Really the biggest problem people run into when visiting is wanting to stay longer. Tour Colombia and you are bound to find you will want to have residency, get a Colombian Visa, and rent out an apartment. Not that i am prejudice but there is a good chance you will end up living in Medellin. Statistically speaking many foreigners end up choosing Medellin as their favoorite city. Medellin Colombia has been found to be the favorite city in the world by many well traveled foreigners.

 

The Colombia embassy is a good source of information for types of visas eligable for foreigners who want to establish residency in Colombia. Please check out their web page at Colombia Embassy

Arriving in Colombia

If you are a tourist visitng Colombia then you do not need to contact the Consulate to obtain a visa, unless you plan on staying more than 90 days. As a foreigner you will usually recieve 30 days when you arrive at the airport in Bogota, or Medellin for example. There are many ways to extend your visa, however this depends on you. The bottom line is that its much easier than it is for a Colombian coming to the USA.

Colombia Residency

Once you visit this Country you may find yourself wondering how you can live in Paradise. You may end up living in Medellin, Colombia and then becoming a Gringo Paisa. That is when you have been living here few years and pick up a few habbits of the locals, the slang, and a few cultural bits here and there. Colombia Visas Residency Guide will help you understand the different types of visas necissary to live in Colombia as a foreign resident.

Medellin Apartments

The best way to figure out if living in Colombia is good for you is to really just get an apartment for rent, or find a room rental. Apartments for rent in Medellin Colombia are a great way to avoid the huge taxes and fees for extra guests. Room rentals in Medellin are a good deal, and also provide a great way to meet fellow travelers and explorers like yourself. The best room rentals in Medellin are offered by other forigners, in nice modern places. Foreigners tend to have the nicer beds in their apartments if that is important to you. It's not like your renting out a moldy room in the back of grannies house. Look at the photos of some of these room rentals and Medellin furnished apartments.

Furnished Apartment in Medellin - El Poblado Transversal

The better apartment rentals like the ones featured on MedellinApartments.INFO website are tax free, and extra fees are not charged for guests, or girlfriends. Hotels in Medellin, and Hotels in Bogota will not tell you the nightly price with tax if you dont ask. Some of the apartments are pet friendly as well. Most of the apartments featured by Paradise Realty are located in Medellin, however lets not forget that real gem in Colombian Tourism is exploring the pueblos outside the big cities. Paradise Realty is expanding their list of rentals with partners outside Medellin throughout pueblos in Colombia!

Colombia Tours

Out of all South American Travel destinations, Colombia Tours and Tourist sectors are reemerging on the map as security has been restored to many parts of the country. Just this year National Geographic Traveler featured Colombia in its top 3 places to visit in 2008! Colombian tourism is growing faster than ever as Colombians are rediscovering the hidden treasures the Colombian naturaleza has to offer. As a result the tourism industry is growing, and millions of Colombians leave the cities every weekend toMedellin Tours : Experience Medellin tours on the Chiva party bus spend time on friends farms or fincas as they are called here in Colombia. Depending on the altitude some fincas are at high altitudes are a bit chilly while others only 1 or 2 hours in the other direction can be quite tropical and humid. The more tropical farms have EVERY kind of fruit you can imagine. One of the nicer things about the farms is the rich clean air!

Medellin Tours

You will find a nice and expanding list of many attractions around the Medellin Municipality in the small pueblos. Colombian tourismo is growning, and the Colombian Fincas are a really fun attraction that gets you out of the busy cities and into the mountains to enjoy fishing, biking, 4 wheeling, hiking, camping, and romantic getaways for couples. A great way to party and enjoy the Medellin Night Life on the weekend is to hop on a chiva party bus, and hop from bar to disco in various parts of Medellin. Trusted Colombia Taxi's an private drivers are the way many preffer to move around the city. If you are interested in bilingual, and trusted Taxi or personal drivers please see our new website www.ColombiaTaxi.com.

Traveling in Colombia

Traveling Colombia is so safe now that foreigners are driving across the country between the major cities. Colombianos are enjoying the safe highways which just 5 years ago were still dangerous. You can see many people in luxury cars cruising the highways between major cities. Average time between major cities is about 5 hours or so. Time to travel between Bogota and Medellin is only about 8 hours, but give time to traffic jams, and mud slides. Mud slides are the largest annoyance in traveling in Colombia, but road crews are always on standby to bulldoze mud and rocks off the road. The main roads are safe during the daytime, and there are many road blocks run at night time.
Gringo on Motorcycle Vest with required license plate numbers - Obtaining a motorcycle license in Colombia is very easy. It is a matter of taking a strange set of tests to prove you have good reflexes, hearing, sight and brain function. No written test. Traveling Colombia on motorcycle.
It is not advisable to drive the roads at nighttime for many reasons, and most are not because of violent problems of the past. The roads are windy, have poor visibility, low lighting and there are not phones and gas stations as often in the United States. Basically its much easier and more enjoyable to tour the country side during the daytime. Besides you can't enjoy the beautiful scenary at night time.

Motorcycle in Colombia

If you are used to South American Travel, and you know how people drive on the highway then a motorcycle trip is alot of fun. Be sure to bring all your gear, be prepared for lots of rain, sun, and beautiful country side views of the moutains, jungle, desert, etc. If you would like information on obtaining a motorcycle license in Colombia just contact james through the website by clicking here.

Colombia Fincas

Why wait until you get here. Explore our ideas for Medellin Tours, and check out a few photos we have taken of Colombia Fincas, (Colombian Farms), Tourist Spots, and Colombian Pueblos. There are many reasons people come to Medellin, and partying is just a small part of it. Many choose to stay here long periods of time to study Spanish, soak in the rich latin culture, or date the friendly paisas.Colombia Finca 2 hours from Medellin Colombia with pool and an awesome view
For many Colombians Colombia Fincas represent a favorite weekend activity. Colombian Finca hotels are farm house - cabin type lodging. A favorite romantic mountain top get away is the Finca Hotel de los Lagos located just outside of Medellin. A 1 hour trip outside of Medellin makes this a perfect quick get away from the city. Every cabin has a fire place which is lit up for you and your date to get cozy. Horse back riding, row boats and fishing on the property as well. See why National Geographic ranks Colombia the number 1 place to visit in 2008!

We are constantly hereing about new fincas in 1 to 3 hours driving time from Medellin. There are many people that rent out farms for the weekend, week, or even just cabins on the farm. You can contact Paradise Realty at 313-390-7109 for more about renting farms for that special relaxation from the big city that you need. Colombian fincas are a favorite destination for Colombians across the country. There are countless beautilful finca hotels across Colombia. We are posting more information on our website as we learn more about favorite fincas friends of ours have visited.

Medellin Real Estate

There is a wide range of Real Estate in Medellin. Foreign Real Estate investment in Colombia is on the rise. In Colombia Real Estate ownership by foreigners is protected. You can see Medellin Real Estate Photos here. Medellin real estate development projects are continuing to break ground at this time. The Colombia Landscape is highly developed. Medellin Real Estate - Mordern Luxury Apartment Buildints in El Poblado MedellinThe property purchasing process is more simple than in Costa Rica for example. Costa Rica can be quite complicated requiring formations of corporations to purchase property. Colombia does not have all these requirements, and if you purchase real estate of 100,000 USD or more then you are immediately qualified for residency! Buying property in Medellin Colombia can be a great moveif you like permanent spring time weather, friendly people, and beautiful mountain scenary. Driving west of the city 45 minutes puts you into a tropical mountain climate, with beautiful farms and pools all over the place. Go east 45 minutes up into the beautiful flower farming community of Santa Elena, and you will be welcomed by the Silleteros, and fields of flowers, crispy cool weather at 8,500 feet!

Colombia Real Estate

Colombia Real Estate Development and construction is high but for many years development was not keeping up with the demand, which are good investment indicators. Look at the great values of homes offered in our Medellin Real Estate MLS, This MLS is currently under construction, but througout October you will see many great changes as we bring modern technologies to the Medellin Real Estate market.

Colombia is actually the best place to retire in South America. For anyone familiar with the real estate booms in Panama and Costa Rica you realize what attracted so many NOrth Americans and Canadians to Central America. Unfortunately you also know what happened aftwards. Huge levels of inflation and crime. Many foreigners just wanted out, and became disolusioned with their purchases. Smaller countries suck as Costa Rica and Panama just dont have the rich culture and big city centers to support the influx of foreigners. Colombias large cities are far more developed, with lots of things to do, rich history, and very friendly people. We like to think that the bad fame pumped up by Hollywood is enough to keep this paradise from being completely spoiled by foreigners. Of course the expat community here in Colombia wishes the best for the future of Colombia.

Dating Medellín Colombia

Medellín has a spontaneous latin Medellín dating culture which is very exciting at times. For a gringo it may take a while to understand how this romantic culture really workds. Sometimes the women like to take a long time to get to know you first, and at other times its very spontaneous to say the least. Dating in a new culture can be frustrating at times, but very very fun as well. Full of geniune friendly and honest men and women, as well as those who professionally date for a living. Bumping into a person the old fashion way as opposed to on the internet is always fun, and Colombians respond well to spontaneous interaction. The people of Medellín, (paisas) are the most friendly people in the world. Paisas are famous for loving to talk. However, if your overseas and you want to line up friends or dates ahead of time, the internet is a great tool. Add Colombian Gringo in your face book friends and you will have access to my friends and many beautiful Colombianas. The Facebook Colombia Network is approaching 1 million people! Here are some our favorite resources for socializing and dating in Colombia.

I have seen a few people have luck in dating agencies in Colombia, but just be careful not to fall in love too quickly. The problem is many girls are semi pros, or professional working girls. The semi pros have figured out that if they sign up at all the agencies they can just go out with gringos, get lots of presents and live the easy life. If a girl isnt working then make sure she has a really good and solid reason for this.

The other problem with agencies is that many of the good girls are just not available any more, so you may travel across the world to meet someone that is not actually single, or available. the marraige agencies do not like to remove photos of girls that are not available anymore. With all that said people do have luck once in a while.

Colombia Visas

Of course you will want to research all options regarding obtaining Colombia Visas for many of the most common reasons which are, family, marraige, work, education, investment and pention or retirement visas amoung other things. Be sure to check out the blog www.poorbuthappy.com as well which is a great resource for learning more about Colombia from a foreigners point of view.

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