Anybody been to Bucaramanga, Colombia?

[AndyLee]

DL, what did you think of Bucaramanga? I looked at Bucaramanga for a month last fall examining the potential. Great weather, great food, great people, traffic not too bad, cost of living is moderate by Colombian standards. On the expensive side is the big condominium project at Ruitoque up on the mountain. Very nice gated community that covers thousands of acres. Higher elevation so weather is cooler and more rain/foggy so plants are more verdant. downside is EXPENSIVE.
Less expensive and lower elevation and far more rustic is Gíron. One of the prettier pueblos. Within the city itself I like the Provincia section. Quiet, Estrado 3, safe to walk at night, great location to get to other parts of the city.
I spent a few days with a widow woman up in Lebrija about 12 miles from Gíron. It has a very pretty parque with a lot of activity on the weekends. IMHO that's pretty important in these villages. Some of them have a sort of dead zone around their park. I can't explain it, but some of them are like deserted while others are so full of couples and kids and babies you can hardly walk. Lebrija is like that, wall to wall people in the parque.
If you like outdoor sports like I do the Bucaramanga area offers plenty. The record flight time for paragliding is 6 hours off Ruitoque. What is remarkable about that is you can float out over Bucaramanga for hours then glide back to a landing zone within a few hundred meters or where you launched. I heard a rumor of an 11 hour flight once, but I'm a bit dubious.
San Gil and the Río Chicamocha is less than an hour away on a pretty good highway. Whitewater kayaking and rafting and gorgeous canyon scenery. There is a cable car across the canyon now that takes you up to a reconstructed colonial village. Muy bonito!
Lots and lots of little charming villages in this region. I visited Guarne where they make a special liquor that can be pineapple flavored or other flavors. It was really good so I bought a bottle for my 15 hour bus ride back to Pereira, figuring I'd get a little buzz on and the ride through the mountains would be smoother. About an hour into the bus trip I tapped the bottle and started swigging. A couple of hours later the bottle was empty and all I had was a sugar high similar to a caffeine buzz. As it turns out the alcohol content of the liquor is 2%. i had purchased a second bottle for my friends back in Pereira and I wised up and explained to them they have to use it as a mixer, half liquor and half brandy works pretty good.
Another little burg up in that area is Guepsa. I spent a weekend with a pretty schoolteacher at a friend's finca up here on the mountain. Gorgeous scenery and fresh, clean air. We stumbled down to the Saturday market rather late in the day but still enough activity to make it interesting. Pretty little park in the center and the kids  are so darned friendly you want to adopt them all.
San Gil about 60 km from Bucaramanga is a small city worth checking out. Friendly people, rents are pretty good....I looked at a 2 and 2 for 300,000 month. At the base of the mountain and along the river so it's a tad warm and humid, but not aggressively so.
Up in that area too we went to a little burg called Bashara (sp?). It's sort of an arts and crafts center. One guy is a real gear head and a fantastic artist with nuts and bolts, seriously. Here's a picture of his artwork

[Alabamaboy!]

I went to Buca for about 5 days or so. I loved the weather. The women were nice. Seemed very organized and clean. I had a great time when I went out. I don't remember much more about it because I met an awesome pale skinned, long dark haired beauty who I was with the whole time. We had a blast with two of my friends and two of her friends, drinking, dancing, and having an awesome time.

Unfortunately when my buddy's family invited me to a finca for the last two days, I was unable to go because I was thrashed from all the partying and had to recuperate for a day or so before heading to the Coast. But they had a blast doing white water rafting and other outdoorsy type stuff with his family.

[Zon]

More specifically, can you guys comment on the outlook of the people - and women - towards girngos?   what is the general make-up of the population?  (rural and simple / educated?    what is the genetic make up  short and square like much of Bogata / a little more European like Antioquia?)

All I have heard is positive about this place.   

(Have you guys heard anything about the "witches of Bucaramunga" - Brejas; I think they are called.)

[AndyLee]

In a city of 1 million people there are probably like maybe 6 or 8 gringos. Odds are 99.99% of the Colombians don't think much about the gringos, at all. In wandering up and down the city for a month I saw one guy from Texas who was having dinner at the next table over from me, and then another gringo getting in a taxi one day. Period.

[utopiacowboy]

Brujeria is everywhere in Colombia. From a post I wrote for PBH a few years ago:

My wife and I were talking the other day about her brother. Her brother is one of these guys who is in his late thirties and even though he has a good job and a car, he had still been living with his mother. He had been a player and had regularly dated comely young girls fresh out of high school. Now he is living in an apartment with his girlfriend and their baby. Yes, he is a victim of brujeria! Her mother and grandmother had been brujas and they were the ones who had put a curse on my mother-in-law which required an exorcism of the house by a local priest. Apparently they had used sorcery to hook my brother-in-law up with his novia because she is not an attractive woman. Even my stepson had to announce that not only was she ugly, she was fat too. I guess they are continuing to use their powers to get him to marry her so we'll see how powerful their magic is.

After this, my wife started telling me about her great uncle who had been living on a big ranch owned by the family outside of Monteria when his father died. All the other members of the family hightailed into the city with their inheritances except for him. He lived out on the ranch with his wife and child until he too became a victim of brujería. A woman put a spell on him and soon he had left his wife to live with her in the city. I don't think he married her but he never went back to his wife.

It got me to wondering about these guys. Did they know the women they were with were unattractive and unsavory but were helpless to do anything about it because they were under a spell? Or did they really think that their women were beautiful as a result of the spell? Maybe they actually liked being with their new women and people just thought it was the result of brujería. Are any of us víctimas de la brujería?

[Kiltboy1]

I have heard from many Colombianos that the women from Buca make the absolute best wives of any women in Colombia. I dated several and if you like petite ladies with large breasts , then Buca just might be your city

KB

[michaelb]

Back in 1999-2000 (before I met my wife) I had a long-distance (email, phone, you know the drill) with a lady from Bucaramanga, but never met her in person. Just about the time I was supposed to visit her, I would up in the hospital, with no insurance and no income. Set my travel plans back severely, to say the least. Anyway, guess she gave up on me ever actually traveling (they know the drill too, "lot's of gringos talk a good game, very few of them actually ever show up" and to her I guess I fell into that category). Cut to the chase, she wound up marrying a guy who did travel to meet her. In this order she: Got a fiancee visa, moved to Alabama, got married, got pregnant, had a baby girl and a couple of years later the guy died of cancer. He did leave her moderately well off, some insurance and his interest in some residential rental real estate, as well has the house they were living in, but his family (who never liked her anyway) tried to cut her and the baby off without a penny ("damned whore just married him for a visa/money, no legitimate claim to his estate"   etc. etc. again, you know the drill).  Even though by that time I was married, she turned to me for help. Nice guy that I am (some may say "sucker"). I helped her out (yes, my wife knew, in fact, feeling empathy for a widow with a young child told me that I darn sure better help her). I found her a local lawyer who represented her in the settlement of the estate and saw that she got what the was entitled to. She and the baby went back to Bucaramanga.  We used to have a running "ground hog day" thing (because I had once explained it to her). Even after we were both married once a year I'd send her a ground hog day message and she'd respond, tell me how the little girl was doing, ask if things were OK with my wife etc....then one year she didn't respond, the next year she didn't respond either, since then I haven't sent it any more. Oh well, hope she and little what-ever-her-name-is are doing well. 

That's my Bucaramanga story, and I'm sticking to it. What it has to do with answering your question is probably nothing, but I guess your question made me feel nostalgic. Say, while there, don't forget to eat the fried ants they are famous for....supposedly they work just like oysters.   

[whitey]

I have heard from many Colombianos that the women from Buca make the absolute best wives of any women in Colombia. I dated several and if you like petite ladies with large breasts , then Buca just might be your city
KB

Really, that's weird - I've only heard the opposite - although I guess it depends on your taste.  And of course, there are many exceptions to every generalization.

The reputation of women from Bucaramanga is that they are very strong willed, like to wear the pants in the family, boss everyone around, in normal conversation they sound like they are arguing, etc.

On the weekend I was chatting with a guy from Bucaramanga who moved to Barranquilla and is married to a barranquillera.  He confirmed the reputation, and said that he prefers barranquilleras.   

[utopiacowboy]

Really, that's weird - I've only heard the opposite - although I guess it depends on your taste.  And of course, there are many exceptions to every generalization.

The reputation of women from Bucaramanga is that they are very strong willed, like to wear the pants in the family, boss everyone around, in normal conversation they sound like they are arguing, etc.

On the weekend I was chatting with a guy from Bucaramanga who moved to Barranquilla and is married to a barranquillera.  He confirmed the reputation, and said that he prefers barranquilleras.   

That is the reputation they have in Colombia. Most Colombians would say paisas make the best wives 

[Alabamaboy!]

My business partner is from there, his wife is sooo cool, calm and relaxed. So are most of the women in his family on both sides. But the most beautiful of them, his niece...with the azz that puts J-Lo to shame...and that wanted to get involved with me... had a pushy, bossy attitude.

[OrlandoGringo]

My ex is from Bucaramanga.  I have been there many times and still have Colombian friends there. 
 
Bucaramanga is a nice city.  The people are very friendly and very polite.  I would have no issue with living there. 

[V_Man]

I have been video calling with a woman from Bucaramanga for months. She tells me that women from Bucara have a reputation for being strong willed. She explained this came from a long history of warfare in this region - particularly in the war for independance. The men were fighting and the women took care of the house and became the back bone of society.
She says women from Cali have a reputation of being affectionate and women from Medellin have a reputation of being loving.
I gather women from Bogota have a bit of a reputation for being cold compared to the rest of the country.

[Traveler]

I was in Bucaramanga briefly several years ago.  It looked and felt like a mini-Medellin, clean and organized, similar climate, probably a bit cooler actually, but too small of a city for my taste.  There are several small parks.  Giron is similar to Santa Fe de Antioquia, but was actually nicer and a lot cooler, too.  I haven't explored the canyon and the area around the city, but it is supposed to be nice.