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Medellin, Colombia


José Soplanucas

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  • 3 weeks later...

I know! The prices are hard to resist. However, I am definitely not traveling. A strait bullet made a whole on my car windshield (not when I was driving) and I had to get a new car. Plus, I have to pay for a dental treatment that is very taxing for my tiny budget. I am postponing any prospect of traveling until April.

As a side note, I am serious about going to Colombia. Nevertheless, the Gods of Slutyness seem to be sending me suggestive signs favoring Brazil, instead. Check my new car license.

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Definitely, I feel safer when I go to South America.

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On 8/28/2021 at 10:57 AM, latbear4blk said:

Is anyone planning an expedition to Medellin for November 20-27? If you are, and we have a well established relationship, hit me through PM and we may be able to make plans together. 

If you make it to Medellin could you provide a review.   I’m seriously thinking of going in a couple of months 

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I will be packing in a few hours. As here there are some restrictions to what I can share, I will not open a new thread for this trip. Instead, I will continue reporting in this thread safe information, and report when I update this thread in Gayguides, where I have no restrictions to what I can write.

I will be in Medellin from tomorrow night to the 17th, staying in an airbnb in Laureles. Stay tuned.

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I arrived last night after one of the worst flying experiences I ever had. In order to save a few bucks (I will never do this again), I booked a flight to Medellin with two stops, La Guardia and Miami. DCA flight to NY was perfect, packed but perfect. The airport is still under construction but the security check experience is greatly improved.

La Guardia was a nice surprised. I think my last time in that airport was about 20 years ago, or even more. It is fully renovated, functional and beautiful. Unfortunately, the flight to Miami was delayed in the last minute, they would keep announcing that it was on time, and adding a few minutes to boarding (originally it was at 1), until finally announcing it was delayed to 4pm. Therefore, I was missing my combination from Miami to MDE, at 5. After 90´on a line with angry passengers, they gave me a seat to leave Miami at 9 and arrive to Colombia at midnight.

Amongst the passengers there were two very uneducated and lacking of basic social skills (I mean middle class social skills, they were very representative of poverty culture) parents, traveling with an autistic 5 years boy. This boy sat in the seat in front of me and kick it all flight long, yelling and having rage bursts. I was moved to see these two loving parents, but I think most people hated them. I was annoyed by the boy ruining my movie watching experience during the flight, I must confess. Additionally, La Guardia looks clean and new, but some bug biten me and I have three huge red marks in my milky skin. Damn it.

We made it on time to catch my flight from Miami to MDE, specially because we had another 20 minutes delay. Despite the delay, this plain was not packed like the other two, and the travel was comfortable, I was even able to take a nap.

We were not the only flight arriving after midnight. The line for Migrations was very long. I noticed that overwhelmingly the travelers were not Colombian, as 80% of us lined up in the section for foreigners. Even some very hot young guys who were inspiring my fantasies during the flight, were not Colombian. 

Once in front of the Colombian immigrations official, it was easy and quick. There were no yellow cabs available (it was about 1 and I was one of the last visitors in the line), I tried Uber but no drivers were available, so I went with a guy who offered me a ride. He was obviously known by the workers in the airport, and quote me very close to what Uber would charge me (he asked me for 90K, Uber was in the mid 80s), so I felt safe.

I wish I would have arrived with daylight. Once we drove out of a never ending tunnel, the landscapes insinuated through the darkness were obviously beautiful. The driver was adorable, and drove as fast as the crazy taxi cab drivers in Buenos Aires.

During the ride, he gave me my first two lessons in local urban culture. Lesson 1, after midnight you can ignore red traffic lights. Lesson 2, Colombians in general but Antioquia and Medellin in particular have a very fun tradition: the “chivas”. These are very basic buses, the one we saw was probably the size of a USA conventional school bus. During the day, these buses are used to transport supplies and produce. During the night, they turn into rolling parties. The one we saw was busting music and was totally dark but full of people. Anything can happen there. 

My airbnb host was incredible friendly and cool. I was supposed to arrived at 8. He waited for me until almost 2 am, when I walked into his building (by the way, the driver was adorable and I gave him 100K) he was waiting for me with the keys and escorted me to the unit. He lives in the same building.

This morning I got up very early. The unit has its own water heater, so I did not suffer the issue many complain about inMedellin. After taking a shower and finishing setting down, I went out for a walk in the neighborhood. I went to a well reviewed café (Café Revolución). That was a kind of mistake. It was well reviewed in Google, but of course all those reviews were in English. The owner is an American and the menu was not very traditional. The food was fine, but this is not the experience I am looking for. Every single customer was speaking in English.

The general impression I have from the walk around Laureles is that the foreigner community living here is mostly millennials teleworking or starting their own business, like the café. In my first walk I only saw one woman older than 35, everyone else seem to be ion their 20s and early 30s. Of course, this is just a first impression after a 2 hours walk in one neighborhood. 

I found a nice little park a few blocks away from my nest, Parque Laureles, with a lot of trees to shelter from the sun. That is the one thing that I am not enjoying so far: it feels hotter than it actually is because of humidity. It is very humid. I am out of shape (I have not gone back to exercising after the lock downs), the walk and the humidity triggered my pig sweat. 

In many ways the neighborhood reminds me of Palermo in Buenos Aires. Many traditional single houses, a few ones even from Colonial times, being slowly replaced by towers and apartment buildings, with a thriving and diverse bars, cafés, and restaurants scene. I was even cruised in the path around the Stadium at Universidad Bolivariana. I got to the boundries of Laureles, an area I was advised not to explore. It was fine, I did not feel unsafe. It is just some blocks full of street vendors and very humble hard working people.

Grindr and Scruff are driving me crazy. I am about to take a shower and a nap before meeting with a 30 years old “montañero” (he does not live in MDE but in a little town in the mountains) I have been chatting with for a few weeks through videoconference. He is 30 but looks 20. This is a for free hook up, but he is porn star looks quality. 

I have not yet made any arrangements with any professionals. If the montañero does not stay tonight (the last bus to his town leaves at 9), and leaves me with stamina, I may call Fercho. I do want to try the bars scene in El Poblado, I would love to check the local drag queens. I also have Max Avila and Randy Junior in my wish list. Too much (and too many) to do in just one week.

And now I am going to take a nap. Ciao!

 

 

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Yesterday, Sunday, was cloudier than Saturday and definitely a more tolerable temperature for me. I could easily get used to the humidity, but I think that, in order to be fully happy while living in this city, I would need easy access to a swimming pool. The day would have been perfect to check avenues and streets turned into pedestrian ways, but he headed in a different direction.

Punctually, my bisexual new friend stopped by to pick me up. Damn he is tall, my face was at the height of his chess. I was confused about his origins. He is not a rare Black Paisa as I reported before, but an import from Barranquilla. From now on, I will refer him as “the Costeño”.

We walked to Carrera 70, the Laureles Avenue with the highest concentration of bars and restaurants. Coming over there at night is still in my to do list. Nearby there is a stadium and sports complex and there was a soccer game scheduled for later in the afternoon. The restaurants and side walks were pack with soccer fans.

I made a pause to prepare and fix my version of a Paisa breakfast:08DFBD65-0592-4B91-9DED-C1AA3D42EDF4.thumb.jpeg.6a6a7a78333aa86bd1bf93018bc9a18d.jpeg

Back to yesterday, the whole area was taken over by local soccer fans. Several Chivas were parked along the avenue, all of them fancier than the one I had seen during the ride from the airport to my nest. You have one here, modified for transporting tourists:1033A595-8B1D-438A-AA6C-29868667AFC4.thumb.jpeg.f8bef3af786eebf7c2fdaaca762108b1.jpeg

They come in all sizes and designs, this is just an example. 

We were looking for a place to have lunch. I had asked the Costeño to avoid restaurants for export and choose one attended by locals. His first choice was a small place with no tables outside. We were looking to eat a bandeja paisa, and I did not want to eat such a heavy dish inside a little hot room. Perhaps I should have accepted, as our final choice was comfortable but I did not like the food.

We ended in a corner, a store that had both foods and souvenirs, and tables outside in the side walk. The bandeja paisa was $24.9K (U$S 6.6):55E7FEFC-B0D5-4DA4-AAD4-EAE55D43CB3D.thumb.jpeg.f8d3a7c438d1a210c95ca3eac10d3fbc.jpeg

I did not like the morcilla (I am peaky with meat), and the chicharron was so hard to chew that I was afraid of breaking my denture. I did enjoyed the rest of the ingredients and I will hold my judgement on this traditional dish. I will try it again some other time, probably in other trip.

The best part of having lunch in the sidewalk by a corner was witnessing the soccer fans. They were drunk, excited, happy AND HOT. They were extremely affectionate to each other, what made me think that perhaps I mistook some of the Montañero affectionate physical expressions. So many years in the States have made me forget how Latino men’s friendships can be easily misunderstood by less passionate cultures. We love our friends, and we show our love physically and passionately. 

We walked a little bit more around the area until finally got in the metro station. The Costeño was about to give me the first lesson on Medellin public transportation 101. The whole Metro system seems modern beautiful, and functional, at the same or even higher level than most big cities. We were in our way to visit Parque Arvi and therefore, to take the Metro Cable.

 

I made here another of my mistakes. I do not remember whether I shared that I suffer from vertigo. Traveling inside this boxes seemed safe to me from the outside, but in one of the sections (you have to switch to a different cart to get to Parque Arvi), in the last one to be precise, I sat looking in the wrong direction (down), and had to use all my tricks to avoid a panic attack. It was long and painful while it lasted.

Later on we laughed with the Costeño.

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He noticed that I was tense and sweating (I did tell him about my vertigo issues), and was very scared I was going to faint inside of the cart, and that he would need to call for help and an ambulance. He was even looking for and reading all the emergency directions printed in the walls. Fortunately, I survived. Once we passed the first half of the trajectory, the view was not triggering my vertigo anymore.

The view, once I calmed down, was amazing. You are traveling a few meters above rain forest, the vegetation is exuberant and I wonder about the fauna. All I could see was gigantic colorful butterflies, and hear many different birds. Once you get closer to the Parque, the view turns to beautifully landscaped gardens. I have nothing to report about the Parque itself, we walked around and it is worth another longer visit, perhaps paying the 40K fee foreigners must pay to participate in all guided experiences. We just walked around for free.

Taking the Metro Cable back was a more enjoyable experience, as I already knew where to sit to avoid my vertigo. When we were almost arriving to the end, the carts stopped. As you can imagine, inercia made the vehicle swing a few times. A lady in front of me started to share that she was very scared. I was afraid she was going to start moving and make the vehicle lose balance, so I held her hands and asked her to look at my eyes. She did, and when I felt she was calming down asked her to look down and focus on her knees. She was traveling with a male companion, who said: “yeah, focus on your trembling knees.” We all laughed and the cable started moving again.

The soccer game was about to start, and the Metro stations were packed. Every time we had to make a combination, flocks of fans would ran to be the first in line to take the next train. The lines were long, so in San Agustin we walked out of the Metro System and called for an Uber. 

Back at my quarters, we took a shower, smoke one of my “apanados”, and started to make up. We ended having a four hours sex session. I skip the details because this is not paid sex and remain private. The only thing I am going to share is … I FORGOT AGAIN TO BUY LUBE!!!!! Damn

The Costeño left about 9pm. I was of course drained, hungry, and did not make it to the bars or to Fercho. I did not even step out for diner. Instead, I call Rappi and order another popular paisa dish: salchipapas:F396A003-E98A-4EAD-A491-E42D959D8D75.thumb.jpeg.d07695395c6c2efd03bce7aea4695352.jpeg

he meats were better than in my early Bandeja Paisa, and I was stoned and hungry, so I enjoyed this monumental piece of trash food, a lot. However, it is not something to eat very often, as it is very greasy and unhealthy.

Before going to sleep, I confirmed my appointments with Randy (he is coming over in a few hours) and Max (tomorrow), and for the first time since I arrived I was snoring at 10:30.

When I got up today at 7, I found a message from the Venezuelan baker. We did not coincide last night. On day 3 of my trip, I still have nothing to report on escorts (only plans). I had sex with a Venezuelan and with a Costeño, I made up with a Montañero, I am still waiting for the first Paisa who will jump to my bed. I think Randy Junior is a Paisa, so the first one will not be for free.

I am loving Medellin. Thank you so much to the friends giving me tips and recommendations through PM. There are too many things to do, and I do not want to be stressed about doing things. I will take as much advantage as possible from your advise, but right now it looks like I will be back, definitively. 

On Wednesday I may have another guy I met in Grindr taking me around. We have been talking about walking Centro Prado, and also going to the montes to enjoy the city view. Let’s see. On Thursday, Semana Santa starts and the city may be left deserted, I am told, as a lot of people go out to suburban and exurban fincas. 

See you tomorrow.

 

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Today is my first day of getting up feeling rested and reenergized. Two nights in a raw sleeping more than 7 hours have made their work. I just finished reading the news and drinking my home made coffee before sitting down to write my daily entry to this travel log.

Before saying anything else, I want to report that I bought lube. This is one of the particularities here that I forgot to report. Full size pharmacies in Medellin are a rare species. What you have is many small stores, as little and as abundant as “kioskos” in Buenos Aires. The one around my corner did not have a full bottle (good! I do not think I could pass one through the airport security check), so I bought a bunch of little packets. 

Another reason feel rested today is that yesterday I stayed in my base the whole day, doing some online work and just chilling. Therefore, I do not really have much to report today. One thing that I did and allowed me to take a breath was shutting down Grindr and Scruff in the evening.

At noon I met Randy Junior, I guess you have already read my report in the blog. We tried to fuck but my boner was slacking. I shared before that I am in a transition in my aging process, where I may need to re examine my sexual habits. I do not have the same stamina I used to. Just a beautiful man is not anymore the only condition to function, now the connection is more important than the looks. This is not something I am finding out now in Medellin, but something that has been going on for about one year now. I also noticed it in my last trip to Argentina. Randy is beautiful, but our connection was not enough motivation.

My review is honest, so I will not repeat myself here. Once we finished the interview and he left, I kept working for a while before lighting up an apanado and relaxing. I talked to Max Avila, who confirmed me he is not escorting, but who is a much more interesting character than Randy. You will see when I publish it that Randy’s answers to my questions are quite conventional and safe, I could tell he was delivering talking points. I expect more from Max, who strikes me as smarter and more idiosyncratic. He is organizing sex parties and is taking a leadership position in the local adult entertainment industry. I am meeting him this afternoon, and have a lot of expectations on what my network could gain if we click and I can develop a partnership with him in Medellin, similar to the partnership I developed with Rhyheim in the USA and Brazil markets.

I also talked to Fercho. I have an appointment for this evening, with a guy called “Mafioso” in his Bilatinmen scenes. I also asked Fercho whether he was interested in an interview and being featured in the blog, he responded that we would talk this evening at Bliss. I could have ordered Mafioso to be delivered at my nest, but wanted to check the hotel to report how the service is over there.

I also contacted the owner of El Sillon Rojo. Sex parties have never been my thing, and that is not going to change now. However, I understand the guy has an extensive network amongst local porn creators and sex workers, and would also love to cultivate a partnership with him. They modified their themed parties agenda because of Semana Santa, and tonight is the Bears event, which is the best fit for me. However, I do not think I will be in the mood to attend the event after fucking at the Bliss Hotel.

Last evening, before I turned them off, the hook up apps were driving me crazy, out of temptation. It is amazing the number of attractive young men into older guys, without any transactions. Unfortunately, I have been studying the series of homicides of gay men in the city (6 so far, the last one about 2 weeks ago), and the modus operandi is concerning. For instance, one of the things that usually would make me feel safe is when the guys are not insistent. Well, apparently the 6 cases looked like regular hook ups, the killer/s did not harass their victims at all. The victims were all single men living alone or who met in an hotel, and they all were tortured and murdered before being robbed. I learned a Spanish word that I had never seen before: sevicia. You can look for it. Initially, the killers’ cruelty (so far there are two suspects detained, but 4 murderers are still unresolved) made the police detectives think of homophobic serial killers, but now they think they are dealing with homosexual homicides who know when the victim is in his most vulnerable moment to kill him. 

So I am not at ease with online hookups, and I will focus on the contacts I had made a long time ago, and kept during the preparations. Guys like the montanero, the costeño, and a guy I am meeting tomorrow. Hooks ups like the Venezuelan bakers are not going to happen again (I think, I am a slut with a very weak self control), at least my focus will not be that kind of hook up. If I had a room mate with me, it would be completely different. In that case, it would be safe to bring guys to my place, at least I would feel safer than even going to an hotel with them. Several victims were murdered in hotels. 

I do not like Viagra because I get red like a tomato, but I guess I will take one to go to the Bliss today. I can waste a meeting for free, but I would hate to pay and not being able to perform as I like to.

And now, I go for one of my walks before coming back to wait for Max. Today I want to take a closer look to “la 70”. Hugs.

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I returned from my walk, and before doing some work I want to update this log. 

When I walked out this morning, I felt a wave of happiness. Temperature was nice, and even with a little bit of sun, I was comfortable walking around. It would not last, by 11 it was not nice anymore. It is not the heat, the thermometer rarely goes above 27C, it is the humidity.

Anyways, I enjoyed walking around Carrera 70 and the less gentrified areas of Laureles. Bars, discotecas, and restaurants still have a very strong local flavor that  I am afraid will be lost if the city keeps growing for foreigners.  

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Hopefully, Colombia (or at least Medellin) will find inspiration in countries like Mexico, rather than Argentina, and cultivate a strong national culture and identity. I would be sad if all this beauty is lost, as it is already vanishing closer to Parque Laureles. 

Everything looked much quieter than my previous visit right before a soccer game. Many of the businesses probably open after noon and they were closed. There were plenty of room in all restaurants to sit and eat, unlike last Sunday.

By 11 am I started to head back home as it was getting too hot for me. In my way back, I found what I was looking for, a few blocks away from my home. I will not need to walk further to eat in places like this:

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They offer a traditional dish no one mentioned before: arroz paisa. I had actually discovered the dish in La 70, but the restaurant above is just two blocks away from my nest. 

Even better, I checked the bakery where my Venezuelan hook up works. I misunderstood when he told me he works midnight to 8. I assumed it was a bakery like the ones I know from Argentina. It is not. Besides bread and pastries, it is also a fast food restaurant open 24 hours, every day. He must work behind the counter and take breaks when there are not many customers. The place is perfect for my quest for local comfort food. Instead of Rappi, I will start going there to treat my munchies attacks. And perhaps kidnapping a server.

I love how all the boys call me “mi rey”. 

When strolling, I noticed a difference between street vendors here and in other places I visited. My experience has most times been one of harassment and tireless insistence despite my rejection. Here they only make an offer once and if you say no, they quickly move on.

Only once I lived an uncomfortable moment, not with a street vendor but with a beggar, that I forgot to report.

Last Sunday, when we were eating our bandejas paisas with the costeño, a man started to knee to beg for money to everyone eating in a table. When he got to ours, he even grabbed my arm and rested his head on my shoulder while begging for money. It was sad and heartbreaking. 

Sunday was also the day when I had a closer look to local poverty. When in the Metro that runs parallel to the Medellin River, I saw whole neighborhoods built by piles of trash and litter. Even the birds in that area seemed sick and dirty. The Municipality needs to work harder on decontaminating that river and cleaning up trash and littering.

When we passed over the popular comunas in Metro Cable, the work on infrastructure was noticeable. You cannot see the same closer to the river.

And bye, I have to get ready for Max.

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