Logistics of moving to a new country-stuff!

[NotSoObvious]

We are still exploring moving to Colombia for a few years. We would have a furnished apartment, at least for the first six months (or longer depending on how we like it). So, we wouldn't technically need anything but clothes.

 

So then, what do we sell? What do we keep? Where do we store it? What do we take? How does it get there?

 

I'd like to just take what we can on the plane and be done. We have sentimental stuff we need to store somewhere. But what about everything in between? If we come back in a year, I don't want to buy all new stuff, but I also don't want to pay to store stuff for too long.

 

What would you take/sell/store??? The hardest thing for us will be books... Oh, and as far as homeschooling, my girls are 10 and we would continue to homeschool.

[Wabi Sabi]

Do you have a family member who could store your items for you until you decide whether you're staying or coming back home? Someone with a big garage, a pole barn or maybe some some unused basement space?

[NotSoObvious]

Nope. We'd have to pay for it.

[NotSoObvious]

We'd actually probably move whatever we keep back to Utah so our family is nearby. It's better weather for stuff, too. It would mostly be boxes and possibly a few furniture items.

[Lanny]

Friday night (21DEC2012) I posted in your other thread. That post was not included, in the Backup that was used to restore the Forum. Some of that had to do with the logistics of moving here. Do not ship furniture! Ship only "Personal effects". When I moved (February 1995), the lady in the moving company told me "Colombia may be the only country on earth you can move to for less money by air than by sea. Everything came in a Cargo Jet, from Miami to Cali.

 

Everything that works in the USA will work here. TV sets, Stereo,Refrigerators, Phones/Fax machines, etc.

 

If your cell phones use GSM technology, and they are for the normal GSM bands used in the Americas (850 and 1900) they will work here. There may also be some service on the 2100 GSM band, but I am not sure about that.

 

Suggest you use a Freight Forwarder (Panalpina, etc.) to ship your stuff and get it through Colombian Customs.

 

Used cars CANNOT be imported into Colombia.

 

Guns require special permission.

 

If you are in Virginia, you are probably closer to the Colombian Embassy in Washington, DC than to the Consulate/Consulate General in Atlanta GA. GL and HTH

[NotSoObvious]

Lanny, thank you! I did read your post before it was deleted. I spent two hours on the phone with my dad yesterday. Apparently they don't have cedulas because they can do everything with a passport number. Their property manager takes care of bills and property taxes. My dad was able to open a bank account without a cedula, but he only found one bank that would do it and he said it might not even be possible anymore. I might be going at the end of March with them to check things out. They have many contacts and I might be able to get hired to teach english part time, which might get us in on a work visa? Haven't figured that out.

DC is two hours away, so that is our nearest consulate.

 

We have iPhones and I'm being told that they won't work there because they can't insert the card??? My parents have cell phones they keep there. I JUST upgraded and resigned a Verizon contract and now I'm kicking myself! We'll have to buy our way out of that plan.

 

The apartment is huge, fully furnished, in the best area of town, with two pools, a gym, and a full time doorman. It will be nicer than here! ;) they will let us live basically for free. I'm not sure i see ourselves in Bucaramanga for more than a year or so. I think we'd like to live in a smaller town, but I don't know how feasible that it. Perhaps we'd venture down to Ecuador after six months. Who knows?

 

I've emailed a few Colombian homeschooling families to see if they have any contacts in Bucaramanga. My spanish is coming back faster than I thought it would!

 

Your advice has been invaluable. Thank you!

[Lanny]

Comments:

Your father has a bank account, in Colombia, with only a U.S. Passport? If so, things here have relaxed, considerably. When I moved here, that would have been impossible.

 

Property Manager pays the Property Tax? Is the apartment in your parents names? Urgent that it not be in the name of a 3rd party.... If it is in your parents names and the Property Manager pays the taxes for them, OK, but if it is in the name of someone else, danger ahead.

 

If your iPhone is GSM technology, it has a removable "SIM" card, with the information about the cell phone operator (here they are: COMCEL, Movistar and Tigo). If not, it is CDMA technology, which was discontinued in Colombia. You can buy a Prepaid Cell Phone here (I would recommend Samsung or Nokia) cheap. I think you can get a very basic Samsung, on COMCEL (the largest cell phone operator in Colombia and the one our family uses) for about USD$40. All prices in Colombia include the 16% VAT tax. If you sign up for one year, for a Postpago cell phone (you pay the bill every month) they will give you a new phone free or at a very hefty discount, but you are on the hook for 12 months. We switched, from Postpago to Prepago (Prepaid) and we are saving a ton of money. The disadvantage to Prepago is you pay full price for the phone. But, you own the phone and there is no contract to worry about with Prepago. And, some people sign up for Postpago, lose their phone or have it stolen or drop it in water and they are up a creek without a paddle....

 

Sounds like you may not need to ship refrigerator, TVs, etc.

 

You are welcome. Free advice is often worth what one pays for it. Glad I could be helpful.

 

With regard to Ecuador. Ecuador and Venezuela are basically *very* unfriendly to both Colombia and to the USA. I would not say that we are "enemies", but we are not "Friends".

 

And, the situation in Venezuela is, to say the least, volatile. Crime, inflation, the government, corruption, etc. In 1991, I made 2 trips to Venezuela. i was considering moving there, instead of to Mexico. I came to Colombia, for other reasons, the first time, in 1992 and in 1994 I applied for a visa and I'm here...

 

I have friends in Venezuela (we are into the same music) who wanted to come to a concert in Colombia. This was about 2 years ago. They were not certain, until they were allowed to cross into Colombia, that they would be permitted to leave Venezuela. They are Venezuelan citizens and they would like to get out of there....

 

Cali is close to Ecuador. Probably about 10 hours by bus or car.

 

GL and keep investigating!

[NotSoObvious]

No, no, it is in their name but they said between their property manager and their attorney, everything is taken care of without a cedula. Not sure about specifics. They also own property where they will build a house some day. They started trying to build several years ago but quickly realized they need to physically be there for things to happen, so that's when they bought the apartment. They go several times a year. My dad is really into paragliding, which is how they found Bucaramanga initially. Then they just fell in love with Colombia. Of course, any Americans who have never been to Colombia act like we are crazy for even considering it a place to vacation, let alone live. My parents have had to do a lot in the way of educating others. When they first started going, maybe ten years ago, they hardly ever met other Americans, just Europeans, but now they said they've run into other Americans even in their own building. Still, it's hard to find info online in English about Bucaramanga. If we were moving to Bogota or Medellin it would be easier.

[Lanny]

If they own property here, in their names, without having a Cedula, again, things have relaxed here.

 

Building a house here is a full time job, for approximately 12 months. And, the construction is totally different. Americans are used to houses that are very pretty, but that are built from 2x4s and are incredibly flimsy. Here, the contruction is Concrete, with structural bricks between the concrete piers. They were smart, to realize that this is no trivial task, especially for people who think houses built with little sticks of wood are normal... Here, they should have a Civil Engineer design their house and design it to the latest earthquake resistant standards.

 

My wife had to drop out of the university, when we bought this lot and began building our house.

 

Paragliding. :-) Interesting way for him to come to Colombia. :-)

 

I know the reaction you get when you mention "Colombia" in the USA. As long as an American in Colombia has NOTHING to do with illegal drugs, or anything else illegal, they are very welcome here.

 

If it were much easier to earn money here, Colombia would be "paradise". We are in a Tropical Valley, our house is open to tons of fresh air, and we do not have any utility bills for running heating or air conditioning equipment. We do not have any heating or air conditioning equipment....

[Amira]

If you can, I'd definitely store stuff in Utah. We've stored things in a variety of places and Utah was the best. Seattle, not so much.

 

We haven't ever stored anything large and I don't regret it.

 

I think it's worth storing stuff from the kitchen. It's expensive and time-consuming to replace a kitchen, and you need to eat every day.

 

The last time we stored stuff while we went overseas, we used a portable box thing that we could store or ship anywhere. If we'd ended up overseas long-term, we could have had it shipped to us, and it was ready to be shipped to wherever our new home was in the US if that's what we needed. So we filled and stored it in Seattle, flew into Utah 18 months later, then we drove to Virginia and separately shipped the stuff from Seattle without having to move it from a storage unit. We got the smallest box we could do that with and then filled it.

 

We've lived very happily out of our suitcases for years and, even though it would be nice to ship things overseas, I don't mind that we haven't been able to. Except for the books. Being able to use ebooks the last time we went overseas was a life saver.

[NotSoObvious]

Thank you so much! That sounds perfect. I will look into that.

 

We still need to meet if you are settled. (I changed my name, but we live in the same town.)

[Lanny]

My wife almost had our Lunch/Dinner ready when I walked into the kitchen and told her about the sport your dad participates in. She said that's very popular near Bucaramanga.

 

Food Delicacy of Bucaramanga, Santander: Then, she told me something that I had forgotten: In Santander, their food delicacy is eating Fried Ants. Actually, the rear ends of the ants. This is not a joke. Apparently, in Bucaramanga, they have a monument, to the "Hormiga Culona". My wife said they eat them, like popcorn.... In this part of Colombia, we do not eat ants!

 

http://en.wikipedia..../Atta_laevigata

 

If you Google for Images of "Hormiga Culona", you will get a lot of photos.

 

With that knowledge, I am certain that you will want to move to Bucaramanga, immediately!

 

Although we are in South America, we are in the Northern Hemisphere. Cali is in S.W. Colombia. We are 1565 miles from Miami. Cali is much closer to Miami than Los Angeles, CA is.

 

If your DH can earn income here, he will need to pay Self Employment Tax (Social Security and Medicare) to the U.S. Government (Americans are taxed on worldwide income). The good thing is that after 18 (?) months of overseas residence, there is an exemption from U.S. Income Tax, up to approximately USD$92K. But, one must pay Self Employment tax...

 

There's a Peruvian bus line that has buses running from Lima, Peru, to Caracas, Venezuela.

One of our neighbors and his oldest daughter made a 6 week trip, using buses, to the bottom of South America, a few months ago. http://www.grupo-orm...rmeno.com.pe/�� I've seen their buses, always Southbound, 4 or 5 times over the years, going through the city of Cali, headed to Lima. Our neighbors wife took them to the highway and the first bus they caught took them to the city of Popayan, Colombia. About 3 hours South of Cali.

 

With the exception of the Fried Ants described above, that are so popular in Santander, almost everything you will eat in Colombia is fresh and delicious. The beef cattle here are grass fed. It is *very* rare that my wife opens a can of anything, other than Tuna. Some things, like Apples, are imported, but there are a huge variety of fruits and vegetables grown here in Colombia, year round.

 

I like the idea of putting everything you have into a Shipping Container! I think they come in 20 and 40 foot lengths. Not sure where you would leave it, where it would be safe and protected, but that's a great idea.

 

Possibly on www.colombia.travel you will find some information about Bucaramanga in English.

http://www.colombia....guide-santander

[Happy]

We moved into a furnished apartment in Brussels several years ago...

 

We stored our household goods here. Ended up selling the house and the car before we came back, so I know what rootlessness feels like. It was nice to come home to our stuff after a couple of years.

 

Even in a furnished apartment, you'll want some things. We took a few favorite kitchen utensils--knives, a set of plastic camp dishes, a box of favorite spices, etc. You can always buy what you need....For us it was good to have some familiar things.

 

We shipped several boxes of books for school use. How easy will it be to find English language books...unless you choose a total immersion. Wow, that could be really fun!

 

Each son got to take a couple of small things...stuffed animals, etc.

 

I WISH we had taken our Christmas stockings....we really missed them.

 

Enjoy your adventure!!!!!

[Amira]

Thank you so much! That sounds perfect. I will look into that.

 

We still need to meet if you are settled. (I changed my name, but we live in the same town.)

 

Yes, we do, especially if you're going to run off to Colombia soon!

[NotSoObvious]

We moved into a furnished apartment in Brussels several years ago...

 

We stored our household goods here. Ended up selling the house and the car before we came back, so I know what rootlessness feels like. It was nice to come home to our stuff after a couple of years.

 

Even in a furnished apartment, you'll want some things. We took a few favorite kitchen utensils--knives, a set of plastic camp dishes, a box of favorite spices, etc. You can always buy what you need....For us it was good to have some familiar things.

 

We shipped several boxes of books for school use. How easy will it be to find English language books...unless you choose a total immersion. Wow, that could be really fun!

 

Each son got to take a couple of small things...stuffed animals, etc.

 

I WISH we had taken our Christmas stockings....we really missed them.

 

Enjoy your adventure!!!!!

 

I was just thinking about the stockings today! I was thinking maybe I'd pack a few favorite Christmas ornaments and the stockings- mostly for the girls.

 

Selling all our stuff, especially cars, makes me nervous only because we acquired it all when we were a dual income no kid couple! It will take a long time to earn it all back if we decide to settle down again. So, we are trying to be realistic about it all.

[NotSoObvious]

Lanny, we have definitely heard about the ants!

 

Food was one thing I was concerned about because we eat very healthy. My dad assured me that there is a daily farmers market and all the food is grown locally. It sounds like we'll have more choices than here! I was thinking about it today and I think the only things my girls would miss is the occasional Mac and cheese and maybe peanut butter. As long as we have fresh fruits and veggies and good meat, we'll be just fine. My husband and I spent a summer in Switzerland and I remember sandwich bread was hard to come by, but it was quickly replaced with baguettes and Nutella! We are adventurous eaters, so I think it will be ok. My dad says the water in the city is fine and they never worry about ice when they are out and about. They eat from street vendors every day and he's only been sick once, just for one day.

 

It's all very exciting to think about!

[Lanny]

OK, if you know about them eating Ants, you are ready to go to Bucaramanga! :-)

 

Food is something you do not need to worry about in Colombia! You will eat much better food here in Colombia, than what you eat in the USA! Yes, you will have many more choices and it will be fresh. I think you will find Peanut Butter here, without any problems, although as I type this, I can't remember what it is called. McDonalds is here. Sandwich bread? You mean from factories? We have that, in the supermarkets. Bimbo (a Mexican company) and other brands of bread. No problem. And, there are bakeries, everywhere. You will eat well here! I go to a bakery, frequently, when I am in town, and I eat something and drink a bottle of Coca Cola, but I am normally not allowed to bring anything home, because my wife will eat it all. She loves it.... :-) We used to buy bottled water to drink, but now my wife boils tap water and we drink that. I would be very careful eating from street vendors, in any country. I got sick here, once, after eating a banana split. I'm sure it was the sauces they put on top of the ice cream. The place I normally go for banana splits was closed and I went somewhere else, got very sick, and I will never eat in that place again. We make ice cubes from the water that my wife has boiled. YOU WILL EAT VERY WELL IN COLOMBIA! :-)