MotoAdventures has left 13 comments

MotoAdventures comments on i want to give some money away.... seriously

Medellin Grass Roots Organization I've been living in Medellin for one year. Last December I donated enough food to feed 100 families for 10 days here. My girlfriend put me in touch with a good friend of hers here who has been working for a grass roots organization for a few years. They primarily provide a free lunch for children in one of the poorest barrios in Medellin every Saturday. The barrio is called Moravia, and consists of thousands of people living on a former trash dump. They live there because the 'land' is free and available, and close to work (they collect trash), and because they can put a pipe deep into the hill and use the combustion of the waste to give them fuel to cook with.

I asked Cesar what exactly I could do to help out, short of just donating money, and I ended up accompanying him to local food distributors, looking for the best prices, and personally buying rice, beans, lard, panela, powdered milk, and corn products, and delivering it all to 100 families. Just for a rough idea, this all cost me about U.S.$350. It's incredible how much you can help here with a little foreign money.

If you're interested, PM me. The best thing would be if you're in Medellin, and I can put you in touch directly with Cesar, and you can personally buy all of the food products, and deliver them to the people with him. I guarantee you'll receive a great sense of satisfaction seeing the people face to face that you're helping out.

Best of luck either way.

Paul Thoreson - Casa Kiwi Hostel Medellin - www.motoadventures.org

MotoAdventures comments on hotels in cartagena cali and medelin

Medellin Jacob - If you're looking for a hotel in Medellin for about $20, I have to recommend Casa Kiwi (my own guest-house). For info and pics: www.motoadventures.org. It's not in the center, but I'm pretty sure you don't want to stay in the center. It is, however, in the center of the Zona Rosa, THE place to be for nightlife in Medellin, and the best place to be if you want to meet Colombian women, and have a nice place to bring them back to (strolling arm in arm from the Parque).

Private rooms with bath are $36.000 pesos (about $14). It's also a great place to meet up and go out with other foreigners who are interested in the same thing you are. (It can be nice to have a wing-man in a strange city.) But isn't that why all single men come to Medellin?

Have a great trip.

Paul Thoreson - Casa Kiwi Medellin - www.motoadventures.org

MotoAdventures comments on Honestly: I JUST WANT TO PARTY IN COLOMBIA

Upper Class Suipacha - if you're looking for "upper-class women in Medellin", there's no doubt that you want to party in Parque Lleras (the Zona Rosa), Mangos, Trilogia, and a hand-full of other places scattered around town.

As far as Parque Lleras, aside from partying, just go to lunch in any of the restaurants around the park and you'll find hot, upper-class women any given day.

Either way, you're going to have a good time. Enjoy!

Paul Thoreson - Casa Kiwi Hostel Medellin - www.motoadventures.org

MotoAdventures comments on Un saludo from Medellin

Pics Of Medellin and the rest of Colombia SoCalDude - I've got tons of Colombia pics on my website www.motoadventures.org. For the year that I've been living in Colombia, most of that time has been in Medellin, with country tours on my Kawasaki KLR 650 moto, so there's a bunch of pics from Medellin, and a lot from all over the country. I'm getting around to posting more pics of the Parque Lleras chicas, all I can say about them is: top notch!

Paul Thoreson
Casa Kiwi Hostel Medellin

MotoAdventures comments on Medellin Trip in June

Furnished Apartment in Laureles Papi - I used to live in a four bedroom furnished apartment in Laureles for about $450 / month, with secured parking, close to two grocery stores. It was on the corner of San Juan (calle 44) and carrera 78th. It might be a little big for you, depending on who you're planning on living with, but I'd be happy to look into it for you and see if it will be available in June, if you'd like.

A problem you're going to run into is finding a furnished apartment, and finding a manager who will let you rent monthly. A good source with apartment listings is El Colombiano. The university EAFIT also has information in their foreign language department about shared apartments. www.eafit.edu.co/ Enjoy the feria!

Paul Thoreson
Casa Kiwi Hostel
www.motoadventures.org

MotoAdventures comments on Casa Kiwi Hostel in Medellin

How many accounts can we have on PBH? I'm just wonering because it seems at though Steve, i.e. stevens/bonzi/jan12 likes to open new accounts impersonating other people. Steve, what you don't know, is that after you left, Jan from Belguim was one of my repeat guests, and asked if he could take flyers with him to promote Casa Kiwi on the road. Nice try though. Would you like inventing another guest to bag on my hostal?

You know what Steve, life's too short to bother myself with your nonsense. Buena suerte.

MotoAdventures comments on Casa Kiwi Hostel in Medellin

Casa Kiwi Fiestas Well, it seems as though I'm getting a pretty bad reputation around here just from one unhappy BPH user (stevens/bonzi - whatever you want to call yourself), and one inaguration party. Steve, I'm sorry you didn't get a good night's sleep. I can assure everybody that the late night party was a one time event.

There were only four people staying here at the time, and I told all of them when they moved in that I was planning one (1) inaguration party with local foreign friends and students from a local private university (EAFIT) that coming weekend, and it would go pretty late. It did go rather late because everyone was having such a good time. As I remember, you yourself Steve were partying very late, seeming to thoroughly enjoy yourself with the women who were here. In english we call that hipocritical.

(BTW Steve, I also have friends here who saw you grab and almost hit a young boy in Parque Lleras who was bothering you. Please try to work on that temper a little bit. The last thing we need in Colombia are foreigners making a bad name for oursleves.)

Numerous guests have commented to me how well they have slept here, due to the quiet neighborhood, cement walls (which keep the house nice and cool), and very comfortable orthopedic beds - all 30 of them. Including an Israeli who stayed here with his 50 year old father, and a current 65 year old guest from Florida.

Please don't let one unhappy guest turn you away from a very nice, peaceful guest-house.

Gracias.

Paul Thoreson - Casa Kiwi Hostel - www.motoadventures.org

MotoAdventures comments on New Hostel In Medellin

Cultural Exchange in Casa Kiwi Hostel Bonzi - thank you for the constructive, if somewhat negative, criticisim. Due to your negative attitude I believe I remember which guest you were. I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the cultural exchange we had here last month. (I'm also sorry that you were too embarassed by what you wrote to use your real user name, instead you made up a ghost account three days ago just for your negative comments.) Thank you Morpheus for your support.

I find it interesting that you like to exagerate and say 'parties', since I have only had one since I opened in February. Fortunately all of the doors to all of the rooms in the house have key locks on them, even the dorms, so as to prevent somebody from accidently walking into the wrong room.

Since I just recently opened the hostel I've been running around town getting everything organized, so needless to say I've been a little occupied. Now, between myself, my girlfriend, and the cleaning lady, there will always be somebody in the house to attend to anything that might arise.

It is true: about once a month I like to invite some students from EAFIT, one of the best private universities in Medellin, in order for the local students to have an opportunity to practice their english, and also for the foreign travelers staying here to practice their spanish. Everyone was having such a good time at the Casa Kiwi inaguration party that it did go a little later than I had anticipated. That's why I only charged the guests half price, which I must say made most people very happy: a great fiesta and only half price for the room! What could be better?!

However, everything is a learning experience. Next time I would definately end the party much earlier so as to give the guests a good night sleep, which is very important traveling in a foreign country. That's also why I invested in 30 orthopedic mattresses.

From my experience most travelers enjoy meeting locals in a foreign country, and I'm glad that I've established good relationships with the wonderful people of Medellin in order to assist with a little cultural exchange once in a while.

It gives me such pleasure to look over my guest list and see some of the same names repeated various times, as they go and travel around Colombia and come back to the wonderful city of Medellin and stay in Casa Kiwi. It is very satisfying to have repeat customers, revealing to me that I must be doing something right with my hostel.

If you're in Medellin, please feel free to come by anytime to see the house, watch a movie, play a game of pool, or just hang out and have a drink. (Sorry, I don't rent rooms by the hour.)

Gracias.

Paul Thoreson - Casa Kiwi Hostel - www.motoadventures.org

MotoAdventures comments on New Hostel In Medellin

Contact Morphus - The house phone number at Casa Kiwi is (57.4)268.2668. My cell phone is (57)300.740.7244.

If you're in Medellin please feel free to stop by Casa Kiwi anytime just to see the house, have a drink, play a game of pool, watch a movie, whatever. There are always at least a few people around. The beauty of Casa Kiwi is difficult to capture in pictures. I tell everyone to just come by anytime to really experience the house.

Thanks!

Paul Thoreson - Casa Kiwi Hostel Medellin - www.motoadventures.org

MotoAdventures comments on Staying in Colombia longer than 180 days

Visas One option is to say that you've lost your passport, then apply for a new one in the local embassy, which would be pretty easy if you're in Bogota. I think the fee is about $100 for a new passport, and you could start your 180 days from scratch. And yes, they do inforce your time limit in Colombia. This is at least something to consider.

Another option is the student visa. In Medellin, Universidad EAFIT is a nice campus with a really good Spanish as a foreign language program. I'm not sure about schools in Bogota.

It used to be easier to obtain a student visa, but I've heard that these days you have to let DAS know at the border when you arrive that you have intentions to study, and they stamp your passport with something that says that you are going to study. (Even with this you still have to apply for the student visa after you have signed up for classes.) Then you get the certificate from the University showing that you are enrolled in classes, and take that to the DAS in Bogota with some other paperwork and photos to get the student visa. I haven't heard of anyone being denied the student visa. It just takes a couple of hours once you arrive at DAS with all of the paperwork. If you do this option, try to get your school to say that you are signed up for classes for the longest time that they'll give you, so as to not have to go back frequently to renew the visa.

Paul Thoreson - Casa Kiwi Hostel Medellin - www.motoadventures.org

MotoAdventures comments on New Hostel In Medellin

Hippies and Hot Water Phishrox - yes, hippies (even older ones) are more than welcome at Casa Kiwi. We have tons of hot water - a 200 liter hot water tank, and five full bathrooms. And please feel free to use it liberaly so as to not bother the other guests with your hippy stench.

Morpheus - one of the many advantages of Casa Kiwi (including orthopedic mattresses, a 6 burner gas stove, pool table) is that each guest has their own key to the front door of the house so you can come and go as you want at any hour, without having to wake me up. All of the dorms also have locks on the doors to keep all of your things a little safer. I also have a safe for passports and other valuables.

For more information about Casa Kiwi:
www.motoadventures.org

MotoAdventures comments on New Hostel In Medellin

Reply to MiamiMike Mike, no, I am not associated with the IYH. I don't believe there are any IYH hostels in Colombia. Our prices are rather reasonable though, as you will see on the website: www.motoadventures.org. This site has all of the information you need about the Casa Kiwi Hostel, including pictures of the house.

As far as my motoadventures that you asked about, the whole story with pictures is also on my website www.motoadventures.org. But here's a brief synopsis since you asked: I rode my Kawasaki KLR 650 motorcycle from Alaska through Central America to Panama, and from Panama I shipped the bike and myself in a contraband boat to the north coast of Colombia. It took me two years from Alaska to arrive in Medellin, Colombia, and have been here since May 2004. I fell in love with Medellin when I arrived here, and decided to open up a hostel. I still would like to finish my trip to Tierra Del Fuego, Argentina. But everything can wait: mañana!

MotoAdventures comments on New Hostel In Medellin

Thanks for asking, Ken! The Palm Tree is a great hostal. The only problem is that it's not really close to anything. During my 10 months living in Medellin (two of which I spent at the Palm Tree), all I heard from other travelers was how they wished there was a hostel within walking distance of Parque Lleras, the center of nightlife (the zona rosa) in Medellin.

That's why I opened up the Casa Kiwi five blocks from Parque Lleras, in El Poblado. Now you can go out to bars, restaurants, and discotecas, and walk home at the end of the night instead of having to look for a taxi...hopefully arm in arm with your new latin sweetheart.

And yes Ken, I have to admit, I might have a few residual hippy tendancies. That's why in Casa Kiwi you'll find a nice hot-box in the water heater closet.