Had to do a week in CTG on business and just wanted to provide a few updates.

1-Prices have gone wayyyyy up! Ride from the airport to Laugitio is still 15K. Cabs that used to be 2-3K are now 5K minimum...each way!

2-Food in the restaurants is outta sight. Baby Beef at Riquisimo that used to be 16K in now 30,500. Beer that used to be 2.5k is now 4.8K

3-All the little tiendas in Laugito seem to have gotten together and standardized on their pricing for everything. Didn't matter where I went. Price was the same for everything I needed.

4-Massage ladies on the beach are asking 30-40k for massages now. I got 1 for 15 because I knew her.

5-Touts are still a pain. Best solution is ignore them....DO NOT SPEAK OR SAY NO GRACIAS. They will just keep hounding you. Ignore them and shake your head no.

CN-Our favorite fried pargo is now 18K. Remember when it was 7K?

Lots of cute chicas. Went to LDV one evening for about 30 minutes and left. Buyers market but a lot of Italians in town paying 250-300K for ST. Girls are getting spoiled.

Went to Hard Rock Cafe in the Old City. Nice place, small by HRC standards but had lots of memoribilia. Cost us 93,000COP for 2 sandwiches and 2 beers plus an order of onion rings. High even by CTG standards.

Place is being inundated by cruise ships and lots of old fat farts walking around buying trinkets, driving up prices and being ugly Americans.

Heard one guy bitching about not being able to find coffee. "Hell, this is Colombia. You sould be able to buy coffee on every street corner". I said, "excuse me, you just walked past 2 places that sell coffee" and pointed them out to him. He bitched again and said, "why don't they advertise?". I said, "sir, cafe is Spanish for coffee" He actually said, "well, they should have it in English too"

I snickered and walked away.

I'll probably pick another beach town to visit for vacation. CTG will not be on my pick list any longer. Small place like Covenas or nearby but little if any P4P scene so take it with you if you go.

Juan Ventura is doing great and still just as nice as ever.

thanks for the update. Love the city and was thinking of a return. Will budget accordingly.

The massages on the beach are not too good of a deal. After going to Thailand it is hard to pay that much for a massage that is not that good.

Some of the girls are asking for a lot at LDV. I thought the high end was 200,000 for short term. Since Electra is open late some will try to get a customer at LDV then go to Electra. You can still find some affordable girls that are a lot of fun. One good think about Cartagena is you can go out any night of the week.

I noticed the most english speakers when I went on a tour to the mud volcano. Almost everyone spoke english either european or american. I went on a tour to Playa Blanca and there were very few americans or english speakers. I dont think there was a cruise ship when we were there.

You can spend a lot of money especially if you like to go out and drink. If you like going out and staying out late you have that option. I was in Cali and sometimes it is slow during the week at night. I think Escoses is the most fun at night in Cali.

when did the cruise ships return? Last year everyone was complaining because all the cruise ships had stopped coming.

there were two different ones during the week I was there. Must be regular stops now and probably contributing to the sharp increase in prices

I haven't been in Cartagena yet but I found that were laguito is a rich residential area of Cartagena. So when fellas from Italy come and pay high prices, it bumps up the market. I've been talking to my Colombian friends and been telling me other places to go where the prices will be lower. It seems the more in Centro, the cheaper the prices.

Best bet sandman, stick to the prices you know and don't budge. I also been told keep phone numbers of girls and their friends that will give those prices.