jmmyers has left 15 comments

jmmyers comments on To move or not to move to Medellin?

moving to medellin if i want to move to medellin, what do i do about a visa? what is the colombian equivalent of a green card?

jmmyers comments on Poorbuthappy Get together

medellin im up for meeting in medellin. it looks like people are interested but theres no place/date set. ive only been here a month so im probably not the best person to ask for a place. could someone suggest something?

jmmyers comments on Preguntas Ayudame!!!

eafit how many people were in your class? I wonder if i'd learn more just cruising around colombia

jmmyers comments on Vonage

broadband What does a broadband connection go for in medellin these days? how about dial-up? I know in the states, where I live, it's about $30 a month for a decent pipe.

jmmyers comments on Preguntas Ayudame!!!

EAFIT recently revamped their spanish program and now offer an intensive class for 4 hours / day and about 3 weeks per level ($210). I'm taking three levels in october/november/december. It looks pretty decent from their literature.

Roncita, where did you live when you went there? I'm trying to find an apartment around the school.

Also, I'm taking a month of immersion classes at simon-bolivar school in Quito. These are private 6-7 hours / day. I'll let you know how it goes.

jmmyers comments on traveling in and out of colombia

snowsuit

jmmyers comments on The illegal economy of Colombia

damn yeah people using the internet for schoolwork are lazy too, they want google to do their work for them. and google is lazy too they have all of their computers searching all of those websites automatically! man there are some lazy people!! in reality I think posting to a board like this is a great way to do research.

I've done some research into colombian politics and it's not easy to find information, especially over the internet. I've read Steven Dudley's Ghosts of Colombia (check amazon) which is almost too much info on colombian politics but a good source. A shorter and easy to read source is "Killing Peace" that you should be able to read in 7-8 hours no problem and has a good overview of the situation.

The problem is some people have no way to make any money other than growing coca. In colombia, poverty is the real problem and growing coca is a way to get out of it. In the US, poverty is still the real problem and cocaine is a way to get out of it (for a few minutes at a time).

Arms trafficing is really auxiliary to the guerilla movement in general. Being a guerilla is just another avenue and occupation for someone who is broke, bored, and angry. Same goes for the paramililaries. The people supporting them are the people in the city who are the only ones doing any actual productive labor. They give them money though kidnappings, illegal taxes, etc. The rest comes from the U.S. lower class through drugs.

for vicshere: http://www.serta.com/pages/product_perfect_sleeper.html

This should probably be in the other forum by the way :).

jmmyers comments on cell phone SIM cards

cingular doesn't lock the t616, don't know about other phones they sell.

jmmyers comments on moving to bogota

devloper I'm a java developer considering a move to colombia. I would like to start my own company doing web application development for end user products, such as a flight scheudling application I'm working on completing here in the states. COP$1,000,000 a month for a mid level developer is about 15% of the U.S salary, very attractive for a business owner :).

Let me know what you find out in Bogota. What technologies are you looking at, and what are you trying to accomplish?

jmmyers comments on cell phone SIM cards

Comcel actually sells the t616, so I'm sure it would at least work. I didn't see anything on their website (or Ola's) about sim cards by themselves.

And in order to use a voip bridge from your cell phone, I assume your cell phone has to work in the first place. It probably wouldn't make sense to use one to call locally, either.

jmmyers comments on One-way flight to BOG a problem?

delta Does delta fly to Ecuador?

I'm taking the copa flight which goes through panama city, which sucks but its better than taking a bus.

thanks pointofview for the advice.

by the way this flight will then be cleveland to houston to quito, then quito to panama city to medellin, then medellin to newark to cleveland.

Continental 35,000 miles.

jmmyers comments on One-way flight to BOG a problem?

continental I'm using 35,000 miles on continental to fly from cleveland to quito to bogota and back to cleveland the first week of september. I just bought the ticket and the quito-bog trip is in october with the bog - usa trip in mid december. It was otherwise a $1300 flight which works out to
about 3.7 cents / mile.

I'm actually going to medellin but since contineltal doesn't fly there im taking an aero republica flight one way ($95) and a bus the other ($12 from what I hear) for the scenery.

Deos anyone have pictures of the trip between bogota and medellin? I hear it's a pretty nauseating experience. Where do they stop? I would assume more than once since it's a 10 hour trip (from what I hear).

jmmyers comments on Medellin

bus to bogota how much and how long of a trip is the bus from bogota to medellin and vice-versa? do the run often and are they safe?

I've seen posts that state generically "its safe" or "never go!". is there someone with a more comprehensive viewpoint on this??

FYI the flights look like they're about $100 give or take. I'm thinking of taking a bus for the scenery and the cost savings.

jmmyers comments on expensive stuff safe?

FIVE times the first year? Why did they target you? What did they take?

I think casio makes some nice watches I might invest in. I might bring 5 credit cards and just plan on cancelling one and losing 10 or 20 thousand pesos every few weeks.

Any chance of fighting back or did they use knives or guns?

jmmyers comments on Medellin

medellin Does anyone have a map of medellin or the location of one on the internet? I am having trouble locating one other than a big generic verison.