Introdcutions by consuelo

[Gato4Astrid]

The guy who created the this thread made his last thread in July 2010. He was apparently quite frustrated after 4 trips to Barranqilla (see link to thread here).  Looks like he gave up.

http://www.planet-love.com/forum/index.php?topic=5446.msg65524#msg65524


A cautionary tale.........

The kind of man he is, I can say I'm not surprised.  He did not invest widely.   He backed on the wrong horses all the time

[Gato4Astrid]

It s true that she never has more then 330 women at any one time...
The best agency experience I had was at Consuelo...and I would recommend her in the highst terms. 

I hope you haven't dated 2/3rd of these women (220)   

[CalifSur]

DennisLevy and AndyLee:  I really appreciate your posts because you are both LIVING in Colombia and have direct experience that is VERY helpful.

I don't want to pry but I am curious how you guys survive down there? Are you both retired already?  I realize you guys are 57 yrs and 62 yrs, respectively. So not exactly in your retirement years yet.

Without revealing too much personal stuff, would either of you care to shed some light on how you are able to pull this off?

I am filled with envy and would like to be in such a position myself someday....cruising around a So. American country meeting beautiful women. You guys have it so rough!

[Gato4Astrid]

I am glad you, Dennis Levy & Andy Lee enjoying your life, living in Colombia.   I am not ready to live there because I am only 42 years old.  I have a good business here in England which I obviously wouldn't do in Colombia.  New business - perhaps, but I am not planning to do it for the time being.

[dennislevy]

I cant speak for Andy, but I will say that it wasn t hard to decide to move to Colombia.

Once i realized that I didnt want to have another realtionship with an American woman, i saw life as two choices.

1 continue to work in the US (because I couldnt afford to stop working)  and be alone.
2.Live on much less, pare my fixed expenses down to the bones and live in Colombia and enjoy my life.

Other then where I sleep very night, and buying minutes for my telephone, I have no fixed expnses. Everything is discretionary, when and how much I want to spend. And yes, I after giving up my apartment in medellin, ve cruised around Colombia since December 1, at this point more then three months and met more then 30 women for a first date or more. Bur I will spend between 400 and 500 dollars in a week in an effort to get to know someone. Yesterday, as an example, in the city of Riohacha in la Guajira, i spent 80,000 for lodging for myself and my ciurrent girl , 75,000 for two meals, 6000 persos for Internet and 2,800 for a bottle of pop and chips. Thats 164 000 pesos just about 82.00  USD, you simply can t get through a day in the US spending only 82 bucks and taking a woman out for two eelgant meals, and paying rent or a mortgage  The two meals...I had broiled parrga (fresh red snapper) and for lunch, a shrimp stew and she ate well, too.   

I own no furniture or a TV and everything I have is in three suitcases- its a different lifestyle, and at the moment I prefer it.

   

[AndyLee]

Interesting, and exciting DL.
I envy your footloose lifestyle. I'm a bit more tied down. i rented a finca outside a small mountain village. My monthly budget for rent, utilities, food, insurance, local travel and dating is 1,200,000. I add another 400,000 monthly for in country travel. That's about $900 US each month.
i could have stayed in the US making $50,000 year and being miserable, and dateless, or I could choose to take early retirement and live in Colombia on $10,000 year and live like I want to. I still work part time as a writer for an American publisher but they have grown accustomed to not expecting a whole lot from me so most of my time is my own.
I must admit however that not many American men can be happy with my lifestyle. I live in Estrato 3 in a new house with a private yard and humongous views. But, I don't have TV, I don't go to bars-clubs-discos-casinos, I cook in about 90% of my meals, I drink 2 or 3 shots brandy in a day or 2 beers. I don't support any prepagos or hangers on.
I know, I know. It's not a very lavish lifestyle compared to the gringos over in Medellin who have 4 bedroom penthouse suites in El Poblado with million dollar views of the city and eat out expensive restaurants every night, visit the discos to entertain the young women and the casinos for a thrill.
My lifestyle is very staid, comparatively. This morning I walked for 2 hours on the mountain above my house, then had coffee in the village with friends and bought groceries for the rest of the week. This afternoon I worked on my writing for a while, took a nap, then walked down and had a beer in the village with some other friends. Tonight I'll be online gabbing with my latest girlfriend. She's in Cartagena this week but joining me for a long visit next week. We've known each other for 10 weeks and so far so good. See my avatar.
The one thing I can do that is similar to DL's carefree lifestyle is wake up in the morning with a whole new life plan, throw some stuff in a carry on and head out for yet another new adventure.
In November and December for example I drove 2800 kilometers from Pereira to Bogota to Bucaramanga to Medellin and back to Pereira and a lot of points in between plus another 1000 or so kilometers by bus on mountain highways. That was at the height of the landslides and I got to see some pretty adventurous road travel for a few weeks. Not many men my age will ever have that kind of adventure. I'm working up a trip report on that one now and will post it someday. The title is Love Bus And A Mountain Highway. The highlight of my trip was to fall in love with a doe eyed beauty on the back seat of the bus at 4 hours till midnight on New Year's Eve, somewhere in a mountain pass west of La Linea.

[JimD]

The two meals...I had broiled parrga (fresh red snapper)

That would be pargo I imagine. That´s what I miss most about the coast. Fresh fish. In Bahia Solano it´s fresh tuna. In Capurgana sierra. Yum.

[z_k_g]

i could have stayed in the US making $50,000 year and being miserable, and dateless, or I could choose to take early retirement and live in Colombia on $10,000 year and live like I want to.

Andy,

Great points here!  

Why be miserable here in the US when you can live a much richer higher quality of life somewhere else.

When you retire in the states, if you haven't saved a couple million in your 401k, then you may be working as a greeter in Walmart to make ends meet.  

Also you have ZERO opportunity to date young hot babes.  The American women (35+) have absolutely no interest in you!  If you even hint at a romantic involvement then you will be labled as that old horny guy!

With no realistic opportunities to land an attractive younger woman, you will chose to either be alone, purchase your companionship, or hit the local AARP meeting every week and play checkers or pool with old, fat and angry female seniors (65+) who are fighting over you cuz you so cute for a hot date!  Yuck! 

That's not my idea of an everyday adventure and enjoying your latter years to their fullest.

You work your butt off for the privilege of now spending all of your money on higher taxes, increasing gas and food prices, over priced health care.

Kudos to you Andy for taking the alternate route and actually enjoying life to the fullest.

Zulu

[z_k_g]

I cant speak for Andy, but I will say that it wasn t hard to decide to move to Colombia.

Once i realized that I didnt want to have another realtionship with an American woman, i saw life as two choices.

1 continue to work in the US (because I couldnt afford to stop working)  and be alone.
2.Live on much less, pare my fixed expenses down to the bones and live in Colombia and enjoy my life.

Other then where I sleep very night, and buying minutes for my telephone, I have no fixed expnses. Everything is discretionary, when and how much I want to spend. And yes, I after giving up my apartment in medellin, ve cruised around Colombia since December 1, at this point more then three months and met more then 30 women for a first date or more. Bur I will spend between 400 and 500 dollars in a week in an effort to get to know someone. Yesterday, as an example, in the city of Riohacha in la Guajira, i spent 80,000 for lodging for myself and my ciurrent girl , 75,000 for two meals, 6000 persos for Internet and 2,800 for a bottle of pop and chips. Thats 164 000 pesos just about 82.00  USD, you simply can t get through a day in the US spending only 82 bucks and taking a woman out for two eelgant meals, and paying rent or a mortgage  The two meals...I had broiled parrga (fresh red snapper) and for lunch, a shrimp stew and she ate well, too.   

I own no furniture or a TV and everything I have is in three suitcases- its a different lifestyle, and at the moment I prefer it.

Dennis,

Your lifestyle is very unorthodox, not something I could do, but I respect your choice.

I think you are living a single man's dream, no attachments, no furniture and no responsibilities except to yourself.

One observation and then one question I'd like to ask.

Your lifestyle does not seem to be in alignment with marriage.  Women look for stability (a home to come too and mark as her territory) and security (not necessarily all financial), yours is quite the opposite based on what you have posted here. 

Are you seriously looking for a wife?

Zulu

[AndyLee]

Dennis,

Your lifestyle is very unorthodox, not something I could do, but I respect your choice.

I think you are living a single man's dream, no attachments, no furniture and no responsibilities except to yourself.

One observation and then one question I'd like to ask.

Your lifestyle does not seem to be in alignment with marriage.  Women look for stability (a home to come too and mark as her territory) and security (not necessarily all financial), yours is quite the opposite based on what you have posted here. 

Are you seriously looking for a wife?

Zulu

I hope DL will share his thinking on this last question from his perspective....I've asked myself the same and have been asked by other posters on this forum, "am I seriously looking for a wife"? At first my answer was "of course, aren't we all",  then I tempered the answer a bit by pointing out I'm still looking for the geographical place in Colombia that I want to spend the rest of my life.
I guess my thinking is that once I find the spot that is right for me then I will settle down and look around for the woman who will share that spot with me. It is sort of my thinking that if I choose to live in a particular region that finding a wife within that region will be smoother and less costly overall than finding a wife outside that region and relocating her, and possibly her child(ren) to live with me.
Keeping in mind of course, that most of the Colombian women who are seriously seeking a husband are very willing to relocate to wherever he lives, whether here in Colombia or in US or Europe.
The big advantage of doing all this traveling is to meet women more easily with the second advantage being able to see the real estate in the locations that are of interest to me.

[CalifSur]

Thanks for the posts guys. Very interesting. You give food for thought for what I might like to pull off myself one day.

[dennislevy]

Am i seriouslylookingfor a wife?

No.what I am looking for serioulsy is a woman to live with, an exlusive, committed monogamous realtionship, what in Colombia is called a union libre. it that turns into a civil marriage in time, OK. but not to start.

I live in Colombia so I have the luxury of doing it step by step. I share much Andy s thinking of traveling, but iu decided if I find the right woman, I ll live in her city unless it s really bad. Since February 25tyh, ive been in la Guajira, in Maicao and in Riohacha with 2 different woman.

Maicao is a s---thole and that s giving it one star too many. I cant live there. But more importantly the woman and I mutually decided that we weren t right for each other. I liked her, and her kids and she honored me by inviting me tot he wedding of her son...as her date, but after 5 days together we knew that we weren t a fit, whether she had lived in Cal or Medellin it would have been the same, we didnt fit together.

And thats the advantage of the travel to see women in Colombia lifestyle, you know pretty quickly, you meet the family, you talk to everyone.....and you know.

Riohacha is different, i cna live here.....I vebene  with  he saqmne woman for a week and she is spectacular, it s my thirds time to see her all in a monthy and I keep comingback to9 Riohacha  .....a 38 year old morena widow wth 2 grown up kids and she is motivated. Today I looked at apartments wit her and for me to do that is...a step. I ve ony thought of living with three other women of the 200 (not 220, gato!) thast I ve met.

OK? 

[Zon]

3 out of 200 ... sounds about right to me.  But, hey - I'm a little picky too.  LMAO

I know many guys that are working and living abroad.  Sure you takes a hit on your income potential in most cases, BUT not necessarily.  Many guys continue to make 2 - 7 K per month; and obviously enjoy a lifestyle that is often times much better than in the USA.  Not a bad deal.

[z_k_g]

Am i seriouslylookingfor a wife?

No.what I am looking for serioulsy is a woman to live with, an exlusive, committed monogamous realtionship, what in Colombia is called a union libre. it that turns into a civil marriage in time, OK. but not to start.

Dennis,

Hey, I wasn't ball busting you or trying to put you on the spot.

Just was curious as to what your game plan was overall based on what you had posted.

I like your civil marriage option, seems like an interesting way to get married!

By the way, I really like your posts, good to hear a perspective from a man on the ground!

Zulu

[utopiacowboy]

I really enjoy reading your posts, Andy. Write on!

[z_k_g]

I really enjoy reading your posts, Andy. Write on!

Utopia,

I second that!!

Zulu