I am now living in Cartagena and just had to buy my second cell phone, having had my first stolden right under my nose in a cafe internet. It was right next to the computer and someone was able to take it without me having a clue. It just is a reminder that one always has to be vigilant down south. The cafe internet, which I have used often, has the ambiance of "being safe".
anyway, what I really wanted to throw out there is the suggestion that if someone is going to spend much time down south in colombia, even in maybe multiple trips spaced far apart, it may we worth buying a cell phone. You can buy one for not much more than one hundred dollars and it includes maybe $50 dollars of air time. There are no monthly charges if you buy the prepaid cards that are readily abvailable all over and can be bought for $4 and up. This way you have great communication ready and waiting and also maybe gives some security knowing that if you get lost or have a problem you can call someone in the know of things in the city you are in. The charges vary but I think it costs about 40 cents a minute thru out colombia and international calls are about 60............but someone else may know the exact charges better. There are better rates with monthly plans but would not make much sense to have those if you do not live here. The great thing is if you are trying to stay in contact with someone back home, friends, family or your work, they can buy a prepaid card in the states and call you on your cell phone in colombia for only about ELEVEN CENTS A MINUTE.............at least that is the rate I pay with a card that I have boughten in Seattle........there many, many cards to choose from...........some maybe cost a bit more and others maybe even less...........a call to a land line in colombia costs only about 4 cents a minute................so you can call home at anytime, and have the person you want to talk to call you back..........talk for an hour and it only costs about 7 dollars....................
I am suprised that these matromonial agencies do not offer the service of renting cell phones..........it would be easy for them to buy a half a dozen of phones and then rent them out for maybe 5 to ten dollars a day and have phone cards either included or available to buy at the office..................they could adjust the charges to either make a little profit or make them just pay for themselves to offer a service to the customer................they could require a deposit to cover the cost of the phone if it were to get stolden............after mine got stolden I was able to call the phone company and cancel the phone right away and then transfer the $50 or so of minutes that I still had left from my prepaid cards to my new phone..........the phone company was as efficient as ours in the states..............maybe better, less wait............anyway.........and maybe PETE...........in Cali could buy a phone or two and offer this service to those who stay at his place.............it is so great to have a way to call someone when you are in a foreign place..............and the hotel phones charge an "arm and a leg" to make calls international as most people know.................and maybe one more suggestions would be if there are any guys that know one or two other guys that are coming down to colombia..........you guys could go in together and buy a phone and just send it thru the mail when someone is ready to head south............the phones could be used indefinetely..........maybe over a period of a couple of years or more..................the one caution is to be sure and card the ID of the person who bought the phone............it should always be with the phone.............as someone has written, if the police find you with a phone without its identification they confiscate the phone............maybe as a detterent to stealing phones..........but easy to just keep the laminated photo card with the phone at all times and should take care of that situation........which I imagine would be kind of rare to happen anyway..................
just a thought.............or two...............
