Just about anywhere in B’quilla, you can get a cup of coffee right on the street. Vendors wheel carts with several thermoses. Using a wooden paddle like the one you see here, vendors can prepare several cups, large and small, at once. There’s milk and sugar to add in and you can get a pancito (small piece of bread) too. Who needs Starbucks anyway!
$20,000 peso bill, back and front. $1,000 peso bill. $5,000 peso bill. My niece recently gave me a lesson in how to tell if bills are counterfeit.
One of the challenges for a NorteAmericano in Colombia – at least for one like me who is not so great at mathematical estimates – is the exchange rate. Right now, it’s roughly 1,800 Colombian pesos to the dollar. So a bottle of Coke might be $3,000 (the symbol for the peso is the same as for the dollar – $) and your groceries might cost $248,000. We bought a queen size mattress the other day and the cost was over $1 million. It’s hard not to feel an initial sense of shock when you hear the number. Continue reading
Posted in Daily Life
Tagged adventure, barranquilla, Colombia, Colombian peso, credit card, currency, exchange rate, financial services, international, Latin America, travel
The process of establishing our new home continues. Our shipment from Miami arrived, but the entire crate (they build a crate for your boxes when shipping internationally) was accidentally left outside at the Port for two weeks. It rained heavily on Wednesday. Our customs agent (you have to hire this person to get your stuff out out of the Port since you are not allowed in) called with the bad news that everything is soaked.
Most likely the bulk of it is ruined. The rest, we have been told, is already growing mold. Continue reading
Posted in Making the Leap
Tagged adventure, barranquilla, Colombia, international, Latin America, movers, port, shipping, travel
Movie theater at the Buena Vista shopping center.
This past Tuesday, August 7th, was a “día feriado” – a holiday – and so Gio and I headed for a late afternoon movie. Here are a few things we learned from our first Colombian movie experience: Continue reading
Posted in Arts & Culture, Daily Life, Sports & Leisure
Tagged adventure, barranquilla, cinema, Colombia, Latin America, movies, travel
The infamous baby car seat and Gio installing it.
Ah, the baby’s car seat. Rarely does such an accepted feature of toddler life in the U.S. raise so many issues when traveling abroad. Like most parents, Gio and I are extremely vigilant about the safety of our baby. After being informed by a pediatrician friend and fellow mom that motor vehicle accidents are the number one cause of accidental death for children traveling abroad, we committed ourselves to using the car seat during our time in Colombia. Continue reading
Posted in Daily Life, Parenting
Tagged adventure, baby, barranquilla, car seat, carseat, child safety, Colombia, international, Latin America, safety, travel
After the craziness of the last two weeks, the minor spell-check typo on this placard in our hotel bathroom has taken on new meaning for me. I have been tempted on several occasions to call the front desk and tell them, “Yes, please do bring us a few sanity napkins!”
Our quest to find an apartment – or rather, to get approved for the one we’ve found – continues. Here’s the latest:
Last time I posted about this, we were waiting to hear what outrageous sum of money the insurance company would require us to invest in a CD as a deposit for rental of our apartment. We were told when we applied for “the CD solution” that the insurer might require anywhere between four and ten months’ rent. We waited anxiously to hear what our insurer would require. The answer? Nine months in the CD, naturally to be followed by the first month’s rent. Continue reading
Posted in Making the Leap
Barranquilla or Bust! 