General Info

[Ferolga777]

I think that thanks to the introduction of the lists, now I don't have to trudge through the diverse opinions of the members of this site but rather swoop like an eagle and grab my info.

And people can ignore my lyrical posts and get whatever info they need. Best of all worlds. People get to write about shit they give a rat's tail about, for some reason, and no one has to read them.

Ferolga

[Negrofino]

Great Post

[MiamiHeatLuver]

Fortune-seeking women swell with desire for drug barons

John Harlow and Sally Gillespe, The Times, UK. September 3, 2006

(Bogota) THE sorry television saga of a pretty young woman who undergoes breast enlargement to win the heart of a drug dealer is gripping Colombia, where the series reflects an unparalleled boom in plastic surgery.

The story of Katherine, a desperate teenager struggling to escape poverty, is told in a nightly drama called Sin Tetas No Hay Paraiso, or Without Breasts There Is No Paradise.




More and more young office workers, who earn an average of £120 a month, are paying £800 for breast augmentation. Five years ago 30,000 Colombians had implants; this year more than 100,000 procedures are expected to be carried out..

Gustavo Bolivar Moreno, an investigative reporter and author of a bestselling book about would-be molls that inspired the series, has been praised for revealing the bleak truths about many young women’s ambitions. “All adolescent girls are self-conscious about their bodies,” he said. “But I have met 13-year-olds saving up surgery money specifically to reach their ultimate goal — a cocaine smuggler.

“Not a doctor, or even a footballer, but the type of criminal who, 13 years after the Medellin cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar was killed, still enforce their aesthetic on a generation of women in a brutal fashion.

“Even when the women have gone under the knife to measure up, they are merely used and discarded in the worst possible ways,” he said.

Sin Tetas follows the rise and fall of a girl who prostitutes herself to pay for a D-cup that will attract the attention of a glamorous local thug with dark glasses, armed guards and a swimming pool. In one episode she says she wants to become a moll “because even if my man dies, I will be out of the mud”.

The saga continues until next month but the story of Katherine and her friends is unlikely to end happily. “Her smile was wondrous, but her breasts became her road to hell,” said a trailer for the series on Caracol TV.

Young women interviewed in Bogota last week said they recognised Katherine in the programme. Johanna, a communications student aged 22, said: “It’s really popular because it shows real life. Girls like to be skinny but men want them to have big chests so they go along with it.”

Diana, a 21-year-old student, said: “Of course it’s exaggerated and not all girls go to such extremes to get the surgery, but enough do.”

It remains unquantifiable how many women are setting their sights on a drug dealer, but a Bogota police report suggests up to 350,000 young men, out of Colombia’s 41m people, are or have been involved in the drug trade.

“Americans like to go blonde, but here they like to go big,” said a member of the Colombian Plastic Surgeons Society. “Sometimes you have to calm them down a bit before they damage themselves.”

The Bogota surgeon, who asked not to be identified, estimated that one in six young women in richer cities such as Medellin and Cartagena had had some “work done”, a higher rate than in Beverly Hills.

Some Colombian celebrities are taking a stand against the trend: Shakira, the 29-year-old pop star whose latest hit, Hips Don’t Lie, reached number one, said she considered breast augmentation but then turned against the idea: “I worried that I was not going to be looking good enough for my fans, but I realised I was good looking enough for myself.

“Now I see all these poor women trying to get out of the ghetto with plastic surgery and my heart sinks. I understand why they do it, but not only is the pressure on them cruel but it makes us natural girls look a little bit small.”

[Realeasygoing]

Santa Marta looks like a good vacation location?

Does any one on this board go there?

What are monger/punter friendly hotels?

[Bez Bezarra]

Is Colombia safe?

it must be since only 15 of every 100 Colombians said they had been the victim of some type of crime.

I guess all the dead murdered and missing kidnapped colombians
had a hard time answering the survey.

[Gonzo]

There's cafe, drogas, chicas and emeralds, as major Colombian exports, next is gold?

From the SF Chronicle
(full article at http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...UGQENV5AE1.DTL)


Colombian gold rush
If country can limit its internal violence, the precious metal could make for rich pickings


02-06) 04:00 PST Segovia, Colombia -- Sweat pours off the back of Luis Villegas as he shovels mineral-rich ore into a sluice. Next to him, another man pans for gold and a third pours mercury from a yogurt carton into his pan to separate the gold from the ore.

Behind them, three wooden poles, thick as telegraph posts, that form part of an old-fashioned stamp mill perform their ceaseless dance, pounding the gray, gold-bearing rock into a fine grit.

It looks like a scene from California's Gold Rush. In fact, it's modern day Colombia, where -- with the exception of the yogurt carton -- small-scale miners still use virtually the same technology that brought riches to San Francisco more than 150 years ago.

"What I find astonishing is Colombia's gold mines produce over 1 million ounces of gold per year and yet it has no major gold producer," says Peter Bolt, director of Cambridge Mineral Resources, a London company looking to bring modern mining techniques to the country.

Colombia may be on the verge of its own gold rush, mining experts say.

Colombia's gold reserves haven't been tapped in part because of 50 years of armed conflict involving the army, left-wing guerrillas, right-wing death squads and drug cartels, a lethal mix that made mining dangerous. But as security measures put in place by President Alvaro Uribe prove successful in quelling violence, the clamor for the precious yellow metal is proving irresistible.

As much as 40 percent of Colombia has not even been geologically mapped. Industry experts think there are rich pickings to be had.

"A steady flow of mining companies into the country has begun, and the potential of Colombia is there for all to see (with small-scale) gold mines spread across the length and breadth of the country," Bolt said.

The three belts of Andean cordillera that straddle Colombia have yet to feel the drill bits of modern exploration equipment. Miners are convinced "that there exist large undiscovered reserves," says Archak Bedrossian, an international gold consultant and trader.

Peru, Colombia's neighbor to the south, produces about 210 tons of gold per year. Some believe Colombia could surpass that.

"There is more gold in Colombia than there ever was in Peru," said Ian Park, president of Compañia Minera de Caldas, a Canadian-owned mining company

Of the 23 tons of gold that Colombia mines each year, 15 are produced in the west-central state of Antioquia. The Segovia and Frontino mining districts are there. Ten tons is panned by small-scale miners who produce less than 1 to 2 ounces of gold per day using the antiquated methods brought to the region by fortune-seeking Cornish miners from England in the 19th century, just like the Cornishmen who flocked to California during the Gold Rush.

Antioquia's picturesque green hills, on which cattle graze between plots of sugarcane, have been the heart of Colombia's gold production for centuries. Many of the indigenous gold ornaments and objects that hypnotized Spanish conquistadors hundreds of years ago came from this region.

Asomineros, a mining trade group, estimates that there are 1,500 small-scale gold workings employing 200,000 miners in the state. Men can be seen standing thigh-deep in the creeks, shoveling gravel into sluices in the hope of finding gold flakes and nuggets.

"I have some luck, enough to get by," said Hernan Ortega, a sun-bronzed man in his 40s, as he took a break from hoisting shovels of rock from the fast moving stream.

In Marmato, in Caldas state to the south, the hills are riddled with adits, the tunnels supported by wooden beams that the miners excavate to follow gold veins.

The humid, dimly lit tunnels are small and hazardous to navigate. Miners push handcarts all day to haul out ore and waste rock. Temperatures reach 122 degrees Fahrenheit. With no power tools, almost everything is done by hand.

Industrial-scale miners seek a mother lode, a deposit that contains a gold-bearing vein sufficient to produce in commercial quantities for several years.

"The veins being exploited typically average 2 meters in width and contain 15 to 20 grams of gold per ton, with bonanza grades above 1,000 grams locally," said Colin Andrew, Cambridge Mineral's managing director.

In laymen's terms, that means there's a lot of gold here.

Having spent more than $45 million to date exploring its Angostura gold property near Bucaramanga, in Santander department, the Canadian company Greystar Resources has found a multitude of veins containing 10 million ounces of gold.

"We have identified over 120 veins in the deposit (including) 60 higher-grade shoots where the veins intersect," said Greystar Executive Vice President Frederick Felder.

Wherever there is gold production in Colombia there are ancient stamp mills nestled into the mountain, the mechanical dinosaurs that were first used more than 500 years ago and that linger into the 21st century. Antioquia alone has 500 of the stamp mills, similar to those first used in Renaissance Europe, Asomineros estimates.

The government hopes that an influx of foreign investment will create jobs, modernize mining techniques and make the industry more productive.

One of the biggest challenges is curbing deadly environmental practices that are integral to Colombia's antiquated mining tradition. Authorities want to restrict use of toxic mercury and cyanide, substances used for ore processing that are now openly dumped into streams.

"Exploitation of Colombia's great gold potential has to be with modern technology that allows higher mineral recovery and better social and environmental conditions," said Carlos Uribe, director of Asomineros.

At a small mill near the Quintana mine where Cambridge Mineral is exploring, miners add mercury, a neurotoxin with highly toxic vapors, to the wok-size steel pan that is used to agglomerate gold particles, using their fingers to mix it into the grit.

"The people have problems with mercury, it stays in their bodies," said Antonio Castillo, mine manager at Quintana.

Once the grit has been panned away, the remaining liquid is poured into a piece of cloth and the mercury squeezed out through the fabric to leave a ball of gold-mercury amalgam. The miners perform the task without gloves or masks to protect them against the fumes that damage the lungs, kidneys and brain.

Much of the mercury ends up in local rivers, threatening a legacy not unlike that which California faced from its Gold Rush years. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that 3 million pounds of mercury entered Sierra Nevada watersheds during the gold boom.

In Segovia, a threadbare mining town of 60,000 about 120 miles from Medellin, every shop has a sign in the window that says "we buy gold." In the central plaza stands a golden statue of a woman, Mother Earth, from whose belly a miner removes ore with a pick.

[Mule69]

Can someone lend me a few pointers on a first timer to Columbia. Which of these 3 are the best to go. It will be a small group 4-5, and have traveled before to Rio and CR many times. Our next trip is to Argentina and we were hoping to stop in columbia on the way.

Thanks

JK

It's Colombia! I will say Medellin but for ease I would include Cartagena.Cali will be last choice,,for safety reasons.

[Tootie]

Can someone lend me a few pointers on a first timer to Columbia. Which of these 3 are the best to go. It will be a small group 4-5, and have traveled before to Rio and CR many times. Our next trip is to Argentina and we were hoping to stop in columbia on the way.

Thanks

JK

[Ricker]

I have been using Tel 3 Advantage calling cards for quite some time but the service has really declined so I am now looking for alternatives to call countries such as Colombia. Does anyone have any recommendations?.

I still have not recieved any response to my question below about bringing sex toys into Bogota. I hope someone out there will be kind enough to respond to my two questions here on this thread. Thank you in advance for your kindness in doing so.

I use ORRBITEL COLOMBIA calling card, 6cents/min or
COLOMBIA ETB calling card, 5 cents/mn

:)

[Ricker]

Will I encounter any problems with bringing in sex toys such as the irabbit vibrator and a pocket rocket when I enter Bogota?

No problems amigo .... just chuckles from the Policia when they inspect your bag. When and if they ask about your toys, you could just say, with a smile and a wink; "me novia le encanta jugar en la cama" .... or somethng like that. (my girlfriend loves to play in bed).

Suerte!

[Black Page]

YOU ARE A GENIUS!!!! I understand Completely! I think it will be better / cheaper to call from a CABINA with a US phone Card than COLOMBIAN phone card. NOW why didn't I think of that? The most important thing is to get the US phone card though, or everything might be in jeopardy, no?

Be very careful. Make first a test, if you can, with a friend, to check WHAT NUMBER is displayed when you call using that phone card.

I tell you this because usually, when I am abroad, I use a phone credit card issued by my national phone company (I am European). I enter a free (like a 800) number in the country where I am, then I am connected to the network of my country. To dial a number of my country, I enter only the area code, not the country code, because "I am already there". (it is a credit card, because at the end of the month the total amount is billed to my VISA credit card; it is not prepaid).

Well, surprising enough, sometimes the COUNTRY CODE of the place where I am physically does appear on the receiving phone. The system of my telephone company takes the ID of the line from where I am calling and transfer it, in part, to the receiver. Not always, but sometimes.

Be careful. If you say "hi, I am in Texas" but the display on your wife's phone shows a damn 0057, it would be difficult to explain.

[Master Yoda]

Hey guys,
I will be in Colombia tomorrow. Where is Playboy mansion? and how do I get there?

Also when I am in BAQ where are some good nightclubs and places to meet women? Are there any parlours down here. Thanks

[Black Page]

In my business i travel quite a bit, but here is my problem. Me and my novia are quite serious and talk like 4 times a day not including text's. Usually when i call her she can see on her caller ID that i am calling from a foreign number, but this time I am traveling to MDE to see NOIVA #2. I told my girl im going to Puerto Rico on business, is there anyway to mask my caller ID, from MDE to CLO? I dont want to call her from my US cell.. way too much $$$. Or should i just get a satellite phone? The rates arent too bad! Or any Ideas will we greatly appreciated..

WOW!

I had exactly the same problem 2 months ago!

I went to California for business from Europe. I had 1 week free, so I decided to make a short detour to Cartagena before coming back. (dont laugh. I didnt want to miss this opportunity. Bogota is just 12 hours away...).

How to mask the caller ID? (actually, I was concerned about the country code, not even the area code).

Skype is the answer. In any hotel room you have Internet. With SkypeOut you can call any fixed number for 2 cents/min or so. Quality is bad, but you can say you are calling with Skype because you are surfing the net.

[Scooby1]

El Chapo

Here is the address that shows what countries only need a passport to enter Colombia of which Mexico is one.
http://www.colombiaemb.org/opencms/o...s/tourist.html

[Superboy1]

In my business i travel quite a bit, but here is my problem. Me and my novia are quite serious and talk like 4 times a day not including text's. Usually when i call her she can see on her caller ID that i am calling from a foreign number, but this time I am traveling to MDE to see NOIVA #2. I told my girl im going to Puerto Rico on business, is there anyway to mask my caller ID, from MDE to CLO? I dont want to call her from my US cell.. way too much $$$. Or should i just get a satellite phone? The rates arent too bad! Or any Ideas will we greatly appreciated..

You should stop being a bad boy , and have one girlfriend and save some girls for the rest of us :-) Then you would not have this problem.