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bogota

Safety Tip of the Day – How to avoid being robbed in Bogota

February 27, 2014 // 1 Comment

Yesterday I became a victim of crime in Bogota for the first time. It actually could have been a lot worse. When I got on the Transmilenio, I had my purse. When I got home, I realised I didn’t have it anymore. This was preferable over having a knife stuck in my face and threatened for my bag (which also happens – usually on the busetas or on the street), [more]

How to find a place to live: Bogota apartments

January 30, 2014 // 8 Comments

Whether you are looking for long-term or short-term accommodation in Bogota, there are a number of websites advertising Bogota apartments for rent. You might also find my other post about the neighbourhoods and where to live in Bogotá useful. Long-term accommodation Renting long-term normally means committing to at least a one year contract. I’ve yet to come [more]

How to escape the ‘big smoke’ – ecotours in Bogota

January 28, 2014 // 0 Comments

If you’re planning to stay more than a few days in Bogotá, you will quickly find that you run out of obvious things to do and see. You can ‘do’ the Candelaria in half a day, walking around and visiting the museums there. Then you might want to visit the National Museum on carrera 7 – another half-day. The Zona T is excellent for high-class [more]

Is Bogotá safe? 13 safety tips

January 8, 2014 // 0 Comments

Whilst it is fair to say that Bogotá’s reputation as a ‘dangerous’ city is not entirely undeserved, there is also a great deal of scaremongering and ignorance with regard to this matter, particularly online. It often ‘ranks’ within the top 10/25/50 most dangerous/violent cities in the world in online blogs; in this blog post, for [more]

How to renew your Colombian tourist visa

January 6, 2014 // 6 Comments

Update May 2018: Many thanks to Chris for writing to me to let me know that you can now extend your Colombian tourist visa online! Here’s his helpful blog post on this topic on The Unconventional Route. Many foreigners come to Colombia and find themselves wanting to stay .. much like myself 🙂 Thus arises the question of how to renew your Colombian tourist [more]

How to send a letter – Bogotá mail

January 4, 2014 // 29 Comments

The first part of this post explains how to send a letter from Bogotá to somewhere else (either in Colombia or to another country). The second part briefly explains how to format a Colombian address when you are posting a letter to Colombia. How to send a letter from Bogotá Colombians rarely use the public mail service so it took me a while to find out how to send [more]

How to survive the Colombian markets – shopping tips

January 1, 2014 // 0 Comments

In Colombian markets, whether these be indoors, outdoors or  people selling on the street, mastering the art of negotiation is essential if you want to pay a fair (or perhaps less unfair) price for goods. A typical market stall in Bogota First things first: you either need to learn the numbers from 1 – 1000 in Spanish (not as difficult as it sounds) so that [more]
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