Cartagena Reports

[QUOTE=Tom 33]Avianca asks that you be at the airport 3 hours prior to international departures. I have never needed close to that much time, but I'm always there at least 3 hours in advance.

I need two legs to get to MIA. Thus I always spend the night at the Holiday Inn Express near the airport. Then do the MIA-CTG leg the next day.[/QUOTE]

Likewise I always plan on 3, or more if I can. AV checkin makes glaciers look fast, and if you want a half-decent seat, its advised.

But if you end up running late, don't sweat it. Half the Colombians won't turn up until an hour before.

[QUOTE=Xion149]The connection I usually make allows 1.5hrs exactly, and I find this allows very little room for error/food/etc.. so plan accordingly.[/QUOTE]

Once you've got your luggage checked you can probably overshoot departure if you end up get held up by those sons and daughters of National Socialists in security. If your luggage is loaded it (usually) takes forever to find it and get it off, and they have to do that before than can depart. You *probably* have at least 15 minutes, and if you can get word to them you're having your prostate tickled by a rubber glove rather than getting drunk in some bar somewhere, and will be along forthwith, they *might* happily hold a bit for you rather than go rummaging around for your stuff.

I bought my Avianca tickets tonight thru Expedia.com. Cost was $461 total including $20 shipping charge to paper tickets and $5 fee to expedia.

I used [url]http://www.tripadvisor.com[/url] to do a search for the tickets. If you have not tried them before, I would suggest that you try a search to see what they are like. I also tried a search with flycheapabroad.com. That was a real joke. Told them that I wanted direct flight. They refused to offer me a ticket with direct flight from Mia to CTG and back. I could fly MIA to BOG to CTG down and direct back or direct down and thru BOG coming back. But direct both ways no way.

My Avianca flight 35 leaves at 2: 10 PM so would like to arrive at the Avianca counter at 10: 30-11: 00 AM. That may seem like it is too early but I have found that it is usually much faster if you are a bit early. Last trip took me about 10 minutes for check in. Get there later and it can take 45-60 minutes. I find that stressful. This is my vacation and I want as little stress as possible. No way will I try to get to MIA on Wednesday. Will fly to MIA on Tuesday and spend the night.

Oh, I am flying into CTG on Wednesday 8/30 and will fly back on Wednesday 9/20 Just for the fun of it I checked with Expedia on hotels for my first 3 nights. For 2 people of course. Low price was Hotel Da Pietro at $78 a night. Monterrey Hotel was $99. I have stayed there and I think it is nice. Next to Convention center. Hotel Casa La Fe was $105. Capilla Del Mar Hotel was $105. Decameron Cartagena All Inclusive was $112 the first 2 nights and $102 for Friday. Must have a weekend special. Now that I have firm dates, I can start to make my plans. Wednesday 8/30 think I will go to Tripleterria about 10: 30-11: 00PM. So if anyone wants to meet me that is where I will be. :-)

[QUOTE=Papipapi]BTW, you can buy towels on the main street where they have the flee market for about $2-3 each. Beside the hotdog shop called "Dogger".[/QUOTE]Thank you for info but I am not really sure exactly where this is. I think by main street you mean the main one way beach road. There is a building near Calle cinco that has a lot of shops. Is that the one you mean? I think I can remember a hot dog place near there on the corner. Is that the place?

Being able to get extra towels for $2-3 would be a big help for many of us.

My friend is trying to go next week but Mery said all properties she knew were full. Hmmm.

Regarding Miss Colombia, not sure which "parade" he is talking about but the highlite of the week is the traje del bano (swimsuit competition) at the Hilton on Saturday night. Both the fantasywear and coronation events require you wear a tux (unimaginable in CTG climate), and you get a reserved seat likely very far from the stage. If you get a good seat in the garden the chicas pass so close they can brush against you (as Miss Cartagena did to me back in 2003).

I saw nothing thrown or sprayed, and I was RIGHT next to the passarella in the Garden of the Hilton during the bathing suit competition (took tons of pics using a nice camera which I posted on other sites but I guess not here). So I wouldn't worry too much about your camera addicted to women. DO book early though (and arrange your ticket WELL in advance).

Despite all the macho talk of some here about how lucky the Colombians are he kept his temper blah blah blah, instead of beating the shit out of some Colombian he would have likely been shot and killed. 90%+ of Colombianos carry guns and are not afraid to use them. You take a swing at a local and odds are 50 50 you end up in the morgue no matter how much of a tough guy you think you are.

Lets get the parade issues set straight.

The Miss Colombia contest is essentially a week of constant festivals.

There is a parade on the wednesday before the contest, that attracts several hundreds of thousands of people. It runs also the main drag from north of the old city to bocagrande. It has floats, bands , and each contestant representing each one of the 32 different political districts in Colombia. Note: There is nothing in Colombia remotely resembling the People's republic of Northern California. The parade lasts about 3 hours. People throw all kinds of shit at each other during these parades. It was bad at times, but nearly as bad as the boat parade, which I will describe below.

Apx. thursday afternoon, there is an actual boat parade in Cartagena bay. Again the 32 different contestants ride on boats throughout a free for all. the call it a parade, would be a reach. There are hundreds of different types of vessels on the bay, following the contestants around. There are luxury yachts, boston whaler type boats, canoes, fishing boats, old rustbucket boats that should be used on san francisco Bay to patrol the waters of that real gem of a city, since they hate the US Military.... Again, this parade, mob is way out of hand, you have boats of overcrowded people, hurling projectiles, water balloons etc... at each other, you have boats hitting each other etc... It makes memorail day weekend on the Colorado river near parker, look civil.. It is dangerous, and not recommended. I did see the Colombian coast guard crack down on a few boats, including ours, for having too many people on it, and for not having proper documents ( eg; registration). after 15 minutes of this, I asked myself " what the fuck am I doing here"?

yes, i did get pissed off, when I got hit without any warning and when when some asshole throw a water balloon filled with soap, or shaving cream hitting my novia in the eyes, stinging the hell out of them. i did confront the asshole, but other people pushed him away, and apologized to me, for they were too were embarrassed. Nobody threatened me, nobody pulled a gun.. they understood. maybe my esteemed collegue Surfer, would have thought well, the presence of a gringo , must have provoked them, maybe it is Israel's or america's fault..., and would have not been angry at the balloon thrower. Maybe he would have used the Bill clinton approach, " feeling their pain". sorry, but I don't play that game. The guy was wrong to target a 5'0 100 spinner.. hit me, target me, but don't hit her.

Nobody threatened to put me into the morgue and nobody wanted to bust a cap into me, the statement in the previous post, only contributes to the myth about how violent all colombians are.. What bullshit. I probably would have had a more hostile confrontation if I were an american flag bandana while walking on the streets of san francisco, berkeley or in marin County.

there is also a third parade the night before, right by the hilton....

I have not seen a single civilian carrying a piece during my times in Cartagena, only Guards, police and military, whom would be forced to disarm and wear beads if they were in the Bay Area. I did see a few in Cali.

There are all kinds of places that you can buy towels including Carulla. The touts also sell towels.

The Dogger is on San Martin a block or two from Hotel Caribe on the east side of the street. Just past the Dogger is an area with all kinds of little shops.

[QUOTE=Tom 33]There are all kinds of places that you can buy towels including Carulla. The touts also sell towels.

The Dogger is on San Martin a block or two from Hotel Caribe on the east side of the street. Just past the Dogger is an area with all kinds of little shops.[/QUOTE]


pack a few extra in your bags, the ones they sell in Colombia are pretty lame...

Surfer, MJG

Muchas gracias for the detailed contest info, exactly what I was looking for. I'll be there nov 8 - 15 and hope to snag some good digital video of that swimsuit contest. That boat parade sounds wild. What's with L-AM countries having festivals where they throw stuff?? SJO they have this thing where they throw confetti at you.. mostly cute chicas doing the throwing, but they were getting really ruthless with it (I extracted confetti from every open orifice above the neck, including some underneath my eyelids) and were exceptionally keen on hunting down the americans.

Tuxedo, whoa. That might be a stretch in the billion degree heat, but I suppose I've done sillier things for chicas. How hard was it to reserve a spot for the swimsuit event?

Xion:

Thank you for the kind reply

During the parades, try wearing an old Grateful dead T-shirt or something similar, with a pair of shorts, sunglasses and some flip-flops......

There are also other areas in catragena that show the Miss colombia pagent live on a big screen TV, someone like Cafe Del mar, would be a good bet...

I hadn't thought of going to Cartagena before untill I looked at this forum. It looks like the kind of place I'd like to go to! :-) Some general questions:

1) I speak English only. Is this a serious problem? It seems that knowing some Spanish is essential.

2) From some reports, it's not clear to me if the girls are pros or not? Some reports suggest just hanging around outside resturants is a good place to pick up girls? Are these normal girls or are they looking for work?

Xion: Swimsuit competition sold out some weeks in advance the year I was there (2003-the year Catarina Daza from Cali won). I tried for over an hour to scalp a ticket outside the Hilton, along with MANY other buyers, but there were ZERO sellers. I only got in because a lady tried to bring in a baby in a stroller and was denied entry, and I IMMEDIATELY offered to buy her ticket before the other desperate buyers could approach her. I paid about 120 KCP (I think face value was 80KCP).

Dogs: Just because you do not SEE their guns does NOT mean they don't have them. They CONCEAL them (duh!). Go to a nightclub attended by Colombianos 9NOT LDV!) where they frisk you sometime and watch what percentage of the local men turn in guns! The guys that hang out outside LDV are all packing heat; ask Aldo (or one of the girls) how many of the guys that hang outside around that block carry pistols. I have had SEVERAL LDV girls say not to hang outside there by the fountain (my favorite place because I cannot tolerate the smoke inside for more than 5 minutes, plus with a clear view of the exit you can see EVERY chioca coming and going).

Dude, I TOTALLY agree it was wrong for the guy to attack your girl during the parade, so I am NOT defending that guy.

After reading your post, I retract my comment suggesting you not mix it up with locals and say, instead, that if you want to duke it out with Colombianos go for it! IMHO it just means one less Republican voter in the next election-not that it matters as ALL polls show the fascists likely to lose BOTH the House and the Senate in less than 4 months but let's not get off topic into US politics OK? Jackson hates that (as your fellow rightwinger Scooby learned when he posted some Republican BS in the Medellin folder).

[QUOTE=Freshc]I hadn't thought of going to Cartagena before untill I looked at this forum. It looks like the kind of place I'd like to go to! :-) Some general questions:

1) I speak English only. Is this a serious problem? It seems that knowing some Spanish is essential.

2) From some reports, it's not clear to me if the girls are pros or not? Some reports suggest just hanging around outside resturants is a good place to pick up girls? Are these normal girls or are they looking for work?[/QUOTE]Even though many guys say that CTG is the best option in Colombia for the espanol deficient, having just returned from CTG, I didn't find much english spoken. If you're going to pick up chicas on the streets, odds are that these are the least educated among the ladies, and the least likely to know a 2nd language. Your best chance is with semi-pro college girls, but even there, it does not appear that 2nd languages are a priority in the Colombian education system (but I may be wrong). In LDV, probably 10-15% (at best) of the ladies know much English, from an very unscientific poll taken by me. Worse on the streets and on the beach, don't know about the casas. (But I've signed languaged my way to GFE before in other countries!). Some taxistas have access to these college chicas. If you eventually go to CTG, I can email you a phone number for taxi drivers that can help you out in this department (but, then these guys don't speak english...hmmn).

If you look at a chica, and she looks back at you and keeps looking at you, that's a likely indication that they're in the program. That was my experience in CTG (and of course, elsewhere). In front of restaurants, on the beach, in front of hotels, they're around. If you look like a gringo and if you're shy about approaching women on the street, eventually they will find you.

so surfer, you advocate me getting shot in cartagena? that's nice. gee i am sorry that if me being a republican offends you to the point that you hope someone kills me. i wonder if you would hate me even more, if i were a jew?

well jackson, surfer states you hate political speech? do you condone the hatred towards me because of my political affiliation? i know you censored scooby, so i guess you must condone surfer's post.

i should have known better not to have replied to surfer, but jesus to hope i get a cap popped in me because of the novermber elections? how pathetic.

[QUOTE=MJG Dogs]so surfer, you advocate me getting shot in Cartagena? That's nice. Gee I am sorry that If me being a Republican offends you to the point that you hope someone kills me. [/QUOTE]Dog, I put the crazed, elitist Surfer on my ignore list years ago. When you dump his brain dead political vomit and conspiracy theories automatically in the ISG wastebin, you'll enjoy the site way more. Geez, we'd all have been nuked if these looney tune socialists were in power today. Back to pussy; you have more patience than most when it comes to the parade. I stick to meeting the beautiful scenery as they walk around the Hilton. LDV has a ton of lookers that week.