"I recently returned to the States from a 28 day trip to Bucaramanga (3 days), Barranquilla (22 days), and Cartagena (3 days). I was a little disappointed by how the city of Barranquilla itself looked very dirty, a non-descript kind of place. Not a really good vibe at first. I had heard a lot of things about International-Introductions.com, Jamie´s place before my trip 90% good and 10% bad (mostly about their high prices). So I tried it out myself. For about six months I picked out many, many girls from their website and put them on my list to meet when I arrived there for my trip. I also utilized their email address purchase program. I thought it would be a good idea to write to a lot of them prior to my trip so I could “weed out” any that were not compatible with my ideas and tastes.

I can tell you that their website is outstanding and easy to use. Their customer service is tremendous. The ladies on their site are very sincere and honest. Only about 1 out of 100 asked me for money or anything that made me think that she was not sincere. Compare that with what I will be writing about Cartagena!

The process of writing the letters was OK. I don´t know if I would do it again however. Many of the girls I was able to weed out simply by asking them specific questions and seeing if they were reliable with the “webcam dates” or if they were talking or writing to other people during the times we were connected online. But there is no substitute for meeting them face to face. If there is no chemistry, there is no chemistry. And with a few of the girls I was very sure about and appeared to have everything I was looking for at first, I didn´t feel much chemistry when we were face to face. But a good thing about writing was that it was incredibly useful for practicing my Spanish, if only for writing and grammar instead of conversation.

Once I actually got to Barranquilla, I was greeted by my guide/interpreter. She was outstanding I would give her a score of 98%. She was extremely helpful with everything. She even helped me buy a cell phone there. I was immediately whisked away to begin my many, many group meetings. She was able to interpret everything I needed to say and what the girls were saying to me. Her English was 100% and she was able to understand all my jokes and slang and that from the girls as well. So during the three days I was there I had private, one on one meal dates with some of my priority choices. So probably nine dates like that. And the group meetings had between 5-15 people in each meeting. Probably like 8 of those meetings. Everything was incredibly organized, smooth-running and professional. I could tell that the girls really took the whole process seriously from how professionally Jamie runs his place.

After one day, I knew I had a big problem I had already met probably 5 girls who would make anyone a perfect wife. And the thing is that after each group meeting they asked each of the girls in private to rate me and see if they were interested and almost all were interested in meeting me again. It is not so surprising though, since the way Jamie works it is that you make your selections from the website, he gives the girls your profile and a few photos, and they decide whether they are interested in coming to the meeting in the first place. Very efficient.

Anyway, I went through the whole process. I met a lot of ladies and was very, very, very impressed with the agency and Barranquilla in general. Jamie was on site much of the time from early in the morning to late at night, an extremely professional and great guy. He made sure everything ran smoothly.

The girls were incredible. If you are looking for a sincere, loving and caring wife I don´t think you can go wrong in Barranquilla. Almost all were interested in the simple things in life: having a loving family, dancing, cooking, children, and going to the beach. So refreshing. And even though the life there is very difficult for most of the ladies they had such incredibly positive attitudes toward life and meeting the man of their dreams. The majority of the girls were very young. I am 39. But the good thing is that not one single girl that I spoke with at the agency or at the malls had any problem with the age difference. They said it was more important how the person was inside, his sense of humor, and whether he lived a healthy lifestyle. They did not like guys who smoked, drank much, or were too serious. For the most part they do not like guys with moustaches or beards. Almost all are serious about dancing. They like to go out a lot but most do not drink much. They like to dance.

Well I gave up on finding a wife during that trip after a short while because there were so many choices. I made up my mind to just meet as many ladies as possible, get contact information, and continue the process from home and during subsequent visits to Colombia. But then lightning struck me!!!!!!!!!!!! I had a cancellation with one of the girls from the agency and I had a couple free minutes so I hopped on the computer at the agency and checked their website again. And I found the girl of my dreams. She had just joined the agency I think only 1 or 2 days before. I asked if someone could contact her for me. I was told that I had already used up my days and that the agency´s obligation to me was already satisfied but “NO PROBLEM. WE´LL CALL HER RIGHT AWAY.” They had someone contacting her within minutes trying to track her down for me. And within a couple hours I was talking to my girl on the phone and setting up a date with her.

We had the first date at “Las Flores”. It is a barrio outside of Barranquilla that is along the river. They have the freshest seafood possible. You can see them bringing from little boats at the back of the restaurant. The prices were good. The live music was outstanding. I really loved that place.

Well the rest was history.  I began to spend all my time with my girl and her family. Her mother even took unpaid time off from work to spend time with me and learn all about me. I met the whole extended family, including aunts, uncles, friends, everyone.  And instead of going out partying we spent a lot of time with the family. It was very, very nice and different from what goes on here in the States. I felt very comfortable right away and am now engaged to be married.  I am returning to visit my girl in October and again in November for her birthday. I am completely satisfied. I have never met a woman like this in my life. She is bright, positive, intelligent, likes to cook, is always trying to take care of me, loving, passionate and incredible.

We have begun the visa process. She has begun the English classes at Jamie´s agency. Everything is going well.

I cannot say enough good things about Jamie and his business approach, the people he has working for him, the whole thing. It was well worth the money spent. It was probably worth twice as much!!!....Nah...., I think I am getting a little out of control now. But I would highly recommend his agency to anyone who is serious about the process of finding the woman of his dreams. I met several other guys who were there too and they were all very satisfied as well. One guy was even from Finland I think. Very happy guy.

OK so that was Barranquilla. Anything else? Let me think... extremely hot weather! I was sweating my butt off the whole time!!! And I live in Arizona!!!!!! The last part of my trip was to Cartagena. I was supposed to be there for at least 12 days, but changed my plans when I met my girl and for other reasons that I will be talking about in the next episode.

I just want to say that so far I have been to Bogota, Cali, Bucaramanga, Barranquilla, and Cartagena and the people of Barranquilla seem to be the most warm, loving, and affectionate of all of them. Not just because of the fact that my fiancé is from there, but because of almost all the girls I met there. But don´t get me wrong. The other cities have fantastic people also. I cannot say more about how many wonderful people I met in all parts of Colombia. Very nice."

"This is sort of a delayed trip report or should I say a report regarding my two trips to Colombia, one in March and the other in August. It has been a while since I last posted so let me remind everyone that I selected International Introductions because I had never been to Colombia before and I liked the idea that the girls looked at your profile too so that you´re not wasting time with someone who has no interested in you. The reasons why I haven´t posted for a while are many: I was overwhelmed when I returned in March with conflicting emotions of joy and regret. I loved my experience in Barranquilla at Jamie´s agency. I was there for 10 days and I met many quality ladies, yet the time went so fast that I was depressed when I came back. For those who have never been to Colombia it is a candy store that can leave you more hungry after than before you arrive. For those of us attracted to bronze women, especially women with nice curves and sexy behinds, Colombia has it and then some. That is the problem, if you really call it a problem. It can be too much of a good thing in the sense that you can later regret a lost connection with a beautiful woman you might meet there because you are still curious about what´s behind “door number three.” There is nothing wrong with that, though. It really depends on what you want to accomplish on your trip. Since I was looking for serious wife material, constantly looking for the next best thing left me feeling sort of empty and depressed when I returned in March. I met a really wonderful woman, but because of my curiosity to “look behind door number three” we only got to spend one wonderful day in Cartagena together before, regretfully, my trip was over.

 Anyway, first impressions from my first trip:

I landed in Barranquilla on March 16. Since I hated to fly at the time I wasn´t able to sleep on my flight and when I landed I was kind of thrashed. I had flown from Sacramento the night before to Los Angeles where I boarded a flight to Panama which got me to my final destination.

I was met by one of International Introductions interpreters and my first introduction. She was a very attractive 19 year old who still had her braces on. She had been one of my selections but in person she looked so young that I kind of felt like a dirty old man with her. I am 39, so I was over twice her age. Also, since I was tired and feeling like I wanted to shave and shower I just wasn´t feeling it no matter how cute she was. Perhaps it was culture shock.

Let me say that before this trip to Colombia I had never been out of the United States except for a few trips to Tijuana and a cruise to Ensenada, Mexico I was a very green gringo indeed. To put it bluntly, it was culture shock to me. One is hit by, or at least I was, by the sights of poverty on the road leaving the airport. Barranquilla is a modern city that has modern amenities, but this is a developing nation still, torn by violent struggle. I admit I was scared. My first thought was, “what the hell have I just done?"

Eventually, I became acculturated to Colombia and grew to like the city, the good and the bad and above all the women. My first day at International Introductions I met ten women, seven in a group setting and the others on individual dates. Jamie promises to introduce you to at least forty women and that he did.

I stayed in a house that also serves as their offices and group meeting area. It’s a nice house, nothing too fancy, but nice and in a decent area of Barranquilla. My room was comfortable. Everything was in working order.

The women I met on the whole were very nice. Some were very educated and all of them were ladies. I don´t know what I was expecting before I left but my impression, probably false, had been that Colombian women were very forward. I had visions in my head of being Hugh Heffner Junior, but for me at least that was not the case. The Colombian women I met had no problem sleeping with you but did not want you dating someone else the next day. In certain respects I was pleasantly surprised. They weren´t desperately throwing themselves at this gringo unless I was willing to commit to them. I had my forty women to meet. However, the one who I had a connection with the most I ay met my first group meeting in Barranquilla. She seemed intimidated in the group meeting, but there was something about her that I was drawn to. She was attractive, but so were the others. To me she radiated a certain sweetness and shyness that I was attracted to. She was 31, never married, no children and a doctor as well.

I wanted to see more of her, but I thought I owed it to myself to make sure she was the one I wanted to spend the bulk of my days with in Barranquilla. So, I spent the majority of my trip trying to find (Latina) Plus instead of getting to better know my original interest better before I left.

The day before I left my interpreter had rented a car and driver for us on our trip to Cartagena. I believe the cost was the equivalent of US$100. It may seem a little pricey but I thought it was worth it. The driver was with us all day and would drive us anywhere we wished in Cartagena. We did more of the historical tour sites like the Castle. I love Cartagena too. The old city is surrounded by walls, and the architecture conjures up images of a city on the Mediterranean. It’s a beautiful, romantic city. You definitely need more than a day exploring its streets.

Anyway, I had to leave the next day and I was feeling sad. I felt something special was growing between (Latina) and me but our time together had ended. We exchanged emails and phone numbers. My E ticket was done, so back to reality. We kept in touch through online chat and a webcam. We talked about everything and my Spanish improved. She was an unknown quantity that I wanted to know more about. I had to go back to Colombia to find out if she could be the one and I did so in August.

My trip was only five days. I didn´t want to be there too long if things went sour between us, and maybe just long enough to meet some fresh faces. Needless to say I didn´t need a plan B. I also met her family, very respectable. Her father is an attorney, and her brother and sister both have college degrees. Even though her siblings are in their mid to late 20´s they all live at home until they are married. Colombians are very family-oriented. We took a small tour bus to the resort city of Santa Marta which is Northeast of Barranquilla on the Caribbean. I liked Santa Marta a lot. The beaches are much cleaner and the water clearer than Cartagena or Barranquilla. For any South American history buffs Santa Marta is the city where Simon Bolivar died. The house that he died in has been converted to a museum. The downtown area of Santa Marta has a great night life with clubs, restaurants, and people dancing and playing music on the beach. Santa Marta is like a smaller Cartagena, more intimate but with less beautiful architecture.

Barranquilla is a modern industrial city where on the outskirts by the airport and the waterway of the Magdalena river are the impoverished areas where the term “third world” comes to mind. The downtown skyline and north of it are the areas where you want to be. The Buena Vista Mall is a good place to spot many attractive Colombian women. I found the people very nice with a kind of laid back attitude, although I found it difficult to understand their Spanish. They speak very low, but rapidly. I have some basic Spanish comprehension but found it difficult at first to understand them. Barranquilla really is not what you would call a city for sightseeing. The beaches there are polluted there are no great architectural structures to feast the eyes on, but the women I found very attractive. The bottom line is, the only reason someone who would want to go to Barranquilla is for the women and Carnival. That´s it.

To say the least I had a wonderful time, and I am planning on going back for a week in December. If things don´t work out between us into something more permanent I have no regrets. I want to thank all the gringos on this site who inspired me to finally take the plunge into South America. I have experienced a whole new world. For that I will always be grateful."

"OK here we go!!!!!! After reading this board and private messages from many of the guys here I decided to call Jamie and go visit his agency in Barranquilla. He had one of his translators meet me at the airport with a young pretty woman at 6:00 PM. We rode from the airport to the International Introductions office. When I arrived I was taken to my room I unpacked and had my first group introduction at 7:30pm. I meet 12-14 women from 19 to 29 years of age. After the group intro I went out on a one on one private date. (Day 2) The next day I had a one-on-one private breakfast date. Then at noon I had my group intro. Here I meet 10-13 women from 19 to 29 years of age. After the group intro I went out for a private one-on-one date. Then back to the office for a 3rd group introduction where I met over fifteen women age 19-30 years of age. After that I had a one-on-one private date on the patio. I then was off to a one-on-one dinner date. When dinner was over we went back to the office where I had another one-on-one private date that went to midnight. Also every night when I got back to the office I spent time talking with Jamie about his business and my dates. Jamie is a total pleasure to speak with and I enjoyed every one of his staff and the housekeeper. (Day 3) I had a private one-on-one private breakfast date. Then I went back to the office for my 4th group intro to 12-15 women 19-30 years of age. Then off to a private one-on-one lunch date and then back to Jamie´s for my 5th group intro to 10-12 women 19-30 years of age. I then had a private one-on-one date on the patio. Then I had my final group intro at 7:30pm. Then I was off to a private one-on-one dinner date. During the whole time I am there I am being asked who I want to meet with in private for one-on-one date for all day Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I spent the three days going on many one-on-one dates and even some 2nd and 3rd dates. Do not go to Jamie´s place to sleep. I was in my room maybe five to seven hours a night total. That is the way I wanted it. I wanted to see and meet as many women as I could. I will sleep when I get home. Jamie´s service is great. His staff is outstanding. They treated me like a king. I went out on a few dates with his staff. I meet over fifty women. They were all outstanding and the dates were all great. I am now talking with only a few girls and am planning on going back. I want to take it slow. I find it very hard to do this. I was never treated so nice by so many women before. If anyone wants to know more just ask. I could write about five more pages but I have to work to pay the bills so I can go back very often. Mail me in private and I will answer any of your questions. All I can say is run do not walk to Colombia. You will not understand until you come back!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

I want to thank my new friends on this board. You know who you are here in the states, Canada, and Colombia. I know I left many things out but it was the best trip I have ever had in my life. I will post a picture of the one I really hit it off with once I know she is the one I am still going slow on this one."

"I just got back from my first trip to Colombia last week. I thought I should write a report about it while many details are still fresh in my mind. I used Jamie´s agency International Introductions because it was so highly recommended on this site. Everyone says that Jamie is a perfectionist, and I have to agree. That guy is driven to provide the best possible experience for his clients. His agency´s services are pretty spendy, but with him you can be certain that you will be receiving exactly what he and his website promise. If you can afford it, definitely make as much use of his service as possible.

A little about me: I´m 33 years old, never been married, no kids, college educated, definitely not rich. Physically I don´t think I´m unattractive, but I guess I´m not very photogenic either. Before I went down I sent the agency some photos of me to show the girls. International Introductions picks from this and sends it with your profile out to all the women in order to see who´s interested in meeting you. I can´t stress enough how important those photos will be in determining whether a girl will agree to meet you or not. You might think these girls are just visa-hunters, or looking for a rich guy or whatever, but that´t not true. I believe from what I´ve seen that almost all of these girls are looking for a real relationship with a guy they are genuinely attracted to. That being said, the girls basically are going to agree to meet with you based on what they think of your photo, your height, weight, age, and possibly your race. When I got down to Colombia everyone said I didn´t look anything at all like my photo, and I was constantly being asked by girls why I sent such unflattering pictures of myself to the agency. I ran into several girls who had declined to meet me. None of them even recognized me from my photo and wanted to know why they hadn´t been shown my profile, I had to explain that they had seen my profile and had shot me down!

My tips for what girls are looking for in your photo:

• Your Eyes. Your eyes should be visible. She should be able to see what color your eyes are. No sunglasses, so you might what to be indoors to keep from squinting from the sunlight.

• Your Body. Don´t leave your shirt un-tucked or wear baggy pants, loose-fitting clothing, or bulky winter coats. The girls seem to scrutinize your photo intensely to see if you are in shape, fat, or whatever. I am not saying you should send in a picture of yourself shirtless, but just wear something that fits you properly and accurately displays your body type. No unflattering poses.

•  Your Face. Shave. No facial hair is to your benefit. These girls don´t like beards or mustaches because they make a guys look older and more serious. Plus, the girls want to see your whole face. Smile. Try not to look either too goofy or too serious. Be well-groomed.

•  Girls complain that Colombian guys are too short. If you are tall, show that off in your photo.

I had a long trip from Oregon to Colombia that included a twelve hour layover in Dallas/Fort Worth. I didn´t want to shell out for a hotel room so I hadn´t really slept in 36 hours by the time I got to Barranquilla. Feeling tired, stressed, and stinky, that is how I met Girl #1 and my translator. Jamie had told me that he had arranged for them to pick me up. He had said that Girl #1 was gorgeous, but even so I was surprised at how attractive she was. I tried to play it cool, though, as if knockouts pick me up at the airport all the time. The translator was really cool, lots of fun to talk to, and succeeded in making me feel at ease very quickly. I had arranged to be in Barranquilla 16 nights, but had only booked a translator for 5 days as I spoke some Spanish. I quickly realized that having a translator around is good for a lot of things besides translation, and that I probably should have booked her for the entire trip despite the rather expensive rate.

What your translator will/should do for you: She will of course translate, but that´s not all. She will be your social secretary keeping track of your many dates, scheduling introductions, suggesting places to take dates, instructing the taxi driver where to go and what is a fair price, telling you what clothes to wear, getting you to an ATM when your cash is low and all manner of things you will take for granted until you don´t have her around. She will give you feedback on what she thinks of the girls, give the girls you like feedback to let them know that you are seriously interested in them. She will keep the conversation going if it starts to die and she will make excuses for you if you are not interested in the girls and want to eject from the date.

Anyway, Girl #1, the translator and I get into the cab and head back to the agency. I notice that the girl has what looks like a huge cubic zirconiun-looking ring on her left hand and I start thinking, “Is this girl engaged already? Did they just twist the arm of some hot girl to come and meet me because they couldn´t find anyone else to come pick me up at the airport?” I make conversation. She speaks some English and we talk for a while until we pass by her house and she gets out. My translator talks with her before she goes inside then asks me what I think of her. I say she seemed nice and very attractive, but mention the ring and that I didn´t get the impression that she was that interested in me. Translator informs me that the ring is just a ring, not an engagement ring, and that she´d asked Girl #1 if she was interested in me and that she had indicated that she was very much interested in me. Good to know! If I had not had a translator with me I would have read that situation completely wrong. I let my translator know I would definitely be interested in meeting Girl #1 again.

We get to the agency office and I meet Jamie. Nice guy. He seems kind of serious but then a lot of people get that impression from me too. He seems kind of ticked that Girl #1 didn´t accompany me all the way back to the office. I say that it´s no big deal that her house was on the way to the office, but that didn´t seem to mollify him. He mentions, like everyone else does my entire trip, that I look much better in person and that I did not help myself out with the photos I sent in. He asks me if I noticed the girls in the lobby getting their photos taken for the site and asks me if I would like to meet any of them (he will always ask this anytime you are in the office and there are new girls hanging around). They all seemed very attractive so I said sure.

Took a quick shower, changed clothes and then my translator got me because my lunch date was there. Lunch date was with one of the girls I had indicated as a favorite. Of my 14 favorites only a few indicated interest so I was kind of excited to meet her. Oh my god was she gorgeous. Probably one of the hottest girls I have ever seen in my life. She was a nurse but looked like a model. Turns out that she in fact was a model, but I think that means something different in Colombia.… It means she was hired to hang out in bars and get guys to buy a certain brand of whiskey or something. I was nervous but tried very hard to be charming. She didn´t seem to have much to say. Sometimes she just seemed shy and at other times disinterested. She looked at her phone a lot to read her text messages during the date, which I found rude. Translator decided we needed to go to the shopping center to pick me up some groceries, so we all got into the cab and went to the mall. While translator and I are talking and picking out groceries, this girl walks about ten steps behind us talking on her cell phone. After the date is over I tell my translator that I didn´t think it went very well. She agreed, but was surprised when she spoke to my date who seemed to think the date went well and would like to see me again. I thought that hot as she was, I wasn´t going to waste time on a girl who seemed completely bored with me.

Went back to the office, changed clothes again, and had my first group introduction.  Everyone shows up late in Colombia so girls start trickling in for 45 minutes. Eventually about ten show up. Last girl shows up about fifteen minutes into the introduction and apologizes profusely in English which she seems to be fluent in. I would recommend having a list of questions ready or stories about yourself you wish to share. It is up to you to ask the probing questions to get to know them better. All they are interested in at this point is getting you to pick them.  Of the ten girls I felt an attraction to three. Translator ushered me into my room and talked to the girls before they left.  All of them liked me, but the girl who I liked most (the late girl who spoke English) is who I wanted to meet first so we went out to a Mexican restaurant. This girl was also very attractive. She looked nothing like her photo (most of the girls don´t) and bore a strong resemblance to Penelope Cruz. She was a nursing student, very bright, charismatic, and sincere. I liked her a lot, maybe too much.  Still my first day in Colombia I was still feeling kind of tired and out of it, and nervous too. She definitely picked up on that. While Colombian girls like that a North American man will be more polite and less aggressive than a Colombian guy,…they still expect him to be pretty aggressive and confident. They expect you to put your arm around them, hold their hand, go for the kiss, and do things that physically demonstrate that you are a confident man and that you are interested in them.

That is pretty much how my first day went. This is turning out to be much longer than I thought it would be. I will continue the rest of this trip report in a second installment."

"Let´s get the basics out of the way: Jamie´s agency was great. They really took care of everything. I was really impressed by how things went. It seemed the first two days were fully booked before I arrived. The translator was great at keeping the conversation going and was very helpful. I was only able to sit down and chat with Jamie a couple of times and both of those were very short. He seemed to have a good handle on how to run his agency and gave me some good insights. The staff was very accommodating in all ways and seemed to bend over backwards to make my stay enjoyable.

The accommodations were great and a good location in town. As best as I could tell it seemed everything was right around the corner. I did stay at the office/house this trip but Jamie told me that if I come back he will put me at the beach house.

The short and sweet of it I meet probably 100 women and was only able to meet with a handfull privately. I was kind of disappointed with that aspect of my trip. Of the women I had one-on-one time with I think there is a handful I will keep in touch with until I can book my next trip (and yes I am already planning to book the next one this week, and it took less than four hours to start planning) and go spend more time with them. The biggest issue was that I meet so many people in such a short time that I tended to get them confused. To say I was embarrassed would be the understatement of the century.

Most of my “cita´s” were booked to last two hours. You know how tough it is to get talking and really enjoying the conversation to have to end it and go on another date. I hated to do that but at least I didn´t have to be the “bad guy.&rdquo My translator usually took the bullet when ending the date. I was also impressed at how on time each of the ladies were. I only think two of them were late and most were early.

The group introductions were really, really tough on me in two ways. The first was all the prying and judging eyes and the amount of questions, nothing like having that feeling that I am in one of those old movies where they put a light in the eyes and interrogate you. Secondly, I was feeling bad for the women. I hated to have them all there like it was some kind of meat market.

The one-on-one dates were kind of strange for me because I sometimes felt like it was an interview instead of a real date and it seemed like I couldn´t get away from it as sometimes it took a lot of questions before a woman would open up and I could really see her personality. But once the conversation started it could go on for hours, which it did on many occasions. In fact, most of my dinner dates only ended because the restaurant was closing.

I am sure you all want to hear about the women I met. I will compile that and get it posted here soon. I have the first day done so I will post that now.

Day 1

Arrived at the Barranquilla airport just after mid-day. Due to some miscalculations my translator didn´t get there exactly on time. I will say that upon arrival she more then made up for it with the introduction of “A”. Before we left the airport I hit the ATM for some local currency, got us a cold drink and then off we went. We had a nice chat on the way to the agency/hotel. “A” had taken some time from work to come meet me, and I have to say that she was absolutely a sweetheart. Very soft spoken. After the short conversation about her and her family etc and me about mine it was time for her to scoot back to work.

At the agency I had just 45 minutes before the first group introduction. That gave me just enough time to chat with Jamie. Nice fella seemed to take his business seriously. I also got some sundry items from the nearby shop. After a brief conversation with the translator I was thrown to the wolves in my first “reunion”. Honestly, I was terrified and didn´t know what to expect. It turned out to be a really good time, and lets be honest: All the ladies were just beautiful. Most of them were very sweet and had many questions to ask me, which was great because I was having trouble remembering all the questions I wanted to ask. Before I knew it, it was time for the ladies to leave, but not before a group photo was taken. Of the whole group there were 3 women that made an impression on me. I had a quick talk with the translator and she had a short chat with each of them to see if they were still interested. They were!

So now that I have just met a whole room full of ladies and my head is still spinning, and only having only been in town for less than three hours I was hoping for a little downtime to collect my thoughts take some notes, etc. Unfortunately I didn´t get it. Just as we were winding down from the first group introduction it was time for the second group introduction.

Second group introduction was even more fun then the last. This time a larger group filled the room. Man what an ego boost, all those pretty ladies sitting there staring at me and all dressed to the hilt. It didn´t take long for my ego to take a back seat as I was pretty seriously drilled with questions. It seems that many of the women had remembered everything I had written in my profile and wanted me to talk to all points. Once again time was not on our side as before I knew what was going on it was time for them to leave and for me to head off to my dinner date. Once again there were two or three ladies I was very interested in, and again the ladies were willing to see me in a one-on-one situation.

Dinner! Finally, after a long day I get to have dinner with “B”. So off we go straight away from the group introduction to the restaurant. Once again the lady was drop dead and I couldn´t keep my eyes off her all through dinner. The dinner went famously. We had a great conversation, and she remembered every little detail of my profile almost word for word. This being the first real date I have had with a Colombian woman I was very impressed with the way she handled herself and was well spoken. I think she was as nervous as I was at first, though. The evening ended and we spoke about getting together again, looking forward to it.

End of Day 1, what a day. All I can say is that from the time I landed to the time I went to bed it was a whirlwind of women and smiles. Also a note about the breasts: It seems they are large here and all the women like to have the cleavage working, so it´s hard to focus!"

"To do Jamie justice, his service is freaking fantastic. I was met at the airport about fifteen minutes after I landed by my translator. Listening to her was like when you were growing up and your sister had her hot friends over to the house (LOL) only she doesn´t mind you dating these friends and only wants you to find the right one! Off to the agency and let me add that at no point did I feel in danger. I have traveled a lot and have seen shadier people in Pittsburgh. We arrive at the beach house with its spectacular pool (used later in trip). I was so excited that when I was told to go up to room to change because I had a meeting I ran into the wrong room. The room was first class. Now I know someone here bashed Jamie sometime back about plumbing but I can assure you that water was plentiful and hot. To give you a little background, I do customer service for Papa Johns for 836 stores so I wasn´t about to lay down for anyone on this trip. This is the good and the bad so off to the first introduction. We went into a side room from the meeting room to discuss who was arriving. First meeting twelve girls show up. My God! (And let me add that you should check all photos because I passed over one that I ended up taking to lunch next day because of one bad picture.) Eight said that they would like to meet again. Three said no because of my height. I am only 5´6´´. Oh well, there were plenty to choose from. Now during the meeting the translator kept things going very well and even when I chose the girl that I went to dinner with she was still on her job. Props to her. I will say this also: I am not going to say don´t reach for the stars and not to choose young, but the first girl was twenty years old and had conversation as such. Not much there. Oh well. I AM IN THE LAND OF PLENTY! More later

Okay, I am going to cover some things things that might help some guys out here. Here comes the self mutilation part of my post. I am only 5´6´´, still in pretty good shape, but still only 5´6´´. About 21 years ago I stopped a robbery where I lived and for that I got a crushed orbital bone from a two-by-four. I have a very lazy eye and sometimes it plays on the mind. Here’s where I am going out of the 85 to 100 women I met at Jamie´s none-zero-nada brought up or did a double take on my physical drawback, only about nine or ten busted my chops about height. So where am I going with this? If you think that because you have something that in this country plays a major hindrance to meeting women, IT´S GONE when the plane hit´s the tarmac."

"Well, for anyone who´s been on this site long enough, you´ve probably read the same trip reports that I have, so here´s a brief rundown of the expected as well as the unexpected from my trip to Barranquilla…

The Expected:

Great service by the agency. Seriously, Jamie keeps close tabs on everything and really has this thing down: Reliable people working for him, an accurate database of currently available women, and an attention to detail to make a trip ridiculously easy and hassle-free.

Being presented with several dozen very attractive women in rapid fire succession from the hottie that met me at the airport with the translator (my friends would have been drooling over the body on her), to meals with my favorite super cuties, to group introductions with gorgeous women that make you feel like the bachelor on some fantasy TV show.

A very helpful translator/coordinator, my Spanish is actually pretty good so I only used the translator for the first four days, but she was incredibly helpful at making and keeping dates, facilitating conversation, and was a great sounding board for how things were going with the dates. Plus, she was a cool person in her own right and has helped me improve my Spanish.

The women were genuine. Admittedly I tend to trust people, but I have decent gold-digger-radar which hasn´t even come close to being necessary.

The Unexpected:

Barranquilla is really not much of a city. I´m quite surprised to find no major park or refuge from the noise and dust of the city without having to drive to the outlying areas. There is a list of places to go, but most are in the city outskirts. As for a park or river walk or someplace to have a romantic chat or walk after a “meet and greet” session in the city, Barranquilla doesn´t have much to offer.

I did not expect to find the women here to be quite so parochial. Few have traveled beyond Colombia´s borders and most have no experience with life outside Barranquilla. Somewhere in this forum, I remember reading that women in Barranquilla were likened to good “country” girls or something like that, and now I understand why. I also understand why someone said that if he were to do it again he´d go to Bogotá. In fairness, my expectations of my partner´s intellect are rather high and most women of equivalent beauty as the women here in the US wouldn´t likely give me the time of day, let alone a chance to even get to know how parochial they were themselves. Still, I wonder how many of these women could handle the relative cold and distance of being up north.

Many of the meal dates early in my trip (which were with women I had selected as favorites) just didn´t have much to say. My translator and I couldn´t believe how uninteresting and seemingly uninterested several of them were. I say *seemingly* uninterested because even though one answered her phone and showed minimal interest in having a conversation during our 90 minutes together, she told the translator she wanted to see me again. Ultimately, I found that the group dates are a good way to figure out who has a compatible personality, and so I have begun to set up dates with women that seemed more outgoing in the groups and I thought had something interesting to say.

The additional expense of cab fare and meals for three (for myself, date, and the translator) the restaurants here, while decent (the Cuban seafood restaurant whose name I don´t recall had some of the best fish I´ve ever had), are on the pricey side. In the first few days, when meeting dates for lunch and dinner, the tab generally ran 50-75 bucks once drinks and taxes were added in. Cab fare for each of the dates (at least three a day) would run 5-10 dollars each. I went through $400 in just a few days despite using credit cards for most meals. If money is an issue, I would advise letting your translator know early on to save the nicer places for women you´ve already met and would like to share something special with.

Although the meal dates with favorites from a list I had sent and group meetings were over after the first few days, the agency has continued to help set up more dates. Despite all the women I met, there really weren´t that many who I was interested in, which has to do with me being too picky for my own good than anything else. Nonetheless, it only takes one, and this morning I may have found her.

It was cool getting responses from the women in the groups in a spreadsheet form. (I had five group meetings with an average of ten or so women in each.) I´m no George Clooney (5´8´´, early 40´s, decent looking), but all said they were interested in seeing me again on an individual basis. Talk about shooting fish in a barrel.

OK. So all that said, here I am on day four, with a handful of options ranging from 18 to 30 years old. (I know, I know, 18 is way too young, but she´s interesting for an 18 year old and can hold her own in a conversation, which is something I found rare in too many of my meal dates. And she´s my physical ideal, though I wonder how much that might change in 5-10 years.) I´m still in the process of meeting new women, including one I met while hanging out with the translators friends I´ve made here, but this very cute and outgoing 30 year old from this morning has certainly caught my attention. And while I was sitting here just finishing up, I got a call from the agency with six more dates over the next 24 hours. Gotta go!

Next installment, one week into the trip:

Well. A few days later and, as usual, a lot has happened. I´ve been quite busy on 1st and 2nd dates, including one in Cartagena today. Now there´s a city with character. Barranquilla doesn´t even come close I´ve seen bus stations with more charm. Unfortunately, the agency is here, and at this point I can say that it´s been everything promised and then some.

For example, I signed up for the introduction package, which lasted four days, but since I´m also using the lodging for the rest of trip (11 days total), I also have the agency continuing to schedule new and follow up dates. I mean REALLY working to schedule new dates with women I may not have selected initially but that they think I might like, which have been spot on. (They tell me that I´ve selected a lot fewer women than the clients usually do so they´re working to fill in my time.) I really didn´t think that would be necessary, but it´s turned out to be quite a good thing. Because of it, I´ve been able to go out with women who couldn´t make the group sessions last weekend, women that I had passed over when I sent my favorites, and even a couple of cuties I met when they were at the agency for other reasons and I bumped into them.

OK. So what happened with the 30 year old I had been excited about? We had our second date in the morning since she had to work. It went well enough, but at the end something a little strange happened. We had stopped by the grocery store for me to grab a couple of bananas and as we were checking out she had the cashier add on a phone card for herself without even mentioning anything to me. I wasn´t sure exactly what she had done, so when I asked her outside. She told me she needed some minutes for her new phone. And before it really sunk in, she was off in a cab on her way to work. The whole episode seemed out of character and it was less than two bucks worth of minutes, but it did give me pause, as well as a reason to not feel so bad about not meeting up with her the next day so I could go to Cartagena to visit a cutie I had met later that afternoon.

The Cartagena date didn´t go so well: Damn cute but a little too reserved for me to get a reading on how she felt. She did kind of blindside me by having the “door to door” shuttle drop me off at her place, where both her parents and sister were waiting to meet me. I thought the interaction went well, although the only one not smiling and laughing was her. We left for lunch and then a “chiva” tour of the city, but the conversation flagged at lunch and there didn´t seem to be much chemistry on the tour. Oh well.

What I have found strange after a dozen or two is how different the meet and greet conversations can be. By now I know the questions to ask to keep conversation flowing but its refreshing when I don´t have to resort to them. Before coming here I did a fair amount of internet dating (OK, more than a fair amount) and my approach is to enjoy a conversation learning something interesting about a new person whether there´s chemistry or not, and only rarely has it been like pulling teeth. Here, I´m surprised how often it can feel that way. I would think that it was me, but lately I´ve met some really dynamic and charming women in my second round that make it hard to generalize about either myself or the women here.

The problem I´m having with it is that the more interesting women have been the younger ones. Take for example this 20 year-old cutie who saw me while she was filling out her profile at the agency and asked if I wanted to meet her. Not knowing much other than she was cute, and since I had an hour to kill, I accepted. We spent the next hour chatting away, dancing (under the infamous blue light), and finished with her trying to convince me that dating a woman that young was not problematic. Her parents were 12 years apart and her grandparents 25 years apart, and all were happily married. Also, she said she had dated a man older than me and she liked that he had interesting things to say and that she enjoyed learning from him. My argument is that women (or men for that matter) often find they change over the next 5-10 years and may regret getting married so young. How many of us have heard people say that they´re divorced because they married too young or because they grew apart? Well, she would have none of it. But I´m still not ready to start anything with someone that young just yet.

All right, I think that´s all for now. I do want to add that it can be really freaking hot down here. And that´s coming from someone who enjoys tropical weather. But it´s after 10 pm and it´s really beautiful sitting out on the balcony listening to the waves and the crickets. And god I love not having to get up for anything except a breakfast date with a really cute girl I met the other day.

Oh. And when the woman who “purchased” the phone card called me yesterday, I told her that I enjoyed meeting her and that I didn´t want to use up all her minutes and then said goodbye. Too funny.

***Final installment written on the flight home: Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Well, I´m on my flight home and hopefully have enough juice in the battery to finish my report.

The last few days of my trip were filled mostly with a series of rapid-fire first dates during the day, followed by dinner with the very cute 23 year old from the make out session. Obviously, although I was interested in her enough to continue to see her, I was not willing to stop meeting other women. She knew that I was still meeting women through the agency because when she asked about it I told her the truth. This put a bit of a strain on our relationship, and it´s easy to see both sides. For her, I wasn´t willing to commit 100% so neither would she. For me, I had put a lot of money and effort into coming down, and I was not ready to discontinue my search for someone I thought would be really compatible.

Physically, and even intellectually, she was what I was looking for. Hell, she was almost too pretty--whatever that could mean. However, there were some underlying neuroses and self-esteem issues that made me a little wary. She didn´t smile much and her demeanor was not very friendly. She had this serious, detached air about her that reminded me of a tragic figure from my high school English lit class. Also, choosing a restaurant or shopping for dinner and then cooking together--activities that I regularly enjoy with girlfriends--was more stressful than fun. With more time together, we might have been able to work on things, but my trip was only 11 days total, and I´m not feeling motivated enough to go back in 5 weeks as planned despite already having the time off and the ticket to return to Barranquilla.

At this point I should say that right up until the last day of my trip, Jamie and the women in the agency were incredibly helpful in continuing to set up dates with women that I may have overlooked or had previously considered. I couldn´t have asked for better service. Seriously, they mined that database and were able to set up meet and greets on just a few hours notice. Granted, some of the women flaked last minute, but that has more to do with the culture and the nature of the business, so that was not unexpected. In fact, the agency keeps such scrupulous notes that they removed one woman from the database after no-showing with me because her record showed she had done the same a few months ago. Oh, and I´m pretty certain they removed the phone card woman as well after I mentioned what happened.

So of the dozen or two dates that were set up since my last report, some were attractive and interesting, while others were the same conversation as so many others. There were maybe two or three who I would have seen again if I had more time, but nobody that I found to be really exciting. Well, there was one, but I´ll get to her later. First I want to mention something that happened yesterday that makes me wonder if I´m being too picky.

I had set up a meet and greet in the late morning with a 22 year-old which segued into a lunch date since things were going well. We ended up choosing to go to Crepes and Waffles (a new place for both of us) and I found it strange how she simply refused to try a crepe, a mushroom, or anything else unfamiliar off my plate. She just wanted her beef in a bread bowl. Is there not some irony in that she wouldn´t be willing to try something new and yet she is considering moving to a new country? And forget the irony, what would that say about her willingness to adapt? Anyone have an opinion or experience with these issues? The Colombian diet could hardly be considered healthy and I rarely cook meat or chicken. I´m hoping that my partner will be happy without having that on a daily basis, and it certainly could become an issue.

OK now for the most interesting date of the entire trip. Seriously, after meeting close to 100 women in 11 days, I was absolutely bowled over by the very last woman I met. She was only 20 (many of the later dates were younger since I had lowered my age minimum) but I had selected her because she looked cute and her profile was interesting. So she walks in speaking very good English and starts having a conversation that had nothing to do with the usual questions I´d come to expect. She had just returned from a semester in Bogotá where she had been studying international relations and we chatted about politics in Colombia, the US, and even China. Here was finally that really intelligent person I had hoped to find, and she even had the hard body of an aerobics instructor... because she was an aerobics instructor. She wasn´t as cute as her photos maybe, but ultimately I´m glad of that because it made things easier after I realized what a dilemma she presented.

An attractive, charismatic, intelligent, dynamic woman, who´s active and speaks really good English that I connect with right away, plus she says she´s into me to boot. That´s what I had gone there to find. So what´s the problem? She´s only 20 years old and has way too much potential to NOT get the hell out of Colombia and experience life. But the life she needs to experience is not the life that I´m hoping to create in the next couple of years. She needs to finish graduate school, get an internship somewhere outside Colombia and really discover herself and her passions. In 5-10 years she might be ready, but that´s just too long for me. In the end, although we had a great time together, I felt more like a mentor or a big brother (OK, a father), than a suitor. But it would have been a lot more problematic if I had found her to be cuter.

Well, in closing, I guess what I learned from this trip is that Barranquilla definitely has some good options, but I´m not sure I´m ready to settle just yet. It is reassuring that women in their early 30´s or younger don´t think twice about dating a guy in his 40´s. I wish I could say the same about women here in the US. I definitely would go back and use the agency again in 6 or 12 months, but I may check out Bogotá first. I haven´t decided if I´ll do that instead of my return to Barranquilla in a month to fish the waters here for a bit and go back in a few months.

Oh and one last thing: I do have to admit to indulging myself to a couple of completely futureless breakfast meet ups with the really cute and sweet 18 year-old. Nothing happened beyond playing footsies and some surreptitious leg caressing under the table at Archie´s, but what a nice treat to start the day. Yeah, it was a good trip."

All of these public trip reports on International Introductions have been edited for brevity and grammar. The translators and girls names have been removed. Email us if you would like the links to the original postings on the public forums. International Introductions is the only marriage agency in South America that encourages you to know what our former clients have to say.