"Plaza de Bolivar" in the Historic City.
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"Plaza de Bolivar" in the Historic City.
"Puerta del Reloj" in city center across the street from main entrance to the Historic City
Expat: It is actually spelled Palmyra and I have been there several times (had a GF met online that lived there).
What do you want to know? It is a midsized town about 20 minutes further North from Cali's airport. Safe area with a cinema and even a Karen's Pizza (one of my favorites in Cali). A great place to take tyour chivca and her family for a day trip is Lago Calima, about an hour further North and West. A lovely area like an undeveloped Lake Tahoe. Fairly cool as it is up in mountains (a relief from the heat). You can rent jetskis there. Go during the week unless you like crowds (Cali folk spend weekends up there)
Again, a safe area (though better to NOT travel at night, as always in Colombia).
Johan: The ambience at the restaurants in Plaza Santo Domingo is worth SOME added cost, but I agree with you that it is easy to overpay in those places that are tourist oriented. Fancy restaurants in Cali & Medellin are cheaper (less tourists).
I avoid Chinese restaurants the World over because none compare to those in my hometown (San Francisco).
Your reply is sufficient. I found out its about 25 km. from Cali. Safety is a priority.
Looks like I shall be when the beauty pageant is on.
The Hilton is full.
Is the caribe not chica friendly at all?
I suppose the old town is too far out with the traffic.
Any other decent hotels.
Is ther an Intercont there?
Centro, the Old City, is not that far from Laguito. The traffic is bad but it does move. Without traffic problems, it's about a 10 minute cab ride. Here is a listing of some area hotels http://www.s-h-systems.co.uk/colombia/cartagena.html. Don't know about chica-friendliness.
Here's a map of the tourist area with some hotel locations. Unfortunately you may not be able to see small details because of size restrictions on uploads.
Expat-North from Cali is the safe direction to travel, really the ONLY safe direction. I'd still stay in Cali rather than Palmyra though. Taxi from town to send your chica home at night should run no more than 50K ($20); then you can go have fun. If you stay in Pakmyra no nicer hotels and not much to do after hours.
Think I shall give the Caribe a go and take a chance.
If I book a double room would that make things easier?
Any other ideas for Chica friendly ones?
Is it pretty easy transfering from international to domestic at Bogota airport?
Travelmen: Up to you (as they say in Thailand). Hopefully you won't have too much difficulty, but if you arrive with a new chica each time, especially late at night when traffic is thin, you might have problems. The place LOOKS lovely (like Hotel California from the Eagles Album of the same namew which is actually the Beverly Hilton) whereas the CTG Hilton is typical modern style).
The connection in BOG from international arrivals (El Dorado terminal) to flights to CTG depends on your carrier. Believe it or not, Avianca/GrupoSumma is LEAST convenient as their flights to CTG leave from a separate terminal (the Puente Aerea about 1 km from El Dorado). Aerorepublica goes from El Dorado and is more convenient.
I arrived in CTG via COPA after a couple of day’s worth of stupid mistakes on my part concerning airline connections. I remember being relatively tired from the ordeal, but also very excited by the prospect of visiting a land that promised such blissful returns. I cleared customs in CTG without incident, and exited the baggage claim area after a brief inspection of my baggage by armed military personnel.
All baggage is inspected by armed military personnel upon arrival after leaving the baggage claim area. The inspector did what I consider a cursory search of my baggage, and waived me off on my way within 3 minutes after having begun the search. It was no big deal at all.
All passengers went through the same degree of scrutiny, and security did not seem any more “tight” than you might encounter at the airport in Miami. It just seems a little more intense because inspectors are wearing full military gear and they are armed, whereas in Miami, inspectors are wearing much “softer” uniforms and they aren’t armed.
I stepped out onto the curb in front of the airport and was immediately greeted by Alex, the taxi driver that had been recommended by Mery, my apartment manager. Alex was holding a sign that had my name on it, and he smiled, greeted me, grabbed my baggage, and off we went to his taxi. Alex has a nice taxi with air conditioning, and he is a friendly and likeable guy.
Alex always charged a reasonable fare for his services, and I always felt safe with Alex. I used Alex almost exclusively while I was in CTG, and he was an excellent guide.
I do think Alex will take you places where he can earn a tip for bringing you there. For example, he suggested that I might want to buy some gifts for people back home, and he took me to a jewelry shop in Boca Grande one afternoon. It was obvious to me that he was probably earning a tip for bringing me there.
I looked at what they had at the store and didn’t buy anything. I think the jewelry I was quoted was too expensive for the quality I saw, but I politely listened to the clerk, who spoke very good english, and merely told her that I may return later to purchase something. Of course, I never returned, and Alex may or may not have earned a tip from bringing me to the store.
I don’t know for a fact that Alex was earning anything for bringing me to the store, but I have to assume that he did, or that he hoped I would buy something so he could earn some additional money from the store as a finders fee.
Alex also set me up with a girl from Barranquilla. The girl came down from Barranquilla to meet me. The girl later brought her cousin with her to meet me, and the cousin lives in CTG. Anyway, I had a threesome with these girls two days in a row, and I spent two nights with the girl from Barranquilla.
I will relate the specific details later on in this post, but the girls were really a lot of fun, and I enjoyed their company very much. I didn’t realize it at the time when I met the cousin, but the cousin was actually a cherry girl. The cousin was really enthusiastic about losing it too, which made it even more fun. No tears or anything, just a lot of lust.
The problem with the whole threesome girl action was that they were really hard to get rid of. They accepted very little money from me, but they did expect gifts. The cherry girl cost me about $22 for two afternoons of threesome action, which was really very reasonable, and the girl from Barranquilla cost me probably about $150 for two afternoons of threesome action and two nights of todo la noche twosome action.
Anyway, I thought they were just slightly too expensive. But, I suppose if you divide out the time between having two girls for all the time they spent with me, it was a fair price. Obviously, compared to the USA, Mexico, or Costa Rica, etc…it was quite a bargain.
Anyway, I don’t know if Alex got his cut. I would imagine he did, and that might be one reason they were slightly more expensive than some of the girls you can find in Cartegena that are actually better looking, or at least equally attractive, for less money. But, generally speaking, I really liked these girls and their GFE attitudes, so I was satisfied with them. They are now my buen amigas and they have already emailed me to tell me how they miss me, and they’re asking me when I will be back to see them again.
Alex brought me to the apartment I was renting from Mery. The apartment is the Sol De Caribe Apartments in El Laquito and they are located almost directly across from the stairway leading up to LDV. So, my apartment building was located in a very strategic position, at least in relation to the famed LDV disco.
Alex brought me upstairs to the eighth floor of the apartment building to apartment #803. When we came through the door I noticed there was a lock on the door that had to be opened from the inside with a key in order for anyone to exit the apartment. In other words, someone had paid special attention to not only security from the outside, but also from the inside as well. It would be especially useful in circumstances where certain female elements may at times try to make an attempt to leave without the knowledge of the occupant. That wasn’t going to happen in this apartment without the key to the lock.
In addition, the apartment had a lock box in the bedroom where you could secure your valuables. I had made arrangement for CD player to be placed in the apartment, and when I arrived I noticed there was a portable CD player under the TV set in the living room.
There was another locked door in the apartment, and I assumed that the apartment may have actually had two bedrooms, but since I was only in need of one bedroom, I assume the other room was locked to maintain its cleanliness for guests arriving in the future who may need more than one bedroom.
The apartment actually had a bath with a shower, and even another shower next to the kitchen. The second shower appeared to be more for cleaning off after visiting the beach so you didn’t have to track into the apartment after going to the beach.
The apartment had a full kitchen with stove, oven, refrigerator, etc…and there were relatively comfortable furnishings in the living room where there was a good couch and two comfortable chairs. There was a good color TV with remote in the family room and also one in the bedroom as well. The TV had a basic selection of cable TV programming, which was perfectly fine for my purposes.
The rental of the apartment cost me $40 a day, and I was also provided a cell phone charged with about 30 minutes of talk time that cost me $10 for the week. I used the cell phone to contact Alex, Mery the apartment manager, and I could have used it to make local calls as well. But, I primarily used it to contact Alex to arrange for transportation.
The only problems I encountered had to do with the elevator being broken most of the week I was in town. The elevator would not usually function going down, and I would have to walk down eight flights of stairs to get to the street level. This was a frequent occurrence, and it became somewhat annoying over the course of the entire week.
However, generally the elevator did function on the way up, with the help of the security guard tinkering with the elevator controls each time. There were just few times when I had to walk up eight flights of stairs to my apartment. But, what the hell, I considered it my exercise on the few days it happened and it was not too much of a problem. It would have been nice to have a functioning elevator, but I was there to have fun, and I was not about to let that little problem spoil my attitude.
The security guys were excellent. They checked the girls coming into the apartment when I wanted them checked out, sometimes making them produce identification so they could document them checking in. On the other hand, if I waived them off, they would follow my lead and not make an issue of it. It was entirely up to me as to the level of security they would follow relative to admittance of the girls.
The security guys were also excellent at announcing when my girls showed up at the apartment building to see me. The security guys would call the apartment and inquire if I wanted to see a girl when she showed up. As I mentioned earlier, one of the security guys was especially helpful, and actually sent me a really nice girl for the night one time. I will go into more detail about how that came about later on.
Anyway, after I settled into the apartment and Alex had left, Mery the apartment manager came over to make sure everything was satisfactory. She was really a very nice lady. She and her daughter, Sally, even took me to the local grocery store so I could stock up on some stuff for the refrigerator.
That evening, I was feeling kind of tired from the trip, but I knew I wanted to check out the famed LDV bar. So, around 8pm I strolled over there. It was probably less than 500 feet from the entrance to my apartment building.
But, I soon realized that the bar doesn’t open until 9pm.
I glanced over at the taxi stand at the bottom of the steps in front of LDV, and decided that maybe I would visit Playboy first, and then return to LDV a little later.
So, I took a taxi to Playboy. I thought Playboy was a strip club, and I think there is some stripping going on there, but when I arrived, the place was really dead. There were only a few girls to be seen, and I was the only patron in the house. Obviously, I was too early, and later I discovered that Playboy may be more of a Casa type of establishment than a conventional strip club. I never really figured it out. In fact, when I was there I ordered a Coke Lite to drink.
I sat and drank my Coke Lite, and when I decided it was time to leave because things were so dead, they didn’t even charge me for the Coke Lite. They just waived me off like they were sorry it was so dead in there. I guess they hoped I would return later and they were embarrassed at the prospect of charging me for a Coke Lite when all I did was just sit there.
I did talk to a young lady for several minutes, and there were a couple of girls running in and out of the front door of the building, but there did not seem to be any effort being made to work the crowd, which only consisted of a couple of guys at most by the time I decided to leave. When I was walking out the front door, a young girl did smile at me and ask me to come back later to see her. I don’t know why she was running in and out of the building and didn’t come over to see me in the first place. It was like they didn’t really want to work that night.
Anyway, I lost interest in remaining at Playboy, and decided I had wasted enough time there. I decided to head over to LDV because it was now at least 9:30pm, and I was hoping I could find something going on over at LDV.
By the time I got back to LDV, I was feeling tired and decided that it may be better to take a short nap, and then venture over to LDV in an hour or two. So, I returned to the apartment, where I rested for a couple of hours and ended up back over at LDV around 10:30pm. or 11pm. I don’t really remember the exact time, but it was relatively late.
My first impressions of LDV reminded me of the meat market in San Jose, Costa Rica, specifically of the Blue Marlin. The women in LDV are pros and they seem relatively cold to me. I was approached by several girls, but I was not approached by the ones that I wanted to get to know. It seemed that the ones I wanted to come see me were never going to, and the ones I didn’t care about were seeking me out.
I sat at a table and sipped a Coke Lite for probably at least 45 minutes. I was approached by a couple of nice girls, but not the flaca morena types that I usually prefer. I noticed that the place was starting to thin out, and that there were fewer and fewer girls. I noticed this trend, and decided that I didn’t want to spend the night alone, and realized that I would have to go on the initiative. Finally, I got tired of waiting for them to come to me, so I picked one out, approached her, struck a deal, and off we went to my apartment. I think she cost me 80,000 pesos for all night.
She was a good sex object, but not a good GFE. I could tell she was starting to thaw out after being with me all night, and I think I could have turned her into a good GFE if I had the time, but unfortunately, I had to leave for my Spanish school in the morning, and I just didn’t have enough time to work her.
Anyway, that concludes my first day in Cartegena. More to come…later.
Bob,
Most taxi drivers earn a commission on what you spend in a place. You want to get one that you pay hourly who will come in and tell the proprietors that they will get no commission. Then you pay a much lower rate.
There is a huge difference between the LDV and the Blue Marlin. The LDV chicas generally will not approach you. They wait to be invited. Make eye contact and wave them over. Or go over and say "hola." Unless you are a loud-mouth ass-hole, they want your business. I'm a fat, old guy and score like there is no tomorrow.
I don't know Alex. But Mery is great.
Surfer,
Thanks for the info.
TravelMen,
H. Caribe is right across the st. from the beach. There are 2 small kiosk/bars where you might be able to pick up a non-pro. If you meet Carlos, owner of a small bar on the beach to your left from the high outdoor clock, stay away from him. He’s dishonest while claiming he will be your best friend. He’ll probably tell you he lived in Texas.
UnospongeBob,
While I was there in July, I had no problem contacting the ladies. Hang around the bar which is easier to make contact than sitting at those tables which seem uninviting. The men I saw sitting there sat alone while some men standing in my vicinity all had women to chat with. The ”10” I saw there looking nordic in appearance, blond was also at the bar. BTY, where is Playboy located?
Mery is very nice. If you should eat at the fish restaurant ”Julia’s” across the street from the little triangular plaza and notice a woman (Claudia?), 40ish, acting like she’s the manager (which she is), say hello from me, man from Dinamarca in July whom ate there MANY times. I miss their fresh meals and hospitality. I’ll be back. I can’t forget she told me Friday nights are Cartagena f--- nights.
Thanks NYC
I found it on the map.
Just wondered if it was chica friendly?
NYC
Julia's is out of business. The Jewish restaurant is moving into their spot.
Pleyboy is out in the barrios. Ask any cab driver. They have a lot of hot chicas. However, their prices are a rip-off.
Unspongebob:
Good report.
If you got an LDV girl for allnight for 80K you did VERY well IMHO.
I never go to LDV before 11pm, and after 1am the quality and numbers will decline but that is prime shopping time.
I told you Mery was an angel; trust NOONE but her in CTG (including the driver who would absolutely get a commision on EVERYTHING you buy if he brings you there).