Colombia-Love it or loathe it?

[theturtleshead]

Colombia love it or loathe it?
lets hear you ladies line of BS on my favorite place
Al

[Lone Rider]

Would it be appropriate, as a start, to say that the chicas are kinda hot?

[theturtleshead]

Damn straight

[markharf]

Way too "war torn" for my taste.








Edit to add: if for some reason you're tempted to take this post seriously, please turn around and walk away.

[theturtleshead]

Just War torn enough for me!

[Lone Rider]

Originally Posted by markharf

Way too "war torn" for my taste.

A phase, for sure.
There is transition, and usually change.

[theturtleshead]

I,d like someone to show me the War torn part-been here for four years,been places way way out of the way in my profession and I haven,t seen any War torn places yet.
Al

[crashmaster]

Hey Al, how's the business going? After a couple months in Medellin and a few dozen visits to Calle 55, I look like I've been through a war, does that count?

[theturtleshead]

You looked like you,d been through a War zone when you arrived here buddy
Al

[Misery Goat]

don't get me started!

[theturtleshead]

Vino tinto and Choripans all round!

[bananaman]

Colombia was the most fucking amazing country I've ever seen. I loved it. I hated it. I loved it again.

Other war-torn countries I've been to in the last 10 years: Bosnia and Northern Ireland. I was in Ireland a few months ago. Belfast was beautiful, but still dangerous. There was a bombing in Londonderry the day before I went there; some catholic boys blew up the tourist office.

Bosnia was a fucking disaster, but on the mend. Sarajevo was amazing. The women were vogue-quality, but I couldn't figure them out.

Panama used to be war torn. When I was a kid some other kids marched on the Canal and got massacred by the Americans. They left the bullet holes in the buildings for about 30 years.

I didn't see any blown-up things in Colombia, but there was evidence of great difficulty. I had machine guns pointed at me at least a dozen times. I was warned by locals, unsolicited warnings, to avoid areas under FARC control. The people had great passion. Amazing passion. Love of life. Appreciation of life. The kind of happiness that only happens after war.

I am not an expert at Colombia. As a child in Panama I was indoctrinated into a way of dispising Colombia because Panama was afraid Colombia would want Panama back. So I carried that prejudice.

In Panama all the ills are blamed on Colombia. Crime. Corruption. Prostitution.

Oh My Fucking God but the Colombian whores are gorgeous. They distort perception. If you go to Le Palace it seems like there are 50 girls capable of winning a Miss Universe contest. But as beautiful as they are, for many Panamanians they represent Colombia. They are beautiful. They are whores.

In Colombia I met many beautiful women and I did not meet any prostitutes. The beautiful women I met were every-day people. Of course this blew my mind.

It still does.

[bush pilot]

Curriosso esta pregunta! Verdad?

I can't say one way or another whether I love or loathe Colombia since I only spent about 19 days in country 8 of which were waiting for my bike in Bogota where the very heavy police and military presence was something unexpected. That and their up-tightness, I was chastised on two occasions for taking pictures! In the 8 days I was on the road I was shaken down four times by the police! I spent three days around Medellin.
Just outside of Medellin after staying the night with a family I met in Bogota, the police stopped me and asked "que haces aqui"? WTF? I was incredulous!
I was obviously some gringo on an extremely overloaded KLR with NM plates!
Maybe they thought I was lost. Mind you this is just outside of Rio Negro near the Medellin international airport.
One of the roads I wanted to travel was closed due to a bridge being blown up by terrorists! A country at peace! Yea right!

Anyway the common theme everywhere I went in Colombia was "how do you like Colombia?" They were always moderately interested in my trip to Ushuaia but what always interested them the most was what I thought about their country.
Honestly I think I need to give Colombia more time before rendering any opinion of my own.
But a nagging question lurks; why were most of the Colombians I met so worried about what I thought about their country???

Case in point is this thread! WTF!
Maybe my panties are too tight!

As I mentioned in the ferry thread; back in in the mid 90's I turned down getting involved with a contract to fly crop dusters in Colombia. The DEA wanted us to hose the mountains with a nasty herbicide; Paraquat!
I mainly declined because I knew those guys were being shot down!

Anyway what kind of government/people would give permission to spray that shit on their own people? We're talking some kind of seriously fucked up shit! It is FUBAR to an extreme.

So what do I think of Colombia?
Well I think I'll give it some more time!
I still wonder why people in Colombia are concerned with what others think about them?
Given recent history with the USA it should not be too hard to figure out!
The beer and food pretty good, aguardiente good, coffee good, people really nice,
country pretty fucked up!

[C5!]

Originally Posted by theturtleshead

I,d like someone to show me the War torn part-been here for four years,been places way way out of the way in my profession and I haven,t seen any War torn places yet.
Al

in the last 2 weeks: 12 soldiers killed in La Guajira
a few more in clashes in Catatumbo, Antioquia and Cauca
a french war correspondant injured in an operation
a bomb in Bogota
between 3.6 and 5.2 millions people displaced by the violence


don't have the recent numbers but Ecopetrol' pipeline between Caño Limón and Coveñas is regularly bombed, 104 times (yes hundred and four times) in 6 months last year...


p.s.: I am not being negative, btw I am living in Colombia too. I just think one has to remove the rosy sunglasses

here some references, there are more if you want.
http://noticiasunolaredindependiente...en-la-guajira/
http://www.semana.com/nacion/ataque-.../176946-3.aspx
http://www.caracol.com.co/noticias/j...a/1687360.aspx
http://www.elespectador.com/noticias...-toribio-cauca

[empanadaman]

I'm gonna go with love, although I am perplexed by the Cuatra Brigada extending the ban on legal concealed carry of firearms in Medellin. I mean unless I'm missing something, criminals by definition don't obey the law. And I doubt they are paying the inflated prices that Indumil is getting for their crappy Llama .38's and single stack Jericho 9mm's. Indumil is asking somewhere in the neighborhood of $1,650,000 COP for a shyte .38 that you can get for $500,000 COP on the street.

So they ban the legal carry of firearms, by law abiding citizens, and now the criminals basically have free rein to do what they want, knowing the average joe is unarmed. Sounds like a brilliant plan to me!

Other than that, what's not to love?