Colombia Trip Report:

Housing:

Medellin: www. Torrepoblado.com
www.danncarlton.com
www.medellionmansion.com

We stayed at the Torrepoblado, and it was a nice apartment-hotel, situated in an upscale neighborhood. Suites ended up costing roughly $55 U.S./night. The staff is friendly, no problem with girls, we did not pay any guest fee, but only brought girls in one night. You should request a suite in the rear of the building. Suites facing the front can get a lot of street noise due to construction. Each suite has a living room, kitchenette, bedroom, bath and balcony. They now all have a/c and safes. The staff was awesome.

The Dann Carlton was only a couple of blocks away and would be worth checking out, pricing is very similar.

The mansion is about ½ mile away. We walked over one afternoon and one of the guests, “Relapse” was very great, hegave us a tour and also shared with us his learnings in Medellin. He was very positive about his experience there. It has a “bed & breakfast” feel to it. It does have the advantage of free international phone calls. I personally prefer the privacy of my own suite. It is a good set up. Rooms are a little bit more expensive, but you have the advantage of being with a number of like minded travelers and an experienced host. Medellin is not difficult, but it is a lot different than Rio. You do need to work a little bit.

Cartagena:

We rented two apartments from Juan. you can reach him at: itts@excite.com

He is a great guy, very helpful, spent time with us on the first day outlining places to visit. We stayed at the Playa Mars, in #301, $110 U.S./night for a modern 2 bedroom condo, overlooking the beach with a great balcony. It had A/C (a must for Cartagena) and a safe. My buddies rented the 3 bedroom penthouse directly across the street in the Atlantis building. It is a significantly larger apartment with two balconies, including a HUGE rear deck, perfect for parties. The owner has just updated all of the bathrooms.

One hint: Juan offers a maid service for 15000 pesos/day (about $7), use it. Also buy extra towels, we only had one in each bathroom, and when we asked for extra towels, we received a total of one. We asked her every day, but never received more than one extra towel to split between us. Much easier to just go buy a couple, which you will want for the beach anyway.

AZGuy left several shirts in the condo, Juan mailed them to him, no problem. Juan is a solid guy to rent from.


Now the good stuff:

Medellin:

During the day you should visit the Casas. We went to three: Loutron, Energy and Lejano Oriente. The typical house experience is for you to show up, be seated in a sitting room, and then the girls will be brought out to you one by one. They will be wearing a robe, which they will take off to reveal lingerie, they will state their name and say “con permiso” and leave. After all of the girls have done this, you are expected to remember who you like best and pick her. We had the girls brought back each time as an entire line up to make our final selection.

Hands down Loutron was the best. On our visit to Energy there was a smaller lineup and the experience was not great. The price was 70,000 pesos (about $35) We showed up at Lejano late on a Sunday (which is not a good night for action), the girls demanded a lot of money, 200,000 pesos, and the drinks were expensive. The service was also rushed, you should expect 60-70 minutes, but they tried to get us in and out of the room in 30.

Loutron was another experience. It was 140,000 pesos (about $65). A beautiful home in a secluded neighborhood, it had the best lineup. We went there twice and each experience was very positive. The rooms are on the exotic side, with pretty imaginative paintings/murals and a lot of candle light. The girls will give you a massage, followed by a blowjob (almost always covered) and then sex.

Face Dos: This strip club is famous, and it is where I met a host of beautiful girls. It opens around 9:00 PM and closes around 3:00 AM. It is not open on Sunday nights. The girls dance and for 150,000 pesos, you can take them next door for an hour. It is worth the 150,000 pesos. The rooms next door are clean, and it looks like a motel inside a garage. You can also arrange to meet these girls the next day, after hours or on Sunday. I met my favorite girl Andrea for dinner and an evening at my hotel when we returned to Medellin from Cartagena. We enjoed six different girls from here and they were all gfe experiences and the girls are a lot of fun. If you want to take them from the premises it is a 100,000 peso barfine. Use Juan the bartender to handle the barfine, the girls might ask for more (we were quoted 150,000 by one girl, and my assumption is that she intended to keep the extra 50,000 in addition to her fee). So instead we just met after hours.

Street Girls: Calle 33, or around the San Diego Strip Club (we saw some real lookers there). Be careful around Face Dos, we saw some nasty looking transvestites there.

Food in Medellin: The beef is incredible, go to the Olvedo Mall and hit the food court, you can get a wonderful filet from the San Carbon for 18,000 pesos (about $8). Medellin is ranch country and the cattle are well fed. Colombians love their fruit juices and the “Limonada” is a favorite, made from limes, they are quite tasty (and also good with vodka).
Also visit the Zona Rosa in Parque LLervas, which contains a large collection of restaurants. The Italian is great, but there are all types of foods.

People: They are friendly and curious. Medellin is trying to escape its “reputation” and are very friendly with tourists. We were approached by women in the mall and at restaurants who wanted to practice their English. If you are going to be in Medellin for any length of time, I think it is very possible to meet local non pros.

Security. I felt very safe. There are a lot of police. We were in upscale neighborhoods for most of the time. The police are constantly cruising (two to a motorcycle) and also were helpful. We were pulled over on our first night. They were professional, our driver did not have his passport, attempted a bribe, which they refused and just told us to take it easy and have a passport with us when we were driving around town.

Sites: Take the metro and ride the sky cable up the side of the mountain over the barrios, the views are breathtaking. We also went to Pablo Escobar’s grave (this is the only time I was concerned for my safety, as we were horsing around taking photo’s and three guys who were real mourners showed up to pay their respects, they gave us a pretty nasty look and we were out of there). We also went up into the mountains to where he built his own jail (it is gone now, torn down by the government) but there is still a “futbol” field.

A BIG THANK YOU: Some of you know WallStreet or have read his reports. All I can say is that on our first night he was incredibly gracious and drove us all over Medellin. He is investing in a business in Medellin and I can only wish him the best of success. When I posted on another board he sent me an email, said he was in town and was willing to show us Medellin. It was the perfect start for our trip and at the end of our tour he dropped us off at Face Dos. I appreciated his taking the time to help us and I am sorry we didn't meet up later for dinner.

Cartagena:

A quick hour flight from Medellin. The city is beautiful. A lot of tourists (mainly Italian).

Hot spots:

LDV: Arrive after 11 pm. The girls here are beautiful, yet a little bit aloof. It is not like Help in Rio, or a Go Go/Beer Bar in Thailand. If you see someone you like, you should go up and say hi.
Word of Advice: Stay away from the group of girls who stake out the middle of the U shaped bar. They all have enhanced boobs and dance around. A lot of attitude, poor service. We tried three different girls (there are probably 7-8 of them) over two nights and not a winner in the bunch. There are a number of other girls and we found a number of them who although they negotiated for 2-3 hours (generally 150,000 pesos) ended up staying much longer, some for several days. LOCO GRINGO did tell us that the LDV action during our week was the best he had seen in several years. Which is interesting because the elections were happening and there were not as many tourists as normal.

Beach: Go see Tony (Tony #1 in front of Las Velas Hotel) and tell him straight up. “Tony, I know you have good girls and you have ugly girls, I either get the good girls or I won’t take them”. I also told him that he had a reputation for working hard, but padding the bill.

We paid for our drinks by the round, we negotiated pricing up front. However we did give Tony the opportunity to earn some money. We told him that we were having a party at our apartment and wanted six beautiful girls. We told him that we wanted to interview them on the beach. He had 9 girls down for us to interview within 2 hours. We did give them some bus money. Settled on 5, but only three showed up to our party. They were a lot of fun and two ended up staying with us for two days. 100,000 pesos is the going rate when using Tony (he collects 20,000 from the girls), you don’t pay him. We had already collected some phone numbers on our own, and LOCO GRINGO had shared some numbers with us as well allowing us to get the headcount up for the show.

Street: There are girls walking up and down the street throughout the day who smile at you and will come back to your apartment for a couple of hours for 70,000 or less.

Casa’s: These are open in the early evening. We went to the Playboy Club, which is more of a strip club with on premise rooms. Takeout would be 300,000 pesos, so instead schedule the girls to visit you at the beach or your apartment the next day. Girls were lots of fun here. Loco Gringo advised us to do a tour of several Casa’s, the timing didn’t work, but there is always next time.


Food: Stay away from the beef, we went to the nicest restaurant in town, the Argentinian steak house, and the beef was not great. The seafood was good. This restaurant has great ambience, but the beef comes from the region and my guess is that it isn’t grain fed, who knows what the cattle eat. Yes I am an idiot, we are in Cartagena, a major seaport and are eating beef, but the seafood on the other hand was great!

Other great restaurants, Santo Domingo Square in El Centro, Playa Del Mar (which sits on the wall of the city) or the Hotel Santa Clara.

Big Thank You: LOCO GRINGO, aka Bill. His restaurant/hangout is right across the street from LDV and next to Punto.com (internet café). He lives in Florida but is in Cartagena every other week or so. He has spent seven years in Colombia and still doesn’t speak English. We walked into his place trying to catch the UFC pay per view and he was willing to get it for us (it ended up being unavailable), but his hospitality was incredible. He let us use his phone to call the states for free, he gave us numbers for some of his favorite chicas (you need to buy a phone if you are in Colombia or bring yours and get a SIM card), and is just a genuinely nice human being.

Security: Again very safe. No problems here, we were told that if someone tried to rob you in Laguito, the others would grab him, they don’t want any problems, just tourists. We were told to avoid a couple of places in El Centro late at night by Juan, which we did.

Sites: Walk through El Centro. Get a tour of the Castillo San Felipe (you can pay, go inside and there will be a few guides), you need the tour it is a 16th century fortress, filled with dark tunnels which were used to decapitate enemy soldiers and sailors. Go to Rosario island (better yet, take a girl). This place is filled with history.


All I can say is that Colombia gets two thumbs up!
It is not as easy as Brazil, and it is good to speak some Spanish. But you can enjoy your time.

As for me, 26 days and counting till I arrive in Pattaya. . .

Hey Whitty,

Glad you enjoyed!!! Link for the mansion is
www.medellinmansion.com , you had a typo in it.

Guys, warning, do not get attached to any of the women you meet. Have fun, enjoy them, keep focused that there are thousands of them. It's a different culture, and every body is eventually screwing all the same women. Oh what the hell, it is fun!!!!!

Seems about 5 of us are going to end up getting places in Medellin. The place for me was a combination of Paradise and Shangrala.

Hey Wall Street, sorry we never connected up. Will be back in September. Hell, let's get together one night.

I have to agree with Whitty, knowing some Spanish is a Big Plus, but Medellin can be nothing but fun!!!!!!!!

Relapse

Relapse, thanks again for the tour, and getting the right url up for the Mansion.

Everytime I visit someplace new it makes it harder to return to my other favorite spots, like Brazil and Thailand. But hey, that's what life is all about!

Thanks for the report, it seem like you had a lot of fun in Medellin, I am going there in August. I am hoping that the quality of the girls at Fase Dos is still as good as it was in December 2005. Have any of you guys tried Chicas Prepagos? I am looking to find High End girls. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

hey juan carlos could you give me any info you have on chicas prepagos? any info on high end girls would be awesome. thank you for any help you can give me

Good report, Whitty, thanks for the details. I think I'm going to like Colombia, even if it does displace my to-be-former favorite places.

Hunterman,

Do you have any definite dates for a Colombia trip? I too, am planning a trip sometime this summer. Trying to coordinate with other seasoned members. I'm at Tokyo airport returning from Pattaya, and although I had a great trip, I'm ready for a change of pace.

Which Argentine steak house did you go to? Quebracho in Centro is an Argentine steak house. I had the best tenderloin there that I have ever had in my life. However, the meat in most restaurants usually sucks. Colombian custom leans toward thin, tough cuts.

Glad you enjoyed Playa Mar. I live there as well. Can't say enough good about Juan and Bill. They are both great guys.

We were at Quebracho, twice, and it just didn't live up to the steaks we had in Medellin or in Argentina. We were told that they don't import their beef, that they use beef locally, which would explain why it wasn't as good as we expected. I didn't have the tenderloin, went with the "argentine" cut.

Maybe I am biased because I have had some great steaks in South America. In addition to being a huge fan of both Morton's and Ruths Chris.

Whitty and AZGuy...thanks for the report and the good info. I am glad you had such a great time down there, as I knew you would. It seems to me that I am seeing more and more trip reports on Medellin. I hope this is not the forebearance of a future onslought of gringos going down there and ruining the place. The prices are still cheap, and the babes are still sweet. Let's not screw that up.

Fortunately, I still have some hideaways of hot babes that most gringos have never found...so I may just have to keep some tidbits hidden for future enjoyment. I agree with you on Loutrons...never had a bad time there. It has been awhile since I have gone into any of the clubs. I have met so many hotties that my black book is full and all I have to do is tell a few of them I am coming and they line up like planes landing at LaGuardia. Glad to know you were able to sample some of the street action which is the best street action in the world, IMHO.

radio

Radio, definitely appreciated the intel provided by both you and cubanut in your reports. We both felt the same way, and were wary of putting up a report. It is a nice place to visit, not as open as rio or bangkok, but it has something about it, if you want to learn some spanish and explore off the beaten path that makes you want to come back.

Thanks for the great trip report and looking forward to the pics. Geesh I'm missing Colombia. You got the right system down for Tony to keep him at bay, he probably realizes he's a minor celeb in CTG by now.

Good report!. I also think Juan is a great guy. We've used him 4 times. I have stayed in #301 and his price used to be 50-55. I guess CTG has thier inflation also. The last time my partner passed him up and went to the Mellenium. I haven't been there myself. I personally like Juan's apt#702.