Okay, if we choose to laminate here's my two cents
[QUOTE=Surfer500;2574685]Lets think out of the box on this one.
A laminated or plastic covered color copy of your ID makes the ID look more credible versus black and white especially with the Police, and you can get it wet and it won't dog ear and de-grade.
Even better yet what I have done is had photocopy's of all my ID's reduced down to business card size front and back so they are the size of a credit card, and fit right into my wallet.
Makes things a lot easier to whip out than a big folded piece of paper that besides getting dog eared may get wet and the ink runs and ruins it. I have been caught is some downpours in Medellin and have been soaking wet so another reason to laminate.[/QUOTE]Don't get too fancy. Don't buy a specific laminating product that you can only use once or twice. Buy a roll of clear Scotch brand packing tape for mucho laminations. Yes, it will overlap once or twice when you use it for laminating. Who cares. Apply in parallel broad strokes (obvio) to both sides, press out the air bubbles with the back of a spoon or some such similar implement. Trim edges. Done it many times, just not to my passport copy. The reasons you listed for making your passport copy look more official are the exact reasons I don't like to do it, but to each is own. I don't want it to be convenient and easy for them to examine my documents. Whether or not that is the correct approach is debatable and maybe even pointless.
Let me tell you what every cop has done for the half-dozen or so times I was stopped to show ID in Medellin. I look Hispanic. Or I get French a lot, I think because of the long hair. As soon as they saw my beat-up, folded paper copy of a passport, they would ask "De donde?" I would say "Soy un Gringo de Stados Unidos" or I am a Gringo from the United States, with a smile in a way to suggest I am not taking myself too seriously. They would pay a cursory glance at my paper copy if they even unfolded it, and instead turned their to attention onto my girl or friends, and run a quick identity check off my companions' cedula numbers. Mind you, I had not done anything wrong in those situations, and that's a different scenarlo. The impression I have gotten from routine random stops by policia is that they are more interested in their own citizens than they are us. Granted, that observation is off a very small sample size with lots of variables unaccounted for, and I am sure others have varied experiences.
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My two cents on Colombian pesos
Great to see the travel in and out of Medellin and Colombia normalizing. Hope it sticks. Here is my two cents on Colombian pesos that I would have found helpful on my first trip there:
The price gap for certain "services" has narrowed between US dollars and Colombian pesos, sometimes creating confusion, usually when the chica is trying to pull a con. Fucking and sucking is still a great bang for the buck, pun intended, in Colombia and will be way past the time I die. With the girls, always make clear you are discussing the price in COP (Colombian pesos) preferably, and not USD. Some girls will try to cheat you this way by telling you they meant their price was in USD. Trying to get out of it post hoc is not pleasant to say the least, and sometimes not safe.
When writing, such as here on this Website, this nomenclature removes all doubt and leaves no room for interpretation. For example, 20 mil COP. That would be 20,000 Colombian pesos. Mil is Spanish for thousand, not million, a sometimes error. COP is the international three letter currency abbreviation for Colombian peso, NOTHING to do with the Mexican peso. USD is United States Dollars.
Like in other countries where a standard number of zeros appears after the denomination, Vietnam comes to mind, the zeros end up being ignored. So your 50 mil COP note in your pocket (close to ten bucks USD) is technically 50,000 Colombian pesos, but is referred to as a cincuenta or a fifty. I have often heard the 100 mil COP note referred to as an American twenty, plus a little more. Another baseline you may want to keep in the back of your mind is a million COP is roughly a little less than $300 USD.
Keep in mind that the exchange rate does vary enough to keep track of and even consider timing your withdrawals if you are going to be making frequent trips to the ATM. You want to refuse the conversion rate at the ATM, that is simply a surcharge that you do not have to pay. The majority of the ATM's will still dispense money even after you refuse their conversion rate.
Colombians don't use commas with numbers, they use periods. For example, one million you are used to seeing this 1,000,000. 00, in Colombia it will be written like this 1. 000.000. 00 with all periods. Weird at first but easy to get used to. The spaces were added by this Website's fucked up auto-editor, which needs to be turned off.
Finally, I heard a Colombiana refer to herself as a millionaire, meaning she had roughly $300 USD to her name, jajajja. She was indignant because I would not buy her dinner so she told me was a millionaire, . Jajaja.
A few random gratuitous fotos from my last trip. I will be there soon, making new experiences and fotos. I have heard varied opinions on what a "typical" Paisa looks like. The girls I know and love who are Paisa, if their cheekbones were any higher, their face would be touching the ceiling, jajaja.
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Colombian Migracion Checking Change
The Colombia Migracion form for entry into the country has changed. They are now asking whether you have been vaccinated or not, and whether you have a record of it. This begs the question, is there a requirement forthcoming that all visitors must be vaccinated to enter the Country.
Today I logged into the Checkmig site to register for my flight tomorrow back to Medellin. The system did not have my AVIANCA flight in their system, I don't know why, so I said I had a private flight to get to the next page in the registration process. I got bumped off about four times when their platform went down, but finally go thru on the fith attempt and got the registration form.
I don't know what would of happend if I had answered no to the vaccine questions, I've been vaccinated, maybe the government is contemplating a change, who knows.
Just a heads up for anyone not vaccinated, hopefully not an issue.