Streaming Colombia

Marshall adds to his awesome bag of babe magnets in his latest Cali video, taking individual and group classes in Salsa dancing.

At the group class, Marcela hits on our boy .. and later Marshall explains his theory of meeting people to create memories of the cities he visits.

Hearing continuing warnings from the locals about how dangerous Cali is, Marshall appears determined to press ahead with his Cali visit for weeks if not months.

Search at YouTube...  marshall powell im scared

Spoiler:  Marshall's dance moves get a solid review from a couple of policia who pass by his outdoor one-on-one lesson.  However, there is precious little footage of him and his instructor demonstrating Salsa caleña.

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¿Se armó la gorda?


Marshall Powell demonstrates his journalism chops in his latest video (May 2, 2021) as he comes upon a tax-protest (against VAT), tear-gassing in downtown Cali and the looting of an electronics and cell phone store.

Apparently, Colombians are fed up with the government collecting too much tax (allegedly) during a pandemic.

Marshall survives what he says is the craziest thing he's ever seen...

Search at YouTube... marshall powell riots

The phrase atop this post is the interrogative form of a Spanish-language idiom.
'Se armó la gorda' means all hell broke loose or 'La porquería' hit the fan.

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With the protests shutting down Cali for a week already, Marshall Powell has had enough.  He wants out .. and would take a bus ASAP to the Coffee Zone.

Meanwhile, Cali restaurants have closed down for lack of ingredients to make their dishes.  Marshall delays starvation by finding a bakery where he buys un panecillo.

Investigating possible ways out of Cali, Marshall is told the bus terminal is shut down by the protests and the city's exit routes are blocked.  A private car is a possibility, but would be expensive if the car's owner can even be persuaded to expose the vehicle to the mob.

Marshall is back at the drawing board, figuring out how the heck to get out of the city...

Search at YouTube...  marshall powell trapped in cali colombia

He needs to hire an ambulance, dress as a patient and should be able to get out.  Had lunch in a restaurant today in Pereira, no problem.

Would they let him out if he was disguised as Bernie Sanders?

Search at YouTube.com...  marshall powell escaping cali colombia

By 9 p.m., Marshall has developed a plan of escape.

Based on news and concepts from his new friends in troubled Cali, he will take a late-night taxi to the Cali airport when the mob is off the streets .. and go up, up and away.

Marshall is scared, moreso than ever in his life, by the frightening vibe in Cali.

Through deserted highways, with no stopping, Marshall's taxi driver gets him to the airport.

His friend Miguel checks in via text, saying the air traffic controllers of Cali are gone .. and airport control is being militarized.

Marshall is put on a flight to Colombia's main air hub, Bogotá, where he can decompress in an airport waiting area for many hours until a mid-day connecting flight to the Coffee Triangle.

Finally he arrives at his destination, Pereira, the largest city in Colombia's Coffee Zone, usually the safest region in La República.

Will Pereira be safer than Cali?  Will Marshall find the Colombia he has been looking to revisit?  Or have the protesting and rioting in Colombia spread so far that even the Zona de Café is problemática?

Viewers of Marshall's YouTube channel will learn more in coming days.

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Marshall has been in Pereira, Colombia, for five days .. and today posted a live, five-hour video chat and presentation (yes, five hours!) on his channel from the Coffee Zone's largest city.

He announced that he is off to Mexico on Sunday (today) for a few weeks, saying he will be back to Colombia soon when things cool down.  Pereira is already cooled-off compared to Cali, and Marshall likes Pereira, where he continued his pursuit of salsa excellence.

Search at YouTube.com...
    marshall powell live from where?

As this thread is Streaming Colombia, we may not follow Marshall's Mexican adventure here in coming weeks, except as he posts more video that he recorded in Cali and Pereira.

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While Marshall has apparently exited Colombia, Arnaud -- who has been in the country since early last month -- is staying, at least for now, in the Coffee Triangle.  Latest stop... Pereira.

YouTuber Arnaud, age 39, is a 'red pill' man (google it) who sold his stuff in Holland so he could come to Colombia to attract women, start an online business (YouTube?) and become less like a tourist and more like a local.

Arnaud doesn't have the youth nor the  suave chat-up-the-babes talents of Marshall, and admits he needs to lose some weight.

Ipso facto, Arnaud is a prime example of an arriving Expat with a few ideas, not that much on the surface going for him, passable English skills to communicate to his initial YouTube viewers .. and a willingness to keep moving around Colombia, or at least the Coffee Zone, until he thinks he can find what he likes somewhere.

Search at YouTube...   red pill nomad sold everything life in colombia

Have the protests/blockades/travel restrictions of recent days in Colombia .. been greatly exaggerated?

There is no question that Cali had troubles.  But what about the rest of the country?  How bad has it been?

One of the best-informed Expats who posts regularly on YouTube discussed this topic on his weekly program, Gran Colombia's Coffee Time.

Loren Lowe (rhymes with cow) said this....

"So there's some misunderstanding about the roads being closed and all of Colombia being shut down.  And there was a YouTuber out of Colombia this morning that tends to sensationalize even, I guess it's video clickbait....
But you probably shouldn't do it (exaggerate) over things like protests because there is so much misinformation about what is going on here in Colombia, making it sound like the place has blown up.  It's not like that at all. 

"Now Cali definitely had some issues.  We never had any (issues in Armenia).  There was one night when some foreigners from Venezuela, not from Amenia and Quindío,
tried to fire-bomb a police station, but the fire department put it out and
the police arrested them..."

Search at YouTube.com...
        gran colombia coffee time 5/9/2021, 13:00 mark

Lowe says the roads into some cities were blockaded by protesters for
a while in what he considers a "more co-ordinated" fashion than in
previous years' protests.

This post is not an endorsement of the views of the featured Expat.

Several errors are corrected toward the end of the post.

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A USA Expat who has a broad array of information and opinion about Colombia, Loren Lowe (rhymes with cow), has posted an extended video commentary on the reasons for Colombians' protests of recent weeks.

Lowe lives in Armenia, Quindío, and hosts a Sunday talk show primarily about his experiences in Colombia on his YouTube channel Gran Colombia.

He begins this video with a nerd-friendly exposition of the modern tax history and current tax matters in Colombia .. then he debunks -- or tries to debunk -- "tons of misinformation" that may have provoked some protesters....

Search on YouTube.com:
     gran colombia  protests why


Now the corrections...

At about the 10:00 mark, Lowe refers to a presidential candidate he calls "Petra."  This is obviously a reference to Gustavo Petro, who came in fourth in a previous election .. and apparently will run again in the upcoming presidential election.

Lowe says "Petra" was a leader in FARC.  Petro was actually a leader of M-19, the second largest guerrilla organization (which became a political party) in Colombia, after FARC;  M-19 had a name change in the 1990's, according to Wikipedia.  The 19 refers to an historical date -- April 19, 1970 (per Wikipedia) -- when a disputed presidential election took place.

Lowe says then-officer Derek Chauvin of the Minneapolis Police had his knee on George Floyd's back, not his neck.  After reviewing on cnn.com the infamous footage taken by a 17-year-old girl, I fact-check this assertion by Lowe as false.

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