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GPS Maps for Colombia

I found a source for GPS maps for Colombia. I have a Garmin Street Pilot C550 that I bought reconditioned at buy.com for right at 90 dollars. I used this Garmin many times driving around the US and Canada and have found many good restaurants and bars using the database built in the maps. I actually was in MA and found an incredible German restaurant and ended up spending the whole night there as their selections of beers from Germany on tap was incredible!!

Back to Colombia -- here in Colombia I had been using the Garmin Worldmaps which is very, very (did I say very) basic.

So about my source for GPS maps in Colombia --

I am in Medellin and these maps look pretty good - they are not as refined as the maps provided by Garmin in the US. I find the maps are pretty good - it's just the driving directions don't take into consideration one way roads (which are always changing in Medellin), the maps are lacking many of the restaurants, some banks (no Citibanks), some Exito's, etc. Also, the maps will show turning right and say right while meaning left.

But if you want maps and to know where you are I think they are pretty good (actually, the best so far that are available for Colombia that I am aware of). They say the maps are refined for Bogota - since I am not in Bogota I can't comment (but in 3 weeks I will do a road trip to the embassy in Bogota as I need pages in my passport).

The guy (Javier) is easy to work with and responds to questions and email. Here is the contact information:

micropartes at hotmail.com
JAVIER FERNANDO
SILICE DIGITAL
KR59A 68 04
3116640
3157971823
www.micropartes.com

Have a great Thanksgiving (grin).

Larry

By larryrn on Nov 19, 2008, 04:45 in Friendly Talkzone.

jomilena says on Nov 19, 2008, 05:08:

How do you get the map? Does he load it on an sd card or something? Does he load all of Colombia or just the city you want?

te amo

0 funny, 0 helpful.

vicshere says on Nov 19, 2008, 06:13:

larry try this website
http://www.openstreetmap.org/
where you can make your own maps

listo

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bhill says on Nov 19, 2008, 07:41:

I made Garmin maps for Cartagena and Barranquilla. Not fantastic, but much better than any free maps for those places I had encountered previously. Someone had already done a very nice map of Bogota. Anyhow, I put my maps on cgpsmapper. You can find them (and many many others) with this google maps search interface:
http://gpsmapsearch.com/

-Brian

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TheYoungEngineer says on Nov 19, 2008, 07:57:

a lot of gps units now either have an SD card slot - or internal memory which you can load maps onto.

It would be interesting to see if the Colombian gov has electronic maps available - I know open street maps and many other sites pull us street maps off of usgis servers where it is freely available to anyone.

I wonder if the Colombian gov has anything similar?

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larryrn says on Nov 19, 2008, 09:53:

To load the map - copy the file to the Garmin directory on the GPS.

Larry

Larry Snyder, www.rn.org

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vicshere says on Nov 19, 2008, 10:17:

larry what about other brand GPSs can you load maps or only Garmin ....i have Amcor with a card slot

listo

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larryrn says on Nov 19, 2008, 14:30:

I don't know about others GPS hardware but drop the guy a note, he is easy to work with.. Larry

Larry Snyder, www.rn.org

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teachenglishcolombia says on Nov 22, 2008, 07:43:

this web pages can help a lot they have all the maps of colombia with shppping center, atm, hospitals, etc... wwww.findercolombia.com

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mandotech says on Nov 22, 2008, 09:59:

teachenglish, the link does not work.

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vicshere says on Nov 22, 2008, 10:02:

i love it when someone posts a useless link...might as well not post at all

listo

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Papi de Alejo says on Nov 22, 2008, 10:15:

try www.findercolombia.com it was only a typo; if I could see the typo, don't know why others can't. Give the guy a break.

PdA

0 funny, 0 helpful.

vicshere says on Nov 22, 2008, 15:13:

yoru so samrt i geuss

listo

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