tigredelnorte2 has left 60 comments

tigredelnorte2 comments on Peso 9 year high, Interest difference 7.75 highest in 7 years

You can buy a 2 year Certificate of Deposit from a bank in Colombia that pays 9.33%. I say it just a few days ago.

tigredelnorte2 comments on TWO VIEWS: We need to stand by our staunch allies like Colombia

If McCain wins, Colombia is good to go. Meaning there will be a trade agreement. If BHO wins, a trade agreement will be difficult to obtain.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Working as an English Teacher in Medellin

requirements vary all over the place. Some schools with only want to talk to you. Others require much more. From my experience, the more that you have to provide in way of requirements, the higher the pay. The less required, the lower the pay, and the higher the probability that they will try to screw you out of some , or all of your pay. Demand prompt payment. The only thing that you have as a bargining chip are your services. You could also seek private students. This pays pretty good. Take out an add in the local paper. The add should be written in Spanish.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Thinking about part-time teaching in Colombia

Medellin or Bogota, check the yellow pages for English schools, there are many.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Visa Laws

This missing father could be a future problem. Be careful. Are you sure she isn´t playing some kind of game with you?

tigredelnorte2 comments on review of North Star Backpackers Hostel in Cartagena

good info, thanks

tigredelnorte2 comments on Looking for Apartment and/or hotel Medellin

$700 per month is a lot. .For 700 to 900 thousand pesos you shoud get you a very nice 2 bedroom apartement in a good area. Your problem will be that you will need a co signer. I got around that by offering to pay several months rent in advance. After the initial several months advance bubbler, I pay month to month. right not the exchange is about 1660 colombian pesos per US dollar in the exchange places. It´s a better exchange if you use an ATM card.

tigredelnorte2 comments on more inquiries!

You will definately find a lot more job opportunities in Medellin. Cartagena is a fun place, but it´s money drain, and the beach is below par. For a job, check out the yellow pages in the Medellin phone book. Lots of English academies, and schools the need English teachers.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Presidential candidates view on Marijuana. Who do you support? Drug policies in Colombia?

The only reason that marajuana is not leagal is that the gov´t and the pharmacutical companies couldn´t make any money off is, and peeps would grow their own.

tigredelnorte2 comments on ENglish teaching course info (TKT)

There are lots of places to teach English in Medellin. Look in the yellow pages.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Where to find Peter Pan peanut butter?

Now we need a good bagel to put the PB on.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Trip to Valledupar, Is it safe?

I was there over the Christmas holidays. It was tranquillo. Like anyplace, be careful at night until you get a feel for the place. My general rule is arrive at least 2 hours before sundown.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Need some help!

You can also try www.lonelyplanet.com Go to the thorn tree forums

tigredelnorte2 comments on Credit Cards, ATM & Cash

Get an account with a Bank that is on the SUM system. Do a google search. Banks and Credit Unions on the SUM system do not charge ATM fees, even for international withdrawals. Adives them that you are going to Colombia, so they don´t freeze your account. You will have an atm fee from the Colombian bank that you take the money. Additionally, I copied this info below from another PBH forum. I will probably us this info when I go back to the states.....see below Get an account that does not charge ATM fees, and withdraw the money from an ATM to get the best rate. The two that I use are Affinity Bank in Ventura, Ca, and National Interbank in Indianapolis. Both checking accounts are free and there are no international ATM charges. I also use a free Paypal account to transfer the money between all of my accounts. Most U.S ATM cards have a $400-$500 daily limit. You can use the ATM machines more than once a day, as long as you stay under that limit. In a couple of weeks you will have enough to pay cash for the truck, and thus have the upper hand when bargaining the price. Don't bring U.S. dollars to Colombia. You will get a poor exchange rate. On a side note, if you are going back to the states anyway, withdraw up to your limit from the ATMs every day, change the Pesos into USD at a cambio house each day to lock in your profit, and then take the dollars home and put it in your U.S. bank account (up to 10G's). The spread (or profit) you will make by doing this is 5-7% at the present time.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Best American Candy To Take....

They have gum drops here, but they are on the expensive side. Cheaper in the states I think.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Peso Hits 16 looking for 14 maybe faster than we think...

A weak peso is good for the Colombian economy. It brings foreign investment, and foreign purchase of Colombian goods and services.

tigredelnorte2 comments on An Idea

Check the price of peanuts before you get to excited. You might be suprised.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Boycott San Pedro !

use cash dude, always.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Moving from California to Bucaramanga

Copetran bus line also has a household good moving service that is reasonably priced.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Work visa for 2 companies

Ask EAFIT university to pay you by ¨prestacion de servicios¨.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Interesting Twist: Colombians To Produce First Ethanol In US Plants(La)from Sugar Cane

Interesting. I read that Brasil produces a lot of ethanol from sugar cane.

tigredelnorte2 comments on expatriate

your pic looks a bit like Hunter S. Thompson. Or is it a pic of himP?

tigredelnorte2 comments on expatriate

Hello EX, any chance that you can educate me a bit on this subject from one of your posts? I am very interested. ---->(On a side note, if you are going back to the states anyway, withdraw up to your limit from the ATMs every day, change the Pesos into USD at a cambio house each day to lock in your profit, and then take the dollars home and put it in your U.S. bank account (up to 10G's). The spread (or profit) you will make by doing this is 5-7% at the present time.)

tigredelnorte2 comments on Bringing Money to Colombia

If you have a strong desire to bring cash, I would suggest travelers checks. the exchange rate is higher. It`s an advantage even if you consider the travelers check fees.

tigredelnorte2 comments on

Rikito, I would concentrate in getting your visa congugal first. If you were married in Colombia, it will be easier. If not, you will have to have all your marriage documents translated into Spanish. Viajero123 pretty much has the right info. When you go to Bogota, bring noterized copies of every document that you can possibly imagin might pertain to your visa. When I went for my renewal, we forgot something, and even though we had all the real proof necessary, the visa agent said not. It is a bit funny, because for the origional, there also was a documentation problem, but at that time they gave us a pass. Dependes on the mood of the agent I think. After you get your visa, you have 14 days ( something like that) to apply for the cedula extranjeria. This is not a difficult thing. I would do it ASAP. You may be able to do it in Baranquilla. Ask at the DAS office in Bogota. The advantage of doing it in Baranquilla is that you will not have to make a trip to the Bogota DAS to pick up the Cedula, as it takes several months to process. You will recieve a temp Cedula however while you wait. After you have been in Colombia for a while, and make some connections, you can have some company write a letter for you, saying you are working for them under prestacion de servicios. You could also work for a school, and have them write the letter. Take this to the bank, and you should be in. If you have your money in a British bank, and have an ATM card, there is no real huge advantage of having a Colombian bank account. They charge about 7 thousand pesos monthly for an ATM account.

tigredelnorte2 comments on land travel from baq to ctg

First off leave with pleanty of daylight ahead. 2pm at the latest. I took a bus from Baranquilla to Cartagena a couple of years ago. The fee was about 18 thousand pesos as I remember. From the Airport to the bus station in Baranquilla should be less than 10 thousand pesos. Ask the driver before you get in the cab. I believe that now there is a prepay service kiosk in the Airport, where you pay for the taxi, and provide the receipt to the cabbie. This is much better, and there is less cheating. Most buses are direct, but some do pass through villages on the way. The bus station in Cartagena is not all that far from Boca Grande (the swank area of Cartagena). I remember paying the cabbie about 8 thousand pesos. 15 minutes max to Boca by taxi from the Cartagena buss station. Good luck. If you speak good Spanish all should be pretty easy.

tigredelnorte2 comments on teaching jobs

This is what I did. I got a hold of the Medellin yellow pages. In the yellow pages are listed many schools. I made several copies of my CV, and made the rounds handing out CV´s. Calling first, and asking to speak to the director is a good idea. I did this on several occasions. Make sure your CV has a local call back number, and/or Colombia cell phone number, and your photo. Most of the personel in the schools, outside of the teachers speak only Spanish, so speaking Spanish will be benificial in finding work. If you were to ask me about a school called ¨Colombo Europeo¨, I would avise you to not even bother. The general School year begins at the end of January, but teachers are hired all throughtout the year. Some of the bilingual schools start in September.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Are Colombian banks really interested in doing business or just pushing paper?

This is Colombia, the person that you talk to in any institution, can either screw with your life, or be very friendly, and help you out, including bending the rules if necessary. It can be pot luck.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Visa Renewal...some bad info...and lesson learned!

I agree with papi, depends on who you talk to , and when you talk to them. With my origional spousal visa, we were missing a document, but they let us sub another document that had the same info. For the renewal, a similar thing happened, and they would not renew the visa. We had to return to Medellin, get the proper papers, and go back to Bogota. Additionally it can be very difficiult to find out the current requirements before you make a trip to Bogota. Often it´s hard to make a phone connection. If you do make a connection, the person that you talk to might just be trying to finish the call, and will say anything to get you gone.Hence you go to Bog with insufficient info.

tigredelnorte2 comments on haircut in London

yesterday....haircut and hairwash.... three thousand colombian pesos.....

tigredelnorte2 comments on Isolated tribe spotted in Brazil

I once saw a documentary on a group of scientists that visited an isolated tribe in Brasil. It turned out that most of the tribe ended up dead from the virual infections that the scientists brought with them. Of course scientists had been inoculated.

tigredelnorte2 comments on How much to bring my car from Miami

FYI, you can buy a brand new car here for about $12,000. Chevy and Renault both have low end vehicles in this price range.

tigredelnorte2 comments on bringing insuline to Colombia

my experience has been that most meds are cheeper here in Colombia. I don´t know about insulin though.

tigredelnorte2 comments on What documents needed for Permanent Residency Visa?

I concure, 180 days is the number.

tigredelnorte2 comments on rjstuff

hello rjstuff. I am from the US, but I live in Colombia with my Colombian wife. Soon I will be going back to the states. I would really like more info on the DineroSeguro thing. Your experiences, and how the receipiant gets the money. Thank you

tigredelnorte2 comments on

rjstuff, could you please provide more info on the dineroseguro from the US post office? Mainly interested in how the recipient in Colombia receives the money.

tigredelnorte2 comments on What's your reccomondation for calling a colombian cell from the U.S.?

try to use the local numbers provided on the card. If you use the 800 number, you get less time.

tigredelnorte2 comments on What's your reccomondation for calling a colombian cell from the U.S.?

I was calling a Tigo (hola at that time) Cell from NY state. I bought $2 phone cards. The best was 42 minutes for the $2. The trick is that you get the 42 minutes if you use it all on one call. If you break it up into more than one call, you get less time. My advice is try several different $2 cards, and keep track of the minutes that you recieve. The cards are available in the small markets ( mom and pop places ) in , let´s say , less than middle class neighborhoods.

tigredelnorte2 comments on ColombianoGringo

Please contact me regarding the job. I am very interested.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Busco empleado que hable muy buen ingles

A la orden. Vivo en Medellin. Se habla Ingles nativo.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Warning Identiy Theft in Colombia

Before you leave an internet cafe computer you might think about going to the herramientas option, and eliminating all of your passwords etc, the you put on the computer during your session. The process is different, depending on the version of Windows you are using.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Safety in Medellin

I´ve found El Centro pretty safe in the daylight hours. Just keep moving. Don´t stand around like you don´t know where you are. It´s an invitation to the mal paridos

tigredelnorte2 comments on I had posted on here looking to see if any english speaking colombians might be

If your requirement is for a legal enterprize, I know someone who is very Bi Lengual. Born in Colombia, raised in Metro Toronto. Dual passport holder.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Need a place in Medellin for a year starting May 1st

after the 4 months you just pay on a month to month basis. Your utility bills will be high if you live in estrat 5, or 6. Avoid places with electric stove, as this will also raise you bill significantly. Gas cooking is cheap here. We allways pay between 5 and 10 dollars monthly for the gas.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Need a place in Medellin for a year starting May 1st

I have lived in Medellin for a bit more than a year. If you need some info , let me know. Apartement prices have a wide range. One problem here is that many apartement owners want you to have a co signer , before you rent an apartement. If you go through an agency, they probably will no deviate from this requirement. Personally, I got around this by contacting owners that were not using agencies. I offered to pay several (4) months in advance rent. This did the trick.

tigredelnorte2 comments on UK sterling in Colombia

American Express travelers checks are accepted at BanColombia.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Relocation Rip-off?

Wait till you start enjoying the banking system. .....heavy sarcasm

tigredelnorte2 comments on Relocation Rip-off?

They make up rules as they go along. Best to not have to deal with government officials if you can avoid it. Colombia is not Europe, or the US. Not even close.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Medellin

I live in Medellin. I have a Spanish teacher that will give lessons for 15.000 COP per hour. She has a masters degree in Spanish literature, and is a certified school teacher. She is a native Colombian speaker. Drop me a pm if you are interested.

tigredelnorte2 comments on Sneeking into venezuela without a visa

The present political situation between Colombia and Venezuela is a bit prickly. Don´t go without an official visa.