About meincolombia

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Some Forum Posts:

Colombia: Expats who returned to US or Canada:

Good lord, I can´t believe that idiot Desi has oozed her slimy sack of sh¡t onto this forum, too. You guys that are disappointed by dogs barking all night and dogs crapping on the sidewalks aint seen nuthin yet. There goes the neighborhood.

Colombia: Filandia vs Armenia redux:

Colombians call them moscas, I call them ankle biters, common fly that hangs around the coffee farms at an altitude less than 2,000 meters. Filandia doesn´t have as many of them because there aren´t any coffee farms. The only defense is to wear long pants or use bug spray. If they bite you rinsing with water takes the sting away. Filandia is at least 45 minutes from downtown Armenia and the highway is not all that smooth once you get off the toll road. But the highway continuing from Filandia to Quimbaya is excellent, especially good for bike riding. Filandia is a tiny little rural town of a few hundred people with a charming park and a hostel or two, but almost zero options for housing. We looked for two days and found zip. Armenia has closer suburbs that are charming, such as Le Tebaida, Circasia and Quimbaya. In the north part of Armenia are several nice barrios. I´ve visted Armenia several times and the surrounding burbs, and never noticed any extraordinary mosquito activity. But, I´ve traveled all over rural Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont in the spring and can attest that is probably the mosquito capital of the world, except for south Florida of course :) Compared to those mosquito infested states Colombia is smooth sailing, at least in the coffee region. Maybe along the coast or in los llanos or amazonas there is a mosquito problem, but don´t think so in the coffee region.

Colombia: Colombia's downturn?:

My thoughts are in Parenthesis #1 (Petty crime is off the charts, they even stole the welcome mat from my front patio.) #2 (Even when there are police they are pretty worthless, don´t do much . I had some items stolen and the police investigated and didn´t even ask for serial numbers or descriptions of the items stolen. Just smiled apologetically and left.) #3 (That foreign tax thing got hyped out of proportion. Doesn´t affect most expats.) #4 Tax rate on most everything 19%. (Colombia is high for average third world country is more like 15%, but income tax tops out at 30%, much lower than many other countries.) #5 Streets and sidewalks are in terrible condition (Bogota) - (NOT just Bogota, the whole freaking country is like that, open sewer holes in sidewalks, sudden steps in sidewalks, broken metal poles sticking, freaking difficult to walk without getting hurt. Imagine if you were in a wheelchair. Fugidabodit.) #6 Free for All Traffic (Bogota) - (NOT just Bogota, whole freaking country is crazy traffic). #7 If you are a walker you are a target when crossing a street by the Taxis, cars, bus's, bicycle taxi's (Bogota) - (Everywhere) #8 Learn to live with most everyone being late - (and never an apology, always an excuse). #9 Terrible Customer Service, most places. (Absolutely awful customer service, especially tech companies.) #10 Learn to hear excuses why things never get completed on time. (Ever) Positive Comments #1 My Wife and Daughter - (felicitaciones) #2 Excellent Healthcare - (Be careful, its spotty in my experience. Sometimes excellent other times awful.) #3 Excellent Customer Service Arturo Calle Crepe and Waffle WOK (I´m actually surprised the list is this long)

Colombia: Sabaneta Expats Attention !:

There are 9 high rise towers under construction in Sabaneta right now. Once they are occupied the population of Sabaneta will double. There goes the small town ambience.

Colombia: Plantra Fasiitis Treatment in Colombia:

My personal experience with plantar fasciitis is that it goes away once your stop being obese. Look at body mass index sites on the internet and strive to achieve your normal range body weight and I guarantee you the plantar fasciitis will disappear. Is used to walk around on painful stumps, wake up with excruciating pain and stumble for several paces to get my footing when just standing up from a chair. I was obese like you are. I had to lose 68 pounds to get there, and I was thrilled to wake up and have normal feet again.

Colombia: Renewing Visa, trip report:

Just renewed my TP7 pensionado visa yesterday, for another year. A big change this year is you have to fill out the application online before going to MRE. They wouldn´t even let me in the office. First I had to go a few doors down to an Internet cafe and fill out the online form and scan my docs and photo and get the print out invoice. Then back to the office to pay the 154,000 study fee. Then half hour later got approved and had to pay the 628,000 visa fee. Then another half hour later picked up the new visa and headed for the terminal to go home. Apparently this new system is working very well. When I went in there were about 70 people ahead of me, but they were getting taken care of at a lively rate. Overall my wait from time of filing online, until getting new visa in hand was one hour. When I left the office only a half dozen or so were still waiting. One thing to be really aware of is that filling out the application online should be fairly easy and straightforward but its not. The lady at the Internet cafe helped me scan my photo and get it just right to meet the specifications. Without her help I´d have been screwed since there are no directions. Yet if you don´t do it exactly right they reject your whole application and you have to start over. Once the application is approved you have 1 day to pay the study fee or you have to start all over again and get a new invoice and file number. You can pay the thing online with a Colombian credit card, or through Servibanca ATM or you can simply pay cash at the MRE bank in their office. I paid cash, took about 1 minute. On their web site it says you should fill out the online application before going to the office, then it says in next sentence you can do it at the office. When I queried them about that second sentence that said what it means is you can come to Bogota and use the internet cafe next door to MRE. Next time I do it I´ll do the online application the night before, then pay the study fee in cash at MRE bank first thing in the morning when I arrive to apply for the visa renewal.

Colombia: International Drivers License, Colombia to US:

My US drivers license expired years ago and now that we´re planning to move back to US I will need to rent a car for the first few days until we can buy a car and get settled. Is it hard to get an International drivers license here in Colombia? What´s involved? Can I use an International Drivers License to rent a car at Washington Dullas do you think?

Colombia: Some coming, others going (part 2):

I got tired of scrolling through pages of messages to get to the new posts on the old thread so I´m starting a new, similar one. I agree wholeheartedly that Medellin is better than Panama, and better even than Costa Rica, but to say that Medellin is OMG YOU GOTTA GO THERE is a big stretch of imagination. It is a typical Latin American city, with congestion, crime, contamination and pollution, polluted air and rivers, grimy streets and homes, shoddy construction and so forth. However, there are friendly people, and the cost of living is less, maybe even 1/2 less, than a similar size city in the US. The climate is excellent. Decent health care is available and health insurance is not terribly expensive as it is in the US. Yes, there are many reasons to live in Medellin or any part of Colombia. Still, some of us are happy to be returning to US. Both countries have petty everyday annoyances but they seem to be magnified in Colombia. The pollution is really starting to annoy me. Trash everywhere, rivers stink, breathing the air hurts my throat, dog sh!t all over the place, people parking their car over the street grate to change their oil.......just some of the things that have grown more and more unpalatable for me. People rave about the beauty of Colombia, but when you look more closely its an illusion. The place is filthy, gritty, smelly, polluted, over promoted. Beautiful for me is a sugar sand beach along the coast of Florida, or the state and federal parks and forests in New England, or clean rivers where you can swim and kayak without fear of hepatitis. Where you can hike for days along wilderness trails without fear of guerrillas or paramilitaries or narco gangs or just plain ordinary robbers. In my opinion there are lots of good reasons to live in the US even with the extreme climate changes and extreme cost of living.

Colombia: How to move back to US:

Planning to relocate to US for a few years for business reasons and I now realize I´ve been away from US enough years that I don´t really remember how things work for moving back and forth. 1. Will my 4G Lenovo smartphone work in United States? 2. What will we need for myself and wife and 2 kids to exit Bogota airport enroute to Dullas? Pay departing taxes or airport fees? 3. Shots or any medical records to re-enter US? 4. I can withdraw USD from ATMs as soon as we land in Dullas, but will we need greenbacks before then? 5. For now I do not plan to become a Colombian citizen at the end of my 5 year permanent resident visa, because of the wealth tax thingy, which is still up in the air and could be a disaster in the future. So will I be able to renew my 5 year visa while living in US, assuming my dates to re-visit Colombia don´t line up with my 5-year visa renewal date?

Colombia: medical care:

The spell check on this site sucks......I´ve noticed it even leaves out words that I remember typing...... My Coomeva doctor referred me to an ophthalmologist and I received complete examination including glaucoma and other stuff without copay. However, I did have to pay for my own eyeglasses to correct my vision. From what I can tell, the eyeglass industry here is a joke compared to US. But, the eyeglasses are very cheap so even if you have to replace them every year or even twice a year its not too onerous. They use a very soft plastic for the lenses that will scratch just from wearing them because there is a lot of dust and grit in the air here at certain times of year. What I was told by the dentist is that cosmetic procedures on the front ¨smile¨ teeth is covered, but not on the back teeth. But, please don´t go on my experience. I´ve learned that if you ask three different people here you will often get three different answers.

Date Joined:

6/12/2016

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101

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