Medellin Reports

[Turgid]

....Massage Place (brothel) Energy. Carrera 74 # 49-101. I was there yesterday. I was also a little late there. I showed up at 8:30 PM, they close at 9:30 PM. The moma asked me to to pay first, which isn't normal, but it was probably because we were going to finish at closing time. I gave the moma 150 K and never got change back. The price use to be 140 K. Maybe it went up to 150 K.

I went to Energy at around 2. 00 pm today. The mommie asks me to pay first! This seems to be a bad trend, perhaps due to faltering service by the chicas. I was asked 140 k for the hour. In my last visit to Leutron earlier this year I believe I had to pay first. Did New Life yesterday, paid after as usual for my 2 sessions. Next stop Abydos and will see what gives.

[Chesscat]

Nice info! I like this post!

If you like Energy and New Life, you should take a look at Abydos. Only half as many ladies, but they are pretty damn good looking. Only 140 K for an hour. Overall it is a relaxing place like Energy, but Energy is better for sure. But Abydos is much closer to El Poblado if that is where you stay. Abydos is almost across the street from a strip club called Luna Lanera. That is worth a look sometimes, but Fase II and La Isla is much better.

[Gagoo]

Thanks for the correction. I'll take a look. Seems like New Life and Energy are the most highly regarded here. I had a great experience at Energy. Perhaps I'll try New Life instead of Loutron.

If you like Energy and New Life, you should take a look at Abydos. Only half as many ladies, but they are pretty damn good looking. Only 140 K for an hour. Overall it is a relaxing place like Energy, but Energy is better for sure. But Abydos is much closer to El Poblado if that is where you stay. Abydos is almost across the street from a strip club called Luna Lanera. That is worth a look sometimes, but Fase II and La Isla is much better.

[Thedman]

Day 3:

Up in time for breakfast (one of the nice benefits of being at the Mansion. The cook will make you made to order food and catching up with the guys at the outside patio is nice as well.).

Since this was the start of the official bachelor party we had to checkout of the Mansion a few hours before the check-in to the private apartment. This created a time gap problem, but Alexa was nice enough to allow us to store our luggage in their office until later that day.

We went out towards downtown, just past the central airport to a market called Minorista. The bachelor had seen an episode of Anthony Bourdain where he had gone to this food market (vegetables, meat, flowers, etc) that happened to have an off the chart restaurant in the basement. It was called Restaurante Aqui Paro Lucho and wow. Had the best Paella and BBQ ribs. Amazing food, and cheap.

The night of day 3 was a penthouse party set up by the company we hired to host the bachelor party. Provided in the party was one model / hostess for each guy, a private chef that cooked up an amazing spread, music and a metric shit-ton of booze.

Prior to the girls arriving our host let us know the parameters for the night with them. In his words 'provided in your package is one Smash-Credit with each girl, and they're paid for already and they'll be there for 3 hours. " Half the group had flown in from Paris, the other half around the USA. The European guys had a quizzical look on their face, and one finally said "can you explain this term, 'Smash'. Damn it was funny. Our host was uh, really you need me to explain this? - and so he goes. Smash - you know uh, Coitus! One guy who was married and didn't want to play asked if he could donate his Smash credit to the groom so the groom could have a threesome. Sure!

After the food and drinks are flowing we're all dancing but I see nobody's really hooking up, so I decide to break the ice. Grabbed an amazing Paisa specimen, named Tatiana. Very fair skin and long black hair. *Her breasts were enhanced to a wonderful the cup and just perfect. We head up the stairs to the master bedroom where I was staying and just under an hour later we come down the stairs to the most embarrassing site ever. There are four guys out on the balcony in a circle talking and four super hot chicas in the living room chatting as well and mostly focusing on their phones. It was like the most awkward first time middle school dance. I was sure my taking the lead would get others going too. Unfortunately not to be. I'll cut it short and just say we blew 3 Smash credits, but note not 4 of them, as one final guy on the trip arrived from the airport in the middle of the 'middle school dance' moments. *I went over to him, explained what was going on and he knew what needed to be done. *Dropped his stuff in his tiny room (that what you get when your last to arrive) and he grabbed one of the girls and started Smash time. From in the door to Smashing in under eight minutes!

Host asks me (as I was the organizer of the party) "What's wrong with your guys?" It's rather embarrassing. But oh well, the guys still seemed to have fun as they had gotten other substance beyond just the alcohol.

Day 4:

As this is a bachelor party and many of the guys have others back home to account for we did fill the daytime hours with interesting activities. *This day started, as did the rest, with our private chef cooking us a full breakfast. Which was one of my favorite things of the trip. *Waking up hung-over, but having someone hand you a fresh cup of hot coffee, some OJ and then a great plate of food is a real treat.

After breakfast we piled into our provided Van with driver and headed out towards the Intl airport to go on a 4 hour ATV tour. Many of the guys had never ridden one before and we had a blast. In a serendipitous moment, as we drove the trails and jungle near the airport property we feel and hear all this rumbling, and 8 Colombian Army Blackhawks descend from the clouds and land just about on top of us. *Our tour guide takes us around a bend and we have a full on view of the whole airport just about 10 yards away from the fence. *Well it was some sort of military exercise and we get to watch first a bunch of Dassult fighters do fly-bys and evasive maneuvers. Firing out flares. Next up were the *turbo-prop trainers doing blue-angel like maneuvers. *It was all totally unexpected but totally cool. *About 3/4 through the tour we rolled up on a lunch place with it's own private lake. *Whole place sat on about 2 football fields worth of land. *They grow private trout in the lake. We each had a beer (only one allowed by the tour guide) and fried trout, flattened plantains, rice, etc, plus platters of grilled chorizo sausages.

I had arranged for massages for all the guys when we got back to the penthouse. Non-sexual ones. A service sent over professional masseuses, they set up on the balcony overlooking Medellin from way atop Poblado and each guy got his muscles worked over well. *It was a good treat after four hours on the ATV's and every single guy was just ear to ear in grins.

We go out to dinner that night at a really nice restaurant in Poblado called Carmen's. Some really good food, and of course lots of drinks. On the itinerary that night was a plan to go hit a Casa or two, but sadly the guys wanted to go to Parque Lleras and crawl the bars (with the off chance of hitting some non-pro talent). *I was at this point having to apologize to our host for being the most vanilla group of guys ever to come to Medellin. *The host was willing to import more talent, but nobody's having any of it. The guys wanted to bar hop to try and score some girls.

We get to closing time at the bars and I'm ready to call it a night, but the guys talk to a bartender who tell them about some illegal underground bars that stay open till 5 am. I decide I'm willing to do some crazy stuff in Medellin, but I drew the line at searching out underground bars past 3 am. Even our host is saying this is crazy, but the guys were adamant. So we part ways, I head back and they go searching.

I was in bed by 3:30 (and needed the rest as I had arranged a morning appointment with Mara Diaz) for 9 am. From what I learned later they quickly gave up the hunt for the bar and taxi'd back to the house.

Day 5:

By this day a few of the guys had to leave and it left three of us. One a very experienced monger, myself and the groom.

I had prebooked a morning appointment with Mara Diaz from FB. She's 24 and has two kids. Her stand out feature is that she speaks decent English. She was the only chica of the whole trip who did all our chats in English. It was so much better than having to do the translator app back and forth like all the others. Not only did she speak English, I think she may be the one and only punctual chica in Medellin. She managed to arrive 10 minutes early which caught me off guard as I was still in the shower when she arrived at the apartment.

Our session was good, and I really like her natural be cups and I saw a barely visible C-section scar. Her pussy was the absolute tightest of all the girls on the trip. (Preview for day - 6 - I asked her back again. The only girl I repeated with). The two guys were just finishing up their breakfast's as I come down the stairs with her as I had not told the guys she was coming over. I think I got some Coolio points with the guys for the surprise.

For that day's daytime activity we went parasailing. A first for me, and man did I have a blast. Assuming you're not afraid of heights the experience was amazing. The views were crazy nice (we hit a time period where the sky was blue with white clouds) and it was just flat out fun. We had paid for 4 slots, but one guy had to skip as he didn't want to risk missing his flight, so we offered the 4th spot to the Van driver's 10 year old son. *he'd ridden with us the day before to the ATV area and was a cool kid. Biggest damn grin from ear to ear when we told him he was going to get to go. The bachelor was feeling really sick from too much alternative chemicals from the night before. *he was barely able to hold in the liquids from coming out his [CodeWord116] shoot and we then offered the final slot to the van driver herself. *Not sure if the Mom and Son in normal circumstances would ever get to do something like this. But they were very appreciated and excited when their slots were done.

Waiting back for us at the apartment were the professional massage girls, which after all the stairs we took to get to the top of where the parasails launched, was a much needed requirement to unwind. *Little did I know at the time, but the bachelor got the same massage girl two days in a row and they hit it off. He got her number and started to work on hooking up with her for the next day.

Our van driver on the way back from the parasailing to the apartment had mentioned that the Medellin football team was having a final's match that night and her and her son were going. As none of us had ever gone to a match, we contacted our host to see if he could get us tix. He did and we Uber'd down to the stadium and got to experience the absolute craziness that is South American's watching soccer. Never experienced anything like it, and as weird as it seems, it was one of the most memorable experiences of my whole trip. Had absolutely zero to do with mongering, but electric and entertaining like nothing else I've ever done.

We decided to leave before the end of the match as we wanted to watch the Sunday night football game between the Seahawks and Patriots. We went to the Irish pub in Parque Lleres and got to see the game. Up to this point the whole trip I had been playing the 'dad' role of the group, getting well lubricated but not drunk to make sure the group was taken care of, but post the SNL game, where I had consumed way too much, we rolled to a second bar where I was practicing a Spanish phrase "Uno Mas" with a lot of gusto. Pounding down shot after shot of the aquardiente. After the second shot I had literally no memory, except for waking up at 9 am in bed to the smell of bacon frying. With what was starting to feel like the world's worst hangover I texted our host and ask to slide our tour for the day back 3 hours to give us all more time to sleep in.

Just as I'm about to fall back asleep, Mara from the morning before pinged me with a 'hola baby'. I barely remember asking if should could come over by 11, she countered 11:30 and I set my alarm for 11 and passed back out. Damn if she wasn't again early, this time 15 minutes. Somehow, when she arrived both my mind and body rallied. I was good to go and did. Damn I really enjoyed doing her. In our post smash cuddling and chatting she asked if I minded she took one call. Which turned out to be one of her legit jobs. She's a translator for a bank and needed to translate a few things for the office. She says she's also in school trying to complete her degree as a bookkeeper.

Walk down the stairs again, but this time the other guys are still hard passed out in their rooms. The chef had wrapped all our breakfast's in plastic wrap but with that world's worst hangover coming back with a vengeance and I couldn't even look at the omelettes he laid out for us. *I helped her get to the elevator than just wanted to die. In my 45 years I've never been in that much pain from too much drinking. The other guys stumble out of their rooms shortly after as we have a 1 pm pickup for that day's tour. One guy offers some adderall from his kid stash as a way to help cure the hangover. I want to put a bullet into my head, but after a lot of water, coffee, juice and some serious dry heaving I manage to feel normal enough to go out on our Pablo Escobar Tour of the city.

The Netflix show "Narco" was the original reason the bachelor picked Medellin as his destination location. *Going on this tour was cool as we got to learn a lot of the background on Pablo, see a bunch of historical locations about him and see some other parts of the city besides Poblado. I won't nerd out on Pablo, but for those interested in Narco's I highly recommend hooking up for one of these tours. Our tour guide was Mauricio. If you hit me with a PM I'll pass along his contact info.

We were supposed to end the tour at the Pablo Escobar Massage parlor, a casa built at the location of a former Pablo mansion, but it turns out that Monday was a holiday in Colombia which caused many houses to be closed including this one.

Dinner that night was Indian at a place called Naan. I'm from Seattle where we have a ton of Indian restaurants and I have to admit this was better than any I've had in Seattle. *Very small place, but if you like spicy Vindaloo, I highly recommend this place.

Post dinner back to apartment to clean up and the bachelor has arranged for the massage girl to come over after she gets off work. What we learned from her was that they live a few hours out of town, and they come in for two week, than go back home for two. During those two weeks they work 12 hour days, 9 to 9, for seven days in a row. We were proud of the bachelor as he was working to pickup a non-pro and she wanted to make sure our host would be nowhere near the apartment when she arrived as she didn't want to risk her real job with someone finding out she was seeing a client on the side. In a bold move, he asked her if her other co-worker, who we dubbed Jugs-McGee would also like to come over and party for the 3rd guy in our group who was just smitten with her boobs during the last two days totally non-sexual massages. *To our complete surprise she agreed to come over as well.

I hadn't planned to do anyone that night as I was saving myself up to do a girl I had made an appointment with 3 days ahead of time. Our party host though reminded me we still had one smash credit and we needed to use it or lose it, so I decided to go ahead and book the credit for the time when the other girls were to arrive.

10:30 rolls around and all the girls arrive just about on time. Awkward! You have one very clear pro there (my girl) with two non-pro's, plus 3 obviously horny gringo's. The bachelor's girl had told him at one point she's never had champagne but always wanted to try some, so our boy went out and got three bottles. He's filling the two non-pro's up with champagne, but my girls ask for something stronger. We had about everything available, and she went with some cognac, but just a small amount. About 40 minutes into their arrivals my pro winks at me and indicates lets go on the balcony, we do and when we get out there she gets super aggressive and is kissing and sucking face. I see the other girls looking at us, and then my girl says lets go upstairs.

When we get up there we get disrobed and she tells me we have to be quick. I'm like why, thinking that like the party night the smash credit was good for 3 hours. Unfortunately since my guy booked with such short notice she was only available for an hour and really had a hard deadline. I even offered to pay extra to have her stay but she was super sorry and had to leave by 11:45. So I asked her to just get busy with a BJ and off we went. Her name was Cristina and I unfortunately didn't get her last name. I will include a pic of her, as she's one of the few I had enough sense to even ask to take a pic. She was my ideal body type, huge all natural boobs, and an non-plastic, big Colombian ass. For me she was a clear 9.

Day 7 report to come soon.

[Thedman]

Apologies guys on the report below. I previewed the post before posting, but somehow a " was injected in front of every sentence.

Will make sure the rest of the trip report doesn't have those.

[Thedman]

Just left Medellin.

I stayed a week there, two days at the Mansion, then 5 more as part of a bachelor party. Before getting into the report I want to thank all the guys here who've contributed to this thread (and the Casa Blanca thread). *I RTFF going back a good 60+ pages. *There is great info on this forum that was invaluable for me. *The trip overall was amazing.

Some background info. *This was my first time to MDE and Colombia. *My mongering experience has been a bit limited. A 4 day trip to Angeles City in the P. I. , and two, one-day trips to Tijuana. My Spanish is very limited to non-existent.

Day 1:

My first night was a bust. This was due to getting in late (after 10 pm at airport) than deciding to go to Parque Llares to meet up with two guys from the bachelor party who also came in 2 days early. *We hadn't seen each other in a few years so there was a lot of catching up. *We hung out at the rooftop bar at the top of Hotel Charlee. *Really good live music and people watching but I was so exhausted it was probably a good thing I didn't try to have a session. Rolled back to the Mansion well after 3 am and passed out.

Day 2:.

Staying at the Mansion is a good place to dip one's toes into the water (especially if you're new to MDE). *It is a really unique setup, and I found every guy I met there to be both friendly but also willing to offer advice to get newbies pointed in the right direction.

I had met on Facebook a number of girls and planned to meet a couple at the Mansion. *(By the way the girls on FB know of the Mansion and some will say no-way, "I don't go there! Others though are perfectly fine.) *The first girl, Christina Perez Salazar, and I had good chats and I confirmed with her the day before. *She asked if I'd be interest if she brought her cousin and I said "SI! *My only problem was she had to slide our time from 12 to 2 pm. *This was only a 'problem' as I had a 4 pm lined up as well and she was not able to move her time.

As a pair, they were awesome. I've had threesome's in the past but it was always very mechanical and what I'd call "doing the switching". *You're there with 2 girls, but it's switching back and forth, constantly swapping condoms, with neither of them interested in the other. *Instead these two were very into each other. As if they were natural lesbians. *I said at one point I needed a small break and asked them to go at it with each other and they went to town. *I pantomimed scissors on both my hands interlocking and they understood. *The cousin (and I forget her name) got on top of Christina and they started slamming their pussies together. *I finished doing the cousin while she was eating out Christina with gusto. *It was a great start to my first time fucking in Medellin. I gave them each 150 k each and 20 k for a cab. (this by the way was what I paid for all the girls my whole trip, save the last one on day 7, but that was a special case.).

Showered and went to hang out downstairs before my 4 pm. *The guys at the Mansion had arranged for a sex show, which I was invited to attend in one of the rooms. *A bit surreal, but hey when in Medellin go with the flow. *An incredibly hot chica was on the bed laying back naked with about 8 guys in the room (all clothed). *One guy was using a pink rabbit vibrator on her and just going to town. *As I was new I was invited to lie next to her and play / suck on her tits. And it was then I saw the 5 or 6 studs she had spaced across her tongue. It made we want to do a session with her later to see how those things would feel in a BJ. *I was then asked to take over on dildo duties since it was my first time seeing a show. *A short while into my time, I was handed an even larger one and she got into doggy and I went at it again. *Another guy had pulled out a mini vibrator and was buzzing her clit while I plunged until she climaxed. (either she did or she was an Oscar caliber actor.) *It was near time for my 4 pm so I had to leave and didn't get a chance to see the additional girls who were part of "The Show."

Side note: As I mentioned the "show" was a bit surreal, but I think it has it's place. *For the chica doing the show there is a form of advertising to get herself on the radar of the guys. *For the guys there's also some benefit to seeing how she is before pulling the trigger for a full session.

The 4 pm appointment was Andrea Montoya, a super cute chica I had found and chatted with on FB. She arrived about 40 minutes late, but kept me updated via Whatsapp. *Our session was good and she gave a great BBBJ. *I like to finish doggie and the view from her behind was incredible enough to rally and finish despite being drained already.

Side note: Facebook is the starting point for most of the girls, but I think when you say to them, hey here's my WhatsApp # it elevates you above all the other guys just playing around without being serious. I observed a big difference for the positive in responses and getting commitments to meet when we moved from FB Chats to WhatsApp. Maybe it's not true, but seemed to be for me at least.

That evening the bachelor (who I also had stay at the Mansion) and I went out to dinner with a 3rd friend and came back late (I think it was almost midnight). *Alexa, the front desk lady, allowed us to bring our friend into the bar as a 'guest' since all rooms are booked up (with a 50 k fee). *We hung out in the bar for awhile, mostly on the outside patio. *There didn't seem like a lot of action going on so they arranged a little pole-dancing competition. My friend the bachelor found a tall skinny girl with a lot of tats (his turn on) and took her up. I went upstairs with the winner of the contest. It was just after 1 am when we went up. *I really wish I could have recalled her name. *She was a bit darker than average, natural be cups, about 5'2 and looked more Mexican than anything else (again 150 k plus cab).

Side note: the front desk at the Mansion sells a handful of different pills that guys want / need. Viagra's, Cialis, some antibiotics, Ambien, etc. I'm kicking myself for not bring the listing with me so I could share with you guys the exact pricing. *The one thing I bought if it helps was the ambien - 10 pills for $7 (US). *Never used them before, but they worked like a charm. *Need to get more for future adventures.

More of the report to come soon.

[MedellinGringo]

Arrived earlier today and am staying at an airbnb at Energy Living. Very nice building w / great rooftop pool / gym view of the city. Was a bit tired from a long day of travel so utilized an escort service. Was fairly pricey (280,000) but the model was exceptionally beautiful and performance was great. Relaxed. And then went to Fase II. Was pleased to see some of the beautiful women that I saw on my last trip to Medellin in December 2015. There were more women in the lineup than I remember. But more so a quantity game than quality. Probably 30-40 women total; a couple 9's, several 8's. Not 10's on this night but if there are 8's and 9's by Colombia standards you're in business. Had a session w / a very curvy and sexy mademoiselle and calling it a night.

I keep hearing about Leutron Club being a great place to go. I checked out Energy on my last trip and was impressed. Will be trying to hit up New Life and Leutron during the day time hours on this trip. Anyone been to Leutron? That's a name that I don't recall reading on this forum even though I've delved deep into the forum.

I'll be hitting up La Isla as well tomorrow and perhaps Ejecutivo and / or San Diego. If anyone is in for a monger frenzy (LOL) let me know. Would be nice to grab dinner / drink as well w / some comrades.

Seems like you have a good grasp on the price to beauty ratio.

So do you have a link to the exceptionally beautiful model that gave excellent service for 280,000 cop.

[ThadMax]

The spelling is Loutron. You can do a search and find a little information. Most of which is not complimentary.

Thanks for the correction. I'll take a look. Seems like New Life and Energy are the most highly regarded here. I had a great experience at Energy. Perhaps I'll try New Life instead of Loutron.

[Fun Luvr]

I keep hearing about Leutron Club being a great place to go. I checked out Energy on my last trip and was impressed. Will be trying to hit up New Life and Leutron during the day time hours on this trip. Anyone been to Leutron? That's a name that I don't recall reading on this forum even though I've delved deep into the forum.

The spelling is Loutron. You can do a search and find a little information. Most of which is not complimentary.

[Mr Enternational]

Never use the Cambio place at any Airport.

ATMs are Okay.

Or better yet, know your destination. Airport exchanges in Thailand and Philippines are great. In Thailand the local ATM will charge you $7 on top of your bank's fees. Definitely do not use an airport exchange in your home country though. I can not believe those things still exist as big of a rip off as they are.

[ThadMax]

Arrived earlier today and am staying at an airbnb at Energy Living. Very nice building w / great rooftop pool / gym view of the city. Was a bit tired from a long day of travel so utilized an escort service. Was fairly pricey (280,000) but the model was exceptionally beautiful and performance was great. Relaxed. And then went to Fase II. Was pleased to see some of the beautiful women that I saw on my last trip to Medellin in December 2015. There were more women in the lineup than I remember. But more so a quantity game than quality. Probably 30-40 women total; a couple 9's, several 8's. Not 10's on this night but if there are 8's and 9's by Colombia standards you're in business. Had a session w / a very curvy and sexy mademoiselle and calling it a night.

I keep hearing about Leutron Club being a great place to go. I checked out Energy on my last trip and was impressed. Will be trying to hit up New Life and Leutron during the day time hours on this trip. Anyone been to Leutron? That's a name that I don't recall reading on this forum even though I've delved deep into the forum.

I'll be hitting up La Isla as well tomorrow and perhaps Ejecutivo and / or San Diego. If anyone is in for a monger frenzy (LOL) let me know. Would be nice to grab dinner / drink as well w / some comrades.

[Gagoo]

Pregnant is cool!

Well, I should have wondered something was up. He boobs wear a little bigger and looked different. But the rest of her body was the same. My 6 month pregnant friend wanted to do something, but I kindly turned her down.

Also, the places like Abydos and Energy were closed on 13 November.

I tried the Milerotecos for my frist time in Colombia, and a good looking girl that seemed to be real was 130 K if you go to her, including just about everything including anal if you like, o 30 K extra for BBBJ.

I found a young Venezuelan girl and it was 150 K if you go to her, or 180 K plus taxi if she delivers. The young Venezuelan girl was a winner for sure. She was reperating the stories of not having food in Venezuela, so I took her out to dinner. I'm not giving her # out. I'm not in Colombia anymore and she gave me a free sexy video call today.

[Zorro]

How easy is it to get these girls through social media I. E. Facebook Instagram. I added a few through Instagram but what usual rate for these girls. I know through the forum what one offers won't change the going rate. Just some thoughts to help a fellow monger out.

Thanks.

[World Travel 69]

Never use the Cambio place at any Airport.

ATMs are Okay.

Do the CC machines have a CrediBanco logo on them? I take it you discovered this after the fact? I'm heading to Medellin tomorrow with a few thousand in cash, an ATM card, and my credit cards. I could use the ATM but the limits suck.

Fuck. I thought a cambio would be the best option. I'll see what the cambio in Bogota airport gives. 10% is too much even at the pesos rate today.

EDIT:

Here is the mastercard currency converter: https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/consumers/get-support/convert-currency.html

Even if you crank up the "bank fee" to 6.5 you still end up with 1 USD = 2920.00 COP. (You need to put USD on the right side)

Here is unicambios website: http://www.unicambios.com.co/ And it shows them buying at 2.830

The difference is pretty small so I figure the payment processor is getting away with this because when people sit down and work it out the cambios aren't that much different.

[Hioctane]

Forgot to mention that the CrediBanco card processing machine also tried to give me a crap rate at 2980 pesos to the buck vs. The 3097 I received immediately after at the ATM when I cancelled the credit card purchase. Forex rates on my computer at home were trading at 3124, so not terrible at the ATM at all as usual. However, between the 3.5% charge and the lower exchange rate the credit card would cost over 6% to use vs, no fees for ATM card. I've sworn off credit cards now, after using them for everything here the past two years.

This is nothing new. Most cards charge around a 3% foreign transaction fee. If you opt to pay in dollars over the local currency, there is also a conversion fee (at a crappy rate) by the merchant and if you choose no, your card will convert it for you (usually at a better rate). So yes, it can get to around 6%. Bottom line, use a fee free card like a Schwab card.