[This message has been edited by jediknight]
i flew down to bogota by avianca, round trip from jfk to bogota was $525 but they have crazy flight times on the return, leaving bogota at 11-12 and arriving at jfk aroung 5-6am. to barraquilla we flew on aerorepublica, normal service, on time, the flight was an hour to the coast.
had no problems with customs arriving/leaving both countries, just the normal questions that you can answer with any response and they wouldn't know the difference, like where and who did you stay with, purpose of the trip, do you have friends or family in colombia etc.
the dollar is weaker so i had to be a bit more carefull with expenditures. i was getting about 2400 pesos to the dollar from the atms. the first thing i did was get cell phone service through comcel, prepago, i took my unlocked phone, bought a sim card, that was 15,000 pesos plus the minutes card, 50,000 pesos which gave me 95,000 worth of time. thats how it works with the cards, they usually double the value of the card and a minute is about 1,000 pesos to a cell phone or landline, unless its another comcel phone and then it about 240 pesos a minute.
i speak excellent spanish, not 100% fluent but very close so understanding and communicating has never been a problem. my novia is learning english, her pronounciation is very good, like everyone who is learning a foreign language, practice is key so we talked many times in english and she did it very well, i'm sure that given the opportunity to learn the language here she will be fluent in no time. we listened to salsa, merengue and reggaeton and went out dancing many times, like a typical colombiana and costena, my novia loves to dance.
i ate allot, everything that was put in front of me, i couldn't say no. we drank beer and aguardiente. the weather in barranquilla was cool because of a constant and strong breeze at the beginning of jan. strong winds kept things comfortable and not too hot as i had expected. we didn't goto the beach because the waves were too strong and the high winds were kicking up sand everywhere but we did manage to goto a pool nearby. we went to the movies, about $4-$5, you get to pick your seat. also went to el centro comercial buena vista, exito, home center and a new carre four that just opened. prices at these places are not cheap, i dont know how people buy things on the salaries in colombia.
local attire for the men in barranquilla is slacks or jeans with shoes,not sneakers and a button down short sleeve shirt, sometimes a polo shirt. i saw many gringos with there colombianas, they gave it away with shorts(bermudas), sneakers, sunglasses, pouches or fanny packs around there waist, baseball caps.
my novias family is aware of the marriage agencies and i met a few people that have met gringos through these agencies. one is getting married this year, age difference of about 25 years..she spoke very little english and she told me that her fiance spoke little spanish. i don't know how they do it but they are doing it, little by little, i guess that its part of the charm or intrigue of getting to know someone. i personally couldn't do it like that, there's so much that i would have missed out, jokes and just being able to have insightful conversations with my novia and her parents about her,the future, but to each his own.
jediknight
