Colombia Expat Forum

CynthiaER
Joined 2016
Posts: 121

4 years ago

We're finally here, status report

4 years ago

Well, three weeks in. Got my electronic Visa early this month, around the 3rd or so. We went to Bogotá last week to get the hard copy pasted into my passport. I waited about 15 minutes and was called to a cubicle, where the agent asked if I'd ever had a Colombian visa before ...no ... and he printed mine on a peel-and-stick form, pasted it into my passport, and told me I had to go to my local immigration office within 15 days.

We stayed with a cousin in Bogotá for a couple of days, and did a little tourist stuff ... the Botero Museum, the National Museum, went to the Zona T.

Back home in Manizales on Friday around 7:30 a.m. and went straight to the immigration office, where the agent filled out the application for the cedula, took my picture (to my dismay, as I would have liked to do something nicer with my hair), took my fingerprints, and said to come back Thursday to pick up the cedula. So I'm nearly official!

So far, I'm liking it here. The weather is perfect (by my standards anyway), the people are nice, if a little talkative, and living in Manizales I'm certainly getting my exercise! I've resigned myself to the bland food. Once we have our own place I'm hoping that will change, as I'll be able to cook. We're at my MIL's and the cooking is not done by me, although last evening I made some tuna salad as an antidote to a meat-filled weekend. Readers Digest version: spent the weekend at a cousin's finca for an asadero. There were at least a couple of tomatoes present, but otherwise it was all meat, all the time. Neither of us is interested in eating any more meat for awhile.

Still trying to work out the IVA. I just went over a grocery receipt, and there seems to be some sort of hierarchy of which products are taxed at 19%, which at 5%, and which ones are not taxed at all. Very curious.

Anyway, that's it for now. I may still be in the so-called honeymoon phase of expat life, so we'll have to see if and/or when the bloom fades.

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Help others in Colombia by answering questions about the challenges and adventures of living in Colombia.