Patrol

re: I can’t explain it exactly. But living the “Soft Rock” life is the key to happiness.

Posted by Patrol on 8/25/25 at 10:47 pm to kingbob

Agreed, well said

O-T Lounge

re: Medellín, Colombia

Posted by Patrol on 8/15/25 at 4:04 am to GITiger66

Any shot you made it to Café No Sé on 1st Ave?

re: Medellín, Colombia

Posted by Patrol on 8/13/25 at 7:24 pm to AUturfguy

If I make it down there, I'll let you know lol

re: Medellín, Colombia

Posted by Patrol on 8/13/25 at 7:22 pm to CenlaLowell

I live in Antigua. Love it. Have lived here for about 2.5 years, but been visiting here for nearly 14 years. Town has changed a lot since then. Less crime for sure.

re: Medellín, Colombia

Posted by Patrol on 8/9/25 at 5:28 pm to dallastiger55

Savage

re: Medellín, Colombia

Posted by Patrol on 8/9/25 at 3:02 pm to Mingo Was His NameO

I mean I thought that was already a given?

I have some time on my hands in the next few weeks and I am looking to shoot down to Colombia. Live in Guatemala currently and flights look good. I also speak the native tongue there, so getting around should be easy.

I have heard promising things about the Las Laureles area of Medellín. Apparently it is up-and-coming.

Any recs will be much appreciated.

Inb4 "hookers and blow"

re: Save the Children offices raided in Guatemala

Posted by Patrol on 10/11/24 at 5:30 pm to idlewatcher

Dude the UN is one of the biggest trafficking groups here. There are places in Antigua that I walk at night, that I never would have walked through at night time even 8 years ago. Particularly El Tanque De La Union on la Segunda Avenida, which was previously filled with bums/drunks/homeless every night.

I ran into a Guatemalan ex about a year ago. Ended up having lunch with her. She works for the UN. Her primary responsibility is working with NGOs to funnel people northward. She claims she has a counterpart in Northern Guatemala that they funnel people to. The counterpart in North Guate has a counterpart right across the MX border. And so on and so on.

It is absolutely ridiculous.

I will say that there is a huge drop among the homeless population that I see on a daily basis than there was years ago, particularly when I was am exchange student here in high school.

I guess Guatemala has the UN and NGOs to thank for that. They just funnelled all their trash north into the US

re: Save the Children offices raided in Guatemala

Posted by Patrol on 10/11/24 at 1:14 pm to Hogbit

Never been to El Estor. Spent a good bit of time on Rio Dulce and in Livingston and Amatique Bay. The whole Izabal area has much more of a Carib/Afro-Carib feel to it. Decently sized black population there known as Garifuna. Food is pretty good. Very laid back area. Bit of a narco presence there as well.

re: Save the Children offices raided in Guatemala

Posted by Patrol on 10/11/24 at 1:10 pm to Patrol

shite. My bad I read that as "El Salvador" lol. Disregard my comment

re: Save the Children offices raided in Guatemala

Posted by Patrol on 10/11/24 at 1:09 pm to TigerAxeOK

Yep. I am pretty sure they have shut down the adoption agencies due to all the abuse. I know for a fact that at least one of them was being run by a woman who was paying poor indigenous women yo have children that she would then buy from them and essentially sell to couples abroad. I says "sell" because she would basically say "this is the price for all the legal/paperwork for the adoption. However if you want to expedite this process, we need to grease some palms" then that money for bribes was going straight back into her pocket.

On a side note, this woman also ran a very successful exchange student program. Which is how I first came tk Guatemala 13 years ago

re: Save the Children offices raided in Guatemala

Posted by Patrol on 10/11/24 at 1:04 pm to Hogbit

El Salvador has it going on right now. Most gang members/cartels are in prison there following Bukele's mass incarceration of them. A few made it to Guatemala and the police here dealt with them for the most part.

I run a well known bar in town and the Salvadoreños come up to Guate for vacations in August. They are great people. Heard many a tale of how great life is in El Salvador now and had invites to go and visit my customers there. They had only one request - do not bring drugs or weapons lol.

They also use USD which is great.

re: Save the Children offices raided in Guatemala

Posted by Patrol on 10/10/24 at 6:17 pm to Night Vision

I've been living in Antigua, Guatemala for the last year or so. Been travelling here for 13 years now. A lot of these aid groups, particularly for children, are pretty shady.

re: Pinnacle Construction

Posted by Patrol on 4/27/21 at 4:41 pm to Tigers13

I didn't have to. They told me they just needed an architect's drawing if I tied into my roof probably for liability purposes.

Home & Garden

re: Pinnacle Construction

Posted by Patrol on 4/27/21 at 1:29 pm to Tigers13

I used Pinnacle last year in March to install a pool in my backyard, as well as renovate our hangout area/mancave on the back porch. As others have posted, they are a bit more pricey than other contractors, but we had no issues with them. I dealt with a project manager named Christian (or maybe his name was Chris, been a while) who was very accessible and easy to communicate with.

Home & Garden