I checked in Hilton and it felt like I was back in US for a change. A wonderful suite, powerful air conditioning and a great service. In no time I fell asleep and woke up late in the afternoon. My original plan was to go to Barranquilla in the morning, spend a night, and come back to Cartagena for my flight to Bogota. Now the day was almost gone and I still was not 100% so I called the taxi driver and decided to just go to Barranquilla, and go to some casas and if I like someone then dine in, which would have been a first for me in Colombia. Ride to Barranquilla took 1 hour and 40 minutes. What you see from Cartagena to Barranquilla is poverty and more poverty. Barranquilla has over 2 million population and traffic is chaos, the city is a port city and very dirty and reminds me the slumps of Manila. Things are very depressing over there when you are not around big cities or touristy places. My taxi driver was from Cartagena so he did not know any casas and after asking several time we ended up at a casa which has 4 girls and none of them was any attractive. The top one must be a 5. Passed on that so decided to find out where Shakira lives and see her mansion. Again, had to ask many people where to go and ran into an English speaking man who said he was a friend of hers. The guy did not seem like very trustworthy but we did find out Shakira lives in Miami now and was not in town. I was not expecting to see her anyway just wanted to see where she lived. The guy could not take us where she lived so I decided it was time to get rid of him and try another casa or something. After getting rid of him we had dinner in one of the fancy restaurants and tried to get some other addresses of the casas. By the way, the English speaking guy was able to tell us that Shakira started a charity for the Colombian kids and donates a lot of money to charitable causes. He gave us the name and web address of the charity which is: Pies Descalzos and the web address is http://199.239.251.48/eng/index.htm. In case there are any hombre reading this and want to donate something towards a noble cause. Now it was pretty late in the evening and nothing much going on in Barranquilla so decided to hit some hot spots like discos and hit restaurants or mall like chipichappe. Again stuck in traffic and diesel fume from the trucks and buses really getting to me and we were still not able to find our way around or find a decent place to sit and enjoy what Barranquilla had to offer. Anyway, at this point I realized it is not going to be a city like Cali or even Cartagena. I decided to call it quit and head back to Cartagena and hit LDV again. I came back to Hilton ordered some refreshments, took shower, and got ready to hit LDV again. The problem with LDV is there is nothing happening till midnight or so. It is a great place to mingle and find what you are looking for. I saw an attractive girl who must be 2-3 inches taller than me without her high heels and she really caught my attention. She was with another girl who must have been 2-3 inches shorter than me so I thought of doing a 3 some. Approached them and started talking the logistics and first thing they asked was where I was staying and I mentioned Hilton and then they asked for 500K pesos for both of them. I did not have that much on me and plus I thought it was a bit high for LDV so settled on one for 200K plus transportation, the tall one, Angela. Angela really had to work hard for her money as my tank was pretty dried out for the killer sessions I had with Julieth and Michelle. Overall the experience was may be a 7 and I did not take any of her photos as she was very reluctant and my camera’s memory was almost full and I still had to go back to Cali and see two other non-pros and try ever elusive Kaliente club and may be a girl from Los Profesionales. Angela stayed till early morning hour and then I decided to hit the beach before my flight back to Bogota. My flight to Bogota was around 4 PM so I asked hotel for a late check out with they had no problem with even though I have no status with Hilton. I hit the beach around 10 AM and did not see any action there. I did not even get spotted by the famous Tony. Decided to have an early lunch and come back and may be see some action by then. Around 12:00 or so the famous Tony spotted me and offered me with chicas, chicas, chicas and it made me laugh as had I known his reputation I would have taken on his offer. Refused his services and just walked around the beach to see if anything caught my attention. Finally I saw something to my liking but she was not the kind of material to take her to Hilton so I decided it was time to call quit in Cali and hit the city I really come to know and love, Cali.

This is the information that's so important on this board. I was on the verge of going to Baranquilla, I thought maybe I'd find a few undiscovered gems at the casas or visit some cultural sites; but I think you have me convinced that it's not worth it to waste money or valuable Monger time there. Thanks Jkarp. I also appreciate the link to the Charity, maybe they have fundraisers where big donors get their pics, or even a date with shakira. Damn she's hot.

LDV pricing was kind of high. I think the girls do size up a guy and throw out numbers accordingly. The girls offered 150K for me and I got them to go with me for about 120K on average. Hunter and others tell me even that is a bit high.

I really liked the beach scene in CTG b/c I grew up in So. Cal. I guess that's why I'd rate CTG a bit higher than CALI. I'll still go to CAlI, but combine it with CTG.

Merlin, thanks for the comments but I would be the first to admit that I did not do a justice with Barranguilla. I just did not have enough time and did not do enough home work before heading to Barranquilla. The mishap night before and not having a good driver/guide were a few of the problems on this trip. Barranquilla must 55-60 miles from Cartagena but it takes a long time to get there due to all the traffic in between. Also Barranquilla looks like a bigger town than Cartagena so it is very essential that you know where you are going or have a game plan. I had neither of these. So before I write off Barranquilla as one of the mongering place I would either revisit it with more plans or may be someone else on this board can elaborate on this.

JKarp

Merlin, Jkarp, Baq is a bit of a dump, there are certainly pretty girls there and some good discos on Friday and Saturday nights, but I wouldn't visit the place unless you were bored of other Colombian Cities and just fancied a change to see something differant.

Think of the barrios away from the touristy parts of Cartagena and thats what Baq is mostly.

Barranquilla, has about twice the population of Cartagena and the people on average are of a lighter skin complextion than Ctg and I think better looking, but not as good looking as the girls from Medellin and Cali.

Hunter

I could have told you she lives in Miami... and she's not that hot in person, on TV she's made to be something different. In person, shes like under 5'0", not bad if you like spinners but then if spinners are your type odds are you won't like that large ass... and her hair has been worked over so much that it must feel like sandpaper. She does have a nice smile...

FLhobbyer,

I just bought new Shakira DVD "Live & off the Record" which covers her live concert in Rotterdam and also has some commentery that is very impressive. One scene shows how much pain and agony she is in after the concert and how they get her ready for the next concert. She is an unbelievalbe hard working girl and donates a lot of her money to charitable causes. You can tell she is a genuine one and she really cares. Oh well, having said that, do you have her contact info in Miami, or does anyone else has her contact info in Barranquilla or anywhere else. I am just dying to meet her in person.

JKarp

No contact info for you, sorry, I've only seen her out, about two years ago. I don't know her personally. I'm sure she might be genuine and beautiful inside, I was only making shallow comments on looks only ;)

JKarp, I've also got "Live & off the Record", loved it, my obsession with her was probably a factor in me heading to Colombia and more than occasionally homing in on the colombianas at the Blue Marlin in my many trips to Costa Rica. If you liked her Live and off the Record dvd, you should pick up her "Unplugged" dvd, it was shot before she got dyed and diva'd, I think she sounds a lot better in it, although she is a little more plump and not as scantily clad as she is in the new video, but still perfect. I wonder if she would dance naked for me if I donated a kidney to her charity? I would donate both of them if she'd let me fuck her....

Travis73,

I had Shakira "MTV Unplugged" DVD for 3-4 years now. Right when it was released I knew Shakira before then. I still like that one better as she seems very innocent in it and she is really enjoying what she is doing. On the later DVD you see many of the same moves as the first one so you kind of know what is coming. There are new clips though in the bonus or documentarty section where she does a sequence of cat woman which I thought was interesting.

I think I may donate a kidney just to meet her in person.

JKarp