How to Bogotá

Banks in Bogota

November 7, 2014 // 3 Comments

Banks in Bogota are somewhat of a culture-shock in themselves, for a number of reasons. Here, I tell of my experience of opening and having a bank account in Colombia. Firstly, you will need your cédula (Colombian ID card) to open a bank account; the cédula is the main form of ID here, and if you think that your internationally-recognised passport should [more]

Sundays and Ciclovía: The Calm Between the Storms

November 3, 2014 // 0 Comments

Sundays are something that Bogota does really REALLY well. I love Sunday in Bogota. I live close to 7th Avenue, near the mountains, and this is closed to traffic on Sundays and bank holidays. This means a brief escape from the noise and pollution, and opens the road for walkers, cyclists, skaters and skateboarders: From where we live, we can either walk north towards [more]

Bogota Skies: every cloud has a silver lining

October 30, 2014 // 1 Comment

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’ve found the transition to life in Bogota a challenge at the best of times, but one of the things that makes me very happy are pretty skies; and Bogota (and Colombia in general) has these in abundance. I therefore thought I’d start focusing on some of the things I truly do like about Bogota, and share with [more]

Colombian greetings

October 30, 2014 // 0 Comments

Some useful Colombian greetings from vocabat.com. I can say that I have heard all of these a number of times since I’ve been in Colombia…and I wish I’d read this post before I arrived! [more]

The Bogota Transmilenio bus system: problems and solutions

October 29, 2014 // 0 Comments

It’s rush-hour. I’m on a Transmilenio bus and it’s busy. People are standing elbow to elbow and as usual the driver is driving like a maniac over pot-holes and cracks in the road; the standing passengers are swung from side to side, trying to grab onto anything they can as they fight to keep their balance; the seated passengers hold on tightly to [more]

10 Smartphone apps I couldn’t live without in Bogota

October 27, 2014 // 5 Comments

When people move to a new country, they’ll often buy a cheap phone with a local SIM card to use while they’re there. This is fine if you’re just visiting for a short time, but if you’re in Colombia for the long-haul, a smartphone will be a really useful tool. Here are the (Android) smartphone apps that I use regularly, which I really [more]

The 5 Stages of Culture Shock in Bogota

October 26, 2014 // 6 Comments

Reading through my blog, I feel conscious of a generally negative undertone as I’ve been writing about my experience in Bogota. I initially assumed that this was due to my general dislike of Bogota as a city. I often feel that if I were given the opportunity, I’d leave Bogota for somewhere else in a heart-beat. Then the other day, I was looking for [more]

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