Letter from Colombia

[Tigre]

If Colombia was 100% safe there would be 100,000 Americans here and the best women would be gone. Colombia has been isolated for many years because of the dangers here, this is why most of the women are sweet and have old fashion values. They have not been Americanized, except for the ones that have hung around the agencies for years.  The safer colombia gets the more gringos will visit, the more competition you will have.  As Colombia gets more dangerous, the adventurous few with have more quality options. With risk comes quality. Its simple math.  As for danger at the agencies, The FARC has a strong internet team and surely has visited gringotalk and have access to the agency addresses.  They could have gone to any agency with a listed address at any time in the last 5 years.  Do they really want to mess with the USA like the Taliban did? The FARC is about to get smashed by The Colombian Military whos presidents father was killed by them, the Paramility and certain Cartels in Colombia. Kidnapping Americans would be a suicide mission. 17,000 farmer/fighters don't want to mess with a superpower.

[Bueller]

... in response to Letter from Colombia, posted by Tigre on Aug 22, 2002

There are plenty of reasons estadounidenses don't go to Latin America: they don't know about the option, don't speak Spanish/Portuguese, are too afraid of what others will think about them "buying a mail order bride", etc. Just because you will go to the trouble doesn't mean others will. And how would you explain the interest Gringos are treated with in other LA countries that don't have Colombia's problems?

  Take Brazil, for example. Wonderful women, and not enough men, by a margin of 2.65 million, which combined with other factors means that around 10% of women here may never get a chance to marry at all. Add to that the problems American men have with American women (e.g. "My American Dating Journal"), and you'd think guys would be studying Portuguese and coming down here by the planeload. But the vast majority of the guys up there still want to waste time and money chasing local women instead of investing time and money in language study and travel.

  I'm told that in Colombia there are roughly 54 women for every 46 men. That would help explain why they tend to be so much nicer; by and large they can't afford to be  "Americanized". If you marry a woman and want her to stay sweet and unspoiled, make sure you marry a woman in the first place...not a girl.

[Patrick]

... in response to Re: Letter from Colombia, posted by Bueller on Aug 22, 2002

Every time I see these "women outnumber men X to 1" statements, I cringe.  From the US Census Bureau at http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idbsum.html for the latest year available (1990)-

For Brazil
===========
age     female%
20-24   49.52%
25-29   49.85%
30-34   50.36%

For Colombia
=============
age     female%
20-24   50.04%
25-29   50.40%
30-34   50.73%

Given that the widest margin in favor of more women is only 50.73% women versus 49.27% men for women aged 30-34 in Colombia, I would not advise anyone to go somewhere where the "women outnumber the men X to 1."  It's just not going to be true.  Perhaps guys have been reading agency hype and are starting to believe it.  Natural populations tend to have more men than women in the younger age categories and only extreme conditions are going to effect the ratios enough to make much of a difference.  Perhaps Russia immediately after WWII would have had a substantial skew, but anywhere else, you generally find that the ratios are pretty even, or have slightly more men than women among the younger ages.

[Bueller]

... in response to Who's data to trust?, posted by Patrick on Aug 22, 2002

As far as Colombia, 54/46 did sound kind of high, but since it was hearsay I'll defer to your figures.
 
  For Brazil, the numbers I gave are correct. Percentage-wise, the numbers of men and women are not that different, but because of the large population of the country, that does work out to the 2.65 million number I gave. The 10% of women who may never get the chance to marry was an estimate I read based on the male/female disparity, coupled with the desire even of divorced men to prefer never-married women. I first came across that article here on PL:http://www.brazzil.com/cvrjun96.htm

  I have to run out the door, so I don't have time to find the 2000 figures, but here are some 1996 figures, and the male/female disparity has been growing significantly since 1970.

Brazil, 1996: http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/contagem/caracteristicas/brtab1.shtm

Porto Alegre,1996:
http://www.portoalegre.rs.gov.br/dadosger/dados.htm#pop

Florianopolis, where I live, there are 8,000 more women than men:
http://www.guiafloripa.com.br/cidade/populacao.php3

 I know what you mean about agencies saying there are X women for every man. In one of (owner of Fire & Passion) Brian Madden's first posts to LWL, he tried telling us there were 8 women for every man in some parts of Brazil, so I have put a question mark after everything else he has ever said. According to the Brazzil article above, the largest disparity in Brazil is Rio de Janeiro state, where women outnumber men by about 315,000.

[Patrick]

... in response to Re: Whose data to trust?, posted by Bueller on Aug 22, 2002

So, for 1996 in Brazil, we have the following-

age      %women
20-24    50.46%
25-29    50.89%
30-34    51.34%

Yet another argument for me to use to convince guys to go for the ladies over 30!  A whopping 1.055 to 1 women to men ratio.

[Bueller]

... in response to Thanks for the link, posted by Patrick on Aug 22, 2002

OK, I found the 2000 figures:

http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/censo2000/tabelabrasil111.shtm

 I also dug through my emails and found the one with the Colombia figures. My source actually told me 56/44-- good thing I didn't quote *that* ratio, LOL.

  Yes, as far as women over 30, the lady I have been seeing is 34 like me, is above average looking, and she simply adores me and would do anything for me. Lucky for her, my list of demands is fairly easy and decidedly non-kinky :0).

[Nico]

... in response to Re: Letter from Colombia, posted by Bueller on Aug 22, 2002

Bueller have you ever been to Colombia or any other Latin American country other than Brazil? If so which country (out of Brazil and any other you might have visited)would you say is best in terms of men/women ratio ? What about interest? Where do the women have the most "gringo interest"? Also can you get by in Brazil with only Spanish and English?

                   Nico

[Bueller]

... in response to Question for Bueller, posted by Nico on Aug 22, 2002

I have been to Mexico (if TJ and Rosarito Beach count as Mexico-- do National City and Pacific Beach count as the United States?); Venezuela (not that impressed), Paraguay (even less), and Brazil.

  As you can see from the statistical links I have provided, Brazil's ratio of women to men is highly favorable for you, probably the best in all LA, and given the huge population here...well heck, you only need one, right?

  Colombia probably has the highest interest because of the number of agencies and the war. Many, many women are sort of pre-sold on the idea of marrying a gringo because they know someone who knows someone who did it.

  Let me tell you something about Colombia, though. When I lived in Spain I went to a church whose pastor was from Medellín, and whose attendees were mostly from Colombia and Ecuador. One day while talking about integrity, he told us that as a colombiano and as a pastor with twenty years' experience, he never stopped being awed by the capacity of colombianos for lying and using people, then coldly turning their backs on those they've used. On the other hand, he told me privately that he loves his wife more now than he did when he married her twenty years ago, though she is by his admission no beauty queen. She is 110% loyal to him, and would never let anyone so much as talk behind his back to her. She is as sweet as can be, but if someone were to try to grouse and backstab him-- watch out! He said if you find the right colombiana, she'll go with you to the ends of the earth.

  Americans here have something of a reputation for being loud and brash, and for being unwilling to dress appropriately for nicer occasions-- common complaints worldwide. I have always been soft-spoken and like to dress up a little, so I have had no problem at all. Actually, given the racial makeup here (German, Italian, Polish, Austrian, and Ukrainian among others), people were stopping me on the street even my first week here to ask me for directions.

  Interest? The women aren't pre-sold on marrying an American to the degree that colombianas are, but the numbers overwhelmingly favor you. If you can speak a reasonble amount of Portuguese and are polite and well dressed, let me just say as a former resident of the Denver area myself, your luck with the ladies will do a 180º overnight. If a lady you're interested in knows that you are a sincere, reliable one-woman man, she isn't going to let you get away just because you live abroad.

  My first couple of weeks here, I was really lost as far as the language was concerned, and had to rely on finding people who spoke either Spanish or English. But knowing Spanish has made learning Portuguese much easier, and I have made a huge amount of progress in five months. Definitely get some Portuguese tapes (Pimsleur is the best) so you can at least get the pronunciation down.

  I really like brasileiras. I don't think they have in general that melodromatic, hot-tempered approach to love that Latinas are known for. Definitely, the one I have been seeing is one of the sweetest and most even-keeled people I have ever met. She is really perceptive and can sense when another woman (or man-- don't ask) is flirting with me, but she doesn't get hot-headed about it, she just mentions it to me. There have been a couple of situations involving other women flirting with me without me realizing it and she has been offended and jealous, but she just isn't the nasty type. I don't think she makes any of it up, either, because she is perceptive about other things as well. For instance we have watched a lot of movies together and she just doesn't miss a trick; she picks out events and threads in the plot that have gone right past me.

  I think as a general rule, brasileiras tend to be warm, affectionate, and feminine. Another American I know who is married to one commented on their WYSIWYG nature; you don't get the uneasy feel that they're angling to try to get something from you.

[hombrecaliente]

... in response to Question for Bueller, posted by Nico on Aug 22, 2002

Dude,

In Brazil they speak Portugese.
In Brazil women/men ratio is very good (for men) but asa whole not to many brasil women want to leave.
I guess poverty or war-situation seems a very good motivator.

Bolivia? Ecuador? Guatemala??? Honduras?

HC.

[Bueller]

... in response to Answer for Nico., posted by hombrecaliente on Aug 22, 2002

You find the right one, and she'll do what she has to do to be with you. You've seen the numbers on how many women there are here, especially in the category which is probably just perfect for you (30-34), so as you can see finding hordes of them who would be interested in you would be no problem . I'd rather have a woman be interested in me because there aren't enough men to go around, than because there's a war to escape.

[Patrick]

... in response to Answer for Nico., posted by hombrecaliente on Aug 22, 2002

We got a good response from our ads there before the major newspaper stopped accepting agency ads.  It was second only to Colombia in terms of response, so I know the ladies are interested.

[Cali vet]

... in response to Ecuador, posted by Patrick on Aug 22, 2002

Quito I assume but did you get much response from Guayaquil? I remember TLC got some. How 'bout other locations in Ecuador? Any under thirty respond?

[pack]

... in response to Re: Ecuador, posted by Cali vet on Aug 22, 2002

looking at equador?

[Cali vet]

... in response to Re: Re: Ecuador, posted by pack on Aug 25, 2002

Alternative if it heats up too much in Colombia.

[Patrick]

... in response to Re: Ecuador, posted by Cali vet on Aug 22, 2002

.