Pley Club, via Facebook

As the U.S. Secret Service continues to investigate 11 of its agents’ solicitation of prostitutes while in Colombia ahead of a recent presidential trip there, the more we’re learning about the sex trade in that country.

The New York Times today took a look at some of the brothels in the seaside city of Cartagena that the Secret Service agents, along with a contingent of military officers, visited last week ahead of the Summit of the Americas, which President Obama attended last weekend. Prostitution is legal in Colombia in designated “tolerance zones,” and Cartagena features several brothels that cater to foreign visitors.

Perhaps the best known in the Secret Service kerfuffle is Pley Club. We learned yesterday that agents hired women there for the evening and took them back to an upscale hotel. But now we know a bit more about what’s available at the establishment: “[A] bottle of Old Parr whisky costs $160, and the women, who pole-dance naked on a stage to the rapid-fire beat of reggaetón, can charge double that,” the Times reported.

And while it was reported that some of the Secret Service agents involved were boasting to prostitutes that they protected the president, it seems the braggadocio runs both ways. At least one sex worker said that this scandal will only raise their allure:

“Now we are world-class, with the president’s bodyguards coming to try out Colombian girls,” said one freelance prostitute who walks the streets of the walled city and came to Cartagena from her hometown, Cali, because she preferred well-heeled foreign clients.

It also seems that the differences in Cartagena brothels run as deeply as what kind of mood music is playing in the background. While dancers at the Pley Club move to bouncy reggaetón sounds, another club, Angeles, is a little more sedate. A Tracy Chapman music video was playing while the Times interviewed a prostitute there.

Meanwhile, there are differing accounts of what happened the morning after the agents brought the prostitutes back to their hotel. It has been reported that there was an altercation between one of the agents and one of the sex workers over payment, but what happened next appears to be in dispute. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said that hotel management called police after hearing the argument, but a taxi driver in Cartagena says he gave two of the women a ride home:

In the morning, one of the men refused to pay the $250 he was asked for in exchange for the previous night’s sex with one of the women and instead handed over the equivalent of about $30 in local currency and shut her out of the room, the driver recounted. The woman and her friend banged on the door, they told the driver, until other Americans came out of their rooms and gave the women $100, and the women left.

NBC News reports that the spat occurred because the two agents in that hotel room were cheapskates. They tried to pay a prostitute a single rate for servicing the pair of them, which prompted her to notify local police.

But we’re a little intrigued by the differences in background music in Cartagena’s brothels. Specifically, we’d like to know which Tracy Chapman song was playing at Angeles. In lieu of knowing which one, here’s the video for “Give Me One Reason” just because it’s a pretty solid track:

UPDATE, 2:25 p.m.: The Times has made contact with the prostitute with whom two Secret Service agents argued over the value of her services. In her version of events, the agents did not boast about their roles protecting the president:

Sitting on a couch in her living room wearing a short jean skirt, high-heeled espadrilles and a tight spandex top with a plunging neckline, the woman described how she and a girlfriend were approached by a group of American men at a discotheque. In an account that tracked with the official version of events coming out of Washington, but could not be independently confirmed, she said the men bought a bottle of Absolut vodka for the table and when that was finished bought a second one.

“They never told me they were with Obama,” she said. “They were very discreet.”