COLOMBIA

Roosh V

© 2010 by Roosh V

http://www.rooshv.com

All rights reserved

Smashwords edition

Table Of Contents

1. Welcome To Colombia

2. Logistics

3. Culture

4. Game

5. City Overview

WELCOME TO COLOMBIA

It wasn’t long ago that Colombia was a no-go zone for tourists. Your main concern wasn’t becoming sick from street food but getting kidnapped by the FARC and held up in some jungle dirt cave with menacing parasites that crawled up your urethra and latched on for dear life.

Thankfully times have changed. The heavy hand of President Álvaro Uribe has diminished influence of the drug clans and pushed the FARC deeper into the jungle or across the border to Venezuela. The currency has stabilized and the economy has picked up with no inflation threat in sight (fun fact: most of the flowers sold in the United States are from Colombia). Tourists have flooded the country in search of something raw and edgy, unfortunately making it less raw and edgy with every passing month.

There are so many fresh tourists that if things hold I’m afraid it’s just a matter of time until the popular Colombian city of Medellín becomes spoiled like Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Some say it has already happened, but I believe travel here should be enjoyable for years to come. Still, the last thing you want is to meet a girl who is already experienced with banging and playing gringos. To get the best of Colombian women you want to be one of her first gringos so the relationship is novel and fresh.

While Colombia has made great strides with its economy, keep in mind that it’s still an impoverished country. Most of the population is poor, and this will be very obvious during your first cab ride from the airport when you’ll witness desperate masses tripping over each other to sell you things like gum and cigarettes. Common sense plays big here, so take the same precautions you would in shady parts of your nearest metropolitan city.

Poor Colombians aren’t savages, but if you let your guard down or they sense weakness, they will “take papaya,” as the saying goes. This means you shouldn’t flash expensive gold jewelry, watches, and electronic equipment, especially at night. Leave the SLR camera in your room after the sun goes down. Don’t take a huge stack of cash from your pocket when paying for something on the street (keep big bills in a separate pocket). Avoid carrying a wallet since professional pickpockets look for bulges in pants. Don’t stroll around in the gringo uniform of flip-flops, cargo shorts, and a beer in your hand in unfamiliar areas, and definitely don’t hop into a cab when drunk unless you want to be at the mercy of a man who makes less than $30 a day. In other words, don’t give papaya.

If you’re going to get robbed in Colombia, it will probably be by a cab driver who nicked your money while you were passed out in his cab. If you get injured, it will either be from eating improperly cooked food or from getting hit by a car or motorcycle, since vehicles make no attempts to stop for pedestrians.

Whenever someone “jokes” with me about getting kidnapped in Colombia, I know they’re an idiot who has probably never stepped outside of the United States. Kidnapping should be your absolute last concern. You have a bigger chance of killing yourself in a bathtub or choking on a jellybean, but if you want to go on an unguided tour in parts of the jungle where the FARC are known to have a presence, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make out a will beforehand.

Before I go on about the logistics of getting to Colombia, I want to give you a rough guide on how long you’ll need to spend there in order to get your flag, which is a notch with a girl who was born in another country. (For example, if a girl was born in Poland but moves to the United States where you bang her, you still get the Polish flag.) Assuming you have average looks, decent game where you can get laid on your own from time to time, and poor Spanish (under 500 words), you’ll need at least two weeks to give yourself an honest shot of banging a non-prostitute. Four weeks would be more reasonable because it simply takes time to meet enough girls necessary to get your flag.

On the other hand, if you have basic Spanish conversational skills, meaning you can roughly communicate (albeit with serious grammatical errors), you’ll need at least ten days, which includes two weekends. Even if you’re fluent in Spanish, I don’t recommend that you book a trip of less than ten days. Because Colombia is not a one-night stand culture, you need enough time to build a pool of three or four prospects and then ride them out until you leave. Personally, even with my Spanish knowledge and game, I would give myself two weeks, as it just takes a single bad streak to doom a shorter trip.

Be careful if you’re fortunate enough to stay in Colombia for a month or longer. When you’re aware of having so much time, you don’t hit the ground running and can actually have less success than if you only had a couple weeks. The mindset of being in a pressure cooker does wonders, and I’ve seen it firsthand with guys who had a short stay in Colombia and approached like a fucking machine, getting their flag in only a few days. Longer is not necessarily better if it causes you to slack off in the process.

If it’s difficult for you to stay in Colombia for more than a week or two, don’t worry because I’ll share my tips for setting up dates with Colombian girls via various Internet sites before you arrive.

Bogotá, Medellín, or Cali?

These are the three ideal cities for your Colombian visit, since they are well-populated and offer easy lodging and logistics for the visiting gringo, along with a large pool of available women. If you plan on staying in Colombia for more than a month, it would be ideal to visit all three for at least one weekend each to see which one fits you best, but for shorter trips I recommend you pick one city and stay there for the entire duration of your trip. Moving around too quickly will make it hard to get your flag.

Bogotá is the most populous city in Colombia with nearly 7 million people. It’s located in the middle of the country at an altitude of 9,000 feet, which may give you mild altitude sickness for the first couple days of your stay (headache, nausea, and shortness of breath). There are numerous universities but since the city is so heavily populated you won’t notice a dense college girl presence like other smaller South American cities such as Mérida, Venezuela and Córdoba, Argentina. The air pollution is abominable and you may find yourself choking on fumes during taxi rides through congested streets. Without a rail system, the city’s size becomes unmanageable, and getting from one part of town to another is a headache. The weather is mild during the day but cool and rainy at night. There is a slight bohemian and hipster vibe among the females, with Converse shoes and mullets being common among both sexes.

Medellín is the second largest city with 2.4 million people. It has perhaps the best climate in the country; days hover around 80 degrees Fahrenheit and nights are made for jeans and a t-shirt. Unfortunately there is quite a bit of rain, especially during April, May, September, and October.

With a reliable, safe, and clean subway system, Medellín is a much more manageable city than the capital, though slightly more dangerous, if you trust government statistics. The girls here are arguably more attractive because of the shallower paisa culture, which teaches young women to aim for looks instead of brains. Gigantic fake breasts are not uncommon (as well as ass implants), especially in the richest part of town (El Poblado). This creates a cheesier vibe than Bogotá, but Medellín’s permanent summer is also more pleasing to the eyes, since girls don’t need to pile on the thick clothing.

Finally there is Cali, the country’s third largest city and also the hottest. The girls here are a shade darker, from stronger African-American ancestry, but are more sensual and friendly. This is the salsa capital of Colombia—an ideal place to go if you prefer to dance in your nighttime pick-ups. Cali is more dangerous than Bogotá or Medellín.

If a choice isn’t obvious for you after reading these descriptions and any of the cities would suit your style, I recommend Medellín. I am biased since I spent more than five months there, but I think with the pleasant weather, bountiful supply of single women, and modern public transportation, it’s a rather easy choice. If you want something more spicy without the gringo hordes, Cali should be your pick. If you want a more progressive vibe along with a large selection of restaurants and clubs then choose Bogotá. All cities are connected by frequent buses and flights in the case you want to travel around.

LOGISTICS

Because of its relative proximity to Miami, flights to Colombia will always be significantly cheaper (from the United States) than to other countries in South America such as Brazil or Argentina. The cheapest way I’ve found to book your ticket is by using the “Flexible Dates” option on CheapTickets.com, which searches for the lowest fare based on how long you want to visit. Go to the site and click the small “Flexible Dates” link at the bottom of the homepage’s search box. Type your home airport in the “From” box (use WAS if you’re in Washington, DC) and either MDE, BOG, or COL in the “To” box, for Medellín, Bogotá, and Cali, respectively. Scroll down to “Option 3” and enter how long you can stay and the window of dates you want to travel between. Don’t worry if you want to stay for more than 14–16 days, since you mainly want to see which day the cheapest fare departs.

After submitting the form you get a grid that lists prices for various departure days. If all the prices are the same, you can go back and enter your preferred dates and most likely get the same deal. If the prices are different, note which days of the week are cheaper to leave and arrive and enter those days for the trip length that you prefer. It will usually be cheapest to travel on either a Tuesday or Wednesday. Flights to Medellín and Cali may be slightly more expensive, but you always have the option of taking the nine-hour bus ride from Bogotá to either city at a cost of about $25. For flights between Colombian cities, try these airlines:

Aero Republica (http://www.aerorepublica.com)

Aires (http://www.aires.aero)

Avianca (http://www.avianca.com)

Easy Fly (http://www.easyfly.com.co)

Satena (http://www.satena.com)

Sometimes you’ll get lucky and find a flight that’s barely more expensive than the bus, though if you’ve never been on a long bus ride in South America then I recommend the experience, since it will make you a stronger man. Just don’t stow any bags in the overhead compartment because there’s a very high chance they’ll get nicked if you doze off.

If your trip is shorter than a month, you’ll be looking for short-term lodging at either a hostel or hotel. If you have some money to play with, visit Expedia.com for hotels that are between $50–120 a night. If you’re a budget traveler like myself who likes self-catering facilities to cook meals, you’ll want to check out hostels that cost about $15–30 a night for a private room, sometimes with an in-suite bath.

My first recommendation is to check out Hostel Trail (http://www.hosteltrail.com) for personal reviews of Colombian hostels and semi-hotels. My second choice is Hotel World (http://www.hostelworld.com), which has more listings that I would classify as “party hostels,” meaning they’re full of Australian guys getting drunk and acting obnoxious.

If the hostel doesn’t give you a key to the front door, it’s unlikely they’ll let you bring a girl back to have sex, even if she’s not a prostitute. You’re going to have to find an hourly motel to get your flag. Ask the person working the front desk the following question: “Do you know an hourly hotel near here, in case I get lucky?” Don’t be shy to do this. You’re a man with needs and there’s no reason to be embarrassed if someone else thinks you’re going to get laid. The last thing you want is to have a girl ready to fuck but then stumble and bumble when it’s time to take her somewhere. Get an address immediately upon arrival and stick it in your pocket. Then all you have to do is hand it to the taxi driver when you think your girl is ready. Again, this is a crucial step if you want to get your flag.

If you lodge in a hostel and meet a girl who asks where you’re staying, say “with a friend.” Otherwise you’ll lose about 100 points and be delegated to the category of “backpacker who is passing through.” Also be vague about how long you’re staying in the city, saying that you’re keeping your schedule open.

The most ideal option is to rent an apartment so you can have your own bedroom and bath and also be able to bring back girls. There are four sites I recommend:

Poor But Happy (http://www.poorbuthappy.com): A discussion board with a Rent section. Unfortunately, it has shut down but the archives are still available as of this writing.

Colombia Blog (http://www.colombianblog.com): Another discussion board with a Rent section.

CompartoApto (http://www.compartoapto.com): A classified site that has shared rooms for rent, though most listings are in Spanish.

Vanilla Colombia Forum (http://colombia.vanillaforums.com): The apparent successor to the Poor But Happy forum.

Simply post your needs and see what responses come in. The longer you’re staying, the easier it will be to get a good price. Another option is to hit Google and search for terms like “Medellín + apartamento + temporada” to find broker sites. Yet another option is to initially stay in a hostel and then visit real estate broker offices for rentals upon arrival. Aim for getting as much apartment as you can afford because telling a girl you’re staying in a nice area displays status, something that helps with women who have long been spoiled by drug money.

Packing

Colombia has everything that a first-world gringo needs to live comfortably, except for quality condoms, turkey breast, and English books. They definitely have contact lens solution, SPF-15 facial moisturizer, rechargeable batteries, SD memory cards, clothing, and the like, though they’re generally more expensive than in the States. Here is a simple packing list for trips from two weeks to six months in length:

Socks, t-shirts, underwear, two fancy nighttime shirts, one pair jeans, one pair shorts, bathing suit, towel

Day shoes, night shoes, flip-flops

Contact lens accessories, toothbrush, floss, mouthwash, deodorant, soap, razors, shaving cream, electric beard trimmer, shampoo, lip balm, comb

Computer and camera accessories, GSM cell phone, headset for Skype, mp3 player, travel clock, batteries

Condoms, Astroglide, small padlock, Swiss army knife, keychain light

Ibuprofen, foot powder, earplugs, nail trimmer

Credit and bank cards, extra passport photos, books, pens, journal

There are two things on this list that are more important than the rest. The first is a GSM-compatible cell phone. You must have a cell phone if you want to get laid. It simply can’t be done without one. Okay, it can be done if you pull the one-night stand, but being able to set a date is very important. The cheapest way to do it is to buy an unlocked cell phone in the Colombian band of 850mhz or 1900mhz. Go to Amazon.com and search for “unlocked cell phones” and you’ll be able to find something reasonable starting at $35. When you arrive in Colombia, go to a reseller of one of their three most popular providers (Movistar, Comcel, Tigo) and purchase a SIM card for less than $10 to start a prepaid (prepago) account. When your balance runs low, you can recharge at any large grocery story. The resellers also sell prepaid phones, but they’re locked and more expensive than what you can get back in the States.

Another thing you should bring is earplugs—and not the kind for sleeping. Because Colombia doesn’t have a bar pick-up scene, you’ll have to frequent more clubs than you’re used to. Some of these clubs can be so loud that it can be impossible to understand anyone, especially if they’re speaking a language that you’re still learning. You need a pair of discreet ear plugs that filter out the music and not human voices, allowing you to stay for hours without getting frustrated or going temporarily deaf. I recommend the Etymotic Research ER20. They cost around $8 from Amazon and will last you at least a year with regular use. I always leave them in the change pocket of my jeans.

Calculating a Budget

Your budget is 120,000 pesos a day. You don’t need more than that if you plan to rent a basic room for a month and cook most of your meals. It includes the aforementioned food and shelter, going out to clubs, taking girls on dates, cell phone service, and random purchases for clothing and other necessities. The most expensive date I’ve ever been on cost $50 and included drinks at a nice lounge after a fancy dinner (a mistake, as you’ll read later). In the U.S. that would have cost me about $140.

If you’re going to travel from one city to the other, staying in hostels or cheap hotels and rarely cooking your own meals, bump up your daily budget to 160,000 pesos, not only for extra transportation and food costs, but because of the higher chance something will go wrong and you’ll need cash to resolve it.

To convert these numbers to dollars, simply divide them by the current exchange rate. As of this writing that rate is 2,000 pesos per dollar, so the daily budget estimates range from $60 to $80. Living in Medellín I averaged 2,350,000 pesos a month ($1,175), so note that I’m giving you higher-end estimates.

The main thing that will increase your budget is taking Spanish classes, which run about 16,000 pesos an hour for group lessons. If you want to go out more than 2–3 times a week, do drugs regularly, and eat in fine restaurants, your budget will also increase. On the other hand, with a frugal approach you can get by on 1,500,000 pesos per month, but this is only possible if you quickly get a Colombian girlfriend and don’t need to go out frequently. Going out at night to gain prospects will be one of your larger expenses. To give you an idea of how much things cost, here is a brief price list of basic items:

Basic set lunch: 5,000 pesos

Bottle of beer at snobby club: 6,000 pesos

Bottle of beer at local pub: 3,500 pesos

Hostel dorm bed per night: 20,000 pesos

Nice steak dinner: 18,000 pesos

Short taxi ride: 4,000 pesos

Ice cream sundae: 2,500 pesos

Apples (per pound): 3,000 pesos

Paper photocopy: 150 pesos

Text message (send or receive): 200-300 pesos

Subway ticket (one way): 1,500 pesos

Bus fare (one way): 1,400 pesos

If you’ve ever been to Argentina, the costs in Colombia are very similar.

A Sound Strategy for Learning Spanish

Because Spanish is so important in communicating with Colombian girls, it’s worth your time to learn as much as you can, especially since it’s spoken in so many countries (twenty-one, to be exact). Plus it makes learning Portuguese easier for when you’re ready to conquer Brazil. Here’s a sampling of countries you can game in Spanish: Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay, and certain parts of the United States. Knowing both English and Spanish will give you a ton of options, not only with banging girls, but living abroad as well. For instance, if the American authorities apply heat on you, you’ll have somewhere else to hide where you can communicate with the natives. I believe that with each new language you learn, the world becomes smaller while increasing your options at the same time.

A lot has been written on the “secrets” of speaking a new language, but the biggest secret is work. The more work you put into it, the more you’ll learn, and there’s no escaping that. My strategy recognizes the importance of attacking the problem from a lot of different angles.

To get you started speaking right away, I strongly recommend the Pimsleur program. It’s a series of audio recordings that teaches you the language through a call-and-response system. There are three Spanish units and each contains thirty half-hour lessons, for a total of forty-five hours of instruction. (You can buy the courses from Internet retailers or download the torrents illegally.) The program will likely keep you busy for at least three months because you’ll have to repeat some of the tougher lessons up to three times if you don’t already know another romance language, such as Italian or Portuguese. Aim to do the audio program for at least one hour a day. This is an easy feat if you pair it with another one of your routines, like going to work in your car (burn the courses on a CD) or exercising in the gym (iPod). In Medellín I did six hours a week of the Portuguese courses solely on the bus to and from the gym.

Next up is a textbook that builds a strong foundation of the language. My recommendation is Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish. It has forty-five fast-paced lessons organized in a way to highlight the similarities between Spanish and English. The first couple of lessons show you how to convert hundreds of words from English into Spanish without having to do any memorization, and by the end you’ll have a basic grasp of how to construct sentences using the most important verb tenses. Do at least one lesson a day.

Books with drill exercises are often boring and repetitive, but are incredibly effective in learning a language. There are two exercise books I recommend: Practice Makes Perfect: Complete Spanish Grammar and Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Verb Tenses. Both have the correct answers in the back. The exercises are probably going to put you to sleep, but you’ll quickly notice a newfound ability to construct sentences on the fly. Do forty-five minutes a day from these books after you finish Madrigal’s Magic Key to Spanish.

Finally, you need a Spanish reader in order to help with comprehension. Two readers to get you started are First Spanish Reader and Stories from Latin America. You can begin the first book immediately, while the second one will be more suitable once you enter an intermediate level. When you do any exercise or reading in Spanish, make sure you add the step of speaking everything out loud, which accounts for the downside of studying from books that strengthen reading and writing instead of speaking.

For words you don’t know, make notecards and review them every couple of days. Construct a sentence from each one so you can start speaking the language in your own words. Add additional words you wanted to use but didn’t know at the time, meaning you should be walking around with pen and paper. There’s no point in memorizing vocabulary that you don’t even use in your own language.

Rent Spanish movies from Netflix and download all of Juanes’ albums (he’s a famous Colombian singer from Medellín with a relatively easy-to-understand accent). If you study two hours a day, six days a week for three months, you’ll be able to have basic conversations with girls in Spanish. Since most Colombian girls don’t speak English, any conversation you can have with them is better than no conversation. There will be painful pauses for sure, but there won’t be complete and utter silence.

If you’re going to be in Colombia for a month or longer, it would make sense to take a Spanish class. Classes keep you motivated, help you better understand spoken Spanish, and teach you local ways of saying things. Most universities in large Colombian cities have Spanish classes for foreigners. In Medellín, there are two recommended schools: EAFIT (http://1.bangcolombia.com) and the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (http://2.bangcolombia.com). Both are within walking distance of subway stations. EAFIT is considered a top school in a more desirable part of town, but UPB is a solid choice as well. Taking a class at these schools will familiarize you with the campus, a place you’re going to approach girls during the day.

Your language ability will get better with time, and on subsequent trips to Latin countries you’ll find it significantly easier to get laid. I can’t stress how important it is to give studying Spanish a shot, especially since the above resources can be obtained for very little money. Besides being rich, I believe that learning a popular language is the most important means to building real connections with foreign women.

CULTURE

There are two things driving most Colombians: religion and family. Colombia is deeply Catholic, apparent with the many young mothers you’ll witness who didn’t have a choice to abort (it’s illegal, except in a couple very restricted cases). Birth control is more the exception than the rule, and the art of pulling out seems to be foreign to Colombian men.

You’ll be in a bus or taxi and see Colombians make the Hail Mary sign every time they pass a church. Images of white Jesus will be everywhere, especially inside people’s homes. Don’t be surprised if you’re at a girl’s place and see statues of Jesus placed in front of life-sized portraits of Jesus next to more statutes of the apostles and portraits of the Virgin Mary. The net effect of religion here is that Colombians are a superstitious bunch and except for some young people who haven’t really bought into it (yet), Colombians look to religion for basic answers on how they should live.

They’re also very serious about family. You’ll often find three generations living under one roof, a big difference from how things operate in the United States, where aging members of the family are shipped off to some faraway nursing home. In Colombia, it’s assumed that the younger generation has some responsibility to take care after their elders and also to accept their advice. Family is so important that young people have little independence, and permission must be gained for even small things. There’s a good chance you’ll meet a girl’s parents before you come close to having sex with her, and there’s a near 100% chance she’ll be living with them. In fact, if she lives alone then it’s a guarantee she comes from a very wealthy family.

Additional cultural phenomena will make your job in gaining a Colombian flag even harder, such as cell phone communication. A majority of Colombians have prepaid cell phone plans that are teetering on the edge of a zero balance. Since call charges are borne by those making the call, no one wants to call someone from their cell phone, since it will cost upward of forty cents a minute. No one leaves voice messages either, and if you happen to leave one you can sleep well knowing it probably won’t be checked promptly. If you send a text message to a girl with a zero balance, she’ll receive the text but won’t be able to write back. Many girls have a tag technique where they call you and let the phone ring just once so you get the hint and call her back. This is their way of saying they want to talk to you but are unable (or unwilling) to pay for it.

Expensive cellular calls have led to the “minuto celular” business, where vendors purchase unlimited plans from the cell phone companies and then resell minutes to the general public from street corners or plazas. Think of them as human phone booths. Because a girl doesn’t know if her cousin or best friend is calling from a vendor or not, she’s much more likely to pick up the phone from unknown numbers. You’ll see that Colombian girls screen calls much less than Western girls.

Nightlife logistics are also different. In America, nightlife is constructed to meet other people. There are few chairs and tables for sitting and most people stand around a crowded bar to mingle. In Colombia, bars and clubs are packed with chairs and tables and everyone is using them. If there’s a bar or club that doesn’t have chairs, it will be frequented by hordes of gringos who rightly prefer a set-up where people are standing up instead of sitting down.

Another Colombian nightlife feature is that girls rarely go out with only girls—they go out with other men. Because the girls can’t afford to buy their own drinks (remember they can’t even afford to keep up a balance on their cell phone), they’ll always be trying to go out with guys who will pay their way. It’s common for a girl to check you out but within a protected ring of dudes, leaving you with few options to start an interaction. Since at least one of those guys is paying for drinks and trying to get in her pants, he’ll more often than not be displeased if you make headway with her, and even if you do make headway, she’s not going to hook up with you in front of her social circle. On most nights you’ll walk away from running solid game with only a phone number.

Later I’ll share my countermoves for dealing with these cultural problems, but it’s safe to say that Colombian society is constructed to make it as hard as possible for you to get laid, thwarting you every step of the way.

The Nature of Colombian Girls

You’re probably already familiar with their curvy bodies, dark hair and eyes, large chests, round booties, and creamy tan complexions. American girls are significantly fatter, but Colombian girls aren’t exactly the thinnest culture you’ll come across—it’s very hard to find one who doesn’t have some pudge around her belly or extra fat on her arms. Proper diet and exercise haven’t made their way to Colombia yet, but thankfully people there don’t eat the huge quantity of food that Americans do. You’ll find a good amount of chubby girls, but not massive cows like in the States.

When it comes to personality, Colombian girls are from a different planet than their American counterparts. The average Colombian girl will get hooked onto you in record time and smother you with more attention and affection than you may have ever experienced in your life. I believe this is because they have low self-esteem, leading to a neediness that’s only present in the ugliest American girls. There’s even a word for this type of excessive affection in Spanish: meloso. It may be annoying until you get used to it.

The Colombian girl is definitely not afraid of falling in love quickly and would rather do so than “play the field” like American girls (consider that in Colombia there’s no word for “dating” or “seeing” someone—you’re either a friend or a boyfriend). Since she’s more nervous about losing her man, she’ll be better tuned to serving your emotional and physical needs, assuming two things: (1) she’s at least twenty-one years old and has prior experience with men, and (2) you keep your game tight by remaining aloof and only slightly caring.

She also has a carefree and spontaneous personality. If you’re talking to her in a bar and her favorite song comes on, get ready for a break because she’s going to sing along until it’s finished, encouraging you to do the same, even if you don’t know what the hell the song is saying. I’m confident that your Colombian flag will make you feel almost stiff because of her free-spirited approach to life.

In addition to being meloso, she’ll also be celoso, or jealous. During days apart, she’ll ask what you’ve been up to, where you’ve been, and with whom. Make no doubt that she’s trying to catch you in a lie to see if you’re cheating. Early on in a relationship you’re going to have to tell her to chill out with the twenty questions or else her prying will continue to get worse. This is part of their culture, since the men do it as well, which means that Colombian couples tend to have an unhealthy obsession over each other and want to know the most minute details of each others’ lives. By getting away from that and maintaining some distance from her, you’ll put her in a state of anxiety where she’s unsure how much you really like her. This is a great spot to be in because she’ll be looking inward about what could be wrong instead of dwelling on your flaws.

Speaking of flaws, the average Colombian girl doesn’t have a whole lot to say, most likely due to limited experiences of living at home with her parents her entire life. Many have only known one home and one city. Her sense of humor is partially nonexistent, and she won’t get your sarcasm unless her favorite television show happens to be The Simpsons instead of a telenovela (soap opera). Definitely don’t look to a Colombian girl for laughs or deep conversations about the meaning of life.

You’ll find her to be flakey, unreliable, and seemingly not too serious about fucking, especially at younger ages. The truth is that Colombian girls aren’t as horny as American girls and banging one won’t be the easiest thing you attempt. The moon and the stars have to be aligned almost perfectly for her to decide it’s time to get laid. The result is that you’ll have a pile of numbers that quickly wind up in purgatory. The only way to combat this is to keep going until you find a girl who is trying to get it. Besides having actual game, the most important quality in gaining your Colombian flag is raw animal persistence.

To give you an idea of how hard you’ll have to work, I’d like to introduce my very unscientific Approach Index. It states how many girls an average looking guy with decent game has to approach before he’s likely to bang a cute girl. If you’re conversational in Spanish, that number in Colombia is 60. If not, you’ll need to approach about 120 girls. (If you’re a very ugly guy or have zero game, increase these numbers accordingly. If you’re a very ugly guy and have zero game, then increase them further.) The Approach Index doesn’t count Internet attempts, only face-to-face approaches.

For comparison purposes, let’s take a look at two other South American countries—Brazil and Argentina. For Brazil you’ll need to approach 50 girls if you know some Portuguese and about 75 girls if you don’t. The reason the spread for Brazil is lower than Colombia is because so many Brazilian girls speak English, and the ones that do tend to like gringos.

Argentina is a bit harder than Colombia: approach 90 girls if you know Spanish, and 150 if you don’t. Argentina is the hardest country of the three to gain a flag, but the logistics are more favorable, since girls go to clubs that don’t have tables. It’s easy to approach 10 girls a night in an Argentine club, but more difficult to do so in Colombia. Therefore it’s possible that you’ll get an Argentine flag faster than a Colombian one within the same timeframe. To put all these numbers into perspective, I’d assign an Approach Index value of 45 for the United States.

There’s a lot of talk about the sexuality and easiness of Brazilian girls, but keep in mind that a lot of gringos go to Brazil to either bang prostitutes or girls who live in shacks. Even with a knowledge of Portuguese, Brazilian girls are slightly harder than American girls. The biggest indicator of how fast you’ll bang a South American girl is how well you’re doing in your own country. Do you have to approach more than 45 girls in the States to get a bang? In that case, increase the numbers a bit. Keep in mind that the Approach Index is only a guide that clues you in to how hard you’ll have to work in a particular country. It’s unrealistic to think that you’ll gain your flag on exactly approach number sixty.

I hope the somewhat high numbers don’t discourage you from Colombia. Tons of gringos have banged doing far fewer approaches than what I predict because I don’t account for the luck factor that undoubtedly occurs in many cases. If you want it bad and you’re willing to work and execute the strategy I’m about to share with you, I’m confident that you’ll get it in a reasonable amount of time.

GAME

We’re going to use a three-pronged strategy of Internet, day game, and night game. Think of each as a pillar of a foundation. If one pillar is weak, the foundation is at risk of falling. It’s impossible to predict by which method you’ll get your flag, so you must approach all three with rabid intensity.

Internet Game

In the United States I don’t advise using the Internet because of the ease of meeting girls in bars and clubs. If a man wants to approach ten girls on a weekend night in any medium-sized American city, he’ll easily be able to do so, since there’s really no shortage of available girls for him to practice his game on.

It’s a different story in Colombia. There’s a difficulty that doesn’t exist in the States: finding targets. You can be in a huge Colombian club with hundreds of people, dancing to a rotating mix of house music, salsa, or reggaeton, and literally see nothing suitable around you to approach. The reason is because girls hang with other guys, usually at tables. You can approach girls with other guys—and you’ll learn how shortly—but the success rate of these approaches is low because so much of your time is spent integrating yourself into the group rather than gaming your girl. Therefore we must drag the Internet option out of the woodwork to compensate for these nightlife difficulties.

What’s great about Internet game in Colombia is that you can get started before you land in the country. For about a month before your arrival, you should keep yourself busy trying to build something with Internet girls so you already have prospects before your touch down on Colombian soil. What’s not so great about using the Internet is that the quality is usually on the lower end. It will take quite a bit of time to sift through the massive piles of garbage.

There are three Internet sites that are worth your time. The first is Badoo.com, a free social networking site similar to Facebook but with more of a dating angle. Simply sign up for the site, upload some awesome photos of yourself, and start your search by city. Their interface is similar to instant messaging, so a simple “hola” will suffice as your opening line (use the “Online Now” link to have instant chats with girls). Keep the conversation basic by asking fluffy questions like where she lives and which places she recommends for you to visit in her city. Don’t make jokes about kidnapping or Pablo Escobar.

After a few back-and-forths, ask if she would like to meet for a drink, perhaps under the guise of wanting to practice your Spanish. If she’s interested she’ll respond with her number. If she doesn’t speak English and your Spanish isn’t yet up to par, simply use Google Translate to set a date around the time you plan to arrive. Understand: if you have no Spanish ability, the type of girl who agrees to go out with you will either be looking to eat well or will be of lower quality than you’re used to (another reason why learning Spanish is so helpful). Don’t worry too much about what you’re going to talk about when you get her out because you can either wind up in a club or draw on napkins while getting her drunk.

Be mindful about how long it takes to reply to messages. If she takes several hours, you should take several hours as well. You don’t want to appear needy by replying much sooner than she does.

Another site that many guys have had success with is Colombian Cupid.com. And yet another is Amigos.com. Both are pay sites similar to Match.com or Lavalife. For these two sites it would be better to have an introductory template than a simple “hola.” Here is an email that I have had success with:

Hi! I'm Roosh. I arrived in your city a week ago and now live in centro.

I have been to South America twice before. One time was for two weeks in Venezuela and the other time for six months in Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, and Brasil. Usually I stay in hostels when I travel because they're easy and convenient, but they have a lot of gringos. My Spanish is only so-so because I spoke a lot of English while traveling. Now that I'm not in a hostel, I'm ready to seriously learn Spanish and I think it would help if I meet people who speak it. I saw your profile and you seem very interesting. Do you want to have a drink this week? I have a cell phone

Ciao!

Roosh

The Spanish equivalent:

Hola! Soy Roosh. Hace una semana que llegué a tu ciudad y ahora vivo en centro.

He estado en sudamerica dos veces antes. Una vez por dos semanas en Venezuela, y la otra vez por seis meses en Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay, y Brasil. Normalmente me quedo en hosteles, pero tienen mucho gringos. Mi español solo es asi-asi porque hablé mucho ingles mientras viajaba. Ahora que no estoy en un hostel, me he puesto en serio a aprender español. Creo que sería de ayuda conocer gente que hablara español (por supuesto). Vi tu perfil y me parece que eres interesante. Quieres tomar un café o cerveza esta semana? Tengo un celular.

Ciao!

Roosh

Use Google Translate to make changes to the template if your details are different than mine, like changing some verbs into the future tense (e.g. “I’ll have a cell phone” or “I will live in centro”).

Be aware of the Internet scam where pretty girls chat you up online to get Western Union cash for an “ailing” family relative. To sweeten the deal she may flash her titties every now and then to show how crazy she is about you. Unfortunately this scam is effective because many lonely gringos end up throwing away their money on Colombian girls who simultaneously run the scam on a dozen others. It’s best to move on if a girl shows ridiculous amounts of interest and starts talking about money after just a couple messages.

The Internet strategy is a pure numbers game and no doubt you’ll feel like a copy-and-paste monkey, but in the end it does work and personally resulted in my second Colombian bang. Spend at least thirty minutes a day on these sites building up prospects and don’t be cheap when it comes to shelling out money for the pay sites. I’ve met a few guys who had dates lined up during their one-week Colombian vacation by hitting all three sites like a horny grizzly bear. Even one success from Internet gaming will make you feel quite satisfied, especially if it results in your flag.

Daytime Game

Day game is a great way to meet girls outside of the artificial club environment and will be a strong preference for guys who aren’t drinkers. In the States it’s used mostly to supplement nighttime activities, but in Colombia day game takes on a more serious importance because of the already mentioned difficulties of meeting Colombian girls in bars. To guarantee your Colombian flag, you’ll have to make more approaches during the day than at night. This isn’t going to be particularly easy or enjoyable, since you’ll be alone without the loosening effects of friends or alcohol, but it has to be done to ensure success.

There are two places where you’ll see the best results: the university café and the mall, using a total of three different openers. Let’s start with the first opener.

Rumor has it that far more girls attend Colombian universities than men. I don’t have official statistics on hand, but this seems to be the case from my observation. There’s no other place in the country that has such an insanely high density of beautiful young girls. While flake rates from college girls are considerably higher than girls in the general population, I believe it’s worth a little headache to bang beautiful 20-year-olds. The youngest Colombian girl I banged was 19-years-old and even though she had no idea how to cook, clean, or please me sexually, there was something incredibly satisfying about waking up next to a hot-bodied teenager in her physical prime.

Universities in Colombia have armed guards at the gates, so you’ll need to bring your driver’s license or some form of identification to gain access (I don’t recommend bringing your passport, since it may not be stored securely). Tell the guard you’re either thinking of signing up for a language class or would like to study at the library. If that doesn’t work, go to another entrance and simply say you’d like to attend class and need to talk to the director of language studies. Since there are multiple entrances and different guards, you can perform this scam for quite a while. Once inside, explore the university and find the cafeteria or any other setting where students congregate at tables. Remember all those Spanish book suggestions I gave you earlier? Well, one of those will be your prop to start a conversation.

Plant your ass down at a table near others and crack open your Spanish book. If you don’t want to only study Spanish, bring either English books or a laptop (you may have to register the laptop at the gate or else they’ll think you stole it when you try to exit). When there’s a girl or group of girls near you that you want to meet, all you have to do is ask them a Spanish-related question, based from your study book. If you don’t have any books, then pull up a Spanish language website on your laptop and ask for an explanation on a random topic. What’s important is to have the question prepared before you enter the university so you’re always ready to go, since the last thing you want to do is have a girl leave while you’re thinking of a question. The only requirement is to ask a question that begins with “why” to allow her to explain the answer. If you ask, “How do I say dog in Spanish?” the conversation will be very short and closed-ended.

Let’s look at an example. Say I’m studying a section of my book that explains the differences between para and por, two words that roughly mean “for” in Spanish. I’ll stare at my book, squinting my eyebrows because of how confused I am with this difficult Spanish concept, then casually glance around and miraculously notice that there are Spanish speakers sitting within speaking distance of me. How convenient! I’ll then grab my book and head over to the group (standing up and walking if I have to, still with a confused look on my face) and say, “Hi, can I ask you a Spanish question?” In Spanish, say, “¿Hola, puedo hacerles una pregunta de español?” If it’s a single girl, say, “¿Hola, puedo hacerte una pregunta de español?” They’ll size you up for about three seconds and then urge you to continue (I’ve never had any girl decline to help me). Then point to your book example and ask why something is the way it is. A simple “¿Porque esto es asi?” or “Why is this so?” will usually do. It’s no problem if you don’t know much Spanish because a great benefit of hanging out at the university is that about half of the girls will know English.

The best type of question to ask is one based on an exercise you got incorrect. Simply ask the girl to explain why your answer is wrong. It’s okay to ask a question that you already know the answer to. In many approaches I’ve sat there nodding my head with a look of enlightenment as she explained a concept I had already mastered.

Though you speak English fluently, you’d probably struggle to explain the “why” of an English concept if asked by someone learning the language. We effortlessly speak English without being aware of the hundreds of rules that come with it, a fact of language that actually helps us in this case. The Colombian girl will think hard about your question and how she can explain it to you. I’ve had girls literally ask her friends, “Ah, how can I explain this to him?” Eventually she’ll come up with a good answer after a minute or two. During that time you have successfully shown that you’re a laid-back guy looking to broaden your horizons with foreign language study.

Once her explanation is complete and the conversation looks to be over, say, “El español es un idioma muy dificil,” or “Spanish is a very difficult language.” Nine times out of ten the girl or girls will then ask where you’re from and what you’re doing in Colombia. If she seems to have a sense of humor say “sexo y drogas” for an easy laugh. From this point on you’ll have a normal conversation where you show devastating charm and humor that encourages her to ask further questions. Make sure you don’t ask more questions than she does, for not only do you want to avoid showing too much interest, but you don’t want to turn the conversation into an interview. Your opener may also come across as fraudulent if you immediately start asking details about her life. Instead, ramble on by recounting your thoughts and observations of Colombia, Spanish, and your previous travel experiences. Show your personality just as you would with an American girl, to the absolute best of your ability.

One way to tell the girl is interested is if she asks you at least three or four questions during a 10–15 minute conversation. Understand that different questions have different weights. A girl asking where you’re from means nothing, but if she asks for your name, she’s 100% interested (at that moment, anyway). This is why three or four questions of any type are a good guide to see if you should go for her phone number or not. If you’re talking to her for what seems like forever and she doesn’t go beyond asking about where you’re from, you can be pretty confident that she’s just being friendly and either doesn’t like you or has a boyfriend.

When you feel as if you’re running out of gas and she has asked questions, go for the telephone number. As a segue, ask where she usually hangs out at night. In Spanish, that is, “¿Generalmente, dónde sales en la noche?” She’ll tell you the name of a bar or area and you can then add a thing or two about the nightlife you’ve experienced thus far in her country (and how it compares to that in the U.S.). Then say, “Well, you seem interesting. Do you want to have a drink some time?” In Spanish say, “Bueno, me parece que eres interesante. ¿Quieres tomar algo otra vez?” If she says yes, take out your cell phone to get the digits or have her write it down on a piece of paper. It wouldn’t hurt to also get her email address if there’s a strong language barrier. Don’t linger after you get the number—pack up your books and say you’re going to go eat or wash your hair. We want to “go out on top” and keep the tension tight going into the first date.

It may feel a bit aggressive to ask for her number when you only had a casual conversation. You’re going to feel tempted to give off a simple “see you around” and hope you run into her again, or maybe even get her MSN Messenger handle for online chatting. Don’t do this. If a girl isn’t ready to give her number to an interesting guy after ten or fifteen minutes of fun chat, she’s not serious about fucking. I’ve tried the “see you around” method and have nothing to show for it. It’s a stupid, passive strategy, because chances are you’ll never see her again. If you like the girl, always go for the number if she shows some interest in you by asking questions.

Put in the time commitment to meet university girls. Don’t treat the cafeteria like a bar where you check it out, decide there are no cute girls, and then leave. Sit for at least two hour sessions around the peak time of 12–2 p.m. to allow opportunities to happen. When I arrived in Medellín, I was spending about ten hours a week at a university cafeteria studying Spanish and thirty minutes a day on the Internet. I was rewarded with three notches within seven weeks, in addition to going on many dates that unfortunately didn’t result in a bang. In five solid sessions at the university, you’ll probably rack up enough numbers to last a few weeks.

The next place that’s worth your time is the mall. Some guys may disagree with me here and say the street or public transportation is better. While you can definitely pick up girls in those places, the fact is that malls are plentiful, easy to access, and always have pretty girls, making them a reliable place to approach. There are two sources of poon here: the working girls in the stores, which will often be empty, and the regular girls milling around.

For girls who are working in the store, you’ll pretend that you’re shopping for an article of clothing. Because you’re not sure whether you should buy a particular item or not, you need the opinion of the cute salesgirl. Ask her what she thinks of the item while you have it on. Be sure to ham it up and act like you’re genuinely torn about purchasing it. In most cases, the shirt or perhaps skinny jeans will get the girl’s approval and then with a smile you say, “Liar! You just want me to buy the shirt!” In Spanish it’s, “¡Mentirosa! ¡Solo quieres que yo compre la camiseta!” If your delivery is right, she’ll laugh and assure you that it fits your hot body perfectly.

Proceed to have a conversation about the differences in style and culture between Colombia and where you come from. In Spanish, “where I come from” is “de donde vengo.” It’s always best to be vague, because that encourages her to ask questions, allowing you to gauge her interest. If you’re giving up all the goods, making it hard for her to ask easy questions, how will you be able to tell if she’s interested? Say something generic about how they don’t have shirts “like this” in your home country. If you have a few minutes of conversation with the salesgirl and she doesn’t even ask where you’re from, then she’s not interested and you can move on to the next store. I had a buddy who got his flag using this technique on his first week in Medellín.

The close technique here will be the same. If she’s asking questions about you, find out where she usually hangs out at night and then ask her out for a drink.

You’re going to take a different, more fun approach for girls who are regular customers and not working inside a store. If the girl is in the concourse, perhaps staring at a store window, approach her by asking if there’s a pet store inside the mall, because it turns out that you want to buy a gift for your friend’s cat. In Spanish say, “¿Hay alguna tienda de animales en este centro commercial?” Wait for her to respond, then say, “Tengo un amigo que vive aqui y tiene un gato. Quiero comprarle un regalo al gato.” She’ll say there are no pet stores and then you can continue on about how hard it is it to find a pet store in the city. She’ll give you a peculiar stare and won’t say too much, so you must continue to ramble on. Say, “Where I come from, there are a lot of pet stores.” (In Spanish: “De donde vengo, hay muchas tiendas de animales.”)

The pet store line is natural for the mall environment and definitely piques a girl’s curiosity. Plus, like our previous lines, it asks for a girl’s help, something that will prevent her from brushing you off immediately (humans have a natural inclination to help others in need). It throws out enough bait that the least she’ll want to do if remotely interested is ask where you’re from, usually at the two-minute mark.

If you’re talking to a girl about cats or clothes or whatever and it’s obvious you’re a foreigner but she doesn’t ask where you’re from or what you’re doing in Colombia within two minutes, she’s not interested in you one iota. Move on to the next girl. If she does ask, take that as a green light to continue rambling on about whatever interesting observations, facts, or opinions you have simmering in your head. Realize that the girl will initially not help you out, even if she sees you painfully struggling with the language, and it may feel like you’re talking to yourself while the girl stands there like a cardboard cutout. But as long as she’s still standing there and giving you her undivided attention, keep going about whatever comes to your mind without asking any personal questions before she asks them first. If you’re forced to ask questions to save the conversation, keep it indirect in the line of, “Are you shopping for clothes today?”

In the pet store line, you’ll eventually want to get out of talking about pets with a segue. One option is to compare some facet of culture between Colombia and your country, perhaps starting with mall culture (e.g. “I notice that Colombian malls are very different. They have so-and-so…”). Your environment will give you tons of material to use in the conversation that can keep it going indefinitely. Pepper the conversation with breezy questions here and there to keep her engaged (e.g. “Are you from here?” and “Where did you get that necklace?” and “Where is a good place to buy skinny jeans?” and “How old are you, by the way?”), keeping in mind not to overdo it and turn things into an interview. Pace your questions so that you’re asking two for every one or two of hers.

The ideal conversation has you rambling on and asking infrequent questions. It will simply feel like two people trying to get to know each other. Go out on top as usual with the standard close technique, but if the conversation has fireworks and she gives you little touches on your hands or arms, ask if she wants to go to the food court with you to get ice cream. Continue to build the connection there until you eventually get her number for a nighttime date. If you think she’s immediately trying to get fucked, invite her to your place to listen to some music and eat or drink.

If you want to hit on a girl inside a store who isn’t working there, simply ask her opinion on an item of clothing, like you did earlier with the salesgirl. Here it’s fine to ask without trying it on by laying the item on your body. Your follow-up will change slightly to “I’m asking you because you don’t work here. I figured you’d give me an honest opinion.” In Spanish: “Te pregunto porque no trabajas aqui. Me parece que podrías darme una opinión sincera.”

If you’re fluent in Spanish, you’re probably catching minor errors here or there, but rest assured a girl will understand you, and your mediocre Spanish acts as even more bait for her to find out exactly where you’re from. If at any point during an approach a girl gives you a “what the fuck are you talking about?” look, ask if she speaks English by saying “¿Hablas inglés?” That is your last-ditch move to save the approach after a rough start.

Understand that you can adapt these lines for other venues as well. For example, you can ask a girl a Spanish question while in a library or café. Note the pattern of these lines: open-ended questions asking for help that allow for easy segues into interesting conversation. You can easily create your own custom openers and follow-ups if you keep this formula in mind. For instance let’s say you’re on the subway and there’s a cute girl right next to you. Go ahead and ask her how to get to a certain stop. Then follow-up by saying how the city is big and you always get lost, maybe throwing in a little comment comparing it to where you come from. This formula can be used to approach girls during the day in absolutely any location and I’m sure you’ll find a way to adapt it for wherever you happen to find cute girls.

Nighttime Game

The biggest shock most gringos have after testing out Colombian nightlife is, “Why the hell does everyone hang out in these huge groups?” I’ve concluded that going out in the United States is more about meeting someone new, but in Colombia it’s about hanging out with people you already know. You’re further limited by only having three nights to consistently find girls out and about (Thursday, Friday, and Saturday). These difficulties don’t mean you can’t bang a girl from nighttime approaching, as I’ve done it along with many of my gringo friends, but the payoff for your hard work tends to be lower.

What’s more important than anything in meeting Colombian girls at night is the venues you pick. In other words, your venue research will do just as much to determine if you get your notch at night than mere persistence. Once you find that Western-style bar where people are standing up and mingling, hold onto it for dear life until you succeed because I can assure you it won’t get much better. Later I’m going to give you some specific recommendations for individual Colombian cities, but for now let’s go over game material.

I’m going to share my all-time favorite opener, which I debuted in my book Bang, one that works in bars, clubs, lounges, or what have you. Say, “You look like you’re having the most fun here out of anyone.” Say it in a neutral tone where the girl is unsure if you’re being sarcastic or not, though in Colombia that may not matter, since sarcasm isn’t generally picked up.

At night, always open in English. Not only do you want the girl to know right away that you’re an exotic gringo, but you also want her struggling with language instead of yourself. Spitting game is already hard enough, but doing it while you’re tripping over words makes it a serious challenge. Let her go through that struggle so you can at least focus on the gaming part. The only exception to this rule is if you’re rather fluent in Spanish and the benefits of being able to fully express yourself in her language outweighs any potential gain from appearing exotic by speaking English. Toward the end of my six months in Colombia I would mix it up more and open in Spanish, since my improved fluency made approaches smoother and more natural.

I don’t recommend that you open during the day in English because it comes across as presumptive and arrogant, but at night, where you want to be a little arrogant, go ahead and start off in English. During the conversation you may have to talk a little bit slower than you’re used to.

In Spanish, “You look like you’re having the most fun here out of anyone” is “Creo que eres la que mejor está pasando.” Use it if she doesn’t understand the English version.

With this opener you can take a lot of different paths, depending upon the type of response the girl gives you. The first follow-up turns things back on yourself: “I thought I was having the most fun here out of anyone, but then I saw you and realized I wasn’t. Your energy is bursting.” Good luck translating that into Spanish.

The next two follow-ups relate to the environment, a nearly unlimited source of conversational material. Say, “Yes this music is interesting. I don’t know if I can get used to it. Is it popular around here?” (“Está musica es muy interesante. No sé si puedo acostombrarme a ella. ¿Es popular por aqui?”) The last follow-up you can use is, “I was just drinking with my friend and we like this bar. Are there other bars like this?” (“Estoy tomando algo con mi amigo y nos gusta este bar. ¿Hay otros como este?”) You can stack these follow-ups on top of each other, theoretically using all three from the same opener. Do this if she’s not giving you anything to work with. Make sure you stick around with cold-seeming girls for at least a minute longer than you want because some take a little longer to warm up to foreigners.

It’s not useful to give you a memorized script. Simply keep rambling, avoid asking too many personal questions, and remember “The Vibe” that I detail in Bang. Have a fun and interesting chat until she starts asking questions, the first being where you’re from. Then game her like you would girls you’re used to.

If you get tired of the “most fun” opener, I share additional ones in Bang that you can easily translate into Spanish because of their simplicity.

Now you’ll need a strategy to approach groups that contain guys. First, I don’t want you to automatically assume that a girl in a group of guys is getting banged by one of them. Girls will grind on a guy’s cock without being at all serious about him, so unless they’re kissing or holding hands, I bet they’re not fucking. If a girl is in the middle of a group that has guys, it’s best that you approach one of them first. This shows respect and prevents him from getting jealous and cockblocking you too soon. If the girl you like is milling around on the outskirts of a group, go ahead and approach her first instead because it would look pretty gay if you went out of your way to bypass the girl for the guy friend.

Approaching guys is the easiest thing you’ll ever do. You’re simply going to ask a matter-of-fact question to start a conversation. Try these openers: “Do you know how late this bar stays open?” “What kind of drink is that?” “What are the names of these two teams playing (on the television)?” “Do you know where the bathroom is?” “Cool shirt, where did you buy it from?” In Spanish, they respectively are: “¿Sabes a que hora cierra este bar?” “¿Que tipo de trago es ese?” “¿Come se llaman los dos equipos que están jugando?” “¿Sabes donde queda el baño?” “Chevere camiseta. ¿Donde la compraste?”

After he gives you an answer, just nod a couple times and make a generic comment about the spot you’re in. By then, hopefully his group of friends will take notice of you and ask where you’re from. I find that I get asked that question much quicker by guys than girls, perhaps because guys don’t feel the need to restrain their interest in gringos. Another way to keep the conversation going is to ask questions about bars, clubs, restaurants, and other sights you should visit. People generally love sharing local knowledge, so this will at least get him talking.

The strategy here is to have a cool guy chat until he introduces you to his friends, including the girl you want. It’s then that you can start to talk to her, but make sure you give the guy enough attention so he doesn’t cockblock. Toward the end of the night, once everyone becomes more intoxicated, you’ll find it easier to get a one-on-one with your girl to game her more thoroughly.

This is where I remind you not to make common mistakes. For instance, avoid buying drinks for girls who don’t reward you with some sort of intimacy first, even though it wouldn’t be expensive to do so. And be mindful that a problem with speaking in a foreign language is that you lose a lot of your cockiness. I default to being nicer to girls when I’m in another country and since this doesn’t translate into more bangs, I have to constantly remind myself to be as much of a challenge as I am in America. I think this occurs for two reasons: (1) I don’t have the language ability to be cocky, and (2) a part of me may feel more vulnerable or insecure in a land far away from home. Just don’t overdo it if she’s being very responsive.

Because Colombian girls are extremely flakey (for reasons I don’t completely understand), we’re going to hit her with an additional cocky line that helps commit her to the pick-up. “So what qualities do you have which make me want to get to know you better?” (“¿Que cualidades tienes que me hagan querer conocerte mejor?”) Say it with a smirk on your face after she asks you a second or third personal question (when you’re reasonably certain she’s interested). A squint here wouldn’t hurt either—it’ll make it seem like you’re weighing the costs and benefits of getting to know her. This line tells her that your time is valuable and that you don’t feel especially privileged to be talking to her merely because she’s Colombian. If she scoffs at you, odds are she wasn’t all that serious in the first place or your delivery wasn’t playful enough.

If you’re at a place that has a dance floor, I suggest you use it. Dancing is very important to Colombian girls and you should put in a token effort to show her that you’re capable of sharing one of her passions. It’s not important to be a good dancer, since I’ve seen a ton of horrible gringo dancers with decent-looking girls, but it’s important to give it your best for a few songs because there is no bigger buzzkill to a Colombian girl than a guy who doesn’t dance at all. In fact, when a hideous girl is hounding me at the club, I simply refuse to dance as a way to turn her off completely. It never fails.

Once you’ve built attraction, she has asked questions about you, and you’ve been talking for at least half an hour, the seduction becomes like any other. Consult pages 123–145 of Bang to review your options, which include getting her number, changing venues to another bar, or trying to take her home. Colombia isn’t as much of a one-night stand culture as America, so you’ll find that the pick-up usually ends with a measly number. Even kisses are much harder to come by on the same night you meet, but that’s no surprise because half her social circle will be looking on. One possible reason Colombian girls flake so much is that we achieve far less intimacy on the first night than usual, which in most circumstances helps reduce the likelihood of a flake.

If she doesn’t live with her parents and you want to try to take her home, say, “Si quieres, puedo acompoñarte a tu casa,” which means, “If you want, I can escort you home.” If you prefer to get her back to your place on the same night, again a challenging task in Colombia, you can ask if she’s tired or not and then suggest a drink at your place. Say, “¿Tienes sueno? Si quieres, podemos tomar algo en mi casa.”

Only get her number when one of two things happen: you run out of gas or you’re parting ways because you couldn’t escalate the interaction further. Definitely don’t get a number if you’re going to keep talking to her, because that tells her you’re scared of losing her, a needy display that Colombian women aren’t particularly impressed by.

To get her number, say, “You seem interesting. Do you want to hang out some time?” In Spanish: “Me parece que eres interesante. ¿Quieres tomar algo otra vez?” That literally translates to: “It seems to me that you are interesting. Do you want to drink something another time?”

I’m confident that you’ll find getting numbers isn’t especially hard, whether during the day, night, or on the Internet. The hardest part is actually getting them out on dates.

At this point it’s worth mentioning the prepago, a gold digger who actively seeks out gringos in order to get wined and dined. The term prepago means pre-paid, suggesting that by the time you bang her the sex was already paid for with food, drink, and gifts. You’ll generally know you’re dealing with a prepago when she gives you inordinate amounts of attention when you first meet, immediately asking questions about your job, where you’re staying, and how long you’ll be in Colombia. A regular girl will wait until attraction is built before she starts asking those questions, but with a prepago it’ll seem insanely easy from the get-go without that normal period where you have to put in some effort and work for her attention.

It’s true that some gringos don’t mind dating a prepago, just like how many American men don’t mind dating a girl who’s into him for his money. They know they’re indirectly paying for it anyway, so that fact doesn’t faze them. As long as you avoid dinner dates and cook for her at home every so often, you’ll weed out the girls who are just looking for a free ride. If you’re not sure if you have a prepago on your hands, ask yourself the following question: “Could a normal Colombian guy afford the things this girl expects from me?” If not, start suggesting movie nights at home to find out how she really feels about you. I estimate that there’s only a 15% chance you’ll actually meet one during your one month or less stay in Colombia.

Dating and Banging

Before you pick up the phone to call the girl, make sure you have a venue in mind. It’s better to do an hour of research on a random night and stumble onto a suitable date bar than to give her the power in suggesting a place, especially since she’ll pick something expensive that may not necessarily be conducive to hooking up. You want a bar that’s relatively quiet and allows you to get nice and close to touch her. Absolutely do not take her to dinner before you at least kiss her, as Colombia has a bigger problem of girls wanting free meals than in Western countries. A good way to imply that eating isn’t in the cards is to set dates for 8:30 or later. If she tries to push you to an earlier time, that means she wants to squeeze food out of you. Be firm, making up an excuse about how you’ll be busy beforehand.

If your Spanish is horrible and she doesn’t speak English, setting the date over the phone will be extremely hard because she’ll give you responses that you won’t understand. In cases where there’s a serious language barrier, I recommend getting the girl’s email address and using that to set a date. Only use text messaging if you know for a fact that it’s a method of communication she uses, since she probably won’t have the balance to reply to messages. (I dated a Colombian girl for months who never sent me a single text message.) I also suspect some girls simply don’t “get” text messaging. It’s a safe bet to use it if she sends you messages first, but generally speaking the less Americanized she is, the more likely it is that she won’t.

If you want to brave the phone, let me share my simple script for when you call her in two to four days after meeting. After she answers the phone, I say, “¿Hola, es Roosh, como estás?” She’ll say she’s fine. Respond with “¿Que haces?” which means “What are you doing?” After she answers, tell her what you’re doing or just did, whether it’s cooking a meal, coming home from the gym, or studying Spanish. After she makes a token comment, ask if she wants to grab a drink this week. “¿Quieres tomar algo esta semana?” You’re getting right to the point because you simply don’t have the ability to have a lengthy conversation. If she says yes, then suggest a day: “¿Que tal el martes?” If she agrees, great—tell her a time and suggest an easy-to-find meeting point near your selected bar. Unless it’s more than two days before the date, you don’t need to tell her you’ll contact her to confirm. End the call with, “nos vemos,” which translates to “see you.”

Understand that you can be flexible about contacting her. Many guys who are short on time call the next day and have succeeded that way. I’m a fan of waiting at least two days because you don’t want to show that you’re needy.

Let’s say you called her on a Monday and she agreed to go out with you on Thursday. Since that’s three days away, you’ll want to confirm the date on Thursday so you don’t get stood up. Tell her that you’ll call her Thursday afternoon to confirm: “Voy a llamarte el jueves en la tarde para confirmar.”

If you’re dealing with a college girl who is cute, you always want to confirm, even if the phone call is just a day away from the date, because the chances are she’s extremely flakey. That’s just how it is in Colombia. In fact, cute young girls are so flakey that we need to introduce a specific move that will greatly reduce the likelihood of the flake. After telling her you’re going to confirm the date on Thursday afternoon, simply give her radio silence once Thursday rolls by. Don’t contact her. If she attempts to call or text you at some point in the late afternoon or early evening, that means she got anxious or excited about going out with you and wanted to ask if the date is still on for the night. Pick up the phone or text her back and set the time as usual. (If she attempts to contact you in the morning or early afternoon, it’s probably to cancel.) There are times I’ve pulled this move and the girl didn’t call or text me, meaning she didn't give a shit about me to see if the date was on or not.

I don’t recommend using this move on girls who are showing extraordinary interest or who were easy to get in touch with. You’ll know to use it on those girls who took two weeks simply to get on the phone or agree to a date. Always use it on wishy-washy girls, but restrain from using it on girls who have given you zero flakey suspicions.

There are other ways to contact her as well, such as via email and MSN Messenger. Let’s start with email.

While I don’t use email much in America, it’s a great tool to use in Colombia because there will be no confusion or awkwardness like on the phone due to a language barrier. The best time to get an email address is when getting her phone number—ask her to write it down in addition to her number. A downside of using email is that it takes longer to set a date, so if you’re short on time you shouldn’t use it. On the other hand, you can use online translation tools like Google Translate to get your message across.

Email her in two to four days with a very brief and simple message that doesn’t exceed three lines. Plug something like this into an online translator: “Hi, Carolina, how are you? I just went to Plaza Botero today to visit the statues and it was very nice. I took a lot pictures. Anyway, do you want a grab a drink this week, maybe Tuesday or Wednesday?” Don’t use the email option on poor girls because they may not check it frequently. If the girl is a student or obviously middle class, you can rest assured she does check daily.

Notice how I suggested two different days. The reason is because if I only suggested one and she happened to be busy, it would take another email cycle to suggest another one. With this method she picks the day she’s most free and you can proceed with a time in the next email. If I really was trying to set a date for Tuesday or Wednesday, I wouldn’t send the email later than Saturday. That means you need to give at least three days for the process, but four is preferable.

If she replies saying that Tuesday would be best (or that either day is fine), say, “Cool! How about we meet Tuesday in front of the Juan Valdez in Parque Lleras at 8:30? I know a good bar nearby.” If she agrees, write back with a simple, “Mi numero es 3188633644. Nos vemos.” Again, be aware of your reply times. If she takes a day to respond, then you should too, even if time is running short. Always take just a little bit longer to reply than she does so you don’t appear needy. This seems like a trivial matter but in fact it’s the most important thing you can do when communicating with girls electronically, including text messages.

Tuesday and Wednesday are ideal for first dates. You get to feel out the vibe on a non-primetime slot and if the date goes well you can go for a second date that weekend to seal the deal.

Your other option to set the date is MSN Messenger, a free instant messenger program by Microsoft. For some reason, Messenger has taken hold in South America and is the preferred instant chat program, above AIM, Google Chat, or Yahoo Messenger. You can sign up with any email address.

It’ll be a given that her email will be from Hotmail, so you can plug that into Messenger and her contact will pop up. That said, don’t use Messenger. It ties you to the computer and offers no benefits over email when it comes to setting dates. There are way too many opportunities to mess up the pick-up and kill the tension by saying stupid things in a drawn out, boring conversation. I only add girls to Messenger after I bang them.

Once you confirm the date and are reasonably sure she’ll be showing up, take a deep breath and congratulate yourself. What you did really isn’t that easy and what you’re about to do is even less so. Now let’s talk about the actual date.

Besides getting stood up, a bad thing that could happen on the date is her bringing along a relative, invariably a “cousin.” In that case, she’s pegging you for a chump that’s going to treat them both to drinks. You have two options here to save face: call a friend to come and occupy the cousin or say you forgot your money and have to go home to get it. Of course, you don’t return. If she shows up alone, great, greet her with a brief kiss on the cheek.

It’s important that you consider changing venue on the date. This is where you start at one location and then move to another after a drink or two. The reason you do this is because it makes one date seem like two, adding to the “I’ve known him longer than I really have” factor, which will shorten the time to bang. In America my dating game got tight enough that I no longer had to do the venue change, and I continued that in Colombia, where I picked one bar for the date and stayed there the entire time. The result was that my first date kissing percentage took a huge drop. Because my Colombia date game is weaker due to poor Spanish, I definitely needed the venue change maneuver to help me out. Even if the Colombian girl spoke decent English, I stopped taking chances and always did the venue change. After all, you only get one first date.

Therefore, in reality, you’ll need two bar venues, with the second bar being generally classier than the first. The main idea here is to have a drink or two at the first bar, get a little loosened up, then walk to the second bar nearby arm-in-arm, where you sit closer and ramp up the touching. The arm-in-arm walking move is important because it will change the mood of the date from just talking and bullshitting to one where a kiss is likely to happen. It’s detailed in Bang along with my other three “key moves to intimacy,” which all help guarantee the kiss.

As for conversational tips during the date, refer to Bang, pages 86–88. Just remember that you don’t want too many silences in the first venue before the alcohol takes effect. Keep rambling to the best of your ability. Your time there will be the second hardest part of the pick-up, second only to the actual approach. The reason is because you’ll struggle with how to say what you want and the girl will be less able to help you out with silences. Because Colombian girls are unlike Western girls with their richer experiences, they won’t have a whole lot to say. Just hang in there, keep talking, and remain cool. Absolutely do not make apologies for your bad Spanish or lack of fascinating conversational topics.

Things will relax at the second venue as you both become more lubricated. Use the silences to maintain deep eye contact, following with touches that include your hand on her knee or your arm wrapped behind her. It’s important that you pick a second date venue that allows you to execute these moves—so no large tables where you have to sit opposite each other.

Now this is where I tell you that Colombian girls are harder to kiss than American girls. There is an unfortunately high chance that she won’t let you get close enough for the kiss at the second venue. Then you’ll have to make a last ditch effort before you escort her home or into a taxi. The best way to know if a girl is ready to be kissed is if you get in really close to her face and she holds steady while maintaining eye contact. If she can’t keep eye contact and does her best to look away, she’s definitely not ready. Refer to pages 65–70 of Bang for more details about the kiss.

If you get the kiss, great. Slobber on her face for a short while and then wait for her to tell you she has to go home. Moving the action back to your place will be extremely hard because Colombian girls have curfews, even girls in their middle and late 20s. If you’re dealing with an older Colombian woman who doesn’t live with her parents, offer to take her home and then weasel your way inside (pages 95–97 of Bang). Otherwise, a make-out with some ass grabbing is likely the most you’ll get.

When you part with her, make a vague suggestion of doing something the coming weekend. You’ll then call her in two days to make that happen, setting a date for at least a day after that. If you want to plan the second date via email, realize that it will take more time.

The easiest way to bang a Colombian girl is to invite her to your place for a home dinner date. Because you’ve already got her where you want her, you’ll have plenty of time to bang before her curfew kicks in. I don’t pull out this move until after the date I make out with the girl, when I’m at least 50% sure there’s a solid chance I can hit. The reason you only want to use the cooking date after you’re reasonably sure you’ll bang is because you can’t do them consecutively. In other words, you don’t want to “waste” this tool before the girl is ready.

For your dinner, cook something light without red meat, butter, or heavy cream. This is to allow the cheap boxed wine that you’re accompanying the meal with to get absorbed properly into her bloodstream. A safe bet is Chinese chicken stir-fry or a pasta dish with a basic sauce. Start cooking after she arrives so you can begin the drinking process on an empty stomach, when the alcohol will have a stronger impact. Another option is to have her cook Colombian cuisine for you at your place. In that case, go grocery shopping with her beforehand to buy the ingredients, a “couples” thing that will increase your rapport with her.

After dinner, it’s just a matter of going back to your room to “listen to music.” Start making out with her and then go through the deal-sealing steps like you would with any other girl. One thing you need to keep in mind with Colombian girls is that their heavy Catholic influence may cause them to put up ball-busting resistance when it comes time to taking off clothing. There’s no culture-specific trick to breaking them down—simply do what you normally do (Bang, pages 103–105) and understand that it may take a few extra minutes. In the end, Colombian girls want to fuck just as bad as any other girl, especially when they’re in your bedroom.

After you’re done beating her pussy up (congrats on your flag), call her a taxi, assuming she doesn’t want to stay. This is the point where she may make several comments about how much a taxi costs. For theatrical effect, she may look through her purse and have an exasperated look on her face as if she forgot her massive wad at home. She may then straight-up ask for money. If I like the girl, I take a hard line: I don’t give her anything. I tell her that she’s welcome to spend the night and take the bus in the morning. If I never want to see the girl again, I give her the taxi money to get rid of her.

The reason I don’t think you should give taxi money to a girl you like is because she’ll lose respect for you afterward. We want her to see us as a man she has to put in effort to spend time with, not a wallet that she just has to show up, eat, drink, and spread her legs for. If she wants the benefits of dating a fun gringo, she has to pay for the cab ride to have a good time with him. Besides having to please you, that’s the most we’re going to ask from her. In the end, dating a middle class girl will always be preferred over dating poor girls, where the line between a normal relationship and prostitution becomes blurry.

If you’re staying at a place like a hostel, your best bet is to get her into a love motel. After a night of drinking and dancing with your date, walk onto the street and say, “I know a place where we can relax.” In Spanish say, “Yo conozco un lugar donde podemos descansar.” Take a cab to the love motel you already know about, without waiting for her to say yes. When she realizes where you’re taking her, add, “We’ll just talk and take a little nap. We don’t have to do anything.” In Spanish: “Solo vamos a hablar y dormir un poquito. No tenemos que hacer nada.” But of course no one has ever checked out of a love motel without making love.

Your new Colombian girlfriend will probably get needy on you very quickly, wanting to talk and see you often, maybe even saying “I love you” in less than a month’s time. If this isn’t the type of relationship you’re looking for, there will be an awkward period where you realign her expectations by staying distant. Tell her that since you won’t be in Colombia for long you don’t want to get attached, so it’s best if the relationship stays light and fun. She’ll get the hint and you’ll probably end up in some sort of open relationship where you take her out and bang while creeping with other girls on the side.

And that’s how you have sex with Colombian women. Easy, right?

I predict that you’ll study this guide, visit Colombia, and work your ass off to get a notch or two with girls that may not be your first choice (only with some experience and solid Spanish can you tap the upper echelon of Colombian quality). You’ll think, “Well, this is nice and all, but it’s not that big of a deal.” After the rush of getting your flag, you’ll feel that Colombian girls are rather normal, with flaws like any other girl you’ve dated in the past. In other words, I doubt if your experiences with Colombian women will completely change your life.

But when you return home and start macking again, something will seem off. The women in your country will be hideous, fat, cold, and full of masculine attitude. You’ll feel lethargic, uninspired, and unmotivated. And this is where you’ll miss Colombian women. Their jealousy and neediness, which you found annoying at the time, will turn out to be endearing and almost charming. Their femininity and ability to please a man will be miles ahead of the girls you meet at your favorite watering hole back home. You’ll stare at the calendar, check your budget, see how many days off you can get from work, and then plan your glorious return.

CITY OVERVIEWS

Now that you have all the information and tools you need for meeting and banging Colombian girls, I’m going to share some highlights of three cities: Bogotá, Cali, and Medellín, with a focus on Medellín, since I spent nearly six months there.

Cali

The main things that Cali excels in are heat and salsa. If you love salsa, you’ll get along in Cali just fine, but otherwise the city fails to keep up with Medellín in regard to feminine beauty and pleasant weather. On the bright side, there are fewer gringos and prices are cheaper.

Nightlife is spread out within four main areas. The largest is La Sexta, which has a cheesy collection of bars and clubs. Packed on the weekends, it will have the most number of women you can talk to. If you’re staring at a couple dinky bars, wondering, “Is this it?” then you have to walk a couple more blocks down (or up), since it’s split into two parts.

Next up is Granada, located within walking distance of La Sexta, though be careful at night. It contains about a dozen bars and restaurants that cater mostly to the middle and upper class. With live music and friendly vibes, your best bet will be Bourbon Street (Calle 17N, 8N–45). The girls here like gringos, but the quality won’t be spectacular.

If you’re in Cali for salsa, hit up Menga, a strip of large clubs located close to La Sexta. These clubs are heavy on wooden tables and mixed-set groups, so it will be hard to approach or casually mingle unless it’s a busy night. The club Mango Biche is a reasonable choice, since it plays a mix of music and not just salsa. Jala Jala is best if you want to dance to salsa all night long.

Finally there’s Parque de Perro in Barrio San Fernando, a square with a couple dozen bars and clubs that’s popular with younger people who’d rather drink on the street than step inside somewhere. I recommend it more for taking a date rather than picking up.

Except for certain spots in Menga, all bars and clubs in the city close at 2:00 a.m. on weekend nights and 1:00 on Thursday, so it’s best to get started early.

Because you won’t have many easy approaches at night, it would be a good idea to run some game during the day. The most obvious place to do that is the gigantic Chipichape Mall near La Sexta. Another spot is the Juan Valdez Cafe on the corner of Calle 17N and Av 8 near Bourbon Street, a popular daytime hangout that had the hottest girls I saw in Cali.

Bogotá

Bogotá is a tough city to crack because of its sheer size, and with many options it’s difficult to decide where you should spend your time. The two areas I’m familiar with are La Candelaria, a touristy section of town with a lot of hostels, and Zona Rosa, the upmarket nightlife option with dozens of bars and clubs.

I recommend you go out at least one night in both and decide afterward. The best place to go in La Candelaria is Escobar Rosas (Carrera 4, 15–07). There aren’t many tables and chairs, so girls will be standing up, making it easy for you to mingle. Meet girls upstairs in the bar area and then take them downstairs to dance. I know two guys who got one-night stands here, so if you’re going to pick up in Bogotá, it will probably be here, but make sure you go early (no later than 11:00 p.m.) and approach several girls before the tourist horde shows up around midnight.

In Zona Rosa it’s best to go to a club since all the bars are of the sit-down variety. A recommended club is Penthouse, though it would be prudent to observe which clubs are jumping before making a commitment.

For Thursday night try Lov (Carretera 7, 32-16), a high-class rooftop bar that has the hottest and richest girls of the city, most of whom will speak at least a bit of English. It’s here you may meet your first Colombian lawyer or doctor. While this isn’t the best place to pick up, it’s a good place to see what Colombian girls are made of. If you don’t like what you see here then you may want to try Medellín instead.

There are many opportunities for day game in Bogotá’s universities. Simply check a map for the closest university and roll up there with your driver’s license in case you need identification to gain access. Hang out in a common area with your Spanish books and approach girls using the method discussed earlier. An alternative to universities are public libraries, though the quality there will usually be lower. My favorite is the Luis Angel library in La Candelaria (Calle 11, 4–14). Hang out in the common area on the ground floor where there are communal tables.

Medellín

While Medellín is significantly smaller than Bogotá, it can still be a challenge to decide where to lodge or go out at night, especially if you’re limited on time. I’m going to start with an overview of the neighborhoods and then get into specific recommendations for meeting women.

By far the most popular neighborhood is Poblado (especially the area around Parque Lleras), the classiest part of town where the majority of tourists stay. It has all the comforts and safety of a Western city, including dining options such as McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, and Domino’s, rare sights in other parts of the city.

Parque Lleras and its nearly 100 nightlife options will seem like a no-brainer when it’s time to go out, but it’s actually not the best place to meet girls. It’s becoming so overrun with gringos that our exotic status is no longer, well, exotic. By the time you approach a girl in a Parque Lleras bar, she’ll have met dozens of gringos before you, nullifying the main draw you have over foreign women. Plus the girls here are the richest and therefore the snobbiest. Live in Poblado for the comfort and cachet, but try to go somewhere else when it’s time to meet girls.

Envigado is five minutes out from Poblado and offers a more suburban feel. It’s not as walkable as other areas of the city, but it has some nightlife options centered at the intersections of Carrera 42 and Calle 39 Sur. A recommended bar with decent drinks is Canucks, near Carrera 27B and Calle 40 Sur.

Sabaneta is ten minutes out from Enivgado and a potential gem because so few gringos party there. The only problems are that there aren’t many options and the mixed group issue is even more pervasive than other parts of the city. Clubs are filled with tables and chairs and people dance around them instead of a common dance floor. I have a feeling though that in short time this may be the only place to go in the city to meet a girl who hasn’t already been exposed to a lot of gringos. Your best bet is Puebla (Calle 77 Sur, 47C–121), but if it’s not packed it will be hard to meet a girl. Give it a shot on a Saturday night. They’re also some sit-down bars around the main square.

Laureles and Belen are two neighborhoods farther out, somewhat near the Estadio and Floresta metro stations. These are generally safe working class options. Nightlife here consists of bars with plastic lawn chair seating and the occasional salsa club centered around avenues La 70 and La 33.

Nearby is Estadio, even closer to La 70. This is an ideal living option for runners, since you have the stadium not far away (each lap is .45 miles). Laureles, Belen, and Estadio are good places to live if you’re on a budget or plan on studying Spanish in the University of Medellín or UPB.

And of course there is Centro, the bustling hub of the city, which is a good choice if you like a random, jungle-like atmosphere with loads of air pollution. You’ll find the girls here to be friendliest to your game, but they’re generally poor and not as attractive. If you’re going to live in Centro, the best place is the area called Prado, near the metro station of the same name. It’s not particularly safe at night, but I lived there for three months and never had any problems.

After figuring out where to lodge, it’s time to meet girls. Let’s start with day game. Medellín offers many universities to execute our method and the most popular option is EAFIT, a private university centrally located in Poblado, near the Aguacatala metro station. The girls here are the hottest but also rather guarded. Another private university is UPB, within a fifteen-minute walk from the Estadio metro station. The girls here aren’t much friendlier, unfortunately. Both of these universities have beautiful girls, but you need to work for them.

It’s worth starting off at a public university. There are three I know of: the University of Medellín in Belen, the University of Antioquia at the Universidad metro station, and the University of Envigado.

My favorite day game spot is the café within the McDonald’s in Poblado, adjacent to Oviedo Mall. I’m a coffee shop guy, so it was very easy to approach girls here with a “Spanish question” (I always have at least one Spanish book on me) and then ease into my interesting life story. The only problem is that it’s not high-impact—you can spend many days here with no approach opportunities. A better café option would Le Bon Café (Calle 9, 39–09) in Parque Lleras, which attracts more women and fewer families.

You can also run day game in the malls. My favorite is Unicentro, right next to UPB. It has a down-to-earth vibe that’s hard to find in more upscale options like El Tesoro and Oviedo. Either talk to girls walking around or study in the food court (yes, I’ve done this) and approach girls eating nearby with your Spanish question.

When you’re getting ready to go out at night, I recommend three places. The first is Babylon on Thursday night. The first sixty-five girls get in free, so when you arrive you’ll see only girls. The problem is that they’ll all be sitting down. What you have to do is get your drink, pick a table with cute and friendly-looking girls, and then ask, “Do you mind if I sit here?” (“¿Puedo sentarme aqui?”) Don’t worry if there are other empty tables nearby. If you want to pull here, it’s best to arrive early before the hostel gringos arrive (and they definitely will). Don’t worry too much if there are tons of them because I find that they’re too scared to approach unless trashed.

The best place to go out at night is an area of town called Industriales, in the shadow of the massive mall Premium Plaza. Within a couple blocks you’ll find several clubs that contain beautiful girls and very few gringos. The girls here aren’t too snobby and will be more open to dating a gringo. The only problem is that English won’t be as common.

Another bar I recommend is called La Octavia (Carrera 36, 8A–110) in Poblado. On Friday and Saturday nights you have a fun mix of Colombians and gringos with many girls who don’t mind practicing their English. (If you strike out with Colombian girls here you may have a shot at an easy gringa in flip-flops.) The quality isn’t as good as you’ll find in Industriales, but it has the closest vibe to a Western bar I’ve found in Medellín.

There’s no doubt you’ll hear about a placed called Blue, a rock club in Parque Lleras. It’s the pits. On a Saturday night half the club will be filled with gringos and the other half with ugly gringo hunters. The only time you should go here is if you’re absolutely desperate and want to compete for a hog.

Remember that you don’t want to count on nightlife to get your notch. Day game is much more critical in Colombia and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend an afternoon hitting on girls in the mall or university over a night at La Octavia. Of course you’ll do both, but don’t skip out on day game just to think you’ll make up for it at night. You’ll be disappointed at the number of nights where there simply aren’t many girls you can approach.

When it’s time to take out a girl, I have several date recommendations. For a weekday night you can’t go wrong with either Open Sky (Calle 8 and Carrera 38—look for the small stairway entrance) or Tree Bar (I don’t know its actual name, but it’s right down the steps from Tinto Tintero at Calle 8A, 36–14). Usually I start at Open Sky, where we share the same couch, and then move to Tree Bar after a drink or two. We sit on the stools facing the bare forest so I can get nice and close for the kiss.

For a weekend date, take her to La Octavia or the exclusive Oz (Carrera 38, 8–08) for a night of dancing. I recommend Oz because the music is better, but it’s more expensive and the bouncers will “face” your date (if she’s ugly they may not let the two of you in).

For second or third dates, try Trilogia (Carrera 43G, 24–08) in Industriales on a weekend night. They have decent cover bands on a rotating stage. Yet another option is to take her to the Tres Cordilleras beer tour (http://www.3cordilleras.com) that includes five beers for a fair price.

The problem with telling you the names of bars to visit is that they can quickly go bad. If that does happen with my recommendations, ask local men who look like they do okay with girls. I don’t advise asking taxi drivers, since they’ll steer you to strip clubs or whorehouses. The main idea will be to try to stay away from the gringo zones (Zona Rosa) because all the other gringos there will reduce your value. The main reason a Colombian girl would want to date a gringo over a Colombian guy is for the exotic factor, but when there are a dozen gringos in the same room as you, that reason diminishes.

For more up-to-date recommendations, do a search for Colombia or a city name in my forum (http://www.rooshvforum.com). Many guys have shared their favorite places to meet women.

Final Thoughts

Put your hands on your balls right now. I’m serious—please do this. Feel around. You have two nice, big hairy balls. Now use them. Get ready to approach like a fucking madman, whether it’s seated groups or mixed groups. Whether it’s in a coffee shop, on the street, or in a loud club. Put aside your fear, ego, and shame and get rejected like you’ve never gotten rejected before in your life. Feel the aggravation of hopping from bar to bar trying to find a place to talk to girls. Endure the fleeting pain of when they brush you off like you’re nothing in a language you don’t understand. Experience the frustration of girls not calling you back and cancelling dates at the last minute. That’s what it takes to get your Colombian flag. All that hardship for the one girl that does come through, who opens her legs and lets you fuck her like the animal she is. Sheer will alone will get there. I’ve seen it with my own two eyes—guys with barely a scrap of game who are unpleasing to look at, banging reasonable-looking Colombian women—all because they wanted it badly and refused to give up.

I know you’re motivated because you’ve read this book, so all that’s left is execution. Email me when you bang your Colombian so I can congratulate you, because the only thing better than gaining a notch is gaining a flag.

Now go be a man.

For more tips on picking up in South America, visit my web site:

http://www.rooshv.com