That is really interesting. I am not sure if I was the only one singled out as there were way too many people in the secondary room. But I think something happened after she scanned my passport as I did not get any indication or thought anything out of the ordinary. But even if I had the same immigration officers as you do I would not share much information on my activities that may be considered questionable. I am a discrete individual and what happens in Colombia stays in Colombia or in other words, never happened.

Sorry to hear about this episode Phd, but I wouldn't let this one episode dissuade you from visiting. You and I have been to Colombia dozens of x, and if we put together the trips of all the guys we know going there (collectively hundreds of trips), your unfortunate episode seems like an unusual occurrence. I've never flown into Miami, but I recall a friend having a similar episode there a couple of year ago at that airport. Ironically, I've never gotten secondary coming in from Colombia, but I used to get it for SEA on several occassions (nothing as serious as yours and not any more, knock on wood).

Maybe 24 trips in 4 years hit some kind of magic number to screen?

Hey PHD, that's quite an examination considering how many trips you've taken there.
I'll be going to BOG for the first time 9/28 to 10/05 for the first
time. Any other advise you can share for a newbie ?
When in Sept/Oct will you be going?

Thanks,
E69

Here is the URL that I am not sure will work or not:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092102347_pf.html

Collecting of Details on Travelers Documented
U.S. Effort More Extensive Than Previously Known

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 22, 2007; A01



The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials.

The personal travel records are meant to be stored for as long as 15 years, as part of the Department of Homeland Security's effort to assess the security threat posed by all travelers entering the country. Officials say the records, which are analyzed by the department's Automated Targeting System, help border officials distinguish potential terrorists from innocent people entering the country.

But new details about the information being retained suggest that the government is monitoring the personal habits of travelers more closely than it has previously acknowledged. The details were learned when a group of activists requested copies of official records on their own travel. Those records included a description of a book on marijuana that one of them carried and small flashlights bearing the symbol of a marijuana leaf.

The Automated Targeting System has been used to screen passengers since the mid-1990s, but the collection of data for it has been greatly expanded and automated since 2002, according to former DHS officials.

Officials yesterday defended the retention of highly personal data on travelers not involved in or linked to any violations of the law. But civil liberties advocates have alleged that the type of information preserved by the department raises alarms about the government's ability to intrude into the lives of ordinary people. The millions of travelers whose records are kept by the government are generally unaware of what their records say, and the government has not created an effective mechanism for reviewing the data and correcting any errors, activists said.

The activists alleged that the data collection effort, as carried out now, violates the Privacy Act, which bars the gathering of data related to Americans' exercise of their First Amendment rights, such as their choice of reading material or persons with whom to associate. They also expressed concern that such personal data could one day be used to impede their right to travel.

"The federal government is trying to build a surveillance society," said John Gilmore, a civil liberties activist in San Francisco whose records were requested by the Identity Project, an ad-hoc group of privacy advocates in California and Alaska. The government, he said, "may be doing it with the best or worst of intentions. . . . But the job of building a surveillance database and populating it with information about us is happening largely without our awareness and without our consent."

Gilmore's file, which he provided to The Washington Post, included a note from a Customs and Border Patrol officer that he carried the marijuana-related book "Drugs and Your Rights." "My first reaction was I kind of expected it," Gilmore said. "My second reaction was, that's illegal."

DHS officials said this week that the government is not interested in passengers' reading habits, that the program is transparent, and that it affords redress for travelers who are inappropriately stymied. "I flatly reject the premise that the department is interested in what travelers are reading," DHS spokesman Russ Knocke said. "We are completely uninterested in the latest Tom Clancy novel that the traveler may be reading."

But, Knocke said, "if there is some indication based upon the behavior or an item in the traveler's possession that leads the inspection officer to conclude there could be a possible violation of the law, it is the front-line officer's duty to further scrutinize the traveler." Once that happens, Knocke said, "it is not uncommon for the officer to document interactions with a traveler that merited additional scrutiny."

He said that he is not familiar with the file that mentions Gilmore's book about drug rights, but that generally "front-line officers have a duty to enforce all laws within our authority, for example, the counter-narcotics mission." Officers making a decision to admit someone at a port of entry have a duty to apply extra scrutiny if there is some indication of a violation of the law, he said.

The retention of information about Gilmore's book was first disclosed this week in Wired News. Details of how the ATS works were disclosed in a Federal Register notice last November. Although the screening has been in effect for more than a decade, data for the system in recent years have been collected by the government from more border points, and also provided by airlines -- under U.S. government mandates -- through direct electronic links that did not previously exist.

The DHS database generally includes "passenger name record" (PNR) information, as well as notes taken during secondary screenings of travelers. PNR data -- often provided to airlines and other companies when reservations are made -- routinely include names, addresses and credit-card information, as well as telephone and e-mail contact details, itineraries, hotel and rental car reservations, and even the type of bed requested in a hotel.

The records the Identity Project obtained confirmed that the government is receiving data directly from commercial reservation systems, such as Galileo and Sabre, but also showed that the data, in some cases, are more detailed than the information to which the airlines have access.

Ann Harrison, the communications director for a technology firm in Silicon Valley who was among those who obtained their personal files and provided them to The Post, said she was taken aback to see that her dossier contained data on her race and on a European flight that did not begin or end in the United States or connect to a U.S.-bound flight.

"It was surprising that they were gathering so much information without my knowledge on my travel activities, and it was distressing to me that this information was being gathered in violation of the law," she said.

James P. Harrison, director of the Identity Project and Ann Harrison's brother, obtained government records that contained another sister's phone number in Tokyo as an emergency contact. "So my sister's phone number ends up being in a government database," he said. "This is a lot more than just saying who you are, your date of birth."

Edward Hasbrouck, a civil liberties activist who was a travel agent for more than 15 years, said that his file contained coding that reflected his plan to fly with another individual. In fact, Hasbrouck wound up not flying with that person, but the record, which can be linked to the other passenger's name, remained in the system. "The Automated Targeting System," Hasbrouck alleged, "is the largest system of government dossiers of individual Americans' personal activities that the government has ever created."

He said that travel records are among the most potentially invasive of records because they can suggest links: They show who a traveler sat next to, where they stayed, when they left. "It's that lifetime log of everywhere you go that can be correlated with other people's movements that's most dangerous," he said. "If you sat next to someone once, that's a coincidence. If you sat next to them twice, that's a relationship."

Stewart Verdery, former first assistant secretary for policy and planning at DHS, said the data collected for ATS should be considered "an investigative tool, just the way we do with law enforcement, who take records of things for future purposes when they need to figure out where people came from, what they were carrying and who they are associated with. That type of information is extremely valuable when you're trying to thread together a plot or you're trying to clean up after an attack."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in August 2006 said that "if we learned anything from Sept. 11, 2001, it is that we need to be better at connecting the dots of terrorist-related information. After Sept. 11, we used credit-card and telephone records to identify those linked with the hijackers. But wouldn't it be better to identify such connections before a hijacker boards a plane?" Chertoff said that comparing PNR data with intelligence on terrorists lets the government "identify unknown threats for additional screening" and helps avoid "inconvenient screening of low-risk travelers."

Knocke, the DHS spokesman, added that the program is not used to determine "guilt by association." He said the DHS has created a program called DHS Trip to provide redress for travelers who faced screening problems at ports of entry.

But DHS Trip does not allow a traveler to challenge an agency decision in court, said David Sobel, senior counsel with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has sued the DHS over information concerning the policy underlying the ATS. Because the system is exempted from certain Privacy Act requirements, including the right to "contest the content of the record," a traveler has no ability to correct erroneous information, Sobel said.

Zakariya Reed, a Toledo firefighter, said in an interview that he has been detained at least seven times at the Michigan border since fall 2006. Twice, he said, he was questioned by border officials about "politically charged" opinion pieces he had published in his local newspaper. The essays were critical of U.S. policy in the Middle East, he said. Once, during a secondary interview, he said, "they had them printed out on the table in front of me."

Hey guys,
I'm planning a trip to Santa Marta and Cartagena. The first part I would spend in Santa Marta and the second would be in Cartagena. My question is, will traveling between the two cities via cab be safe? I think it will probably be a couple hour ride and not sure what the situation is like around that area.
Thanks,

MG

You should not have a problem....I took a cab from Cartagena to Baranquilla once which I believe was like 2 hours each way....I had no problems....all you need to do is find a legit taxi cab company.......

Thanks Cazadorez. Yeah now that I look at the map again that's going to be a pretty long ride. Maybe 5 hrs one way.

Motogringo, I took that exact ride from Santa Marta to CTG and it was 4 hours with a brief stop in Baranquilla. You shouldn't have any problems catching a bus or private mini van from the terminal during daytime hours. There are also vans that leave from Rodadero, the main touristy beach in SM. I never felt any danger at all during my ride.

Thanks Baypilot.

hey Motogringo you can use this company http://www.transportesmarsolsa.com/home.htm From Barranquilla to Cartagena is only 25,000 cop, i think is the same from Santa Martha to barranquilla,
They will pick you up from your Hotel



My Two pesos

Kukulkan

Three good reasons to visit Medellin
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_qiYPKGelg
2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgDtyUlgtxs&NR=1
3.http://www.colombiansweethearts.com

Mangos is an example of a good reason to visit Medellin?

Isawal - I think you added that after our conversation. . LOL
OK you win Im there as your wingman .. I will be dropping all other trips till May!

{May 7 - 12th Medellin}
{May 12 - 19th Lima}
I still need a room in Colombia, so Im working on it.

Cool Nastyworld

A truly educated and mature dissuasion. Hope you had a great birthday.

Hell Hitghc, give me a break I am going on my first trip in May, but you have to admit the video links "interesting". BTW why is a women like a bank? You make a deposit but as soon as you withdraw you loose interest.

Isawal and I have a question about travel within Columbia for our trip in May. We want to get from Bogota to Cartagena - I want to return to Bogota, Isawal has other plans. Since neither of us live in Columbia, what is the best way to arrange flights. Should we book now or wait until we arrive and book with a local travel agent? Or is there some other way. After reading Isawal's trip reports about traveling within S. America I decided I'd make the travel arrangements for this trip

I booked with a local travel agent when I was there.

In the past for traveling inside Colombia, I have booked directly with Avianca through the website . My last trip in October 08, I found some website only specials and booked directly through avianca.com.

Last time I was in Colombia I stayed at the Mansion in Medellin, cool place I would highly recommend it. This time Bluelight and I are hitting Bogota and Cartagena and considering our limited Spanish can anyone recommend a guide in these cities?

For booking, I simply used Avianca on their website. Lots of flights daily to and from the main cities, the only problem is you usually have to transfer thru Bogota to get anywhere else, i.e. Cali to Cartegena, you go thru Bogota. Always good, and very short flights.

My first time there, i met a taxi driver, alvaro torres I think it is, can´t quite be sure that is his last name, but he is on the Medellin guide here. he was great and speaks fluent english, and knows everybody. good luck

There are some very reasonable rates on the Avianca site. Easy to book one way or RT. Their hub is in Bogota so you have a lot of flight options. I have flown them within Colombia as well as to and from the US. No problems. There may be some smaller airlines flying the route you suggest. Medellin has a city airport with smaller airlines. Due to the location of the main airport in Rio Negro, the city airport can be more cost effective for inter Colombia travel. But the airport in Bogota is right in the middle of the city so no worries there.

I flew from the city airport using Aires. It was a smooth trip to Cartengna.

(Message edited by Jimmydr on January 04, 2009)

Does anyone have links to a good escort agency which has chica's in Cartegena? The club scene here is a joke.

Bluelight,
Have you gone to the beach and ran into Tony? The guy is an ass, but his book of girl's numbers is top notch. If you can't find anything at the bars, I would go see him for sure to get started. I'll see you in Bogota in 6 days!

Tomegun, we talked about it tonight at dinner and decided that we would have to visit Tony tomorrow. See you Saturday afternoon.

Woo Hoo!~! Found them.

Guys,

I am traveling to Cali for a week in July and I am looking for information on the best clubs for pro's and non-pro's., full service message places and strip joints. I am staying at the Inter-Continental and would appreciate any info you can provide. I visted cali about 2 years ago on my own and didnt get the full experience mainly because I was inexperienced in Cali.

Thanks for the help!

Caracol reciently aired a 40 minute program on sex tourism in Colombia. It's already been uploaded to Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNZt1YJVXQg&feature=related

I just watched all four parts of this Colombian style MSNBC news video. Almost all of it is about European sex tourists going to Cartagena. On part 3 at the 8:59 mark they do show the Club Hombre web site for a second.

They only talk about Medellin for about 45 seconds, so they obviously did not do much homework for the story.

I thought it was funny when they pulled up to a police van in Cartagena, and asked where they could find some girls, and the cops told them that they could find what they were looking for just down the street.

RG.

i am afro american. i speak about 70% spanish and have alot of latino(Mexican) friends. My question is what city should i goto to get semi-pro, street girls and Pros? what city in colombia would be good for a brotha? i dont want to goto cities that are racists. i am about having a good time. thanks in advance for the info.

CC

Chriscam19, do you really think there are cities in the world that are not racist? Are your Mexican friends any different then your afro american friends? Why do you point that out on a Columbian thread? Mexicans are not Columbians. Your question is very confusing. Have you read the Columbia posts?

To help answer your question, I'll assume you want to have a good time with someone of your own race? Or not? It's important because if you are a decendant of the Zulu tribe then you would be black man and you won't find many in Columbia. If you are a colored man, then you'll find many women of similar skin colors but probably not of the same blood lines. After my trip to Africa I am so confused on this race issue. I'm glad I like them all it makes selecting so much easier.

If you are like me and race isn't important you just want a hot chica, you can communicate in Spanish, you have money and want to party in Columbia, the place you are looking for is Bogota. Bogota is the international hub for all of Columbia so you'll have to fly there first anyway(there are a couple of internation flights to Cartegena). Bogota's probably not the safest place to party but the scene is huge, 24 hrs a day. 10,000s of chicas everywhere. If language, safety, having a guide, and a nice place to stay is important you (basically this is your first international mongering trip)you should look into the Mansion in Medellin. Just my 2cents.

Bluelight
Most Black Americans are descendants of people kidnapped from the Ivory Coast and surrounding area. Brazilian Blacks come from Angola. No Zulus where ever enslaved in fact with the exception of Angola there was almost no slave trading from Southern Africa. Wile you where in ZA I have failed you when it comes to you education.

BTW I know more then a few Zulu impis that would kick your ass for even suggesting that any of their ancestors where slaves.

I read Chriscam19 post completely different....he is just pointing out that he has hispanic friends, speaks good spanish, is Black, and is worried about going to a place he is not familiar with where he might encounter racism and asking for help in picking a good place. This is a legit question....

Racsim can be encountered everywhere.... Colombia is no exception. I have no idea how it would be for a black man in Cartegena, Santa Marta, Medellin, etc.... but I do remember picking a black girl in Medellin and other girls making comments about why I was doing so....

I would think the answer to his question would boil down to parts of Colombia that are more mixed and diverse in race then others. It would seem to me that a black man in Medellin would have more of a difficult time with non-pro action then in Cartegena.....but I really have no idea.

I would think there are sufficient members on this board that are black that have traveled to Colombia and could share their experiences to help him decide the best location.

Isawal, tell them they were total pussies at Rourke's Drift.

Anyplace in Colombia where they see big pesos you will find a companion, but much less racist and have a better time in Cartagena. Dress nice because I have even heard some discos there can be picky as well.

Chriscam, I'm not African American, but from what you have written, I recommend you visit Cartagena. It is a sun drenched seaside city visited by vacationing Colombians, and foreigners. Seeking sun, fun, and more......

This whole race this is just confusing. I remember the Zulu discussion now Isawal, I guess I didn't just 2 + 2 together.

Isawel. While there is a significant portion of black brazilians with angolan roots (capoeria, macumba) it is probably wrong to say most are of angolan origin. Where do you think condomble comes from? Nigeria. Also there is a significant angolan presence among african americans. Does Congo (K and L) count as southern africa? Zulus were enslaved within their own country and the zulus were a small insignificant tribe until they were expanded by Shaka.

Inthemoment

According to everything I have read the vast majority of Brazilian slaves, over 4 million came from Angola. Yes, slaves like the condomble came from Nigeria although their religion has little resemblance to traditional African beliefs today. I stand to be corrected but only about 600 thousand blacks where transported to the States. As for the Congo it’s firmly in central Africa and the people taken from the Congo where transported from West African Ports. Congo does boarder Angola and to be fair these boarders where colonial inventions. Tribal land would have spilled over on both sides of the modern boarder that being said the Congo was landlocked until 1885 then Angola surrendered a sea corridor. So at the time of the slave trade the Portuguese would have been quite correct in asserting that Brazil’s slaves came from Angola. I doubt very strongly that these unfortunates would have considered themselves Angolan though.

Your assessment of the Zulus is a bit of a simplification, the Zulus there a loose group of tribes, much like the German or Italian city states of the C18. They resided mostly in modern Zwa-Zulu Natal. What Shaka did was unify them and then wage a genocidal war against the other tribes of the region. Shaka was undoubtedly the Napoleon of Africa. The Zulus have never been enslaved even in their own Country. If you are equating Apartheid with slavery, that is a gross injustice to those who suffered through slavery and a over simplification of Apartheid.

I am not a historian but I hope the above makes sense.

Cat
Interesting…I know a few locals who would love to have a chat with you, when are you coming over? I could arrange a chat. Hee hee.

On a seperate note. I am Glad i brought my iPhone to Colombia. It is not unlock so i am using the wifi. I can use skype and freetranslation.com i was suprised how well free translation.com worked on the iPhone. A lot of malls have free wifi.

I was in a bar last night in poblando and it had wifi. It worked perfect for translation.

Aye, you guys are joking right? African tribes? Congo, Angola, Apartheid with slavery , etc?

This poor guy Chriscam just wants to have some suggestions on where it is best for a Black man to monger and where he is least likely to encounter racism in order to have a good time.

Lovingmarvin yeah you hit the nail right on the head. that is EXACTLY what i was trying to say. Yeah all i was saying is that i have some hispanic friends here that teach me spanish, thats how i learned the spanish. And i want to go somewhere in colombia where i would have a good time and monger. I think i am fairly handsome, women say it. and i have lots of friends. Just want to goto a place in colombia where i would have the most success, hangout and party. I know colombia is not free of racism, no where is. Just wondering where other black men went thats all. I have heard Cartegena and Bogota have very open minded women. I like the colombianas with black hair and white skin

thanks

I recommend going to CTG. You'll blend in better there and the girls are there to work.

600k africans to the US. I think your history is way off. also the portuguese were not just in angola but in mozambique, guinea-bissau, cape verde and other places within africa. in fact they were the first ones to set up shop in ghana and in Calabar (Nigeria) and the portuguese and british worked closely together. I am equating the treatment of the africans in south africa to slavery. I understand the transatlantic situation was much worse but what africans had to endure under aparthied and before was a form of slavery. the mine camps which fostered homesexuality and the number of africans with aids, under education and a whole lot of other woes are the fruits of this slave type system. Aparthied may have only lasted 50 or so years but it was very intense. Legal slavery ended in 1804 in haiti, 1838 in the caribbean and 1865 in america. Yes, there are sizable angolan portion to the blacks in brazil but so is that portion in many other places in the americas (cuba (palo mayombe), the US, Haiti, Trinidad, etc). In my travels to Salvador I would say the majority there are from west africa. in rio with the popularity of macumba it would seem that the majority there are from angola.

The candomble practiced in Brazil and the macumba are the same as practices on the continent to this very day. Of course there are some differences given the history. But the essence of condomble is the same whether in Brazil, Trinidad, Cuba or present day Nigeria. yes, fewer africans today are practicing their ancestral religions and to this i would say that africans in africa have been more brainwashed than those in the west in this regard. I belong to several candomble houses in brazil and Yoruba houses in the US so I may know what I am talking about.

Most slaves imported to the US came from the Caribbean, not directly from Africa, and after 1807 when importation became illegal, it was all from the Caribbean. So there was a mix of origins, all over the Americas. Calling apartheid slavery is pretty inaccurate though and I don't think most people would confuse the two.

I called aparthied a form of slavery. Slavery took different forms, there was the chattel slavery kind in the U.S. and British colonies. Portuguese and Spanish enslavement was also a different form of slavery. in Peru, similar to South Africa, where there were large metal deposits these were worked by indigenous people and africans similar to the africans in south africa who worked the mines there. To be enslaved does not require one to be transported from ones native land.

Sobe9ball, Sf4dfish , Lovingmarvin, Socrates69
thanks for your posts and help. any other people have suggestions? Maybe suggestions on where to stay while in cartegena. This will be my first trip so i dont know if i should stay in hotel or apartment. will be staying for about 2 weeks.

And just because i am african american doesnt mean i like only dark skin women. I like light skinned women also. I hope there are light skinned AND dark skinned women in cartegena. I hope to sample both!

The last time I was in Cartagena, I stayed in the Hilton Hotel. I had gotten a good deal (plus I only stayed a few nights) and it was guest friendly...but it has been a few years now. Another time I looked at returning and staying there again, but that time the prices were very high and I decided against the entire trip.

I think along the way I have seen some apartment rental suggestions posted, which might be a good way for you to go if you are staying for a couple of weeks.

Chriscam, if you got some "coin", I like the Hilton. If you want to save on expenses, and staying two weeks, rent an apt.

Much has been written about renting apts. in CTG, under hotels/apts Colombia section.