•At the introductory socials, there would be a high ratio of women to men, with 8 women to each man. (And Latin women are beautiful!)
•I would meet some nice guys in the group and form friendships with these men who were single and looking for adventure.
•The romance tours were actually good vacation spots and I could enjoy swimming and scuba-diving, as well as exploring an international city.
The cost of the romance tour was $1,500 US dollars plus airfare, so for about $2,700 including personal expenses, I could have a nice vacation. Not bad! Here’s what the tour included:
•Private room in a 4-star Hotel
•Breakfast daily
•3 Socials with the girls with my own personal interpreter
•Airport pickup
•City tour including a date with the woman of my choice
•Beach party including a date with the woman of my choice
From my research, I learned that the international romance tour company had scheduled three romance tours in South America one in late June to Lima Peru and two in July; Barranquilla and Medellin Colombia. All the cities sounded great, but my friend Bob and I decided on Barranquilla because that tour was on July 4th, and we both could use one less vacation day from work and be able to extend our stay in Barranquilla.
Barranquilla is an amazing city next to the Caribbean Sea on the northern coast of Colombia rich in culture, music, and beaches. Barranquilla is a tropical city and the weather is warm all year round. Barranquilla is the fourth largest city in Colombia. But most importantly is well known for their beautiful women who have captured the Miss Colombian crown numerous times. The ladies have variety of skin tones from beautiful glowing brown to a butter light skin and hair from shimmering black to silky blonde. The pictures online looked beautiful. I knew it would be the perfect place to vacation and hopefully, meet some wonderful, beautiful women.
I figured that this would be a great vacation and not too expensive. Where else can go and meet hundreds of beautiful, genuine, and available women – all in one place? How many years of dating would it take you to meet hundreds of women? And, how much would it cost you to date hundreds of women?
For me, it made perfect sense to go on an organized tour. At the very least, I would have a good vacation in a foreign country, and I would get to date some beautiful women and learn firsthand about their culture. Match.com only presented American women for me to meet online. The thought of meeting international women face to face and interacting with them was very appealing.
I visualized how nice it would be to have a beautiful Latin woman as my own personal tour guide through an exotic Colombian city. In addition, I knew there would be a bunch of American guys like me who were looking for women, and I felt sure I could develop some nice friendships with these other men.
Once I decided to go, I was excited and began looking forward to the adventure. I had no problem telling my friends and family I was going on an international romance tour. I knew there was a negative stigma about international introduction services. One hears all these stories about foreign women looking for an American man to rescue them from poverty. And, I’m sure that happens. But, I simply didn’t care what people thought. I had done my research and I felt comfortable with my decision to go. And, I wasn’t the least bit embarrassed about it. I was confident of my decision and looked at it as a fun adventure.
I flew to Phoenix to visit my parents for Mother’s Day and at dinner the first night, I told my mom about the international romance tour. She was skeptical, but supportive. “Are you sure you can’t find someone in Texas?” she asked, while setting the pot roast on the table. The smell was intoxicating and made my mouth water. “There are so many pretty and nice girls in Texas, surely there’s someone there for you.”
“Mom, I’ve tried everything,” I told her. “I’ve even tried Match.com, and I just haven’t met anyone interesting.”
“But, do you have to go all the way to Colombia?” she asked me. “That’s so far away.” She sat down across from me and I saw her look at my father. He raised his eyebrows, but said nothing. Perhaps he empathized with me, remembering when he was single, knowing how hard it was to find a good woman. He was lucky when he found Mom. Not all of us men out here in the world have been so lucky.
“You know I am behind you 100 percent,” Mom said. “I just want you to be happy.”
“I know, Mom,” I said. “I appreciate it and I promise you, no one is going to take advantage of me. It will be a fun vacation and if I meet someone special, then great. If not, no big deal.”
“I’m sure you’ll have a good time,” Mom said. “And those women will love you.”
Dad winked at me and I just dug into the pot roast.
My19 year-old daughter Laura thought I was crazy, but accepted my decision. She knew I liked adventures and agreed that it would be a fun vacation, if nothing else.
At work, for the most part, my co-workers were supportive. Behind my back, they probably thought I was crazy and making a bad decision. I can just imagine the conversations:
“David has lost it this time!”
“Poor guy. He can’t find a woman in the U.S., so he’s going outside the country. Must be
desperate, if you ask me.”
“I’ve heard those women take advantage of you – that they’re just looking for an
American man to take them to America, and once they get here, they’ll leave him.”
I honestly didn’t care what anyone thought. That’s one good thing about being older – past your 20s. I was mature enough to be confident enough in my own decisions and didn’t need anyone else’s approval. Honestly, I didn’t know that my decision to go on this romance tour would change my life. Forever!
Chapter Three
Preparing for Barranquilla
In just two short months I was going to embark on my adventure to Barranquilla and for me, it was important to know as much about the tour, the ladies, the culture and the socials as possible where I would have the best opportunity to be successful. I wanted to educate myself as much as possible so there would be as few surprises as possible. I wanted to know the ins and outs of the romance tour and I wanted to know of any red flags beforehand. Most of all, I wanted to be able to make the best decision possible about any woman I met.
A cool thing about the agency is that they had weekly conference calls for people who were going to go on their Latin Romance Tours. This was extremely helpful and I was able to obtain more detailed information about my particular tour by listening and asking questions. Yami, the office manager in Barranquilla, hosted some of these conference calls. She provided information about all aspects of the tour, the Latin culture, and the ladies.
Former clients of the agency participated in these conference calls and stated that they felt very comfortable walking alone at night. This wouldn’t be my first time to Colombia. I visited Bogotá a few years earlier on vacation and at the time, I had always felt safe. So, I wasn’t worried about this although some men on the conference call who would be going for the first time expressed a concern. After all, in America, on TV shows and movies we see a lot of crime in Colombia. But that was in the past. The big cities are safe, but like any city here in the U.S., there are bad parts.
The police never give you problems in Colombia. They respect Americans – not like some other countries where you have to be fearful of the police.
From the calls, we guys learned what to wear, all about the city where we were going, and much more.
We learned that getting around town was easy if you took a taxi, which was best for tourists. The cost was very little and ranged from