Me & Liana Visiting Bogota

[DCNUPE/Eddie]

Me and my soon-to-be new wife will be spending a few days in Bogota beginning on Monday, January 29 enroute to the Embassy. I would like to visit some of you I have spoken with over the last few years that travel frequently to Bogota (if you are there at that time). I would also like some hotel recommendations (modestly priced) remember I just kicked out tons of money for the wedding and etc.. How should I dress for the weather? I guess I will be prepared for anything, coming from Wash. DC to Miami to C/gena to Bogota. Enjoy the holidays! Don't drink and drive....you might spill some.

Peace/Cuidate
Eddie

You probably want a hotel that's relatively close to the embassy, which is downtown. The Tequendama is close but I understand it's pretty expensive. It's easy to find on the web. Here's info:

Carrera 10
#26-21
+57 1 286 1111
+57 1 282 2860

The Cra. 10 means it's right in the middle of downtown.

I like the Maria Isabel, which is also fairly close to downtown (and to Marga's apartment). It's less expensive:
http://www.mariaisabel.com/

If you don't mind the drive (traffic in Bogota is awful, though), I strongly recommend the furnished apartments up near the ODEE offices. Both buildings are walking distance from the Unicentro Mall. They would be about $55/night, with a kitchenette, so you could save money on food. They don't feel like a hotel. If you contact William at ODEE, he could hook you up and advise you about buying groceries. But it's a trek downtown, so be warned. I love 'em--Suites Gold more than the other ones, 'cause the former is in such a nice, quiet spot.

Check the Gringos Guide about other pensiones, and do a search for a long post I did about another hotel called the Tower.

Other hotels: http://pages.infinit.net/internet/bo...ls/bog-hot.htm

Don't forget the ATM locator service:
http://visaatm.infonow.net/bin/findN...GE=Search.html

Would you like to meet Marga while you're there? I think she'd enjoy it, and Liana might enjoy it too. In theory, someday they may spend time together up here in Baltimore [I think of DC as a Baltimore suburb... ] Liana could call her directly and they could talk about hotels.

As for restaurants, the Maria Isabel restaurant is very nice. The others I know are mostly up north near ODEE. The Cafes Oma, and Crepes and Waffles, are good. Casa Vieja (Antioquian food) is a favorite, and if you want to spend $100 on dinner for the two of you, just once, try Cuatro Estaciones.

Have you thought about how she's going to learn English? There are a couple of places in B'more (too far from you) where people can be in total immersion classes for 30-35 hours per week. Expensive, tough, but very effective. Kids from all over the world come to these programs not speaking English, and a year later enter an American university after they pass the TOEFL. There must be something like that in DC. Maybe Georgetown U, or GWU?

Well, the first FARMer buys the farm. Best of luck, Eddie. You've got my email, and may still have my phone. Get in touch!

doc
(Brian)

[LAI]

Eddie

Regarding the weather, you should prepare for an average of 60 - 70 degrees during the day and 40 degrees at night and in the morning.

Also as far as hotels go, you can visit us at Charlies Place, and rejoice our other gringo guests with your war stories! They will surely buy you a beer at the bar. =)

I can offer you a room at Charlie's Place Hotel at $40.00 per night.

Nelson

In other words take a sweater! You'll want one at night. It never gets hot in Bogota, because of the altitude, so forget the shorts. And if you have a small umbrella, you may want to take that too.

[DCNUPE/Eddie]

Thanks Doc! I would like to take you up on your offer and have Liana call your lady. Send me an email or I'll call you "soon" (Eagles on today). I want to talk more about the English classes also. Of course that is a priority when she gets here. Will you be in Bogota soon?

Nelson:
Thanks for the info. and invite. I shall take you up on your offer as well. Of course, I got to get permission from the Misses! I will let you know in a week or two. Thanks again!

Peace/Cuidate
Eddie

Go Eagles!!!!!!

[In the Know 2]

Eddie, my wife and I, then fiance, stayed at a hotel called the "EMBAJADA". Actually, it is a house just 50 feet from the gate of the embassy where you are going.
The bank where you will have to pay fees is right on your way to the entrance of the embassy. There is a small restaurant just up the street and a shopping mall is just about a 3 minute taxi ride away.

I posted the address and phone number of this place over a year ago and you should be able to find it? For sheer location, you can't beat it! Stay away from the Hotel Santa Monica.

Make sure your papers are in very excellent order....they were not very kind to us the first time we went and this is why they hide behind bullet proof glass walls! You will see what I mean! Dress somewhat warmly.

[In the Know 2]

Eddie, I found the address and phone number.

Hotel Casa La Embajada

Calle 22 E.
No. 44A-97

Telephone 572-0260
244-5476

You can find my original post by searching in the "Bogota Forum" under the title "Embassy visit No. 2 and Bogota!" Dated 9-10-99

[DCNUPE/Eddie]

Thanks for the input. Do you mind sharing information about the documentation you needed. I have a list, but I just to make sure that I'm not forgeting anything. I have an appointment this week to get my "marriage visa" at the consular's office here. How long did it take for your (now) wife to get an appointment for the second interview. Also how and when did she receive her actual visa. I heard three stories, they mail it to her, they tell her to come back in a few days to pick it up or she has to pick it up at a passport/Gov't office in her city.
Thanks,
Cuidate/Peace
Eddie

[In the Know 2]

Eddie, we only received a F-129 FIANCE Visa.
We went twice within two weeks because my then fiance's mothers name on her birth certificate was not her mom's real first name.(A catholic church secretary had made an error 29 years earlier on my wife's birth certificate!) So, they gave us a hassle over it and I talked to the State Deparment offcial but she would not give us the visa until we corrected this little tiny problem. (There I was, a taxpaying citizen with my fiance and they had to make a major hassle of nothing not to mention that I had to wait two hours to talk to this "primma donna". They were harrasing another "gringo" even worse then us!) Therefore, you need to make sure that all of your papers are in order. That names on documents are correctly spelled and that things match up.

There was a couple there who had married in Colombia. He told me that she would return to the embassy in like 15 days to get the visa after they intially presented their papers. The good thing is that when your wife does get her visa, you will not have to wait to "adjust her status" here in the states like we have been WAITING to do. We have waited over a year for a 10 minute interview and now our local INS office says they have no proof that we paid them the $220 adjustment fee. They have it, they just are understaffed and not organized. A big league pitcher from the Dominican Republic would have had it months ago! You see, in the land of "justice" it is the George Washington on the dollar that talks!

As I have posted before, the Immigration and Naturalization Service is a big joke and the embassy experience didn't impress me either. These people are supposed to be professionals? Hahahahahaha! It is all a big joke about forms and fees and you guys who have done this know what I am saying.

Hopefully, Eddie, all will go smoothly for you. If an attorney is helping you then you should be OK but the sad thing is that nobody should have to go to any lawyer for any of this! We Americans pay fees called taxes which pay for these state deparment "hotshots" as they think they are.
(Like if you check the U.S. Embassy Colombia
website they say the will not write you back? They wrote me back because I shook them up a bit! Heck, one consular official there the second time we went to the embassy could not even fluently pronounce in SPANISH the names of the people who they needed to be in a certain line! What a joke!)

Anyway, Eddie, it is their game so ya gotta play it! Cross your tees and dot your eyes and don't let it frustrate you. You will get her here either way. Like it or not, they are there for you!

Congratualtions!

[DCNUPE/Eddie]

Thanks! I think I have everything I need and then some. But now I have to get everything "offically translated" by only a handful of qualified people at $22 a page! Did you hear me????? $22 a page! I have about 15 pages! Then I have to pay the application and processing fees at the Embassy in Bogota. I hear they only accept cash (dollars of course). Anyway thanks again for the information and well wishes.

Peace/Cuidate
Eddie