OK, it's Tuesday and Mali and I decided not to resign our whole trip to being lazy in the mansion. We had already flipped through the catalogs of sights and tours that the mansion can arrange for you and used the wifi to check reports, mostly Blazers' to find casas. We talked to Greg about the best way to get into Centro, taxis vs Metro, his choice of casa etc and we had the mansion casa map printed up which doubled as a city map. Upon Greg's advice we chose New Life as our first port of call.
Walking down the hill from the mansion to El Poblado, my jeans kept sagging down. I had bought some oversized jeans before this trip since I gained weight before the first part, which consisted of cave diving in Mexico. All that diving and walking back and forth to the caves in full dive gear, plus walking into town for dinner every night dropped some weight. That's a good thing, but I needed a fucking belt. Good thing we were going to National Palace, which is now a huge Colombian style shopping mall so I could pick one up.
Supposedly, if you believe some of the bullshit on this website, all the cabbies in Medellin are former assassins for the Cartel and one should only have taxis called by one's hotel etc. Frankly, that's more assassins than any outfit would ever need and therefore bullshit as I shall prove throughout this report. The vast majority of the cabs in Medellin are teeny tiny Hyundais similar to the Hyundai Accents in the US. Although I didn't think I would be slain by the driver, I was looking for the meter as we were advised to check for it to be reset. Well the cab pulled away and I couldn't see a meter at first. Mali spotted it next to the rear view mirror. The dash board is so compact there's really no place else to put one.
Centro looked pretty rough but not as bad as I was expecting. There were plenty of open air cafes and bakeries and people sipping espresso, it's just not where you want to be at night according to Sebastian the Mansion security guard. We got to New Life with no way of knowing it other than the address above the door. I checked the meter and this being my first ever cab ride in Colombia exchange, I screwed up and paid about 70,000 pesos for a 7000 peso cab ride.
The cabbie said, “Bien” as I got out and then said “Senor, mucho dinero” and gave me back the cash. Aware now of what I had done and very grateful of this assassin's generosity, I paid him 10,000 for his honesty. I rang the bell, we were buzzed in and we went upstairs. Once up there the Papasan took our drink order of Pilsens and introduced two girls, who would do in an emergency, so we sipped our beers and resolved to keep a mental list of who we like and once we finished our beers to take whoever our favs were.
Mine was Nicole, she had a grey dress that ended just past her round butt, but she wouldn't allow pics. It was a suitable session and for 35000 pesos for half an hour, I'd say New Life is a good venue but YMMV depending on the girl. You can pay afterwards too which is nice, in case you're done quick you didn't already pay for 45 minutes or an hour. The address is already in other reports. Mali took the one I was thinking about at first. The name escapes me, it might be Veronica but hopefully he remembers and posts a pic.
Departing New Life, we broke out the map and headed towards the National Palace even though it wasn't featured on the map but we had the address written down and could always take a cab if need be. We walked west on Calle 56 and even came across a block with street girls in front of run down short time venus. One was a transvestite and the whole block looked like a good place to get in trouble, so we walked on past. Passing through Parque Bolivar we continued on and it's getting hot out. This made us almost ready to grab a taxi but we decided to turn in the direction we thought the National Palace should be and go a few more blocks before giving up. That's when we had a serendipitous event. I saw a huge sculpture of a hand with the middle finger extended.
I thought it was pretty interesting and noticed there were more of these sculptures about a plaza and told Mali we need to circle back for pics later. We approached a building we thought was the National Palace but it wasn't and circled the block. This block was full of stores selling all sorts of fare with people shouting to attract people into their stores and street side stands. Then I spotted a car with the hatch back open and there were 2 guys with a collection of belts and they were building more. Score. I got a black leather belt that can go with anything and the best feature they showed me after I tried it on. On the back side is a long zipper opening a secret compartment within the belt. Welcome to Colombia. My use for this was a 50,000 peso note in case I get pick pocketed or something, I at least have taxi money to get back to the hotel.
We asked the belt makers where the National Palace was and proceeded to it. Outside there was a vendor selling sugar can juice, so we each had a cup each of this deliciousness. Inside, the mall is just like the surrounding neighborhood. The former offices are now shops selling mostly clothes and shoes. And I've never more shoes, boots and sneakers in one spot at one time in my life. Not even in Korea. I now know where all the girls get their funky footwear from.
A few T shirts and a few coffee drinks later, we left and walked back up to the scultures. We learned these were made by Botero, the most Colombian of all Colombian artists, according to himself. I dug the exaggerated chubbiness of the sculptures and the fact that the public loved them too. Kids were climbing atop the sculptures so their parents can photograph them.
Back at the mansion, we did a little more homework about other casas and learned the hard way that a lot of them close at about 8 PM. Damn it was almost that time. Another mansion dweller was heading out to Hooters in Parque Lleras so we tagged along. It was worth the visit, the chicks were hot as fuck and having an open air Hooters not dominated by over excited sports fans or UFC wannabes, but with good music palying was pretty nice. I don't go to Hooters in the States these days, but if there is one in a city I'm visiting outside the US, I'll pay one visit and get the T shirt.
After Hooters we took a min tour of the mini park which was decorated with Christmas lights, before grabbing a cab to Face Dos. Once we told the cabbie where we were going he replied “much gusto” and drove off. Most of the cabbies do this. I think cabbies in Medellin are just fine.
I can completely understand why people, especially locals don't like to go to Face Dos. It is pricey. But I felt that I get to be a newbie on this trip and other than the 10,000 peso cover and 15,000 beers, I liked it. Another mansion visitor explained it as a neat thing to go to a club where you can bang the strippers. I agree. Although that's exactly what goes on in SEA, let's face it there might be 10 girls total in all of Pattaya who look good enough to get hired at a gentlemen's club in the States. My impression of Face Dos is any one of them would get scooped up by a US strip club and lots of American girls wouldn't get hired by Face Dos, on an appearance basis. The rate is 170,000 pesos, and you go to the other half of the warehouse that the club is in where the short time motel is. There's two rows of faux log cabins with clean rooms and clean showers. YMMV with the chick you take. I was drooling over Cathy here, she reminded me of a looker in the Oviedo mall. With a $200 a day budget and 170,000 being just under $90 I figured after Hooters, why not an expensive desert?
Photo: Cathy - Face Dos 11