Tourist Visas in Colombia

This is a view of the Cathedral in Socorro in the state of Santander, Colombia. Built in the 1800's, it is soon to be decommissioned due to serious structural failures.

If you are thinking about visiting Colombia, you can come here for 60 days, as of this writing, without any additional paperwork.If you want to stay longer, you need to get in contact with the Colombian Embassy in your own country, or make a visit to DAS once you arrive here.

DAS stands for Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad, a division of the Colombian agency for central intelligence and as such they are the department of the Colombian government responsible for keeping track of who is coming and going in their country. Like any government officials, they are limited in what they can do by the established rules, but they seem quite helpful within those limitations.

The primary DAS office is in Bogota, the capital of Colombia. That is where one goes for permanent visas. But on the local level, most of the departments (states) have a regional DAS office to deal with tourist visa extensions. Bucaramanga, the capital of Santander, has such an office and that is where I went the first time. It is located at Carrera 11 No. 41-13 in the area called Centro de Governamente.

The hours of operation are supposed to be from 7-12 and 2-4, but it is not unusual for them to turn people away at 11 a.m. and tell them to come back at 2 p.m. due to the numbers of people already inside. On most days there are only three agents to provide the services. So, get there early! Also, you will have to leave DAS to go and pay the extension fee at Banco Davivienda S.A five blocks away (DAS will give you a slip of paper with the address and details before leaving their offices.) and that bank may close at 11 a.m. Believe me when I say it is critical to be among the first people going through the DAS security point early.

The listed phone number for DAS in Bucaramanga is 6-339426 if you want to check the schedule before planning to visit.

Here is what you need to have:
1) Your passport (duh!) with at least three pages free for stamping.
2) Two B+W copies of the main page of your passport.
3) Two B+W copies of the page showing your entry date into Colombia.
4) Four recent color photos approx. 1 inch tall in size. (This can easily be done near the DAS offices and they know which color background to use – critical!)
5) Two copies of your return ticket or reservation.
6) A blank deposit slip for the bank, of which you will need to get 2 copies once it is stamped at the bank.
7) At least $80,000 CPs for the extension fee. At the last visit it was $73,400 (April 25, 2011).
8) You can expect the photos and copies to cost around $20,000 depending on which tienda you use. (We used “Oscar’s” which is the first one to the left of the DAS building, if you are standing on the street corner looking at the DAS sign.) This is for Bucaramanga so I don’t know if other states are about the same for fees or not.

There is a form to be filled out in the DAS office which is basically providing them with the information of where you are staying in Colombia, the name of a Colombian reference and their phone number, your passport number, a phone number if you have one, and the reason for your visit. They were quite helpful to the non-Spanish speaking American, but their English is limited.

If you have a cell phone, you may NOT use it inside the DAS offices. You cannot receive or make calls except outside the gates. They did let us keep it with us, but this could change. Be prepared for that. In Bogota no cell phones are allowed at DAS or at the American Embassy; you check them at the entry point.

When you arrive in Colombia, the DAS/Customs entry official stamps your passport for the first 60 days. If you don’t go to DAS for an extension BEFORE that expiration date, you had better have a very valid reason and proof as to why you did not or you could be facing a serious fine. They will usually give you another 30 days without any issue and occasionally 60 days, but that is rare. Tourists may only be in the country for a total of 6 months per year. That can be in segments of days or all at once, which is why some people travel out of this country to another one for a period of time and then return.

A view of the countryside outside the city of Barichara in Santander, Colombia. The mountains in the background are the northern Andes, covered in clouds.

Anything I have posted here is valid as of this date and I take no responsibility for changes made afterwards. Every traveler must stay informed for his or her own safety and economic control. But I can assure you that 60 days in Colombia will certainly make you want to come back for more!

Sunset over the Andes

This sunset shot over the northern end of the Andes Mountains in Colombia has a cloud formation that looks like a whale spouting to me.

I was out with a couple of artist friends and we were painting the view and as the sun was setting, I took this shot…. one of many. But when I got home and downloaded it, I noticed it looked rather interesting – at least to me. What do you think?

Becoming an ex-patriot

After visiting Colombia three times over two years for about two months each, I decided that it was in my best interest to investigate becoming a full-time resident.

Since I am retired, I only had to document my income and while the Social Security is really small, I had other income to offset it and I was awarded a “pensioner visa” for a year.

This process sounds simple enough, but the U.S. Embassy failed to tell me at the outset that I needed to have proof of my Social Security and you cannot get that by going to SSA.gov as they have to mail you that sort of information and that can take weeks! However, an angel must have been watching over me and someone said, “Get a copy of your bank deposits and print that out,” and that was good enough for them. Whew.

If you are thinking about living abroad as a ‘resident,’ you will want to get all the details before you are in the country, as the U.S. agencies are not cooperative with the U.S. Embassy of that country. Not that the people at the embassy do not want to help, but they are restricted by various ridiculous policies.

This U.S.Embassy sign invites you to contact them 24/7, but read it closely. There is something missing - like a phone number?

I was able to find a small casa to rent for a year and when I returned to the U.S. to get a few more things, I found my house stripped by the renters who also skipped on the rent.

This was a shock and a betrayal of a supposed friendship which I have had a hard time letting go of. More the loss of the friendship than the loss of the goods.

Betrayal for money. Perfidy for things. I am glad to return to Colombia where, at least as far as I’ve seen, people are glad to share what they have, however little it might be. Where friendships are more important than things. Where strangers will stop to help you, like they used to do in the Old U.S.

This has been a year of betrayals and perfidy since my fiance lied about so much and then used my computer to look for someone new, where he wanted to take back the few gifts he had given me, and refused to repay me the debt he owed.

I don’t normally share these life-changing events on a public blog, but I think it is important for readers to start looking at the trends in behaviors which signify the breakdown of society as we have known it.

Strangers become friends and friends become strangers… it is a sign of the changing of the times, the blowing of the winds. If you think you are immune, you are not. Perhaps for now, but when society as a whole begins to disregard honor, begins to allow and even encourage theft and lies, then it will not be long before the society crumbles.

These lovely Red and Blue Macaws are part of the landscape of my new country. I am eager to leave behind the lawlessness of the U.S.

A View Without A Room

This view of Barichara, Santander, Colombia is from a hillside east of the pueblo, about 10 km distance. It is on land that is being offered for sale, but there is little water so no houses - but a great view!

Two months into a new life

Barichara, State of Santander, in Colombia, South America

It has taken me all of these two months to build a new life for myself. In the past post “Life Changes” I didn’t go into the details about why I even needed to think about making any changes. But when your beloved is caught on-line looking for another ‘bird,’ then you know you have to take a look at the signposts and see where they are pointing.

And it is easy to place blame, but difficult to take a look at the ways we, each of us, contribute to a failure in a relationship. As well as recognizing that when we begin to soul-search and listen to our intuition, we perhaps find ourselves in uncharted lands but just where we need to be for our spiritual growth.

Anyhow, my little casa here in Colombia provides me with lovely morning views, fresh breezes, a resident dog belonging to the other renter in a smaller house on the property, and plenty of opportunity to walk, meditate, paint, draw, sing, or whatever suits my fancy.

Now I have a routine that suits me of getting up and doing Morning Pages from TAW. I discovered, when I started unpacking, that The Artist’s Way had been jammed into a box and forgotten for about 10 years. It’s about time I got around to doing the course! After about an hour, I have breakfast and do some artistic endeavor. Then my afternoons are free for friends, walks, shopping, etc.

State of Santander, near Barichara, Colombia, South America

Recently I was invited to the finca of a woman whose husband had been kidnapped by the guerillas in 2002. It seemed to me as if he was still around. As we sat around the table that night chatting, I told her I could feel his presence. She smiled and said it was not unusual. This is a sad reminder of the history of this country; and why some people think it is still too dangerous to visit.

But it is a country with remarkable people, creative energy, beautiful views, and I haven’t even seen half of it yet! I am working on getting a ‘pensioner’s visa’ so I can be here for more than six months in a year. I will report on that next time, hopefully.

Life Changes

 

A scene of Barichara, Santander, Colombia Photoshopped into 'art.'

My heart has been captured by Barichara, Colombia and so I am planning to return once more for a longer, I hope, visit with options to take some classes and further refine my Spanish-speaking skills. I don’t know if I will ever ‘become’ the artist I feel inside me trying to be expressed, but I think this is the time in my life to try and let her out.

I have discovered in my last visit there that time becomes our enemy if we ignore the call to do what our soul wants to do. Then sitting behind a desk or being somebody’s servant makes us cry out in pain or we get dis-eased and regrets will not stop hounding us.

As your year comes to an end, what are you doing to enrich your soul? What is your soul calling out to you to complete? Is your soul cell-phone only taking messages?

Deception Pass Sunset

The bridge at Deception Pass is bathed in a golden autumnal light, fooling the eye into thinking the bridge itself is not green, but orange.

Labor Day weekend only had one very rainy day – Monday. So it was a good decision to drive up Whidbey Island late on Saturday to spend a few hours at the park on the south side of Deception Pass. I wanted to collect some smooth rocks for massage treatments and take some photos before leaving for South America next week.

The day was clear and cool, but when standing in the sun, it was really pleasant. Still, it is hard to accept that summer is over and we have entered the fall season. This was a short summer. It didn’t even get started until after the first of July when things began to warm up some. Makes me think that winter will be longer and colder than last year.

Mukilteo Lighthouse as seen from the deck of the ferry as we were leaving for Whidbey Island.

You can tell by the colors in the sky that the weather was “unsettled” and it was mid-afternoon when we decided to make the drive to Deception Pass.

I have another picture of the lighthouse taken in the evening coming back to Mukilteo when I impulsively decided to do a ‘walk-on’ ferry ride over to Whidbey Island and back – sort of bored and restless, I guess.

Well, that must be the seasonal impact for me. Here is the shot of the sunset; the best of several I took and then manipulated a little in Photoshop. ANd it really was just a “little,” with only some slight increase in the saturation of the sky to dramatize the darks and the lights.

Changes coming

Mistress Spider found a place to trap some winter food.

With the first leaves falling on the ground, the trees beginning to show their fall colors, and then yesterday the wind from the northerly direction causing the Puget Sound to have waves with white caps, I can tell there are changes coming.

The weather prognosticators were promising rain today and when I woke up to sun streaming in my window, I thought (briefly) “Oh, good, they were wrong. We will have another lovely day.” But before I had finished my shower, there were showers outside as well and the sun was well hidden from the likes of mere mortals like me.

Miss Spider’s web was ruined by the rain and the heaving branches of the fir tree she chose, so I guess she’s had to relocate. A lot of people were talking in the grocery store yesterday about how the spiders were coming inside earlier than usual… she must not have been listening to her neighbors.

Puget Sound winds and waves make for an inexpensive, albeit wet, ride on the ferry landing docks at Mukilteo, Washington.

Look at the heaving docks at the ferry landing in Mukilteo yesterday. As lovely as it appears in the photo, the wind had a bite to it and anyone on the water was probably glad to reach port by evening. While I miss living aboard, I guess I really have reached the age where making passages no longer appeals.

Working in Photoshop

I recently got Adobe’s Photoshop Elements 8 and have spent the last two nights reading “the missing manual,” along with doing some photo work in the program.What you are seeing here is an ‘artistic’ rendering of a photograph taken in northern Colombia on New Year’s day. I liked the photograph, but I like it even more with some of the attributes I was able to add with the program.

Then I took another photograph and played around with it, but in a more dramatic way. I really like the way the light is enhanced with this kind of attribute. What I am enjoying about this program is being able to take what I saw and re-create it in a new way to bring about what it was that I saw that made it worth taking the picture in the first place.

Seattle Night Lights

Fisherman's Wharf after sunset

The light changes as quickly as those made by man to go from red to yellow to green and the sun is gone over the Olympic Peninsula before you can change your lens.

The background sounds of tinkling pedi-cabs, screeching gulls, laughing tourists and clinking of glasses, dishes being cleared at the restaurants as the water rises and falls is somewhat hypnotic under 80 degree temperatures.

I happen to love the smells of harbors, oceans, ports and ships – as if I left them behind in another life and still miss them. Perhaps I did. Now that I am too old to have my own boat, I wonder if I should be put out on a timber and left to drift to some unknown land mass or to sink under the waves, quietly disappearing from all view. I feel as uncertain of my direction as any ship without a rudder. But this is for today, tonight. Tomorrow will bring something new.

I watched the ferry leave and wished I was on it, certain to make another port, sure in its path across the harbor. I need that certainty.

Seattle ferry terminal at sunset