'll give it go... Feel free to rip this to shreds! 1. It is okay for men and women to adorn themselves with watches, necklaces, etc.. What you should not do is be "bling" with ostentatiously expensive jewelry. 2. When ...

Where should I go?

Hey there, pbhers... So - next July my father, brother and cousin (both in their 20s) are coming over to visit. All three are quite intrepid explorers, although my father prefers a bit of luxury in his old age (late 50s). We are pondering where to go: We would like somewhere with sun, heat and nature- and no big cities. We would like to stay in a reasonably nice place (i.e. somewhere with air-con and cold beer) We would like to have options open as to bars and restaurants - i.e. n ...

On foreigners and integration

Guy A: ...has lived in Bogota 2 years. He doesn't speak a word of Spanish. He only eats western food, shops solely in Carulla, and only drinks in "pubs". The only Colombians he knows are English speaking prepagos, he has never caught a bus, and has never seen RCN or Caracol in his life. He shops in the Andino, Retiro, Atlantis - and if he has to Santa Fe. He lives in Estrata 6. Guy B:...has lived in Bogota 2 years. He greets people with "Quivo marica!", only ever eats Colombian food, drinks A ...

A question for those married with kids here...

Do you (both parents) speak to your kids in Spanish and English? Can (do) kids grow up to be completely bilingual when their only English input is from one parent? Thanks

Metro in Bogota

It is hard to appreciate how useful a metro is in a city unless you have spent an appreciable amount of time in cities that both have and don't have one. That might sound obvious, but growing up in London, as a child/adolescent I had only the vaguest of notions that most cities did not have a metro. Metros are very, very useful indeed. The transmilenio functions as a metro of sorts - the dedicated bus lanes ensure relatively few traffic jams no matter what time of day, and the routes mo ...

Anglicised names

In Nuevo Rico, Nuevo Pobre (a semi-popular telenovela), three of the lower class characters are called "Brayan", "Rosmeri" and "Miler". The upper class characters tend to be called things like "Andres", "Antonia" and "Mateo". I have noticed sales girls with their names stuck to their shirts called things like "Leidy", and "Jhon" and "Yeimy" seem fairly common. I have heard a rumour, in fact, that some girls are called "Usneivy". I have not, however, met many upper class Colombians (children o ...

The politics of usted

Most of the Spanish I learnt was learnt in Spain. There, the rules of tu and usted (and vosotros and ustedes) were relatively easy... "Tu and vosotros are for friends, family members, people you are cool with" "Usted is for when you want to imply social distance/respect" These days in Spain people very rarely use usted(es). Not so here... A while ago I overheard some students of mine (male 13 year olds) ustedeandose. "Boys, if you guys are friends, why are you using usted?" I nai ...

To all those who sent photos to the PBH photo contest:

I know. It was my idea, and I was very involved at the beginning. Then I kind of left it. But, myself and my gf have just finished looking at all the pictures now as a slideshow, and it really is spectacular. Thank you everyone. Really, it shows that the people at PBH are capable of creating something better than endless gossip and arguing about the same old shit - the photos there are something to be proud of. Now we have to get the voting sorted. Thanks again Lee. ...

What is unique to Colombia?

It's fairly common for expats and visitors to exclaim (proudly, sheepishly, or otherwise) things like... "Oh yeah, Colombians are very family orientated..." or "Colombians dance a lot" or "Colombians drive badly" or "Colombians are very status conscious" or whatever. I do it myself... But taking a step back here, for a second... Is being "family orientated" a specifically Colombian phenomenon? Is "liking to dance" something that applies only to Colombians? Are they ...

Post your photos of Colombia!

http://www.flickr.com/groups/pbh_photo_contest/ While the exact rules and structure of the photo contest still need to be decided, it would be nice to have some pictures of Colombia on the group. They could be pictures of, say, Monsterrate... Bogota - Monsterrate Villa La Leyva...

A PBH photo contest:

Inspired by another thread... Why not have a (Colombia) photo competition? Peter could even make a separate section of the site for it, and it could be divided into different sections (cities, beaches, rumba, people, nature, etc...). Members could vote for the winning photo. The only downside is figuring out how to make sure that people don't cheat (i.e. post some pic they found on the internet, instead of one that they themselves took). Well, just an idea... ...

So, do you people know each other?

Like, in real life? Or are the members of PBH here just "electronic entities" to each other?

Trust #2

Insipired in part by Lencol's post... In Spain I rented an apartment for a year. The landlady (a Mexicana) brought over a tattered contract which I signed, I paid her the deposit and first month's rent, she gave me the keys, and voila. No hassles. It took one day. We rented an apartment for a year in Bogota. We signed 4,000 copies of 16 different contracts (complete with full sets of fingerprints on every page), often having to resign them because if you write something a little bit ...

Lessons from nuevo rico, nuevo pobre

DISCLAIMER: For those of you looking for a simple, straightforward post about some aspect of Colombia or foreigners living here, look elsewhere. For those of you who want to read a semi-coherent ramble about telenovelas and society (and have nothing to do for the next few hours), read on.. Oh, I know, I should get a life, this is boring, this is stupid, etc... No need to say it. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ...

On the PBH forum, a scientific analysis (!)

"This site is so negative!" I've heard it mentioned more than once. Well, let's see with a quantitative analysis. (If you ever wondered what high school teachers do during school holidays, well, now you know...) A thematic analysis of the first page of the friendly talkzone of PBH, conducted at around 3.30pm Bogota time: The most common type of post was that of a query for information, i.e. someone asking about some aspect of Colombia: (11) Where to ATM (query) Venezuelan Bolivar ...

The joy of the telenovela

My first encounter with Colombian culture came through "pasion de gavilanes", a truly fantastic telenovela that was airing in Spain. I spent the humid summer months in Madrid drinking dirt cheap wine from the box, sitting on a bean bag in my underwear fantasising about Dana Garcia. According to pasion de gavilanes, all Colombian women wear cowboy hats with bikinis. I was hooked. ("Quien es ese hoooombreee? Quien me mira y me desnudaaaa?" as goes the theme-tune) "La mujer en el espejo" ...

The joy of San Andresito

My first experience of San Andresito was to go to get a European playstation chipped to work in Colombia (and play copied games). It was reminiscent of a scene out of Bladerunner - I instantly fell in love with the place. Not just for the Cheap Everything, but the whole vibe of the place. "You can buy a gun here" my girlfriend (helpfully) informed me, I still believe her. I didn't feel fear as I watched a moustached guy with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth (drinking beer at 11 in the mornin ...

Importing a car

...

Those friendly Latin Americans

(Jesus, this got really long. A quick post turned a PhD thesis... Well, screw it, I have nothing else to do today...) Years ago I taught ESL classes in London. Pretty much the only good thing about it was that mix of nationalities (and cultures) that you got to experience - we had students from everywhere - Japan, Mongolia, Colombia, you name it. We all learnt (teachers and students) to stereotype students into nationalities fairly quickly - it was unavoidable, and as much as liberals like ...

The joy of the tienda

On first arriving in Bogota, like many relatively well-off foreigners, I did my rounds of the Bogota Beer Company and the pubs in the Zona Rosa. The irony of going all the way to Colombia to drink pints of beer in a "pub" with British flags plastered on the walls wasn't lost on me - but, besides, this was where people were taking me out - and I didn't have anywhere else to go. Drinks after work entailed long taxi rides to the ZR or 93 to drink in establishments where a pint of beer would cost ...

English sausages

Anyone know where one can obtain English (style) sausages in Bogota? Like, ones actually made of pork/beef, instead of the salchichas and chorizos normally on offer? This isn't just for me, I know some Colombians who have been to Britain and also miss the sausages from there too. And no double-entendres please... ...

Job going

http://www.tefl.com/jobs/results.html?searchOpts%5Bage%5D=&searchOpts%5Bcou_id%5D=47&searchOpts%5BtitleKeywords%5D=&searchOpts%5Bjo_category%5D=0&searchOpts%5Bec_id%5D=0&x=37&y=7

I was wondering when language academies were going to start with the "Colombia's bilingual program" stuff. Still, 2 million pesos a month might be pretty good for Cali, right?

EFL teachers & IELTS trainers
Tue 29th May 2007 20:55 GMT
Employer: British English
Location: ...

Explain this then

So, after work today some drinking pals and I were knocking back some club colombias in a tienda. A load of police come up and take all of our IDs, check them out, give them back to us, then wish us a nice day.

This wasn't one or two, this was a whole squadron.

Thankfully, it seems, my cheaply laminted "temporal" ID with a wonkily glued-on photo seemed good enough.

But this did lead me and my companions to wonder why they bothered. I am aware that the ...

If you're not a part of this travelicious experiment just yet, just sign up here. It's free & easy.

Visit the Hungersite daily.