About carrying IDs and passports, and about Colombian police
Folks,
Here I am reading various comments and claims about IDs, passports and the Colombian police, which surprise me quite a bit!
Please note that:
1) I am European, I entered Colombia [i]maybe[/i] 25 times in the last 6 years (I write [i]maybe[/i] because I really cannot remember and I don't have the time to count stamps on the passport) , for visits each lasting from 5 hours to 10 days.
2) I have been stopped, checked, inspected by Colombia police agents countless times in various places, including Santa Fe Bogota, Cartagena, El Centro Medellin, at all times of the day and of the night, including from 0am to 5am. I understand well that when police sees someone looking foreigner in such places at night time, they want to check the ID and also the pockets, because many people like me buys or carries drugs (no, I don't, so I feel always very comfortable with police checks).
Said all this, these are my (solid) experience and recommendations.
1) Never bring with you your passport (what do you do if they steal it or you lose it?) or an expired passport (don't you think the police agent may be then curious to check if you really have a valid one?).
2) Bring your national picture ID (should you lose it, you'll have all the time to get a new one at home) and a [i]plain[/i] photocopy of your passport, just in case.
3) [u]All the times[/u] I have been checked by the police, at [i]any[/i] hour and in [i]any[/i] questionable place, I have been interrogated and my items at point 2) above have been checked, even scrupulously, but nobody ever made me a problem for not having the original passport with me. They know why you don't have it with you. They are looking for criminals and for illegal items, not for making needless troubles to a foreign visitor.
4) Finally, I really want to say that my experience with the Colombia police (and I collected quite a numerous samples of experience, in all these years) is extremely positive. NEVER I have been asked a bribe, NEVER I felt in trouble during a night check.
The typical story is that they stop me, they ask me what I am doing there, from where I come from, to show my passport. After that, at times I am also asked to empty my pockets and even frisked with care. After all that, when they have verified I am OK, the fierce look of police agents rapidly changes to an open smile: pat on my shoulder and "buenas noches".
PS: I cannot say the same positive things about police in various other countries, including Mexico, Panama, and some African countries, where I had to leave some money as bribe for having done nothing bad.
Yes, it's a general topic
[QUOTE=TuDueno;1233193]Nothing to add, except I do not know if in other countries an identity card in addition to the passport is standard. But one may use any identification type document that shows a photo I guess (driving license). At least this works when paying with credit card which does hardly work in Colombia without an identification document. It also works with the polce or military check points. I noticed that there are a lot of strange recommendations on this board: Do not use ATM, do not use credit card. Having family in Colombia and thus spending a lot of time there I wonder why one should behave much differntly like one does in the home country. I use ATM, I use credit card and I never run around with my passport in my home country. But what has all this to do with Cartagena? Seems to be a general topic.[/QUOTE]1) I recommend to take your national picture I'd with you, plus a photocopy of the passport, only as a surrogate of your original valid passport, which under no circumstances you should take around the streets. It's precious and it must stay in your room.
Although our national I'd has no legal value in another country, it works enough well to let me have NO problems in my 25+ visits to Colombia in 5-6 years (and, believe me, I've been searched and frisked in very questionable areas).
2) About debit and credit cards, I repeat what I wrote already countless times. Skip all paranoic recommendations here and in other forums:
- you will use ATMs (debit card) to get cash, more convenient than all other ways to change money;
- you will use credit cards freely as you do in your home country (only small places do not accept it).
I NEVER got my cards cloned, or blocked by the bank for suspicious use, after many many hundreds transactions in Colombia. It's possible, but not so likely as someone says here. I got my card blocked by the bank after use in Turkey, USA and some other country, never in Colombia.