Colombia trip report--Bogota, Medillin, and Barranquilla Carnival

[asdsrfr]

I just returned from 10 days in Colombia and I thought I would share my experience. It was my 4th or 5th time to Colombia and as always had a great time.

Bogota--Arrived late Friday in order to enjoy Teatron on a Saturday night. As many know Teatron is the large nightclub that is truly amazing. Many floors and rooms for dancing and music. The top floor is men only and has naked strippers. Others have suggested that they might be available but I am not so sure. Very little opportunity to talk with them as they are on and off the stage pretty quickly. My local friend says that they have more strippers on Tuesday night than on the weekend--but my favorite night to visit is Saturday when all of the club is open and there is plenty of eye candy in the crowd.

As far as hookups--Grindr is the way to go in Bogota(and really all of Colombia). Lots of free offers-- and the working guys in Bogota seemed to be happy with 70-90,000 pesos. There is a Sauna called Saint Moritz that has massage available but every time we visited the massage guys had already left around 6-7pm. If that is what you were looking for then get there earlier like 4-5pm. That seems to be the peak time for Saunas in both Bogota and Medellin.

Bogota has a lot to see and you should not miss the view from Monseratte--ride up on the tram or funicular. I stayed at the Novotel--no problem with guests and they take a copy of the ID at the front desk. A friend had multiple guests over the course of the trip and they did not charge him extra with a double room booked. Very nice hotel, great breakfast and good neighborhood.

Medellin--Medellin is a beautiful City with a great climate. I stayed at an airbnb in a nice neighborhood called Laurelles--lots of trees and good places to eat. I have some warnings about Medellin that really apply to everywhere in Colombia--more on that later.

Lot's to see in Medellin including the Botanic Garden in the city--and a large park outside the city called Park Arvi. Park Arvi is accessed but the Metrocable which is the tram that acts as mass transit around parts of the city. Getting there involves a few different changes between lines but is really easy if you google the instructions. 

There is a very fun, clean and beautiful sauna called Club 55. This is not a working boy sauna but they do have massage available that I'm told rapidly turns into something else. Again all of the massage guys were gone by 7. The very friendly, cute, and frisky locals tell me that peak time for the sauna is like 5-6pm. It has a bar, jacuzzi and is very clean and modern. You can definitely have fun for free here.

Several hot working boys on Grindr in Medellin--they seem to want more than Bogota--like 150000pesos ($43).

Medellin is where two people close to me had potentially serious problems within 24hours of each other. In the first situation a good friend from the US who lives there, fluent spanish speaker,  and is very savvy about having guys over was drugged and robbed by someone he met online and invited to his apartment. He has lived there for over 10 years and this was the first time anything like this had ever happened. He spent the night in the hospital but is fine now. In the second incident I met a guy on grindr and we had a hot time. I'll admit I took a chance by having him back to my airbnb but I felt comfortable enough with the guy enough to refer him to another friend who was traveling with me. My friend wanted to meet up with the guy and they agreed on a price to meet up. This is where my friend made a big mistake. He agreed to go to they guy's nearby apartment(also in a nice neighborhood) and the guy who had just hours before been nice and friendly with me became very aggressive with my friend and took the money that they had agreed on up front and then demanded more before he would do anything. When my friend (a native spanish speaker) decided to just leave--this guy blocked his exit and started screaming and demanding more money even though they hadn't done anything. My friend gave him another wad of cash and beat a quick retreat. It easily could have escalated into something worse. In all cases this could have been avoided by following the usual safety measures talked about on this board. The reality though in Medellin is that many hotels do not allow guests and "love motels" are not that prevalent or are located in Centro far from the areas where most people stay. I'm not sure what the best solution is for Medellin in this regard.

Barranquilla and Carnival--I have some younger friends that live in Barranquilla that I wanted to visit and this was an ideal weekend because it was Carnival there. I have been to Cartagena many times and enjoyed it but this was my first trip to Barranquilla. Carnival was in the air as I landed at the airport and the beer companies were passing out cans of beer to arriving travelers on the way to baggage claim. I have never been at an airport where I had drank two free beers before I had claimed my luggage! Barranquilla is a pleasant city and I stayed in a nice high rise air BNB with security at the front desk--but they let my friends pass by as long as they were with me. These are guys I have known since they were college students and are now in graduate school and working and I trust 100%.

The carnival in Barranquilla is a big deal and last year there were over a million visitors. Prices for hotels and apartments go up just like Rio. The highlight of carnival is a big carnival parade on Saturday in centro. I relied on my local friends advice and we all got an early start on Saturday to go watch the parade. Unfortunately the area is for the most part blocked off with high barriers that block any view of the parade unless you buy a ticket to a private seating area. Those tickets were being sold by scalpers for upwards of $100usd per ticket. In the end we gave up on watching the parade due to the crowds and heat and the fact that we were unable to find any public viewing area that was accessible. My friends complain that each year the viewing area open to the public for free gets less and less and more of the parade is blocked from view by barriers. From what I did see though the parade in Barranquilla focusses more on colorful costumes and dancing than on the elaborate floats and displays at carnival in Rio. 

Like carnival in Rio there are street parties but these are more enclosed events where you pay admission as opposed to the free bloccos in Rio which are more open and free flowing. 

The biggest difference--and for me this is huge--is that in Barranquilla despite the heat at Carnival I did not see a single guy with their shirt off whereas in Rio the display of shirtless male bodies is a big plus! Culturally I think the Colombians are much more conservative about their dress and keeping themselves covered up in public. 

We had great fun at a big open air gay club called The Patio which was packed with cute guys dancing to latin music all night. I was the only gringo there. There is another club in Barranquilla that my friends told me about that plays electronic/pop music but I do not recall the name and I did not visit. I didn't hook up in Barranquilla as I with friends but plenty of cute guys in the club were eager to meet, practice their english, and make out for a while. I would mention that casual cocaine use is common amongst many Colombians of all classes and it is a bit shocking to see how openly used it is in the clubs--no attempt made to hide it from security. I do not do any drugs at all but my Columbian friends tell me that it's not a big deal there --kind of like having a joint or a cigarette.--still I would stay away from it if you are tempted.

I love Colombia--great people, hot guys, beautiful scenery and many different regions to explore in a relatively small country. I still prefer Brazil for the open display of bodies everywhere in Rio and the safety of fun in the saunas there. For a true Carnival experience nothing beats Rio despite some of the hassles and security concerns. I will continue to visit both countries for all of their charms!

 

[cactusjack75]

Great trip report!  Did you go to Club Tobi while in Medellin.  So many have posted great things about this place so curious if you went.

[asdsrfr]

3 hours ago, cactusjack75 said:

Great trip report!  Did you go to Club Tobi while in Medellin.  So many have posted great things about this place so curious if you went.

I thought I had read somewhere on this forum that Club Tobi had closed. My local friends weren’t sure and since my time in Medellin was limited I didn’t check it out.

[davet]

My impression of Barranquilla carnaval was that it's much more family-oriented than Rio's (which I have not yet experienced). I didn't see any disorderly conduct, public peeing, and no, this was not a circuit party (blech!) so hardly any shirtless chests. Well, there were the kids, some of whom were not kids, wearing little more than black grease paint in a tradition that some woke northerners will soon tsk-tsk them about, but that's a whole nother weird story. When I went, I did find several super fun, and free, street parties, but LOTs of pickpockets. Let's say I donated some electronics to the local economy. The Colombians are insanely friendly and outgoing, so it was hard to tell what's just hospitality and what's interest. I got an unaccustomed amount of attention from stunning ... girls, some of whom didn't seem to be hookers.

[floridarob]

I got robbed in MDE also many yrs ago, got Devil's Breath (scopolamine) blown into my face, woke up 1.5-2 days later with nearly everything stolen from my hotel.

[asdsrfr]

On 3/5/2020 at 9:59 PM, floridarob said:

I got robbed in MDE also many yrs ago, got Devil's Breath (scopolamine) blown into my face, woke up 1.5-2 days later with nearly everything stolen from my hotel.

After my friend's experience getting drugged in Medellin--and after hearing your experience I decided to read a bit more about the drug used. I came across this very good but rather scary documentary about the use of the drug in Colombia to rob people. You can watch it here free on Amazon Prime if you have any interest. 

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B07H3BPTQP/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

I remember now on my first trip to Colombia I stayed at a gay hotel in Bogota (that ironically was run by a very friendly older straight couple) and they warned me about this. They told me the story of another guest who they tried to warn and they said he was like "I don't need to hear this--I've travelled all over the world and I know how to take care of myself." Sure enough he was drugged in Chapinero (the gay area of Bogota) and lost quite a sum from his ATM. 

Colombia is a wonderful place with a lot of good people. In 5-6 trips there I have never had a problem personally--but as the saying goes "You aren't in Kansas anymore!"

[Badboy81]

On 3/6/2020 at 12:59 AM, floridarob said:

I got robbed in MDE also many yrs ago, got Devil's Breath (scopolamine) blown into my face, woke up 1.5-2 days later with nearly everything stolen from my hotel.

You glazed over this...How did this happen?  Were you on the streets or in a hotel room with some random guy that you met?

Did he just blow some strange dust in your face?

Thanks

[floridarob]

Picked up someone at a gay bar downtown. That's the last thing I remember before waking up in my hotel a day and a half later with most of my stuff stolen, including clothes.

I called hotel security and they showed me a video with me coming back with 2 guys and a girl (a girl, wtf?).

Security told me I was very lucid and said they were with me.....he's the one that told me about Devil's Breath, I thought it was alcohol related , or someone put a roofie in my drink.

[Bucknaway1614502762]

This is a flight for business class from New Jersey to Bogota in September with no bag fees

[Badboy81]

You can find flights much cheaper than that from Jersey, BWI, DC or JFK

Flights would be even cheaper if you fly to MIA or FLL and book from there

[Badboy81]

Im glad you are safe and all they did was rob you...Something bad could have definitely came out of that....Researching Devils Breath now...

[Bucknaway1614502762]

1 hour ago, Badboy81 said:

You can find flights much cheaper than that from Jersey, BWI, DC or JFK

Flights would be even cheaper if you fly to MIA or FLL and book from there

This flight is business class not economy

[Menaughty]

Whenever I visit Colombia, the only reason I will visit Barranquilla is for the Shakira statue. Though it is very poorly made but I love it.