Colombia 2020 - Part 3

Read part 1 and part 2

We met after her conference, went for a walk and made out in front of the sea. She was quite reserved, even though we kissed it was not on. It was not like previous dates where as soon as kissing happened she would be fully into it, in a Public-Display-of-Affection get a room style.

We went on walking in the beautiful city of Cartagena by night. We walked past my building and I suggested to come up. She hesitated. I told her it would be just a minute. But once we were in front of the doorman she said she was tired and it was better to go back home. I didn’t insist and took her to the main place where she could pick up a taxi. She ordered one through a local app. We kissed goodbye and I told her to let me know when she was safe home.

I went back to my hotel, having to walk through this square where beautiful local girls were waiting for clients. Sorry for the white knight comment: everyone can make his/her decisions and own them, but as a foreign tourist on my own, I really did not feel comfortable. It is really not my cup of tea. I also felt lucky that despite not being the kind of guy who makes all girls turn their head, I had enough resilience to go through rejections and learn game, so as to be able to have romances with beautiful girls without having to pay for it.

Fifteen minutes later, I realised she texted me.

“I am not feeling ok with my driver. He is talking about sex and encounters and he is asking me many things. Don’t go to sleep before I arrive at home.”

I got worried instantly and replied, “Is it OK now?”

Her answer did not make me less worried.

“I am a bit scared to be honest. He asked me if I lived alone. I told him I was living with my family.”

I suggested to call her so that he knows a guy knew she was in his car. But her battery was about to die with three percent left. Shit.

I asked her how long before she got home: she replied five minutes more or less. I also asked her to send me the taxi driver’s profile as long as it could be done discretely without him noticing. She did so. I replied that if I had no news in the next fifteen minutes, I would go talk to the police. After that, her battery must have died as she could not see my last messages.

At this exact time, Matt who didn’t know what was going on, sent me a funny text making fun of how paranoid Singapore people are about safety, when Singapore is probably the safest place on Earth. I was not really in the mood to laugh about this topic given what was happening. I called him explaining the situation and asked him for his opinion about what to do. He agreed with me except he advised that if I had no news, it was better to first talk to people at the reception of the nearest hotel so they would deal with the police rather than going to talk directly myself with the policemen in the street.

Ten minutes later, big relief, she texted me she was safe home. She was shocked but all right. She gave a bit more information about what the driver talked about. Let’s say that making a girl feel safe when she is on her own with him in his car in the middle of the night was clearly not his priority.

The next day, she joined after a conference she was going to. There were a series of conferences every day, it was some sort of festival. I liked that she was not the typical flaky Colombian girl: I was telling her where I was and she would simply turn up without changing plans, changing the venue, or cancelling at the last minute. That was refreshing. We had a drink in a nice restaurant-bar in a boutique hotel and walked to my building. This is where the doorman looked annoyed and showed me a piece of paper: on one side the list of apartments “with women” and on the other side the list of apartments “with no women”.

Alright, I was starting to understand the collateral effects of the sex tourism: when a foreign guy comes home with a young beautiful woman, the default assumption is that he paid her. Airbnb listings are full of rules preventing to bring anyone as a way to prevent prostitution. It is always the same story: just because some previous clients brought drugs – this was also mentioned in the welcoming pack- and prostitutes does not mean I can’t spend some time with a girl who liked me as much as I liked her. Just because of some previous behaviours that have nothing to do with me, they prevent everyone else from having any fun. Have you ever been told at any moment of your life: “oh sorry it was allowed in the past but we don’t allow it anymore because there have been some abuses.” Same principle here. That really annoyed me, so I just called it out to the doorman.

“Look, this is my friend. She has nothing to do with prostitution. I am not one of those foreign tourists paying for girls. We just want to spend some time upstairs.”

At that point another guy working in the same building walked in and told the doorman to let us go upstairs. So the doorman just let us go. My girlfriend told me that he was probably expecting some money.

In the flat, we started kissing on the bed but she would not let me go further. Call me sentimental but at this time of my trip I really wanted to discover this new city with someone instead of being on my own. Spending every evening in her company was great in any case.

We called it a night and this time I brought her to the luxury hotel Sofitel which was nearby. I asked the receptionist for a taxi that they know for sure would be safe. There were some taxi drivers working for the hotel, they introduced us to one of them, I talked to him quickly to tell him to take care of her and here she went. She texted me not long later -much earlier than the night before- to let me know she got home with no stress.

The next day, she was not sure she would have time to meet as she had her football training. I told her she could come directly from the training and take a shower at my place. She replied that she was Colombian and so she would always come home to make herself beautiful before going out. I went for a nice chocolate fondant and white wine at the Sofitel and she texted me she was joining. She arrived a bit late and god she was stunning. The hair, the dress, the little details like the earrings, the shoes: I love feminine girls, I love Colombia! She had a good crème brûlée while I ate my delicious fondant au chocolat. We spent a lovely evening. We sat on the sofas next to the garden of the hotel in the middle of a beautiful scenery. I did not suggest going back to my place. I just enjoyed being there with her. I was happy I found a beautiful and interesting girl to brighten my evenings in Cartagena.

We kept in touch afterwards and I would see her again on my next trip to to Cartagena. She was the first girl of the trip with whom I felt sad when we said goodbye. The following days back in Medellin I felt a bit of nostalgia.

Back to Medellin I decided to avoid El Poblado where all the tourists are. I stayed in Laureles instead. This was the place I discovered thanks to the date I described before. A bit more residential but lively enough. And clearly more than enough cool coffee shops and restaurants.

One afternoon I did a few approaches but had only rejections. They were always done in a nice way. I never insist and girls in Colombia are sweet most of the time. No need to put anyone down. Then I walked past the local university and saw this young hot girl walking and carrying a bag probably full of books. I approached her. She was in a rush but suggested exchanging numbers. I took her number and suggested meeting in the evening after her classes. That was really quick and I was sure pretty sure it would be a flake. Actually, after a bit of texting, we agreed to meet just after her classes.

To be honest, I was a bit paranoid: it was too good to be true. Although it wasn’t the first time I had a short interaction leading to a date, this was still Colombia. I was wondering: could it be a student who wants to have fun with me and gets a bit of money at the same time? I was warned many times by Colombian friends to be careful about it.

To be continued in part 4