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. 

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.

How about Bogota...?

I am working for a multi-national company. I was told that a project for Ministry of public credit, Bogota, Colombia. (Yes, in South America!)is in deep red and I may have to travel to onsite for the project.

I had no clue about the project and no idea about the location. As usual, I powered on my computer and started searching about Colombia. At the end of the search I got a reply that was good and bad.

But I could more or less summarise it like this.
- It is a country where drug trafficing and kidnappings are more than any other part of the world.
- It is not safe to walk around on the roads after 8PM or so.
- Cost of living is not too high.
- It is safe to live only in zones 5 or 6.
- Technology is not so advanced (Like mobiles, broadband etc)
- The language spoken is Spanish
- You must book a cab and should not take a cab just by waving hands on the road

The only convincing part, I read in almost all the sites, was that the country has improved a lot in the last 2 years and the crime rate is lesser than some other popular cities in the world.

I should also list the good things that I came across about Bogota, Colombia.
- Rice is a staple diet.
- You get vegetarian food (ask for "arroz con ensalada")
- Weather is always between 18 deg celcius and 22 deg celcius all through the year
- People are kind (?!?)

Ok. I need to pack my bags now!