spigrimace has written 74 posts
Pico y Placa motos de dos tiempos - starts today (July 7) in Medellin
Pico y Placa for kids on bikes hanging on to the back of volquetas or buses next. Followed by horse-drawn carts (poop optional), blind people with seeing eye dogs, electric wheelchairs, pushing baby strollers and eventually simply no one is allowed to leave their house...at least its not because of violence this time around. Oh but dont worry...Pulling green rickshaw type carts piled a mile high with all your life posessions blocking a lane of traffic and Bobsledding down Las Palmas on your bicy ...
Refajo Recipes
Theres the basic refajo of a beer & colombiana sode pop. Next rung up is some do a beer, half colombiana, half naranjada & some zumo de limon. I just found another one: Take a 72 oz pitcher, alternate while filling it up with 3 beers, two 12oz colombianas, two 12oz servings of Malta and two dobles of Guaro and you get a nice dark annissette tasting refajo that can sneak up on you even though you taste no alcohol. Anyone got any others? ...
Secretaria de Salud de Medellin never ceases to amaze me
All my restaurant emploees had their required medical exams. The exam checked their throats, noses and fingernails for bacterias. But now the health inspector is looking for another exam...they now want the employees feces checked for bacteria. Seriously! I wanted to drop my drawers and dump one in front of her and tell the inspector to go ahead and check it. Its a get the exams done or get closed down deal, so I went to the lab clinic to see how we can accomplish this. The employee needs to bri ...
R.I.P. Brava
Its official, stack up if you can find it. Cervunion is no longer making Brava. From Red to Green to gone. RAAAY will be happy that they have picked up distributing Perroni now so if he wants it wholesale, any of his friends on the route can get it cheap for him. ...
Another moto driver is road kill this morning in Medellin
He was going north on la 80 sunday mornign about 7:30am and took the curve at consumo by my restaurant too fast and plowed into a light pole in front of the panderia. Died instantly. I heard the crash from 2 short blocks away. Not a lot of blood so I guess it was massive internal injuries and head trauma. They took 3 hours letting the body lie in the street uncovered to make reports, take measurements of skid marks and study the scene. Yuck. Ill stay in my car. ...
ojo! Revision Mechanico
Nationally in Colombia every vehicle has to go thru inspection. This isn´t the emmission test that costs around 40 mil. Instead, this is where they put your car on lifts, connect it to computers, check the tires, make sure it stops in adequate time, all signals work, etc. Its confusing as 1994 and older cars need to be inspected first. 1995 and newer later this year. About a $235k fine if you dont have it. Check out for your when you need to do it. The link lists timelimits by placa and lists i ...
WRESTLEMANIA XXIV in Medellin - Sunday 3/30 6pm
You might roll your eyes but I expect about 80 people of all ages here for Wrestlemania 24, Sunday March 30, 6pm on 2 big screens here. Go to www.wwe.com for all the matches. Come early for the best seats and we´ll show old Wrestlemania matches starting at 4:30pm. If interested, it´s an 8 mil entrada. Come to Champions Barra Deportiva y Restaurante. La 80 con 28, Barrio Belén La Palma, Medellín, Tel: 3434343 I was curious if Ryan619´s PBH handle had anything to do with Rey Mysterio´s 61 ...
Clutch replacement in Colombia: real price
Mazda 323 clutch replacement: 170.000 pesos parts, 70.000 labor totalling 240.000. Ill keep driving that car into the ground at those prices.
another possibility to make a little money in Colombia that people haven´t really touched on
If you own any property outright without any problems (such as legal, tax, mortgage) in one of the major cities like Bogota, Cali, Medellin, Cartagena, Barranquilla, and can prove some income (even via a fake certification letter), you should be accepted as a co-deudeor on a lease and you could charge say $50000-$100000/mo. plus whatever other terms such as a couple months up front and fax/email a copy of the cancelled rent/utilities facturas monthly so you wont get stiffed. Remember you dont pu ...
For you handymen
When in Medellín, take the metro to Alpujarra and walk up and down cra. 50 (Palace), 51 (bolivar) and 52 (Guayabal) a few blocks in either direction including San Juan (cl 44) and wìndow shop at all the industrial supply stores. Its all available and cheap. Need something hard to find, keep asking and eventually, someone will know where to find it. It´s more than just standard ferreteria stuff. Bronzework store, foams for all uses, industrial belts for motors of all uses, huge rolls of scre ...
RAAAY I wish I had your phone number last night to prove to you MT is right
Last night was dia de la mujer and many people dined a bit on the later side. We got busy at 9 instead of the usual 8pm and many tables of families and couples showed up at 10 and even 10:30. Unfortunately, 1 employee couldnt make it in, so the guy doing deliveries was waitering during these rush hours. A call came in at 10:15pm for a delivery to a unidad cerrada at the end of the street where my restaurant is. The delivery guy was really busy so to keep him servicing his tables, I said I´d wal ...
Medellín Bus to the Iron Maiden Concert in Bogota
I have a neighbor who is a travel agent and she has a bus going from Medellin to the Iron Maiden Concert in Bogota on Feb 28. If you haven´t read, the show is dedicated almost entirely to their 80´s music and the set will resemble the Powerslave set from the 84-85 tour. The bus is pretty cheap at $66.000 pesos round trip. You need to give her half up front to reserve a seat. Her name is Claudia Mora and you can call her cell at: 300-738-47-82. You can get tix for the concert at www.tuboleta.co ...
Super Bowl in Medellin
At Champions sports bar we will have 3 large projection screens and over 200 seats with tables. There´s Beer, rum, guaro, food like burgers, chuzos, fajitas, nachos, steaks, etc. all reasonably priced. It will be a fun time. Come early to get a good seat! 4PM starts the Fox Sports pre-game show in English only available thru Direc TV. Game is in spanish unfortunately. We also can facilitate wagers in dollars or colombian pesos via our offshore account and pay winnings on the spot. Cr 81 (aka l ...
Aportes of employees in 2008 for pension and seguridad social
Trying to do the first nomina of the new year. Can anyone who deals with nomina in Colombia confirm this: They increased what a company pays for pension to 16% and it seems the employee´s "aporte" for this payment increased to 4%. It looks like they left the salud the same at 12.5% for the comapny to pay. I couldn´t find if the employee´s aporte stayed the same at 4%. Can anyone confirm/correct those percentages. Thanks. ...
Buen Mozo, the colombian bred horse finally won!
Broke his maiden at Golden Gate fields sunday in an $8k maiden claimer and paid $11.80.
Anyone know of a car buying scam that might resemble this situation
Here´s the facts. I am distrusting! I have a nothing flashy 2003 Mazda 323 with only 51000kms, without A/c, is in exceptional mechanical shape with some light body damage like dings, scratches and a 2 small dents, probably will need new fron tires soon, but the car was never in a collision and would be considered a good used car. I´ve never advertised it for sale but about every 2 months, costeña(s) always walk up to my business asking if i will sell it, how much, what´s the least I´ll take ...
The real price, not the gringo price
The alternator belt on my mazda 323 went this morning. Paid $8000 for the 75cm belt and $5000 for the taller to install it in which he needed all of 10 minutes to go buy the part and install it. I bought the mechanic a 600 peso tinto because it was cold and rainy as well. I think you need to pay a mechanic in the states $75 just to open the hood. ...
My bad. Almost got shot in the buttocks Thursday.
Well there I was (sorry elmo) as I let my paisa buddy talk me into a rare night of going out for some beers at Blue on the 10 thursday after closing up the sports bar after the Bowl Game. I really dont like that Blue is almost all foreigners but my friend is an ex-DJ from there and being with him, we didn´t have to pay the $10 mil cover and we didnt pay for all the beers and working 16 hours a day, I really needed to let go of some steam and he offered to drive. We each spent $10 mil, drank lik ...
Buen Mozo, the colombian bred tries to break his maiden again at Golden Gate Fields
We had a fun thread about this Colombian Bred Horse. He´s entered 2 times this week so he´ll scratch out of one spot (or maybe scratch out of them both as you never know) First looks like where he fits but he got a crappy post: Activity date 01-01-2008 Track Golden Gate Fields Surface All Weather Track Distance 1 Mile Race number 5 Purse $8,000 Claim price $8,000 Individual claim price $8,000 Race type Maiden Claiming Post position 12 Jockey Gonzalez R M Then his s ...
Mayweather vs. Hatton in Medellin
If you´re in Medellin, I´ll have the PPV on the big screen. $5 mil cover. Come early and catch the Nacional game. Some NBA games on as well on the other TVs. Champions La 80 con 28 Belen La Palma, Medellin Tel: 3434343 ...
Not as frustrating but...
I have been a Direc TV Colombia subscriber for 3 years and probably with 6 decoders for the sports bar, probably I have one of the highest monthly bills of any client. For the NFL & MLB packages I had them switch it on every year with a simple phone call. Nice that now they offer NBA Pass (Not LEAGUE Pass like in the states but a toned down version with 2 games daily) and called to subscribe. I was told I need a letter faxed to them signed by the representante legal since it´s a business accou ...
TomTom you´ll like this one...
I have a paisa friend who now lives in Toronto with her husband. Her husband is sucessful and brought around CAD$100k to invest which is not a lot for him. They took the don´t put your eggs in one basket approach and they bought a bunch of businesses, many of them bars on the 33 in Medellin. Unfortunately, the problem of having many businesses in Medellin is you cannot keep an eye on everything all the time and, shocker, the employees stole from them and all the businesses were losing money. He ...
FPC Irony on Sunday
Well Medellín blew a great chance to make the playoffs losing 1-0 to caldas. Sunday is their last chance. The top 7 spots in the playoffs are already spoken for. Medellín is 2 points behind Chicó for the 8th and final spot. DIM needs to win to gain 3 points in the standings no matter what against quindío and for all realistic possibilities DIM needs Chicó to lose because if DIM wins and Chicó ties which would tie the two clubs in points, DIM would need to win by about 6 goals to gain the a ...
Millonarios were quite impressive last night/Elims mundial 2010
Beating Sao Paolo 1-0 in their house in the ida of the Copa Sudamericana. Believe it or not eliminatorias for the 2010 World Cup start in the next few days. Colombia takes on Brasil this Sunday at 4PM ...
Why buy some expensive DuPont product?
The guy in Medellin who detailled my car made a mixture of 8 ounces of pepsi & 1/2 disc of panella to make a concoction to brush on the tires to make them look deep black and shiny. The short-lived look lasted about the same amount of time as any of the expensive stuff. He said coca cola works just as well. Panella, probably has a million and one uses from home remedies to skeet shooting. ...
Caught me some Chalacos red handed yesterday
I´ve been burnt b4 so I have a keen eye for people casing my joint. I was outside the bar on the patio chitchatting with some gringos who stopped in after shopping at Los Molinos. So these well dressed guys come in yesterday during the NACIONAL game and oddly one goes into the sports bar and is standing at the opening to go behinds the bar, another sits oddly with his back to the TV in the restaurant side and his back is also to the wall by the staircase to go to the 2nd floor and the 3rd tipo ...
RUGBY WORLD CUP in MEDELLIN
C´mon you all blacks, Springboks and the like... Sept. 7 starts the Rugby World Cup. At the sports bar we´ll have many games live on ESPN, ESPN2, TV5 MONDE and help from P2P streamers around the world. We also have Mediazone´s package where although not live, we can stream any match from the world cup, on demand, 24 hours after the game ends. Cheers! Champions Sports Bar & Restaurant La 80 con 28 Barrio Belén La Palma, Medellin Tel: 3434343 ...
Twisted thinking
I get stuck with a fake peso note every 3 months or so at the restaurant/sports bar as we go through a lot of cash. So I have about $200.000 in "falsos". The fakes are really good with cotton paper, have the metal strip and some even have the watermarks when you put them under the ultraviolet lamp. But when you unsuspectingly try to deposit at the bank, is when you get nailed and they rip a hole in the center of the bill in front of your face and return it to you. Anyway, many down here have ...
I met Hebert Vargas last night
the famous vallanato singer ended up singing at my place last night as he is a close friend of the owner of the paramilitary/mafioso bar next door and they did a surprise show. That bar got so packed before the show, they asked me if they could set the band up on my restauant´s patio which is adjacent to the bar. No problem as it brought me over a millon in business in about 2 hours between food for their patrons and my clients that sat and drank/ate on my patio to watch the show from behind, s ...
Who thinks Edgar Renteria can make the Hall of Fame
He´ll be 32 on August 7. He´s got the championships, the all-star games and if he can stay healthy and play until he´s about 39, he could pull a 3000 hit career as he has 1900 hits now. He has a .291 lifetime batting average. If he can pull it up to .300 lifetime and he gets to 3000 hits, I believe he´s in. We´ll talk about Cabrerra´s chances in a few more years. ...
A chink in the economy or the start of something bigger
Many small business owners in Colombia had a rough July. Me included. Not sure what to make of it if it was prices rising so fast, the low dollar or what. For mine personally, I thought it may have had something to do with McDonalds opening in La Mota but many of my neighbors with diversified businesses felt the same pinch. It could also be the traffic jam from the metroplus snarling up the 80 con 30. I couldn´t believe the size of the classifieds in El Colombiano this Sunday for real estate ...
Moment of silence for the murdered diputados
That has to go into Guiness book of world records as the loudest moment of silence ever. For a half hour starting at noon today, everyone honked their horns and waved anything white they could get their hands on. ...
COPA Mustang Finals
Was a great last day of the cuadrangulares yesterday. Santa Fe played spoiler against Cali. Medellín played spoiler against Cúcuta. Nacional´s game with Chico went back & forth with 4 goals of the game within a 10 minute span, Huila´s dominance was ruined by a huge fight at the end in the stands where 24 were hurt.
Finals are: Nacional vs. Huila
wednesday 7:30PM
Sunday 5:30PM
(Colombnia Time)
RCN and the señal cerrada will broadcast the finals. ...
Can Cúcuta hold on?
Playing in the Bombonera is never easy. They started the FOX Sports Lat. Am. pre-game already and it is like pea soup in Buenos Aires right now and full of fog. Just hide the ball in the fog and eat up time? As of this post, you literally cannot see a thing. ...
Colombian league playoffs start tonight
You can get all the info and which are the televised games at: http://www.dimayor.com/
I always say the number one team gets screwed because they make they simply separate the 8 teams that make the playoffs as Grouap A-1,3,5,7 and group B-2,4,6,8, thus the best team from the regular season has a HARDER road to the finals as far as the seeding goes. ...
Had some tongue in cheek fun yesterday
Finally turned the tables on an old antidote. Went to a Construction store and tried to haggle on some stuff and when the salesman said, it´s not expensive. I said, "oh. that´s because you´re Colombian with pesos that are worth so much!" He didnt get it so I explained it to him. ...
Secretaria de salud almost hosed me bad - but there was a silver lining!
All last week we were buying triple everything for mother´s day which is the best non-sporting event sales day of the year. We were stocked to the max with all meats, fish, burgers etc. when the gestapo, oops I mean, Alcaldia de Medellin´s Secretaria de Salud came and shut me down for minor violations. I never understand how people have licenses to cook empanadas and things on these roach carts or in dirty frying pans on bricks over dirt in the street without running water, soap or lights but ...
TRM just broke under 2000-1
True that exchange houses are around 1900-1 but TRM, what you would get for an ATM withdrawal just broke under 2000-1. I wonder if it will hold under 2000 or if psychologically, 2000 may be a barrier and traders will not let it sink below 2000. I dunno but 800-1 back in 1992 still is a long way off if the peso comes all the way back in. Living down here, I do not see any strife yet from the strong peso. Maybe that´s out in FARC & finca land. Everyone still seems to have plata in the big cities. ...
Business Idea that just hit me
People have asked for business ideas before. One hit me that isn´t my cup of tea but could be a windall if it´s something you like to do and have some seed money to back it up. I think the key is to be a broker in some shape or form. Why not be a plastic surgery broker? Talk with doctors in Colombia. Ask them what they charge. Ask for a discount in return for sending them business and just like that, you have a business. All the doctors need to do is nip, tuck, close, take what they charge fro ...
OSCAR DE LA HOYA vs. FLOYD MAYWEATHER
It´s official! Direct from HBO-Latin America...The Oscar de la Hoya vs. Floyd Mayweather HBO PPV fight will be available in Colombia. I´ll be showing it on the big screen in Medellin for only an $8000 cover. ...
Titiribi
Went to Titiribi for a stay at my GF´s family finca. They say it´s an hour an a half away, but I did it in an hour flat as I love pushing the envelope driving those curvy & winding roads.
Real easy to get to. Take the autopista towards Itagui and go all the way to where it forces you to make a left to go to Caldas (ant.) then go about 30kms, alng the same route to Jardin, until you see the Titiribi sign and make a right. It´s about 5 miles to the town. The whole town is on a sl ...
Wrestlemania 23 in Medellin - Lucha Libre!
I´m showing Wrestlemania 23 via the webcast on the big screen at the sports bar tonight 6PM (Palm Sunday). $12000 cover. Don´t tell Vince McMahon! I didn´t do a lot of advertising. Sent the flyer out to my email list and went to the major colegios like UPB and San Carlos, etc. this week at the time the kiddies get out for the day and dispersed a bunch of flyers. Hung a few flyers around at internet cafes and a few other kiddie hot spots. The feedback from the kids have been quite impressive e ...
Remember to always look at Colombian Docs 2 or 3 times over before leaving the window
Got one over on my GF today. She was chewing out my ass because I was bitching about the bad quality of work my workers were giving me and then I frustratingly started to generalize how low the quality of work here is and the lack of checking one´s work in Colombia is really lacking. She again was all in my face.
My GF is in the long process of replacing her cedula because she lost it a year and a half ago. In order to prove who she was, she got a contraseña and a stamped lette ...
Barrio Manzanares
Thanks to Spain´s three kings visiting Medellin, the governement prohibited transport of gas pipetas in Medellin for the entire weekend of Friday thru Monday morning without informing anyone. So along with many businesses, we were stuck because we only had enough gas to get us thru Saturday. We called around and finally found a place in Manizares that would sell us a 100 lb tank but we had to go get it. If one starts at la 80 by Consumo near my business, go up the canalazacion past Altavista-lo ...
Shrinking Peso!
Not shrinking against the dollar but the actual notes are shrinking. The new mil and 2 mil notes are literally like the size of Monopoly money. They say they did it to save paper.
A real good guy who was one of the first to visit me at the sports bar when I opened up 2+ years ago always stops by on his trips down here to say hi. He said some of the best advice he has ever heard is when he read my post that one of the keys to living down here is to treat mil pesos like a buck. If B ...
Aeroparque in Medellin
I think many who visit Medellin have been led to belive that Aeroparque in Medellin is just a barrio along the 70 that borders the Olaya airport. Not sure how many know there is an actual water park there where there´s a huge pool, winding water slide, jet slide where you fall straight & fast, wave pool, cabling where you cable and then drop into the pool, picnic area, and more. And almost never any waiting. Entrance all of $5 mil with unlimited use of all the above includad and with a Comfama ...
NCAA March Madness in Colombia - yes it´s possible
One can get access to almost every NCAA Tournament game from the first 3 rounds via pay & free internet sites such as CBS, CSTV, CBSSportsline.com, ESPN Full Court, and the few that make it on to ESPN Latin America & ESPN Dos. Every Elite 8, Final 4 and the Championship game will be available thru the same routes. The tournament starts the week of March 11. If you´re in Medellin, We´ll be showing all that´s available.
Champions Barra Deportiva y Restaurante
La 80 ...
WIll we see this in Websters?
Colombians - an almost indestructable marijuana plant
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061220/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/mexico_drugs
Foiled another scam
Man the thiefs in medellin must think I must not have any street smarts. Here goes:
A nicely dressed young gentleman with new jeans, nice tenis, and long new leather coat comes into my sports bar, asks for me by my first name, and told me that he was my accountant´s son (called her by first name as well), and that she got locked out of their house and he just needed $30 mil for a cab back to the house and to pay the colmena (locksmith). Now, I only have a professional relationshi ...
Where to find NFL, NCAA Football, NBA & NCAA Basketball, MLB in Colombia (and the rest of the world)
EPM/UNE in Medellin just raised Triple Play´s max. internet speed in Medellin to 1500kbps for about COP$170.000/mo. Finally fast enough to stream live video. So they ramped up my sports bar with it and I bought all the online packages of NCAA Football (up to 20 games a week), NCAA Basketball (up to 20 games a week), NBA (access to EVERY game) and I´ll buy the MLB online package next season which has access to every game and they are offering a pennant package right now as well. The picture qua ...
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