Hi,
I recently returned from a ten day trip to Colombia, to be with my fiance in Bogota, and I spent nine of those days at Charlie's place. I thought I'd post my impressions to this list to be of use to others of you considering a stay in Bogota.
Charlie's Place is a small, 8-room, hotel in the Santa Barbara section of Bogota. It's in a good neighborhood and secure due to an attentive staff and a locked gate. Latin American Introductions (LAI), an agency that Nelson Grisales runs, is colocated with the hotel, in the very same building. I have to say that I did not use the services of LAI since I had already met my soon-to-be wife before discovering Charlie's Place. So, I can't speak favorably or disfavorably of the agency. I did, however, choose to use the services of LAI to handle the marriage "transaction." It really is a transaction in that you present a number of documents to a public notary, along with some money, and you get a marriage certificate. I reserve judgment on LAI's services here as there have been some small obstacles in the process that are being resolved as we speak. It is clear to me, however, that as an American I'm happy to pay $$ to have someone with connections to a notary do the marriage. If anyone is considering using the services of Juan Herran, of Circulo de Amigos, for a marriage you might want to contact me first; I've got some not nice things to say about Juan that I'd rather not say in public.
Regarding Charlie's Place itself I had an excellent experience and highly recommend it to anyone staying in Bogota, whether or not you choose to use LAI to meet women. I had a decent sized private room with bathroom, cable tv, and, yes, hot water !!! My fiance and I spent a good amount of time in the hotel and the service was always excellent and helpful. Charlie's Place is a family-owned and mostly family run place. As far as I can tell, Charlie is the most ethical Colombian I've ever met in terms of running a business. I don't say this lightly; nearly everywhere I looked in Colombia I saw examples of Colombians being driven by greed and looking to take advantage of others, Colombians as well as foreigners. With both Nelson (Charlie's son) and Charlie my interactions were favorable, ethical, and pleasant.
Charlie is full of wisdom and compassion, and he, Nelson and a number of the staff at the hotel and agency speak pretty decent English. Nelson and Charlie, in particular, are fluent.
The staff went out of their way to provide me with personalized service. Everything from calling taxis, to ordering us food to be delivered, to walking with me across the street to feel safe using the ATM, to helping me to order flowers for my fiance's birthday, to making phone calls to nearby gyms to help identify the ones that fit our needs. The service is the reason I'll come back. Manuel, a friend of Charlie's, is a taxi driver and speaks decent English. He can certainly be of help with tours of the city, day trips, or short hops.
Some other impressions, in no particular order.
The agency didn't have much traffic when I was there. This is likely due to the Sept. 11 events combined with economic struggles in America. As much as I like Charlie and Nelson I'd be leery about plunking down $500 (which is what LAI charges last time I looked at their web-site: laintro.com) to join because given how tough this industry seems to be right now one can never be sure LAI will be around long enough to make a $500 investment worth it. If you're going to use LAI I'd encourage you to negotiate a daily, weekly, or per-contact rate. I stayed at Charlie's for nine days and negotiated a decent rate for that duration.
Speaking of their web-site, I suggested to Charlie and Nelson that they need to clean up and beef up their web-site. There are a fair number of links that don't go anywhere useful. Their FAQ is very very light. Again, I have no experience with meeting ladies via LAI but I think they need to improve the web-site to attract those of us used to very professional and complete web-sites.
Oh, I forgot to mention that Charlie's Place has a couple of Internet-connected PCs, free to guests.
Charlie's and LAI go out of their way to create a community feeling. One thing I appreciated was that Charlie's holds English classes on-site at a pretty reasonable cost to the ladies.
The only major gripe I have, which Nelson resolved to my satisfaction, was regarding the 'breakfast' part of 'Bed and Breakfast', which is what Charlie's is called. I've lived in California for 20 years and when I think 'Bed and Breakfast' I think a cozy room in someone's house with an INCREDIBLE breakfast. In all the B&B's I've been to the breakfast was a big part of the experience. Well, as a guest at Charlie's you get toast, coffee, and orange juice. That's breakfast. You can order other food, eggs, omelettes, cereal, fruit, etc. but that costs extra. That's where I got confused because I assumed that I'd get a decent breakfast as part of the B&B experience. I suggested to Charlie that he refer to his hotel as a hotel that includes continental breakfast and not as a B&B. And, to rise to the level of continental breakfast he should also include a muffin, donut, or piece of cake with the meal. Nelson refered to the food at Charlie's as the 'best meal in town' or something like that. No. It's a typical American breakfast. It's certainly convenient and not too expensive by American standards.
One final nit, and this is not Charlie's fault. Calling cell phones from my room cost $1 per minute. Ouch! I can call Colombia from California for tons less than that. The answer is to get a prepaid calling card to save a little bit of money. My gripe about the Colombian phone system is that it's so confusing - there are different cards for use in different phones and only some phones can call cell phones. Ugh!
All in all I had a very good experience at Charlie's. I plan to stay there when I'm back in Bogota and have recommended it to my brother as well when he comes for the wedding. It's not a five star hotel like "La Fontana" but if what you mainly want is for good local people to hold your hand and take personalized care of you then Charlie's is a really good choice.
Sol
