Bogota is unsafe!

Don't be surprised at this.  Anybody traveling to Colombia would have investigated about the safety and other things.  If you read my blog (Dec 2007 to Feb 2008), I would have done the analysis as well.

You can easily get mugged on the road.  The government also does not seem to take it seriously(may be there are plenty of such incidents coming to their notice and it became a day to day affair for them).  But people in Colombia say things have improved in the last 5 years.  I cannot imagine how bad things could have been.

Recently, one of my colleagues got mugged on Halloween night when he was walking towards his apartment.  The thieves took advantage of the Halloween and were dressed like witches, covering their face etc.  They pressed a knife on my colleague's back and robbed his mobile and the cash that he had.

There is another group of thieves who target foreigners.  They catch hold of you and say they are special officers from narcotics division.  They ask you relevant questions like where are you from, how long you have been here, do you have your passport or identity card and the like.  They tell you that they have classified information that some foreigners are trafficking drugs in and out of Colombia and it is for your safety that you should go with them and get registered in a police station nearby.  They take you to a deserted place nearby check your ID card, ask you to provide all that you carry (Eg: Camera) to them so that they can register it in the police station.  They also ask you whether you have any currency and they are checking whether the currency is fake or not.  You will be asked to handover the currency to them.

If you ask for the police identity card, they will show you the identity card!!  Needless to say they faked it.  To make everything look natural they make one of their own person to participate along with you as a foreigner.  That *foreigner* will say that he/she has traveled to Colombia many times and it is quite natural in Colombia and they do this check at times and it is safe to you give your things to the *policeman*.  They fully cooperate with the *policeman* by giving away all that they have and make you believe.

Not knowing what to do and out of fear of accusation of drug trafficking you will give all your money, belongings etc.  Once their mission gets accomplished, they ask you to wait and then they walk away in different directions.  You will still be confused, what's happening and in which direction you should go and look for them.  By the time you realize that something is wrong they vanish into thin air.

The thieves sometimes carry weapons and so it is better to give away things and come back home unscathed.

The only thing that you can do is lodge a complaint in the police station.  But you will never get your things back. 

You can ask "Are these not happening in any other country?".  The answer is "Yes, they happen!".  I have witnessed these and so I am writing to create awareness.

Dance... Dance... Dance...

I went to a Christmas party yesterday with my colleagues.  This party was hosted by the Ministry's IT team.  It started with a welcome drink.  It is a tradition in Colombia to mix Jaggery dissolved in water, aguardiente(another traditional drink of colombia) and Lime. After a few minutes I could see everybody was dancing. 

It was really good to see people dancing to music.  To my surprise everybody was dancing well (may be according to my standards!!)  I feel that dancing is a national sport in Colombia. 

I too was invited by a couple of ladies for dancing and one of them was nice enough to teach me dancing.. he he he!!  But I was really bad at dancing.

Back in Colombia

Hola todos.  I have come back to Bogota, Colombia.  The trip was good.  After my trip to Montevideo, Uruguay this is what I think about Uruguay or consider it my opinion.

All Uruguayans(we call them Uruguashos)  drink something called Yerba (so called herbs) in a container which is called 'Mate (pronounced as Maathey).  So everybody carries his own mate kit'.  A mate kit has a flask(for hot water), the mate, a straw (called bombillo) and the yerba.  They prepare the drink on the spot and keep drinking it. 

     

We saw a couple doing shopping in a mal.  One was pushing the cart and the other was holding the mate and drinking.  When the other wanted to drink, they changed their roles.  A simple task like shopping takes 2 people and so you can imagine other tasks.

So, always one hand is not free (carrying the kit and the mate) and they have to do things with the other hand.  Don't you think it takes twice the time and resource to do a job?

The Rambla

I have submitted my Visa at the consulate of Colombia in Uruguay. The visa department person is on holiday today and I hope to get my visa tomorrow.

We visited the Rambla over the weekend we spent in Montevideo, Uruguay.  It was very good and we had a very long walk on the Rambla.  Rambla is nothing but the shore that runs all along Montevideo.  Especially the evening view was very good.

But to my surprise nearly all houses were painted gray, the city was not so clean and the whole of Saturday and Sunday everybody does barbeque in their lawn or in their terrace.  So we could smell smoke in the air. 

The people in Uruguay eat a lot of meat and it is difficult to get vegetarian food.  My colleagues took me to some restaurants where you can get vegetarian food like pasta, pizza and rice. They export all their good meat and import meat from Brazil. 

Uruguay is Good!

There you go! I am in Uruguay, I went straight into an apartment arranged for me and my family.  The cab driver who came to pick us up at the airport spoke a little English and told that he and his family were devotees of Sai Baba in India!

I went to work and took the Visa department personnel to the Colombian consulate in Uruguay.

The place where I am in Uruguay is called Montevideo.  The country itself is very small and has a population of 3 million.  Montevideo being the capital city, it is considered densely populated (approx 1 million).

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!!