tobntno has left 31 comments

tobntno comments on train travel

Not really there is a train in Bogotá going north to the salt cathedral (but only twice a week I think). And in some other regions there are still some trains going from the once extensive train system - but only for tourist purposes. You won't be able to use it as a means of transportation...

tobntno comments on Recommended Websites For Keeping Current

Not just Colombia but still good info about Latin America:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/latin_america/default.stm

tobntno comments on Advice on public transport.

Almost forgot: I did get mugged once - in London, Picadilly Circus :-)

tobntno comments on Advice on public transport.

I haven't had any problems so far but I keep a low profile most of the time. I take the TransMilenio just about every day and never felt unsafe.

But a friend of mine (colombian) just got mugged there even worse than what happened to you: she was sitting in the very back, got a call - answered and then felt something cold on her stomach, which turned out to be a knife. Well, she handed over her phone and they took off at the next station.

I guess it can happen to anyone, careful or not. At least I never sit down in the TransMilenio anyways so it would be tougher to corner me like that.

tobntno comments on HOW WELL DO YOU MOVE AROUND IN THE CITY?

Very Easy Bogotá as well as most cities in North and South America are really easy because they use the grid system. And if they streets go by numbers (such as Bogotá) and not names it's even better.

Wanna experience getting lost? Go to Europe sometime: there are no grids in the cities (but maybe the iberian peninsula) and the streets all have names. If you aren't familiar with the area or have a good map AND a compass you'll get lost completely.

Bogotá is a dream: with the grid, the numbers and the mountains you always know exactly where you are.

tobntno comments on A Street In Chapinero

Nice work nicely written and very easily identified with if one ever spent some time in Bogotá / Colombia ...

tobntno comments on Election results?

Thanks That's what I was looking for - I did see the the ballot and thought that it wouldn't be easy for most voters:

tobntno comments on 30 extensions for ´06

No problems here I got my stay extendet twice so far. Just went to the office brought one picture, paid the fee and waited about 2 hours.

The first time I had to do the whole fingerprint stuff the second time they didn't even ask me for a picture nor fingerprints.

I do travel to Ecuador every know and then come back here which makes is just so much nicer than dealing with the DAS all the time. It's not really that expensive either.

The last time at El Dorado I picked the DAS official that looked the nicest and seemed to be having a good mood and got 90 days (on prior occasions I had only gotten 60 or 30).

tobntno comments on Gropin' Tales...

Japan is an good example when it comes to general crime: nice people and a low crime rate but when it comes to women rights it's still in the dark ages.

Teenage prostituion is way more common there than in other places of the world, sexual offenses are considered almost "normal" there. I remember seeing a documentary on Japanese CEOs doing business with american companies - these guys actually had to take behaviour classes on what not to do with the female american employees: groping butts and breasts was on top of their list...

Besides, society-wise we can't compare North- and Southamerica and Europe with Asia, things are way more different there.

This is not just about the parents raising but about the schools and society in general - I'm sure the kids don't learn to behave this way at home.

tobntno comments on Gropin' Tales...

I have to disagree here I don't think it will help much. I have rather liberal views and I doubt that you'll see a big change in the behaviour of the guys around here.

In my opinion punishment never helped much. You have to raise people properly that they will respect women not punish them after they disrespected them this way.

I'm sure there are no similar punishments for such a sexual harassment in Germany and it still does not pose a problem there.

On the other hand, does capital punishment in the U.S. do a lot about the murder rate? Nope, in fact the rate is much higher in the US than in Europe where there is no death penalty at all.

tobntno comments on radio noticias on the internet

BBC and Deutsche Welle http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/news/

http://www.dw-tv.de/dw/0,2142,6069,00.html
(can't find spanish radio here but they have a video stream)

tobntno comments on

Two comments: A life is only worth about 15.000$ around because that's what these guys stealing the sewer lids get when selling them. Two months ago a kid fell into one of these "holes" and died. I'm sure it wasn't the only time this happened.

Other than that I'm thiking if these killers get 300.000$ for the job why won't they walk up to me (knowing that I'm rather wealthy in compare to the average colombian paying 300.000$) and tell me about what they were hired to do and ask me to pay them a much bigger amount. Would make sense, wouldn't it?

tobntno comments on Going to Colombia in June?

No elections in June Hi,
as far as I know we have elections for the "Cámara" in March and then we have the senate and the presidential elections in May. So if you come here in June it'll all be done by then...

tobntno comments on Rudol Yethon, a poor German in Colombia

Sorry for the long link had no idea it would screw the layout up like this.

Anyhow - I was thinking about this a little bit today: if he would acutally go back to Germany he could make A LOT OF MONEY just telling his stories on Talkshows, Newspapers, Magazines etc. and he could even get his autobiography published.

But this whole thing makes little sense to me - why would he come to Colombia in the 80s - when things were really bad around here and Germany was -economically speaking- doing much much better than it is nowadays. I can't make sense of it.

This story has burned itself in my mind so badly that I even thought I saw him in the TransMilenio today (obviously it was just somebody who resembled him fairly well).

tobntno comments on Rudol Yethon, a poor German in Colombia

No German name Yes - I was just about to say that but than I looked up the name in the phonebook and found
this

According to this the only German with the name of Yethon lives in Germany and has the same first name, too!

tobntno comments on Where to get VOIP hardware in Bogotá

I have DSL with ETB - not lightning fast but should be sufficient...

tobntno comments on Bogota taxi drivers!

I have actually been in accident with a cab... ... not a big deal really - the car looked bad but other than that nobody got hurt and the taxista got me to where I wanted to go anyways.

With the bad condition of the roads and cars around here I'm surprised that I don't see more accidents though.

tobntno comments on Guided visits to Los Andes Univ in Bogota

It's a good uni... nothing is broken everything is clean they have up-to-date computers but education-wise I would say that the universidad nacional is better.

tobntno comments on FIRST WARNING

Unbelievable... ...that's all I can say about this.

When I flew to Bogotá (with a layover in Atlanta) the lady said something like: What?!? You won't fly back for 8 months and don't have a visa?
I said: well I don't need one - I'm going to Bogotá.

That's where the story ended and that's where this story should have ended, too.

I seriously doubt that working in the US ist THAT attractive for canadians. A colombian making the same trip to Canada - then I would understand suspicion.
I mean what's the point? It takes a little more than an hour to get to the US from Toronto by car and at the border nobody will ask you that many questions, do they even ask for a passport or can you just go with any photo-id?
And if you really want to get into the US the thousands of miles of the US-Canadian border have enough holes to do so.

This is ridicolous - almost as bad as that one story with the green party memeber not getting a flight because at the airport they told him that "greens weren't allowed to fly that day"...

tobntno comments on

This is odd As there is just as much noise out in the street today as any other day. If it wasn't for this post I wouldn't even have noticed it (until I went out of course). Pollution wise I remeber days where the air was much worse than today...

tobntno comments on ATMs that'll give you more than 300,000$

I believe that ... ... but than there would be 4 charges for withdrawals adding up to 20€ or 25USD just to get the equivalent of 500 USD / 450€. This is just what I'm trying to get around.

tobntno comments on ATMs that'll give you more than 300,000$

Thanks The green stuff (Servianca) will give me up to 300.000$, I'll try Davivienda as well as Bancolombia though.

My bank has quite a lot of other banks they cooperate with, in most places it's no problem getting cash free of any charge but the only ones in Latin America are in Chile, Argentinia or Mexico - which really doesn't help me with getting cash here.

tobntno comments on Help (shoe size)

43 here fits me just fine As I said before I wear a 9 1/2 or 10 US and I bought 43s here (shoes that were made in Colombia, too) that fit me just fine. I don't know what this confusion is all about - does it have to do with male and female sizes?

tobntno comments on Help (shoe size)

The Brand does matter... ... but a 40 never is a 10US. I wear 43 and usually go for 9 1/2 or 10.
Here is a link that should help:
http://www.i18nguy.com/l10n/shoes.html

tobntno comments on my colombian wife wants to go back to colombia

I would prefer England to Colombia any time really - the beer is so much better there :-), the wages are so much higher, too...

But I think for colombians that already consider Bogotá a cold place England must be hell!

tobntno comments on getting prints from digital in Bogotá

thanks I'll try that - pretty expensive though (at least in compare with other prices around here).

tobntno comments on Cheap Flights Miami-Bogotá

I flew American I flew american to get here but I can't figure out why they charge me the same price for flying from Bogotá to the US as I paid Germany-US-Bogotá. Doesn't really make sens to me.

Anyways - just wanted to share the option as I had not heard about here before.

tobntno comments on Advice on going to Colombia

I would have to disagree on the blond thing Hi everybody,
I live in Bogotá and to be honest with you until this day I have only seen one really blond person like me and that is a coworker (from Germany) at the University - they call the office "oficina de los monos". As a blond and rather pale guy I DO STAND OUT. Of course people won't stare at me because it's the first time they see somebody who is blond but still it's not that common. And the pale bogotanos are still much darker than I am.
Anyway - if you don't mind being approached by a few homeless who will ask the "rich" monos for money Bogotá is perfectly fine for you.
My spanish is alright but far from perfect and I get along without any problems. I won't travel by bus outside the city by myself though - but flights with aerorepublica or avianca aren't too expensive and a much more comfortable way of travelling, too.

So don't worry about anyhting - especially if you'll stay in the north. Most neighbourhoods there could easly be in a European or American city. The downtown area is alright as well - but the south is a place I wouldn't go to without at least a couple of "bigger" friends.

tobntno comments on Comparing Venezuela and Colombia

Having never been to Venezuela ... I can't really tell you that much about it. But: I talked to some Venezuelans about it and they said there really aren't that many diffrences.
I would say it's like this:
1. the Spanish from Caracas is harder to understand than that from Bogotá (it takes some getting used to at least).
2. they have Bolivares in Venezuela and Pesos in Colombia
3. Venezuela is cheaper than Colombia (especially gas)
4. Arrepas: both have them but they put meat in them in Venezuela

tobntno comments on Monthly internet costs?

ETB, DSL I have ETB in Bogotá, 200k down and 100k up - not very fast but good enough for surfing, the odd download and voip. The pings to Europe are quite alright too: 200ms.

It costs 28.000$ the first 4 months and 69.000$ the remaining 8. So all in all it costs about 55.000$ per month. But at least it's unlimited.

In Germany I can get 6Mbit down 500k up DSL unlimited for this kind of money though, so I suffer from this 200k connection :´-(.

tobntno comments on Best Bars in Bogota

Peña Andina "Intiraimy" Cr. 7, Cl 57 I'm suprised nobody has posted this yet so here is my recommendation: I've been to the "zona rosa" as well as the Cl.93 Area and they are quite alright but nothing special (just like any other club on the western hemisphere - but with more latin music).

The peña (actually there is a network of peñas all over the andes) is a place run by indios (indigines) with their music and their drinks as well. You can sit on the floor (on carpets) or on very small chairs of course you can dance to live indio-music as well. The prices are reasonable (not like Cl. 93) and the people their are really nice. The owner will even teach you their way to dance - I couldn't do it however (I seem to be lacking the genes).

Anyway - this place rocks - better than anything else I've done in Bogotá so far and most colombians never even heard about. So when visiting you can tell your friends that you had great fun and know their city even better than they do...