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For a new guy that wants to come to Cali and does not know where to start or what to look for, I offer IMHO my perception of where each agency shines the brightest (listed below in alphabetical order).  

Also, connections and spending money matters in Latin America.  A person properly connected or spending more than the minimum at one agency will likely get great service and even first shots at a hot new prespect at that agency but not at any other agency where he is not connected or generous with his money.  Also, guess what?  Posting nice things about an agency on Planet-Love can make sure your connection with that agency stays strong....

No matter which source you select it will have some drawbacks - it is unavoidable....you are in Latin America - remember?  See the bottom of the post for more info on that.

Also the girls, clinents, agency owners and agency help come in an assortment more varied than the selection of beverages in a US supermarket.  I have seen and heard more wild stuff in one year here than in 10 or 20 years in the USA.  I have laughed louder and harder (both at and with men and women) here than anywhere else in the world.  The only thing I think I have never encountered in this environment is a gay guy (bisexual possibly, but not gay).

Here goes:

All Colombian Girls - Great assortment of cute young girls

Cali Charm - Best centrally located lodging (and best bed and breakfast) and very supportive of your visiting other agencies

Cali V.I.P. - Lodging in a mansion for a great price.  Also best parties for your dollar (includes food, drinks, music, women, mansion, etc).  

Latin American Models - Very very cute young girls that almost always show up for requested dates/answer your e-mails.

Latin Best / Hearts of Cali - Greatest probability of finding a girl that anybody could bring home to their mom.

Latin Best - Great assortment of cute young girls

Latin Internet - Well organized, and very attentive and helpful staff

Latin Women Forever - Cute girls in bikinis oriented to selling contact info.  If you buy contact info that is no good, you get a replacement of your choice at no additional cost.

South of the Border - Huge selection of girls from Cali and Latin America oriented to selling contact info (e-mail addresses).  If you buy contact info that is no good, you get a replacement of your choice at no additional cost.

Walter Mora - guts for hire to help you meet some unknown and randomly selected girl in a mall.

Ramon - He can hook you up most any night of the week (with the catch of the day).  The most enjoyable person to hang out with.

Pete E - he is not an agency (i.e. you can have a girl stay over in your room) and has great lodging and lots of extras for a great price.

Mail Order Husbands - These are the foreign guys you have seen post on Planet-Love and will meet face to face for the first time on your flight to Cali and at your selected Cali agency.  On your second trip to Cali you will meet 5 or 10 additional guys that are equally fascinating.  Move to Cali and you graduate from being a weird dude to being an expert weird dude.  

Of course these things are subject to change and there are a few other agencies that I do not know enough about to comment on....

If I were to list weaknesses of agencies they would include things such as which agency lies the most, which agency lies the best, worst organized, which has the most anoying clients, has the highest percentage of least recomendable girls, agency owner dating the most girls from their agency, agency that ignores the client the most after they got your money, worst lodging, worst agencies for padding their sites with girls that will never show up, which agencies pay some of their ladies to shower you with attention, etc, etc, etc..  

None of the agencies are perfect, they all have blemishes.  But then again none of the girls that you will meet down here are perfect either.  It is a shame since the single guy that is reading this post IS perfect!

Have fun

Teo Blas
Servicios Internacionales
www.teoblas.com

So, does that mean that you are having better results yourself in Medellin?  I am always interested in hearing from other posters about their experiences.  I have seen your posts on this board many times; but I guess I don't know what is going on with you.  Please share with us about what is going on with you, if you are using any agencies, any special latinas in your life, etc.

                                 OkieMan

Medellin is a nice city, girls are nice, not as jaded as Cali. Let’s face it, when you got a city like Cali, where agencies have been since the beginning, and you have Medellin, where agencies have only been for a short time, you’re going to have girls in Medellin who are not scamming men for money, visa’s or presents, which is the case with girls from Cali.  Not all the girls from Cali are bad, and I am sure you can find a good girl there, but it’s going to take a lot of work and luck, and maybe some help from a friend there.

Cali girls don’t have the best reputation, and a lot that I have met seem to have a “backup plan” or an “agenda” just in case they go to the US, and they get bored, don’t like the guy anymore ect, not a good way to start a marriage.

Somebody posted a while ago about going to a concert with a secretary of an agency in Cali, and she was pointing out some girls in the agency, who were engaged with gringos, and they were out with their Colombian befriends, that is typical for a Cali girl in my opinion. Always leaving your options open.

 My friend who used to work at All Colombian Girls used to tell me about some of the girls in the agency, and what they were doing, leading men on for money, presents, having sex with their old Colombian boyfriends while engaged to a gringo, so I don’t have high hopes for Cali, as far as finding  wife material.  Some times, it was the fault of the men, trying to be somebody they were not, or trying to impress the girl with money, but a good girl would have rejected the presents, and I have seen some girls do such that.

As for me, im picky, I admit it, and I am in no hurry, so I’ll take my time until I find the “right “one. I’m only 37, so im in no big rush, and eventually, I know ill met her some day. I did met a nice girl from Medellin, but she is so busy with work and school, she doesn’t have much free time, so I will be patient for a while and see what develops.

Thanks for answering my questions.  So, you are 37?  Well, you are certainly younger than I am.  Do I understand that you have not been married before either?  It is fascinating to me to visit with guys in your position.  I did not marry the first time at a really young age either; but I was younger than you(26).  I have 3 grown sons, and a step-daughter from my second marriage.  We are all close, and I think it is really wierd to find myself at age 52 to have to hunt for a wife again.  But, I also don't want to live alone for the rest of my life!  I have been divorced for the second time for almost 7 years.  I just could not face trying to get into another relationship with another american woman.  So, here I am-- chasing latinas!  I have been searching for about 2 1/2 to 3 years, and so far no luck.  But, I have only been able to travel to Cali twice.  The next trip, I am hoping to either go to Medellin or Bogota; or at least approach Cali in a much different way.  Right now, I am not sure.  Naturally, the best way would be to travel to all the major cities in Colombia, but I don't have that kind of money or time.  Maybe something will develop in the future so that I could do that.  But, for now, I am still into the search mode.  Take care.

                              OkieMan

Interesting, i was having lunch a Karen's Pizza off of Avienda Sexta w/ my amiga(met her on internet) in Aug, and there was two gringos having a double date.  Automatically my amiga said those girls must be from the agency.  But her tone was negative when she mention marriage agency.  So maybe locals dont think much of agency girls or gringos using agency.  I think the internet sites(amigos, match, etc.,) are much better than agencies, IMO.  Because you're meeting girls that aren't neccessarily LOOKING for gringos.  

If I was looking for a wife or GF I would just join amigos, match, cybercupidos, etc., write to 20-30 girls(you'll get between 25-50% response rate) for each city I wanted to visit.  By the time you visit, you'll have lined up 5 to 8 girls(or more) that will meet you.  And that's not incl ones you'll meet on the street(require basic spanish).  My response rate for internet is about 20%, but i dont mention i want wife, relationship, or GF, just friends to learn the culture, langauge, etc.,  I think if I was writing that I wanted to meet a girl for relationship or GF, my response rate would be lot higher.

Another example, I'm travelling to Cali for 5 wks next month, so i just sent 20 email last week.  So far I got 4 response and counting, over next couple of weeks, i'll probably get couple more response.  So by the time I arrive in Cali, i'll probably have 3 or 4 gals i can meet, since i'm down there for 5 weeks, i'll probably meet couple more.
I ONLY been learning spanish for 1 yr.

Your friend sounds like a snob.  Here's the scene, she's sitting there at Karen's with an out of town gringo (who she barely knows) who is in Colombia looking for a novia or wife.  She sees some other Calenas with a gringo at Karen's also, most likely doing the same thing she is doing, yet she makes a point of calling them "agency" girls.  The implication being that an agency girl is somehow less a woman than someone who meets foreigners over the internet as apperantly she has done.  Give me a break, this is as a distinction without a difference.  At least half of the agency girls I knew had at one time or another gone the email correspondence route too.  Were they better catches when they were emailing guys instead of meeting them in person at an agency?

Personally, i dont see problem w/ agency, it's not for me, but i serves a function.

Maybe but I doubt it.  The girls in the agencies are looking for boyfriends first also.  I had 4 Calena novias I met through agencies, I didn't have 4 wives.  Also, a woman on a site like match.com is being written to by foreigners not locals. If a Calena signs up on this site, she knows it's gringos and Europeans who are going to be writing her not Colombianos.

I got to disagree with you on this one. if you look at most of the girls "FRIENDS NETWORK", a good majority of the guys that are writing the girls are other latinos, not colombians, but from argentina, chile, equador. There are gringos too, but i think that most of the girls i have talked to think mostly other latinos will write them due to a gringos lack of spanish and if a gringo does write her, wow, what an effort this guy makes. She geats a mix of nationalities though writing her.

Pete

I have never been to Cartegena.  What experience do you have there?  So, if I understand what you said, there is a higher percentage of prostitution in Cartegena than in Cali or Medellin or Bogota?  If so, why is that?  Does the same thing apply to BAQ?  At any rate, it is fascinating for me to read these ideas that you and others are saying, as far as the girls perception of joining an agency vs meeting a gringo on line on amigos or match.com.  I have not gone that route yet, but I have looked at those sites.  I will have to look further into that.  I don't understand where the girls are coming from either, but I am glad to know a little more into how they think. Now, if I could just get into a mind reading class! ha

                             OkieMan

Pete

Thanks for the insight.  As I said, I have never been to Cartegena or BAQ.  Right now, that is way down on my list, but I was curious about what you meant.  At any rate, hopefully Jesse will have a good time in Medellin, and I would like to hear his story.  Take care.

                               OkieMan

It's clear to me there's a stigma against agencies in the general population of Colombia.  I remember a past novia telling me she really hadn't joined the agency but had accompanied a friend's mother to one of their parties as a favor to her.  Once there they took her picture and apparently got some basic information out of her also.  She said she'd forgotten the whole thing and that when the agency called her several months later I was her first cita.  Even from my own novia, I got a half denial that she belonged to an agency.  lol  Her story was true about accompaning her friends' mother to the party, but nevertheless that evening she became a member regardless of whether it was her original intention to do so.  But because of the stigma, she probably felt compelled to downplay her involvement.    I understand the stigma myself, agencies are often perceived as playgrounds for gringos or a place unsafe for a respectful woman. My father in law to this day believes my wife and I met through a mutual friend, not an absolute lie but certainly a stretch of the truth.  Also agencies get a bad rap among those who might think they don't need an agency.  I hear it all the time, "agencies are OK but I don't need it", I can find a man or woman on my own.  So what do guys do, they write Colombianas who join internet websites like match.com.  These woman themselves may be agency members or they may be women looking for a foreign boyfriend/husband but unprepared to join an agency do to the stigma. Like I said in a prior post, I think the whole "I met my foreign novio/husband online" versus "I met him at an agency" is a distinction without a difference.  Both are basicly interested in the same ends.  I don't see the reason for the snobbish attitude among some of the people.

James

Thanks for telling more of your story.  So, you can't get your wife to better explain why she and others think this way?  I can certainly see why a respectable lady would not want to be associated with something like prostitution; so maybe they equate the agencies with a different form of that??  It is a bit of a mystery.  I would think they would like someone like the staff members at some particular agency introducing them to "nice foreign men". I would have thought the ladies would feel safer dealing with a Colombian staff at an agency.  I guess I was wrong. Naturally, if they don't trust the staff at the agency that would be bad.  But, if that is so, then why go there in the first place? Maybe in Medellin that is why they can't get as many girls into the agencies, and maybe that is why there is only 1 or 2 there.   I also understand that there are scammers that target the agencies, because they can easily meet many guys like me (sweet, honest, and generous)-- but I hope that I am not in the stupid category; just maybe too trusting-- or at least I was before I went to Cali this last time.  Boy, did I learn my lesson!!
                              OkieMan

Pete

Pete

Truer words have never been spoken....the numbers of success stories from guys here meeting & marrying women from agencies,  speak for itself! There isn't any "one" way that is right for "everyone"...

Pete

Hey Pete,  

Yes your friend Charlie called me a week or two back.  I actually had never met him but he said you had given him my office number sometime back in year 2000. My office number in San Jose had a message to contact me at my home office and that's how he tracked me down. Anyway, we had a nice chat and I gave him your Cali number as you're now the Cali expert these days.  Anyway, call me, it will be great to talk.

James

I am aware that you are married to a Calena, so please share more with the board about how you met you wife, and any other "words of wisdom" that you can share.  I know that Pete speaks highly of you, but then Pete is a little nuts! ha Just kidding.  No, I like Pete.  I stayed at his apartment in May.  However, my trip was a bust.  The girl I was seeing was blowing smoke, and everything went to pot when I came home.  So, whether the girl is from Cali, Medellin or wherever; I just thought you might could shed some light on your experiences.  Take care.

                             OkieMan

Pete

The second listing of Latin Best should have read Latin Encounters...

My bad

About:
"The only thing I think I have never encountered in this environment is a gay guy (bisexual possibly, but not gay)."

Any dude that is "bisexual" is gay, period.

Very strange man.