2020 South American Expat Thread
- Thread starter Cr33pin
- Start date
Welcome to my motherland and ancestral city!
Dominicans are known for being less crime prone than us.
Cachaco, paloma y gato, tres animales ingratos.
I went on a road trip to Villavicencio in March, it was my first time every passing through the autopista through the south and the notorious Ciudad Bolivar area of Bogota. It’s like another world down there, very poor and ghetto, we pulled over to gas up in my buddy’s late model Benz and I was a bit nervous but it wasn’t a big deal, a beggar asked us for money but we didn’t have any, he did the typical “ok no problem, may God bless you, have a wonderful weekend.” Colombian bums are much more civilized than the meth head tweakers in North America.
Villavicencio is kinda lame but I also kinda liked it because it’s like Texas or Alberta down there, lots of cattle and oil. We had a hard time finding bars that played reggaeton, the locals really like popular and ranchera music which is basically their version of country music. We met some girls who came to a couple of different bars with us, they were very friendly but also conservative, nice chicas. Also, I met a guy in my hotel elevator in blue coveralls with the name of an oil drilling company I recognized, he ended up being from Alberta, down there drilling for oil, hopefully Petro doesn’t win because that dude will be out of a job, along with many locals.
Villavicencio is kinda lame but I also kinda liked it because it’s like Texas or Alberta down there, lots of cattle and oil. We had a hard time finding bars that played reggaeton, the locals really like popular and ranchera music which is basically their version of country music. We met some girls who came to a couple of different bars with us, they were very friendly but also conservative, nice chicas. Also, I met a guy in my hotel elevator in blue coveralls with the name of an oil drilling company I recognized, he ended up being from Alberta, down there drilling for oil, hopefully Petro doesn’t win because that dude will be out of a job, along with many locals.
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Ah, a connoisseur of Jewish music?
Ranchera is the real stuff!
Petro has a feminist as a running mate. He is literally stupider than Chavez. Which is why the powers that be are ok with him running, a worldwide energy crisis is what the banking families want.
It would also nean Colombia would be in even further debt ro the IMF.
We've been replicating others since Bolivar instead of looking at our forefathers of Old Spain and Nueva Granada. Bogota was the 2nd most important city in the empire, 2nd to Mexico City.
Our culture/society won't function again until we give up trying to impose enlightenment liberal democracy of English or French variety on a people who still have some remnant of a catholic worldview.
Our ancestors exchanged real culture and an ordered society for chaos by copying America in the Revolution. The last 200 years has been nothing but disaster.
I don’t know how to dance to ranchera amigo
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My "old lady" (was 18 when I met her) is from Villavicencio. I met her in Cartagena though.... I was playing frisbee on the beach with another RVF fellow and saw her and her friend taking some pics at the lifeguard stand so I tossed her the frisbee. She stayed and played a bit then we invited them over later to chill. She came over right as my steak dinner came (I was hoping to eat it before the girls arrived but it ran late) so I asked if she wanted to share the food and she said yes. Then after we finished she got up and washed the plate and silverware. She ended up falling asleep on the couch that night and the next day we canceled her flight back to Villavicencio and she ended up living with me for 6 weeks. She then visited me briefly when I was in Barranquilla... and around the first of the year I flew her here to Panama for three months (thats all she is allowed with the visa) I am going to fly her back next week or so because you have to leave Panama for 30 days to reset you time. As soon as my residency here goes through I will try to get her residency as well.....
My "old lady" (was 18 when I met her) is from Villavicencio. I met her in Cartagena though.... I was playing frisbee on the beach with another RVF fellow and saw her and her friend taking some pics at the lifeguard stand so I tossed her the frisbee. She stayed and played a bit then we invited them over later to chill. She came over right as my steak dinner came (I was hoping to eat it before the girls arrived but it ran late) so I asked if she wanted to share the food and she said yes. Then after we finished she got up and washed the plate and silverware. She ended up falling asleep on the couch that night and the next day we canceled her flight back to Villavicencio and she ended up living with me for 6 weeks. She then visited me briefly when I was in Barranquilla... and around the first of the year I flew her here to Panama for three months (thats all she is allowed with the visa) I am going to fly her back next week or so because you have to leave Panama for 30 days to reset you time. As soon as my residency here goes through I will try to get her residency as well.....
Thats the first I've seen you mention her.
As an outsider gringo who spent all of 2 weeks there, I agree. As flawed as Colombia is, there is something special about it. It really should emphasize and embrace its Spanish Catholic roots. Basically, be a better Spain with less European globohomo and more Catholicism.
I wish it was the norm. I got called a ladrón americano in a similar situation 2 weeks ago.
As much as I want to love the place and culture, it seems morally corrupt in my experience. People are very friendly but they rarely mean it. They are super polite but will happily run you over like a dog when you cross the street so as not to waste 1 second, while having the Virgin Mary on the dashboard of their cars. They will routinely try to take advantage of you financially and will not feel remotely bad about it. Colombians are extremely suspicious of each other, for a good reason.
If moral standards were higher, Colombia would be a dream.
^It has the highest rate of inequality in South America, even worse now because of covid, there’s a lot of desperate people around these days, plus the Venezuelan refugees. I read a quote once that went something like “morality is a luxury of those with full bellies” this expression applies to Colombia for sure.
Despite the low trust society and crime, I’ve met a lot of honest Colombians who’ve helped me out over the years, including a guy in a wheelchair who got my attention to tell me that I dropped a 50.000 note, the girl who found and returned my Chica’s cell in a taxi, etc
Despite the low trust society and crime, I’ve met a lot of honest Colombians who’ve helped me out over the years, including a guy in a wheelchair who got my attention to tell me that I dropped a 50.000 note, the girl who found and returned my Chica’s cell in a taxi, etc
I could mention Georgia as a very poor country where theft and crime in general are extremely low.
Same with India, apples and oranges dude. Colombia literally has Southern Africa levels of inequality and an extremely violent history and culture.
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I agree with you. My point was that poverty doesn't always produce a normalisation of violence and theft. Cultural factors are key
As a fellow South American, all of you have insufferable annoying accents all around. Way too high-pitched and whiny
Under 300 years of monarchy there was internal peace and low inequality, compared to the rest of Western Europe.
Then we decided that sucked and tried democracy and republicanism for the last 200 years instead.
We've averaged one civil war every twenty years since, the last one lasting sixty-three years.
Inequality has never been higher. The revolutionary governments charged far higher taxes than the King ever did.
As an independent nation, we've been second fiddle to America, with less independence than under the King.
Interesting how that works.
A lot of our accents are annoying, low-income rolo, boyaco y pastuso are unbearable as well as they are as you claim, high-pitched. The only ones I like are moderate Bogotano and Paisa. In Latam I only like the Argentinian, I'd rather watch series and stuff in English. Cheers man, wherever you're from.
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Just curiosity questions for the long term expats in S. America. How are you making your living there? Remote job? Business? Savings? On and off vacations?