Visit to Uruguay

I am on a business visa to Colombia which is valid only for 3 months.  I need to go out of Colombia get my Temporal visa (more or less like a work permit and then enter into Colombia).

I need to travel to Uruguay to get this done and return to Colombia.  I heard Uruguay is a very safe place and you can walk around at any time during day or night.  I got my visa and I will be taking my family as well. 

I cannot imagine that 3 months got over.  Time is flying!!

Time Zone

The only way my family in Bogota and India communicate is through Skype or GTalk. We have taught our daughter (2 yrs old) how to say Good morning (Subrabhatham)and Good night (Shubhrathri) in Indian tradition whenever it is day time and night time in India respectively.

But due to time zone difference (10 and half hours difference) she started thinking that Shubrathri is for Good morning and Subrabhatam is for Good night!!

Español

I have started learning Spanish. A professor from an University comes to my apartment to teach me Spanish. Me, my wife and some of my colleagues have started learning it.

The language has lot of similarities with my mother tongue (Tamil). Seems to be interesting.

**CHECK**

I work as a consultant at the Ministry of Public credit in Colombia. It is in front of the President's house and is heavily guarded at night. Some of my colleagues (non-spanish speaking people) left the office very late in the night (probably 1230 in the night) and were waiting outside the office for Taxi.

While they were waiting outside, the security guards asked them a few questions and because my colleagues did not know Spanish, they did not understand what the guards spoke. Probably, my colleagues gave some irrelevant answer and the guards asked these guys whether they can *check* them. Without understanding much these guys said yes. Can you imagine what could have happened?

These guys were made to stand against a wall facing it and the guard frisked them. These guys felt strange as they never expected this and it was a kind of embarrassment for them. Perhaps this could be the least expected for a guy who works in an Information Technology industry (a white collar job!!).

Funny and sad!!

End of 1st Month

At the end of the 1st month, here it is about Bogota, Colombia.

- I see gun men all over the city.
- If you book a taxi, it is safe. The taxi services have IVR and so you need not know Spanish.
- Almost everything is expensive (Food, Clothing etc). But taxis are cheap.
- There is an excellent mode of public transport called, Transmilenio.
- The weather is good.
- Some parts of the city is new and some old.
- In almost all the places(office, shopping mal etc), the security guard checks your bag.
- Outside office very less people speak English.

Day 1 at work - Stayed overnight

Bogota is OK. I feel people are a bit tolerant and friendly. On my first day at work, I stayed overnight and returned home the next day morning. Due to jet lag and all these, I was falling asleep after 8PM.

At work I found quite a lot of English speaking people. I found an Italian restaurant which serves vegetarian food and also the owner of the restaurant speaks English.

In Bogota, Colombia

We have reached Bogota now. It was a 23 hours flight in Air France and unfortunately our luggage has not travelled with us. The luggages came the next day.

I would not say that the flight was comfortable. There was no leg room, The hand rest did not raise fully so we could not make our child lay down on our lap. No channel varieties in the in flight entertainment. The food and hospitality was not good in the flight. I feel it is important that the hospitality should be improved especially when you are travelling with old aged people or children. Other airlines we have travelled especially Emirates is satisfactory in all these aspects.

My employer was good enough to find an apartment for us in a good residential area. We entered into the apartment straight from the airport. The apartment had internet connection and it is spacious enough for us.

My friend and collegue was at the airport with sweets and coffee (Colombian Coffee). I myself am a coffee lover and I hope to have a great time drinking coffee in Colombia.