Wallstreet and FLmonger were also going to Colombia on the same day and around the same time so we decided to meet each other in Miami and have a drink. FLmonger and I exchanged some emails on one of the girls from amigos.com that I was going to meet in Bogota and FLmonger mentioned he had chatted with her as well and we decided to talk about her when we meet in Miami. I left Minneapolis, MN (my current project city) for Miami and my flight was a little late. I called Wallstreet as soon as I landed in Miami and he mentioned to go to my terminal right away as Miami airport was a mess. I landed in G concourse and my next flight was from A concourse. I could not believe the mad house in Miami as it seemed like everyone in Miami was leaving Miami for the upcoming Hurricane Frances. It took me almost an hour to get from G to A. I called FLmonger and he barely made it to his flight and he came to airport two hours early so we could meet. Needless to stay I had 3 hours layover in Miami and I barely made my flight and I was the last one to be boarded. The Avianca flight left an hour late but finally it did leave. I regretted not getting a chance to talk to FLmonger about the amigos.com girl.

Flight to Cali was uneventful except the interesting part where a 300+ pounds gringo was trying to hit on a 90+ pound Colombiana and she was not interested at all. But this gringo was persistent and made a few of us uncomfortable in his pursuit of an attravtive young 90 pounder Colombiana. I was not traveling first class for the first time but my seat was right behind the first class and when we landed I was out of the terminal in 10 minutes since I only had carry on luggage. This was my third trip to Cali and third time I arranged my amiga from the first trip. Alajandra, referred as AL later on, was waiting in a stunning dress. This girl looks better and better every time I see her. I would have to rate her a 9 this time as I rated her 8 before. After greetings we located the driver sent by Intercontinental and after 35 minutes or so we were at the hotel and same staff was working as my previous 2 trips. No problem with reservation or anything else. They gave me a very nice suite and we were showering in a few minutes. After the shower we had a great session and did some of the things we talked about before coming to Cali. No 3rd hole involved here just different positions and orals. After a great session we headed to AL’s favorite restaurant near chippichappe. This restaurant is expensive by Colombian standard but that is where we had all of our first night dinners. $102 for 2 people is expensive by Colombian standard. Anyway, after dinner we headed back to hotel for another session and then went out to Avienda Sexta for some music and drinks. Came back to hotel, had another great session and went to sleep. Next morning I had to do some work online so got the hotel technician to come up and setup my internet connection. I turned the laptop on and everything was working and all of a sudden I got the blue screen dump, problem with the system registry and corrupted hive files. Tried to recover it by all means but nothing worked and I needed a Windows-XP cd which I did not have and hotel could not provide me with one either. So I ran to hotel business center and did whatever I could to complete the things I needed to complete. We had breakfast in the room and in the afternoon went back to ChippiChappe for lunch and shopping. Spent the afternoon at the hotel and went for dinner to another nice restaurant and then to different discos. We settled on a disco called “Kukarmakara” which was playing some famous band. I can’t remember the name of the band but here are some of the photos and may be someone from the board recognizes the band.




The disco was full of people, all young and rich, no place to move and you have to order the full bottle of the local alcohol. If you did not then you have to stand in another corner. Since I no longer drink hard liquor I decided to have beer but that was not kosher with the manager and he wanted us to move to another area of the disco which I refused to do. AL talked to him a few minutes and that was the first time I saw AL getting angry on anybody or anything. AL is a very cool girl and does not get mad easily but she was really mad this time and asked me to leave this disco and go somewhere else. It was fairly late in the evening anyway and I did not want to make things worse so we left and came to Avienda Sexta again and enjoyed music, beer, and dancing. We went to hotel really late and I was so exhausted but went for another round and after a long time I popped. I realized I needed to pace myself as I had 3 more cities ahead of me and did not want to get in a situation where I could not shoot. In the morning AL wanted to go for another round but I had headache and also I wanted to save something for my next partner so I refused. My flight to Bogota was at 12:30 so around 11:00 we left the hotel, dropped AL to the bus terminal as she is from another town and headed to the airport for my trip to Bogota.

Ave. Sexta is always alot of fun for me and my novia as well, club Fandango and "Las Brisas [something]" that we always go to are always guaranteed fun. Always some awesome looking girls each night.

I'm assuming it's not the same Alejandra from Lasprofessionales right, Alejandra from the site is also very beautiful and sexy as well. In fact, I've met several Alejandras in my travels and they all seem to be attractive, sexy girls who have that name.

Merlin, this Alajandra is from amigos.com and she is one who showed up at the airport on my first Cali trip and did not want to leave the next day. On my second trip I spent most of the time with her and sneaked out when she had to go home for her sister's medical emergency. On my current trip I decided to spent the first 2 days in Cali with her and did not tell her I was coming back to Cali to fly to Miami. So I kept my last day in Cali open to do other pro and non-pro scenes.

JKarp

JKarp,

Sorry we missed each other - what a mess in Miami!

I was also not in first class, but right behind in row 9 or 10 and I made it from the plane to the taxi in under 10 minutes in Medellin. Since you did the same in Cali, it sounds like the regional airports really have their acts together in addition to not getting the type of traffic that Bogota gets. I would advise anyone to avoid Bogota at all costs if you're just connecting there. Immigration is a long ordeal incoming and it's even worse when going back to the states.

WS

Wallstreet, this was my third trip to Cali and I never experienced any delays in immigration and/or customs. Since I travel first class and only have carry on luggage I don't know if people in economy class face any delays. I heard that it takes 30 minutes or so before checked-in luggage arrives so I guess they must also go through customs as some of the luggage is huge.

JKarp

I also flew into Cali 3x and CTG 1x, via Copa upgrade, and no real delays w/ Immig. I think others have noticed, the real delay in CTG was the incredibly thorough way they checked your luggage and your person at Customs upon arrival; Ironically, the thorough search is usually when leaving Cali I noticed. Flying from Panana City sounds to be a better option than BTG.

JK:
You write:
$102 for 2 people is expensive by Colombian standard.

You are damn right. This is expensive by US standards too! Did you consume any wine/alcohol or was this just for dinner and dessert? What type of food?

If you mean that restaurant just south of Chipe, with the large (10 car?) parking lot in front, and a second restaurant immediately next to it - then yes, that is one of the most expensive spots in Cali.

And yes, over us$100 for dinner without serious wine/drinks is outrageous in Cali. I took my GF to the restaurant of her choice, some seafood spot in the 'seafood restaurant district' (I'd guess middle of town, just south of Centro) and we hit us$50 with two beers each (no liquor there I don't think).

Bkkguru, we had sea food and I had 3-4 Heinekens and she had some other drinks. AL likes that restaurant and for the first night always takes me there.

FLhobbyer,
Yes, that is the restaurant, the same owner owns both of the restaurants. One specializes in Sea food and other is a steak house even though you can get both menus in any of the restaurant. Service is good but I really don't think it is worth the price though. All the times I have been there was late in the evening after 10 PM and all the times we were the only customers. AL said it is busy during dinner time around 7-8 but I never seen it busy. They take all kind of credit cards, including American Express, so that is a plus for going to those restaurants.

Thankfully, my novia and I go bonkers over the Lenos and Carbon chain which serves up excellent steak dinners for under $10. Not much of an ambiance b/c you're sitting on metal chairs at a mall, but nice nevertheless to check out the locals while eating.

We went to several nice restuarants, including the one at the Intercontinental and some near ChipiChape, but I always thought the L&C chain did a far superior job with the food.

I tried the steak at Lenos and Carbon at the Oviedo Mall in Medellin - same set up, eating on metal chairs in the food court. Steak was great and the people watching was even better. One of my best memories: a group of Medellin girls in powder blue Catholic School uniforms and saddle shoes (of course with knee-high white socks). Ay Caramba!!!

I also tried steaks at Lenos and Carbon at the chippichappe mall and it is my favorite place in Cali as it has variety and prices are way too good. I really like their T-bone steak and have it everytime when I visit Cali. Their fish entries are not that great but chicken and beef is as good as it gets. Also, at the same time eye candy is good and you can see what else is available or what else you missing beside the one you are with.

Leños y Carbon was my first meal, lunch, on this trip. I don't touch red meat here in the US, but in Argentina and Colombia I eat steaks frequently, about equal to chicken/fish.

I usually go with the filet mignon, but baby beef is also good. And the chicken is good.

I didn't find a meal in all of my San Andrés travel that compared to LyC. Funny, for a food court spot it's among Cali's best steak!

IF YOU PAY ONE OF THE GUYS TO GRAB YOUR STUFF AT THE AIRPORT THEY WON'T EVEN CHECK IT THEY JUST ROLL IT THROUGH THE FIRST DOOR AND THEN RIGHT OUT TO THE SECOND INTO YOUR CAB.. WHEN I ROLL MY OWN STUFF THEY WANT TO CHECK ME AT THE FIRST DOOR, THEN THE GUARDS OPEN MY BAGS AND LOOK AT EVERYTHING.. EACH TIME I HAVE BEEN TO CALI, THEY HAVE STOLEN SOMETHING OUT OF MY BAG BEFORE IT COMES ON THE RAMP IN THE CALI AIRPORT, LAST TRIP I GOT 2 OUT OF 3 BAGS, THE 3RD HAD 1500.00 IN BOOTS FOR MY FAMILY THERE. NO BAG NO BOOTS. WHEN I TRIED TO LEAVE THIS TIME, A ARMY POLICE OFFICER CHECKED ALL MY BAGS AND WANTED ME TO GIVE HIM MY GPS TRACKER, HE KEPT TELLING ME HE WAS POLICE AND NEEDED IT, I GUESS IF THIS HAD BEEN MY FIRST TIME TO CALI I MIGHT HAVE GIVEN IT TO HIM TO KEEP OUT OF ANY TROUBLE BUT I SAID WELL I JUST HAD DINNER WITH YOUR PRESIDENT LAST NIGHT AND IF I COULD USE THE PHONE I WILL CALL HIM AND LET HIM KNOW THAT HIS POLICE NEED GPS TRACKERS AND MAYBE HE WILL ISSUE SOME.. WELL THAT SEEMED TO TAKE HIM BACK A LITTLE AND HE MADE SURE THAT I KNEW THAT HE HAD PUT IT BACK INTO MY BAGS.. I DON'T SAY THIS TO MAKE YOU GET UGLY WITH ONE OF THEM, BECAUSE YOU MIGHT FIND YOURSELF IN A BAD WAY FAST, BUT I WAS SO PISSED ABOUT THE STOLEN BOOTS AND WAS NOT GOING TO GIVE THEM A CHANCE TO ROB ME AGAIN.

I've never had such experiences arriving in Cali. Last trip I even brought a bunch of roses I bought at a Miami street location for my GF. I should have realized that you can't bring 'live produce' into a foreign country... but it was her birthday.

The roses triggered them to pull me aside and go through all my things (first time in 5 arrivals at CLO) but when they confiscated my flowers I 'argued' with the guy (pero esta su compleano!... por favor, ayudame con mi novia, si las das las rosas no voy a tener nada en la cama esta noche!!). Finally, as I thought I was caving in, I told him he has to take them from me outside the door, where she could see that I had brought them but that he was confiscating them - so she'd know. He just let me keep them... we were smiling the whole conversation.

So, I think each time is different and there are no 'rules'.