Excellent. That's one of my favorite moves.

Five days is plenty. There's a solid argument to be made that three days is perfect (arrive on day 1, sightsee on day 2 and leave on day 3.) The cathedral, the Gold Museum and the catacombs are the three big things to see. Wandering around Miraflores is nice. But after that, it's not anything special.

Yah, I'm a huge advocate of kegel exercises for both guys and girls. Definitely very beneficial to your sex life.


OK thanks, I'll stick to 5 days just b/c I'm curious to give it a bit of time on Tinder or meeting a girl organically so I can see how it compares to some of the other spots in Latin America.

Miraflores didn't do much for me, & I quickly bored of it, though if one wants to play poker that's where the casinos are located. Basically it felt like an outdoor mall filled with over-priced stores & restaurants geared towards servicing older tourists on packaged tours.

By far the most enjoyable thing I did in Lima was a self-guided walking tour through the historical downtown area, ending up in the not-overly impressive Barrio Chino.

My recommendation to anyone visiting Peru would be to visit Lima at the end of their trip, that way if they have a few extra days they can spend them in Lima, but they won't run out of time and leave feeling (as you did w/ Bogota) like they'd spent too much time in Lima.

Maybe Dubnjoy000 will chime in about other interesting things to do in Lima, he spent more time there than I did.

Final chapter of the hookergf saga:

I left Medellin 5 days ago and planned to take a 5-hour bus trip to Manizales, a smaller city in the famed coffee zone of Colombia. I asked hookergf if she wanted to come with, not expecting she'd be able, but to my surprise she agreed. Initially the plan was to join me for 3 days and she'd take a bus back to Medellin on her own. Before the trip we smoked some pot (she smokes nonstop) and I was pretty stoned for the 5-hour trip. I was in a half-daze/half-sleep mode and at one point I woke up and felt like maybe 30-40 minutes had passed, but to my surprise we were already in Manizales.

First 2 days we just did some sightseeing in and around Manizales. The views around the city are stunning, and there are a couple cool things within the city, but architecturally, not much to see. Of course the hookergf and I did plenty of ****ing as well, but the first day she was just finishing up her period, so it was kinda annoying trying to be careful and do it on towels and such.

The 3rd day is one that I'll always remember. We headed to Santa Rosa b/c they have some thermal pools with a waterfall being the stunning backdrop. Hookergf is always pissing around and taking forever to do anything, so we left a bit later than I'd have liked. Finally arrived at the pools at 4PM or so. In Mexico or Colombia, you can tell when something is a massive tourist draw b/c the prices are more in line with what you'd pay in the USA, $15 entry for each of us. Chichen Itza is the example in Mexico that comes to mind.

Anyway we lounged around in the pools for a couple hours, they're really warm, only slightly cooler than a hot tub. Eventually it was night and she wanted to smoke. We found a secluded spot a bit above the pools. Hookergf is normally a bit lazy and slow, but if smoking pot is the endgoal, I swear she could climb Mt. Everest with ease. The view was simply stunning looking up at the waterfall and the stairs, smoking together and cuddling.

We finally got back into the town of Santa Rosa at 10PM and we had thought there'd be a 10:30 PM bus back to Manizales, but we were wrong. I did some searching for hotels, we stopped at a couple, and everything was sold out. I decided to check if taking a taxi was an option (it was 1 hour back to Manizales), and fortunately it was only $35, so we just took a taxi back.

Got back to the place around 1:30 AM and I was more exhausted than I'd been in some time. The combo of ****ing a lot the previous 2 days, traveling a lot during the day, and scrambling at night to find lodging or a way back home took a toll on me. I remember finally going to bed at 2AM. Hookergf told me that her libido is the highest right after her period ends, a scary thought since she already has a pretty high sex drive. She wouldn't let me sleep. I was laying there for 2 hours and she was playing with my dick most of that time. Eventually at about 4AM I was still super exhausted, but kinda turned on as well so I relented. I never knew that completely exhausted/half asleep sex could be so amazing, but for some reason it was.

Went back to sleep at 5AM, only to be woken up by hookergf again at 6AM for more sex. The next day she was supposed to take a bus back to Medellin, but she told me she wanted to stay 1 more day. Then the next day, she told me she was staying a 5th day. So she ended up staying with me all 5 days in Manizales, and then finally going back to Medellin this afternoon, while I continued to Armenia. The last 2 days we didn't really do much. Ended up staying in the apartment the majority of the time, smoking, ****ing, watching movies, and eating. TBH, I think the 3 day duration would have been perfect. I would have liked to have seen more of Manizales.

The hookergf is usually always laughing and upbeat, but the final morning she was quiet and more somber. We had a final meal together at the train station and then said our goodbyes. I'd spent ~9 days out of the past 17 or so with hookergf and was a lot more sad than I thought I'd be to say goodbye. Her mood in the final hours really affected me. Of course I said I would return to Medellin sometime soon, but I think we both knew that that probably won't be happening anytime soon.


When I have some free time, I post my favorite pic from each of the places I've been so far so people can have a taste of Colombia.

In the next 5 days I'll be visiting a lot of the small towns of the Eje Cafetero which are supposed to be pretty impressive. I think I'm more excited for this part of the trip than visiting the Coast next week.

Yah, usually the first thing I do when I'm in a new town is hit up the historical center and explore so I'm more excited to do that than check out Miraflores, although I'll probably be staying there.

Unfortunately Colombia isn't that great for historical stuff. Bogotá is decent, but Medellín and Manizales are fairly limited. Colombia can't really compare to Mexico in this regard, but Colombia makes up for it with stunning settings for their cities in the mountains. And the 2 hour bus ride from Manizales to Armenia was pretty epic. Armenia is complete trash though. There's one semi-decent pedestrian street and a couple so so parks and not much else. 1 block of the main drag already starts looking really run down and sketchy.

Ahhh, the age-old sadness of travel and saying goodbye.



Every time that type of thing happens to me, I tell myself I won't make that same mistake again - of going too deep. But alas...

Yah it’s really difficult for me to say goodbye in these situations. We shared some great moments together and then it’s such an abrupt and brutal end. But for me it’s still better than the alternative of guarding my emotions and not trying to make connections while traveling. Personally, the memories of the people I’ve met along the way and seeing a bit of what life is like through their eyes is what I remember more than the places themselves often times.

The German/French girl in Lille who I had only met 2 hours prior and said “**** it” and decided to skip my flight and crash at her place for a week, the nympho in Mérida, spending a week with a hooker from the barrios of Medellin. These are the things I’ll remember most 30 years from now, not seeing Chichén Itzá or la Tour Eiffel.

I can relate. The pain is worth the pleasure and the memories. Funny enough, I had a nympho in Merida, too.

But goddammit does it hurt, sometimes.

Probably the same nympho!

Mine was basically the easiest non SEA bang you could ask for. Matched on Tinder late at night, she wanted to video chat for a second and was pretty obviously trying to show off her rack. We go out for lunch the next day, are making out after about 5 minutes. I ask her if she wants to grab an ice cream after lunch and she says no let’s go back to your place. Once we hit my bedroom she basically attacked me and the next 16 hours were a blur.

Well, I've been in Colombia since 11/15 and will be heading back to CDMX from Lima on 2/21, so the trip is a little over halfway over.

Here's my favourite pic from the top locations along with a brief synopsis on each so people who don't know what Colombia is about can have a glimpse.


Bogotá:

Spent about 3 weeks here b/c I was interested in the Tinder dating scene and spending 4-5 days in each part of the city, but honestly the city can be done in like 2-3 days. La Candelaria is fairly interesting, couple good museums, some decent nightlife, diverse food options. Women seem more ambitious in their personal lives and less gold-digging and artificial as you might find in other parts.

Below is a shot from Monserrate. For me it's by far the coolest thing to do in Bogotá. It's a short walk from the center and you take a cable car up a mountain bordering Bogotá and are rewarded with some nice views:



Medellín:

Also hit up Medellín for 3 weeks, spent a bit longer than I might have otherwise for reasons you'd be aware of if you regularly follow the thread. For me, it's more interesting than Bogotá, and if you're in a time crunch, I would devote about a week to seeing Medallo.

The weather is immaculate, and the girls are gorgeous, if a bit cutthroat and gold-digging. Everyone knows Poblado, it's a pretty nice setting with bars and restaurants, but I found something other neighbourhoods I preferred like Envigado and Laureles. Medellín is an epic spot if your goal is partying and girls (and drugs). The setting of the city is absolutely stunning and you'll find several areas with epic views of the city.

I'm a sucker for cable cars, so for me the views from the metro cable in Medellín were a highlight. Here I'm taking the metro cable up to Parque Arví looking back at Medellín:



Guatapé:

Guatapé is a small town a bit over an hour outside of Medellín which can be done in a day and is absolutely mandatory. There is a big rock you can climb with stunning views of the surrounding lake as well as a small town with colourful buildings. I can't exclude one or the other so I'll include the views from the top as well as a taste of the town itself:




Manizales:

While not exactly a must-see destination in and of itself, it is part of the absolutely epic Eje Cafetero, and as one of the 3 main cities in the region (the other 2 being Armenia and Pereira), it can serve as a base for a day or 2 while you get your adventures started through the coffee zone.

Here's a photo from my favorite neighbourhood called Chipre, which has a long area of parks and pedestrian walkways overlooking both the city and the surrounding mountains:



Santa Rosa de Cabal:

Located a bit over an hour from Manizales, I'd put this on the must-do list if you're in el Eje Cafetero. It's thermal pools with the backdrop being an epic waterfall. It's a very beautiful area and nice to just relax in the pools for several hours. Be prepared, it's a bit packed and super touristy, but definitely worth it:



Buenavista:

After visiting Manizales, I headed to Armenia, the 2nd of the 3 bigger cities in the reason. Armenia for me is less interesting than Manizales and you could easily skip it. As such, it doesn't deserve a pic.

There are many interesting towns a very short bus ride from Armenia though, and it's worth checking out a couple of them. The bus rides will be epic with amazing views from different angles of one of the more naturally beautiful areas I've been to.

Yesterday I checked out Pijao and Buenavista. Pijao had an interesting center and a long road or 2 with interesting colourful architecture native to the region.

But the aptly named Buenavista (Good View) was the highlight for me. It's perched on a hill overlooking the area and either side will give you an epic view, so I had to include both views:




Next, I'll be headed to Salento, Valle de Cocora, and Pereira in the Eje Cafetero to finish up my adventure in this area. I suspect Cocora will be the highlight of Colombia for me. After that, I get a bit under a month in Perú and then back to CDMX.

salento/cocora is really cool. I lived in pereira for awhile - twice.. and not sure why anyone would spend any time there besides partying or a waypoint to los termales de santa rosa which you already saw. biggest skatepark in latin america though was my draw to the city

stay along circumvalar, like the main street and lots of uni students out, could be a great place for girls. downtown pretty goddamn sketchy at night, but also some really fun night spots there as well if you go with people to keep ya off the wrong streets.

Thanks for the pointers on Pereira. Seems super random that it'd have the biggest skatepark in LatAm. I've got 2 full days in Salento, so I'm hoping one of them is sunny so I can get some decent looks at the epic palm trees.

Really I'm only going to Pereira b/c I have a flight there to Cartagena. I could have easily skipped Armenia. Manizales is decent, but nothing special. Really you just need to pick 1 of the 3 bigger cities as a base then spend most of your time visiting the pueblos and doing nature stuff or a coffee tour.

Sometimes when you're traveling, you get lucky and feel like you hit a 1-outer. This was one of those times for me.

Everyone says the palm trees in Cocora Valley are one of the highlights of Colombia. So I was doing some research last night on the logistics, best route to take, etc. By chance I happened upon a blog that said there was an even better place with 10x more palm trees. Seemed unlikely, but ok, I'll look into more. The place is called Finca La Carbonera and there's next to no information online about how to get there. Luckily, I happened upon a WhatsApp # so I inquire.

Well they do mountain bike tours, but they are pretty popular. I'm leaving early Saturday and the tours for Thursday and Friday are booked, but they can put me on a wait list. Damn.

Early today it's raining pretty heavily, so I get a text that someone backed out and if I want the spot it's main. It's raining, but who gives a ****, this looks epic. So I go out and buy a rain jacket for $15 just in case and head to the meeting point. You drive up the side of a mountain for 30 minutes, and it's pretty foggy, can't see a whole lot. Damn.

We get to the top and the rain has almost stopped and the sun is beginning to peak out. We start heading down the path (luckily it's not too difficult b/c I've never mountain biked before). By the time we get to the halfway point with the best views of the palm trees, the rain has stopped, the sun is out, and the lighting is damn near perfect. In the entire day, there was maybe a 30-minute window of sun and it aligned perfectly with our tour. So many things had to line up perfectly for me to even find out about this place, get into the tour, get the right weather, etc. I'm pretty grateful. How this tour is so under the radar, I have no idea.

good ish as normal Fk93

Great thread, read the whole thing.

Surprised to not find a colombia thread in the Live Poker forums.

You mentioned poker seems dead in Medellin? I used to grind NLHE in a past life and was hoping to use live small stakes games as a way to force myself to use spanish. I haven't played seriously or studied in almost a decade, so I don't expect to have much of an edge.. hoping to find games with blinds in the 3k or less range.

I was just in Ecuador for half of 2018 and looking to continue the same thing of mostly being a hermit and working online; and am going to do that in Medellin starting February.

My spanish is so/so, certainly enough to get around and travel and stuff. Not good enough to keep up in a group conversation of natives.

Interested in thoughts on neighborhoods in Medellin, I'd prefer to not be in gringo central, but near restaurants that cater to locals and whatnot.

I didn't play any poker in Medellín, but heard there are 2 casinos with a decent range of NLHE limits.

How did you like Ecuador? I ran into a guy from Seattle who raved about it and put it on par with Colombia, which surprised me a bit.

You should be fine with Spanish. My level is about the same. Can't have convos with large groups, but I manage ok with logistics or face to face.

I don't like Gringo Central either. I'd say Laureles is the obvious choice or maybe Envigado if you prefer something a bit more laid back and out of the way. Both have metro stops nearby, which makes moving around easier if you don't like to take Uber every single time.

Thanks. It does look like Laureles is right.

Ecuador is definitely worse for girls, you can get a lot of attention and they love gringos, but ecuadorian girls just aren't as pretty as colombian. There are of course, a TON of venezuelans around, they are hot too.

And there is no poker at all in Ecuador.

That said, I loved it. It's a beautiful country, and the people are very, very friendly and welcoming. Cheaper than Colombia as well. Truth be told I can't speak to the nightlife at all, as it just isn't my scene, but it does exist.

Montanita in Ecuador is a crazy party and surfing city. Super touristy, but its probably half locals half europeans (and the occasional north americans) partying. Like eternal spring break. I spent most of my time in Cuenca; a small big-city. Small super modern all inclusive bachelor pad I paid $400/month for. Ate mostly local meals at $2-3 each. The food is not the highlight, but certainly not bad.

I've also spent time in Peru, a week in Lima and a couple weeks in Cusco. Cusco is a wild party city if you want it to be that; its somewhat remote and being the jumping off point for macuu picchu, it's hopping. The ruins around there are absolutely mind boggling. Just out of this world astounding. I didn't find poker in cusco but it supposedly runs in some bars.

Thanks for the summary.

I wanted to hop from Colombia to Ecuador to Peru and then back to Mexico, but I could only find cheap flights between Bogota and Quito, but then it was more expensive from Quito to Lima or CDMX, so I decided to skip it. I'm sure I'll hit up Ecuador at some point though, especially if I stay in CDMX for a long time (which I'm planning to).

I'll have a bit under a month in Peru, so the tentative plan is 4-5 days in Lima, a week in Cusco, and the rest split between Arequipa and Lake Titicaca. I wanted to hop over into Bolivia too, but I think Americans have to pay $160 just to enter the country, which seems outrageous, so I'll pass.

Maybe you aren't into bus travel? Pretty good route from Colombia to Quito. I personally like traveling that way in few-hour hops. Super cheap and you get to see a lot of the country. Though the buses in Ecuador aren't great, they are like mega-bus level. Peru has 'vip' busses which are great. full cama, a stewardess serves hot meals, its pretty dope.

I hope you aren't going to miss machu pichu while you are in Cusco. if you wait till you get there you can get all-in budget tours for like 150 bucks or so for the couple days journey. but definitely spring for the train back rather than the mini busses.

I'll arrive in Medellin on Valentines, I'll stay in laureles; I prefer to find a longer term apartment, so I only have an airbnb for a week when I arrive, to look for something.

I don't mind traveling by bus. I took a 5-hour bus from Medellin to Manizales and a few other 2-3 hour buses. The problem wasn't getting to Quito from Colombia, there were plenty of cheap options. But from Quito to Lima was more expensive. So I just decided to axe it this time.

I'm definitely gonna see Machu Picchu, just need to figure out how to divide up my time in Cusco. I'll probably do a week there. Then I'll have ~2 weeks for the rest of Peru besides Lima/Cusco. So I'll probably do Arequipa, Puno, Lago Titicaca, and not sure what else, maybe that's already enough.

You could always try to search for a longer term place on AirBNB. Search for a month, find 5-6 places that interest you then email them with an offer like 15-20% lower than what they list. You'll be surprised how many will accept or at least send a counter offer.

Thanks for the tip. I never really thought of tossing them a offer. I have found, in general, asking around there tends to be quite a lot of stuff that isn't easily found online; though it is definitely 'local' living and typically a step down than what can be found in midrange airbnb.

I've used it with success in Lyon for a 3 month place, and twice in CDMX, once for a month and the other for 6 months.

Basically if my budget is $750, then I will do an AirBNB search for $1000 or less, choose 5-8 places I really like and then ask if they will accept $750. Usually ~50% will either accept or give an offer that's still lower than their original asking price.

If you're staying longer than 3 months, I think the best course of action is book a place for 3 months using the above method, and if you like it, then tell the owner directly that you'd like to continue past the 3 months off of AirBNB. I did this in Lyon and will do it again when I return to CDMX with my last place that I really liked. AirBNB takes like $110 in fees per month, so you can split those savings with the landlord.

That's spot on about AirBnB. I'd add, though, that you can make that same deal without ever booking through AirBnB. I've had two occasions when I've booked a couple nights at some hotel, then gone to see AirBnBs in person. I didn't even mention the idea; the owners themselves brought up that they were willing to accept less in cash to avoid the fees.

Lima's coming up in a bit under a week so I decided to do a bit of pipelining on Bumble. Wow, it's waaaaay better than Colombia. Already 40 matches, and there aren't even that many user compared to Tinder. 1 super cute girl, 4 other pretty cute girls, and a handful of others who might be worth going on a date with.

If you rely on Tinder a lot, as I do, then Lima is a lot better than any city in Colombia. I think Colombia probably requires a high level of Spanish and dance game to make any headway with most Colombianas whereas in Lima or CDMX you will have more matches than you can handle just being a gringo (and possibly have intermediate Spanish helps me too).

I think I might stay in Lima for a week since I'll probably be able to go out with lots of different girls while I'm there. Maybe a week also in Cusco and then 10 days for 2-3 smaller cities.