[This message has been edited by wizard]
Ok, things have been a little slow around here so I thought I write up my latest trip to the land of beautiful women... After having been to Cali a few times, I thought that I would take a trip to Bogota...
The two main agencies in Bogota are Latin Life Mates and Latin American Introductions as far as I can tell... After hearing mixed reviews on LLM and only good things about LAI, I decided to give Nelson and LAI a shot... I don't want to argue the point of Agency vs No Agency in this pursuit... I chose to use an agency for the support offered in a foreign country and the fact that my Espanol is far from fluent... I can get by, but anything more than basic conversation and you're bound to get a no entiende from me... Plus, if you have limited time and want to meet many ladies who have already expressed an interest in meeting gringos, then an agency is the only way to go... I chose to go to Bogota over the Thanksgiving holiday as I was able to squeeze a few extra days away from the office... This just happened to coincide with the obligatory Thanksgiving Tour that all agencies seem to have on these dates... I have never been on a "tour" so to speak, so this was a new experience for me...
I had not been writing to anyone in Bogota... I have found that the effort does not justify the rewards when writing to women you have never met... You can devote alot of time and energy writing to ladies, only to realize that there is no chemistry once you meet them... IMHO, why build false expectation for yourself or the ladies... There was one lady on the LAI website that I wanted to meet, but beyond that, no contact... Unlike other trips to Cali, LAI requested a list of ladies that I would like to meet upon my arrival... Pleasant change... I selected 7 - 8 ladies from the website who I thought were interesting and forwarded the list the LAI... The next day, LAI emailed me saying that I needed to select more ladies as they wanted to make sure that I was busy during my stay... Interesting... I selected a few more ladies that were not on my A list and sent them to LAI...
I flew out of Houston on Continental direct to Bogota... At one time I was a Continental Elite member, traveling many segments per year... Now I must say that Continental and I have crossed swords many times, but for them to schedule the 4.5 hour flight to Bogota on a 737 is sadistic... Ok, I'm 6'3", so I folded up, wiggled into my seat and tried to be comfortable... We went wheels down in Bogota at about 9:30pm and I was out the door of the terminal at 9:45pm... That's after clearing immigration and customs... Helpful hint, NEVER CHECK A BAG... Now, here's an observation from every trip I have made to Colombia... When leaving the terminal, there were 100 - 200 people waiting outside for people arriving... Many with signs and flowers... Can they all be waiting for gringos??? Naw...
LAI sent a car for me so one of the signs was for me... The driver spoke good Ingles and we had an interesting conversation on the way to the hotel... One thing I noticed immediately was that everyone was actually stopping for traffic signals... I was curious about this as those who know from travels to Cali that traffic signals are merely pretty lights on a pole... I commented on this revalation to the driver and he said that new laws had been put into place and all traffic violation are now being enforced... Failure to adhere to traffic laws is now met with stiff fines and possible confiscation of your automobile... Yikes... Sounds like the Colombian government just found a new revenue stream... lol... I guess we taught them that one... The ironic thing is that this same driver had his car towed off a few days latter for not having his auto insurance up to date... As we traveled through the city on the way to the hotel, it had a distinctive feeling of any large north american city... Billboards, traffic signs, signals, McDonalds, KFC, Taco Bell, etc... Quite a change from Cali... Bogota appeared at first blush to be a thriving metropolitan area... One person explained to me that Bogota is to Colombia what NYC is to the US... Appropriate...
We arrive at the hotel without incident and I got checked in... Nice room, queen size bed, courtesy refrigerator, TV with English channels and get this, HOT WATER... Once I got settled in I wandered around to the agency to see what was cooking...
I ran into about half dozen gringos in the agency and we began to shoot the breeze... There was a mix of newbies, ocassional travelers and the war-torn veterans... The next thing you know, we're all in a taxi heading for a club to grab a nightcap... This was at midnight... We wind up at this club on the north end of Zona Rosa in the pink district, whatever that is... As we entered this club it was like the parting of the Red Sea... They clear an area for us to sit and we order some drinks... Then the realization sinks in, there is at least 75 beautiful women in the club... You know, the typical Colombiana with the painted on low riders and the bare midriff top... AIIYEE!!! Cali does not have the corner on the hot ones guys, trust me... By the time I pick my tongue up off the floor, they are on us... 10's are coming over to our table asking to sit with us!!! Yes, there is a god... I now know what it feels like to be a rock star... lol... As it turns out, some of these women are not the type you would want to take home to mama, but some are on the up and up... We drink, dance and talk with the ladies until they throw us out at 3:00am...
Tomorrow was supposed to be the first real day of my trip... Time to get some rest...
More later...
wizard
