Colombia - Colômbia

Localization

Flag

Basic information
capital	Bogota
Government	republic
Currency	Colombian peso (COP)
Area	1,138,910 km2
Population	41.008.227
Language	Spanish
Religion	Roman Catholic 90%
Electricity	110V, 60Hz
phone code	57
Internet TLD	.co
Time zone	UTC-5

Colombia is a country of South America.

Regions

Regions of Colombia

Departments

The country is divided into 32 departments plus the Capital District:

Cities

Bogota - the capital

Medellin, in Antioch
Cali, in Valle del Cauca
Barranquilla, in the Atlantic
Cartagena, in Bolivar
Ibagué, in Tolima
Leticia, in the Amazon
Pasture

Other destinations

islands of San Andrés and Providence

Understand

To arrive

Brazilians no visa required for stays of up to 90 days. It is mandatory to be vaccinated against Yellow Fever and to carry an International Vaccine Card. Vaccine and International Vaccine Card available free of charge from ANVISA at airports. You must be vaccinated 10 days before boarding.
From October 2007 onwards, for Brazilians to enter the country, all that is required is the identity card, which must have been issued less than 10 years ago and be well preserved. The same goes for all South American citizens except Venezuelans.
citizens of Portugal it's from Sao Tome and Principe they do not need a visa, just a valid passport for tourist visit.
citizens of Cape Green, Angola and Mozambique need to get a visa before travelling.

By airplane

direct flights from Varig (from 3 to six weekly departures, depending on the month) and Avianca (one daily flight), from São Paulo to Eldorado Airport, in Bogota. Travel time approximately 6h.

Of boat

From Manaus it is possible to reach Tabatinga, conurbated with the Colombian city of Leticia, 5 days upstream (3 days to return)! Several weekly outings by means R$ 370.00 in any class. More detailed information at the port of Manaus, tel. 92 3622-1330, fax 92 3233-2689.
In Iquitos, at the Peru, bound for Tabatinga, the fast boat it takes between 9 to 10 hours and costs between 50 and 60 dollars. The simplest boats cost around 25 dollars (meals included).
There are many boats transiting between Cartagena and Panama. The American coast guard usually boards and inspects all vessels. So don't you dare take drugs on board, you'll put everyone at risk of imprisonment on international trafficking charges.

By car

from the city Brazilian in Tabatinga, at the Amazons, to the Colombian neighbor Leticia
Gives Venezuela, by the steps of San Cristobal-cucuta and Maracaibo-Maicao.
Of Ecuador, by the rank between tulcán and Ipiales

By bus/bus

There are buses connecting the Ecuador and the Venezuela to the country, with several border posts. In Caracas lines depart for several Colombian cities, such as Cartagena, Barranquilla and Santa Marta, on the Atlantic coast.
A government website [1] says it has bus lines from/to Caracas, lime, Quito, Guayaquil, La Paz, Santiago and Buenos Aires.

Circular

By airplane

Avianca and the Cup [2] offer domestic services. Attention: popular ticket sales websites usually have prices much lower than those charged directly on the Avianca website for domestic flights. Check out!
Other local airlines may offer cheap flights: EasyFly [3], Aero republic [4], Satena [5] and Aires [6]. Many of these companies only sell through the site to residents of Colombia; however, they sell tickets over the phone for the same price. See the numbers on the websites themselves.

Of boat

there are boats calling San Andrés and Providence to the mainland, but no line is official.

By car

Distance chart from Bogotá:

Medellin: 414 km
Cali: 440 km
Barranquilla: 948 km
Cartagena: 1,060 km

By bus/bus

See government website [7] on bus trips, containing the name of the company, price and duration of the trip.

By taxi

Taxi services in larger cities are good and relatively cheap. Crossing the city from Bogotá costs approximately US$15. When ordering a taxi over the phone, the registration number is provided. There are taxis in hotels, offices and public buildings. The cars have a table with the conversion value of the taximeter. At night and on Sundays they use flag 2, as in Brazil.

by cable car

As many people live in the Andes, several cable ropeway systems have been implemented in the country. In Medellin, the service is part of the subway network. There are still many systems in operation in small towns in the Antioch, or in Santander, over the canyon of the Chicamocha River.

Speak

Spanish. In Medellín and Cali they use the you instead of you, just like in Argentina.
The way Colombians speak is different from other countries in Latin America. Not only the way of pronouncing the words, but also the features of the prosody are unique.
In Cartagena, it is customary to speak faster and almost without consonants. When they talk to each other, even the Bogotans don't understand.
Some Colombian words: chevere (cool), cool (cool), rumba (party), backgammon (beggar)
In addition to the usual confusion between the V it's the B, characteristic of Hispanics, Colombians sometimes also pronounce the V like U; you never really know when that might happen, but they say palaura (word), for example.
O D between two vowels no longer exists: fishing, suck, employment, and not fished, sucked, employed (employee)...

Look

Knife

Buy

In March/2008, R$1 is equivalent to 1100 Colombian pesos. In general, prices are lower than in Brazil.
The exchange rate is pretty good: although officially a dollar is worth around 2250 pesos (May/2009), you never get more than 2150; at airports, 2050 pesos. In hotels, they still take 200 pesos per dollar, buying the 1850. Paying with a card, despite the Brazilian IOF, is still the best option.
In practice, to convert the price of a product it is easier to remove the last 3 zeros from the values, and here is the price in real.
Buy: coffee, chocolate, jewelry, crafts.

With the

fruit of canapum (Physalis).

Colombian food is very particular. It is highly seasoned and the dishes are prepared based on fish, corn, chicken, potatoes, peppers etc. Colombian food has lately been rediscovered by chefs places, which are giving them a fresh and modern face.
Fruits are another strong thing in the country, many of them only existing there. Examples: Guanavana (type of giant soursop), lulo (it looks like passion fruit, but the juice – delicious! – tastes like mangaba), uchu (a berry that in Ceará is called canapum and in São Paulo it is called "physalis"), plane tree (banana), piña (pineapple) and many others...

drink and go out

The most popular beer is the eagle, but the Club Colombia it's hotter.
There's all kinds of soft drinks, even the deceased ginger ale.
Rum drinks (mojito, cuba-libre) are especially tasty.
Local fruit juices.
when asking Coke, say the full name. the Brazilian Coke gets a little bad there, and people look at you a little strange...

sleep

Hotels in general in Colombia are expensive, much more than in Brazil. Also, the three stars are a little rare, and the ones at the level Formula 1 or Ibis it is priced at four or five stars.

Learn

Work

Safety

The cities, especially Bogotá, are very well policed. Still, it's never good to waver.

Health

respect

Colombians are an extremely kind and polite people. Do it the same way. Please, thanks and until luego are never too much.

Stay in touch

As in Brazil, it is necessary to use the code of an operator to make long distance and international calls. The codes have a digit that is prefixed to the city (long-distance) or country (international)
All DDDs have a single digit
All landlines have seven digits
All cell phones have 10 digits and start with 300, 310, 315 etc, and it is not necessary to use a city code as the numbers are national
In Bogotá there are almost no payphones, and the public places close early and on Sundays. Schedule yourself.
There are many "minute" vendors on the streets in any city. They strap about ten cell phones to their bodies and "sell" calls per minute.
In the locutories there is also internet.

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