Arriving in Bogota

NCMike says on Jun 4, 2008, 10:56:

This looks very good, I would add a couple of details:

That paper you fill out on the plane, that you later give to the immigration person before exiting the baggage claim area, ASK TO GET IT STAMPED and hang on to your copy. You will need it for when you leave the country. Leaving could constitute another post, but the line is very long and snakes around, and at some point they ask you for this paper again. Here is where you pay a tax to leave the country. If you have that paper with you (stamped), you pay about $30 less or so than if you don't have it. I can't remember the amounts exactly, someone could correct me on it, but I know it's worth hanging on to. Many people don't understand the process and just pay whatever they have to pay to get the hell out of that line.

I'd say something else about arriving and getting a taxi. I've noticed a big difference from arriving during the day and arriving at night after dark. If you are coming from the US, chances are you will arrive later in the day. As the guide above says, follow the signs to the taxis, and you will see all the people waiting for other people, but you will see tons of taxi drivers out of their vehicles waiting like WOLVES. This is especially true at night. During the day you go all the way to the ticket place that looks like a box office for a theater and tell them you are going to whavever address. They print you up a ticket with the price of your fare on it, and you give that to your driver and that's the fare you can expect to pay, plus tip. (I like to give 2 or 3k pesos tip, it still seems like taxis are a bargain in Colombia). But the last few times I've arrived at night, that ticket place is closed, and as soon as you approach the exit people are calling to you to go with them in their taxi, which may be parked who knows where, and when you get out someone may be very agressive and try to help you with your luggage even without asking you. My advice would be to hold on tightly to your luggage and say "no gracias," and head for the official taxis that are in the line in front of that area where the ticket place is. Luckily you don't have to go far. It is well worth tipping one of the uniformed workers in the baggage claim area to get a cart and wheel your luggage to a taxi. (Tip him 5000)? which is 2 or 3 $$ (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Of course tip more if you have a lot of stuff. But I have been confused before on my way out to the taxi, that the person who wants to help me with my luggage is not necessarily the taxi driver. Many people are hustling looking for a way to make tips. So they take your luggage to the taxi then turn to you waiting for a tip. I don't write this to scare anyone. Gracias a Dios even when I didn't know what I was doing I had good luck with the taxis, and no one stole my luggage. Perhaps I paid a gringo tax, but I arrived safely. If you speak Spanish, better, tell the driver your address and act like you know where you're going. If you don't speak Spanish, consider having your hotel arrange transportation. Then when you go up to where the taxis are, you'll see someone with a sign with your name, or name of the hotel. But if you do that and don't see them DON'T go wandering around out there with your luggage looking for THEM!! Go back in and call your hotel and see if the transpo has arrived yet, etc.

By the way I noticed it said above follow the signs to the taxis, to the left. In my memory, they were to the right, but it doesn't really matter there's only one place really to go just follow the signs. They may have remodeled since I was there last summer. If you later go to any other cities within Colombia (domestic flights), you will go to a different terminal. Just tell the driver when you go what airline, etc., and it's not complicated.

Hope this adds.

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NCMike says on Jun 4, 2008, 19:00:

I had a couple other thoughts.... I hope the admins don't mind...
About that immigration card and getting it stamped, etc. I have arrived before, and no one seemed to be working or checking. You just went and got your luggage and left. There was no one there to stamp the paper. That's how I learned the hard way I had to get that thing stamped, or pay more when I left the country. Also, you have to keep those baggage claim tickets handy. There is always somebody checking that you take YOUR luggage. That impresses me every time I go to Colombia. Here in the US, and I've been in many if not most of the major US airports, one just goes to the conveyor belt and gets his luggage and goes away. No one checks. If someone wanted to, it would be very easy to hang out by the baggage claim and take suitcases and go running off with them, providing the true owner wasn't there and saw you take it. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often. Of course someone could lie and say they have the same kind of luggage, they all look alike, oops, sorry, etc. But in Colombia you better have those baggage claim checks they give you or you won't go walking out with any luggage. Don't f* up and leave them in that pocket in the seat in front of you on the plane.

As for tipping the guys in the uniforms that help with baggage. You may not have Colombian pesos yet, if you are just getting to the country. Try to carry lots of 1 dollar bills with you. Ask the man (in Spanish if you can) if you can tip him in dollars. Le puedo dejar una propina de dolares? Something like that. Give him 4 or 5. Dollars may not be as popular down there as they once were, but you probably could pay for that, and the taxi if you had to, in dollars. Someone told me that some Colombians think $1 bills are good luck because of the eye of God and triangle on the back. I don't know if they all think that. But I've tried to travel with extra $1 bills and a few dollar coins to give to service people at the hotels and taxi people, etc. If you give them a normal tip in COP and them give them a $ para suerte, they seem to appreciate it and I've had great service everywhere.

If you think you will return to Colombia, (I would advise this for repeat travel to whatever country).. keep some of the local currency for when you come back... and try to get small denominations. You can go to ATMs and safely withdraw (I advise doing so at the airport or at shopping centers), but much of the time you will get bills in 50000. I hate that. People never want to make change for that. I discovered one bank whose ATMs would always mix , if I withdrew 200,000, (which used to be like taking out $100), I would get a mix of 20,000 bills and a couple of 10,000. Seems like last time my taxi ride from the airport to the north around Chico' was about 17000, so plus tip you could give a 20,000. Maybe the official taxis from the airport are more likely to have change (devueltos). But I've learned another thing the hard way, some taxi drivers in town will try to scam you and say they don't have change, and want you to just give them the difference. Try to always carry around some 2000 and 5000 and of course 1000.

I hope I haven't made arriving look more complicated by being wordy. I want people to enjoy Bogota and Colombia the same as I have. However, I have mixed feelings. I don't want too many gringos to go down there and f* things up, lol. One thing that makes Bogota and Colombia so cool is that it IS so different. I want to believe the kind of people that would get past all the negative and half truths about Colombia and go down and check it out, learn some Spanish, take in the culture, etc., are the kinds of people that would be my friends. ;)

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FELIPEUSA says on Sep 17, 2009, 03:01:

I wish more posts were informative for those of us new to going to Colombia.

Thank you!

Success isn't about becoming rich, it's about making your life richer.Faber est quisque fortunae suae

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