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!!

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.