[Dash Global]

rhinestone,

can you break it down abit for us?

ur experiences hitting up nightclubs, stripclubs, malls, ect?

and the overall look of the girls in the city?

[rinestone]

I'll do my best.
First off it's hot as shit. 93 and muggy is the norm. Big deal- so is Cartagena, Santa Marta, & Cali. The issue here is that because it's not near water, men cannot wear shorts. I know this isn't a big deal for a lot of guys, but I rock shorts and flip flops all day long in the steamy New England summers. Hot temp is one thing, but having to wear jeans in that heat is another.

The city isn't great, run down in many places and the 'good' spots aren't that nice. I had two hotels there, one was very nice and expensive but when you walked one way it was a dump. The other was a nice enough hotel but in a neighborhood that gets really dodgy- when I called a cab the cop walked me the 15 feet from door to door. Avoid Septima and avenues 1, 2, & probably 3 at night. Horrible reputation.

Never hit a strip club so I can't speak to that.

I believe there are only two malls there and I only saw one of them. Very nice, similar to the above-average ones I see here in Bogota. Typical stuff, not overly- crowded.

I'm more of a bar, live music guy then a club guy so that's all I can speak to but it was similar to what you'd see in other parts of Colombia. Local music is good. All mixed sets. Place is similar to Medellin or smaller cities in that it shuts down during the week and people really get after it on the weekends. Lots of younger people, although they're mostly looking for the street type bars to keep it cheap as best I could tell. One Venezuelan told me that Cucuta was technically more expensive then Bogota now. I didn't see it, but maybe apartments are expensive there. I went to one girl's apartment and even though I was pretty confident she made a decent living, her apartment didn't impress me. I can't vouch for what the Venezuelan said, but maybe he's right.

The best parts?:

I would argue that the women there are more attractive then costenas (excluding Barranquilla) and obviously put them below Paisas, and the pics I've seen of women I know in Cali & Baranquilla. Very good though- to make things better it's so hot that they have to dress the part, even at night. Generally very accentuating clothes, moreso then Medellin and certainly Bogota. Maybe most similar to Cali. The more I think about it, the more I'm pretty impressed with the overall look of the girls. Think of them as maybe lighter- skinned Calenas but not as generally attractive.

People are friendly enough, typical of non- Bogota Colombia.

Other good things is you're a quick cab or bus ride into Venezuela where you can really, really stretch your dollar. the exchange rate of Colombian pesos to Bolivares is ridiculous, they don't religiously stop you at the border, and it's real close.

Overall there are just too many negatives to compensate for the positives which can be found elsewhere. People who live there still have that regional pride that most Colombians do but the city is not in good shape with tons of homeless and disrepair. Also, that I know of- there's no real Zona Rosa or Parque LLieras area that I know of.

Hope this helps, unless you were able to find a decent living arrangement and really wanted to take advantage of the exchange rate in Venezuela, I'd skip it and probably not worth visiting unless it's really convenient. Cheers