Mail and Packages
The national postal service is Correos de Colombia, also called Adpostal. Most towns have an office. Letters and packages take up to a week for national delivery, 8-12 days for addresses in the Americas and about two weeks for other overseas destinations. All overseas post, even to neighboring countries, is sent air mail. There have been reports of letters arriving opened and taped back shut. Prices for letters and packages is quite high.

WEIGHT NORMAL CERTIFIED
South America to Rest of World
0-20 grams $2.70 $3.00 $5.60 $5.85
21-100 gm. $8.95 $9.35 $11.80 $12.15
101-500 gm. $20.00 $23.70 $22.85 $26.50
501-1000 gm. $30.30 $33.65 $33.30 $36.50
Courier companies are common throughout Colombia as well. The major ones are Servientrega Internacional, DHL, Deprisa (Avianca Airlines) and Federal Express.
You can have mail sent to you by way of the post office’s general delivery. Have your post marked: your full name (as it appears in your passport, last name in capitals), Poste Restante, Lista de Correos, Correo Central, city or town, Colombia. If you hold an American Express credit card, you can also receive your mail at one of its offices (www.americanexpress.com). These days, very few embassies hold mail for their citizens.

Telephone Calls
In many smaller towns, Telecom has an office with phone service to local, national and international numbers. To make a local or national phone call, you can also go to a shop or stand with a sign stating “Minutos” or “Llamadas.” They charge $0.10-0.20 per minute to cellular calls, more to land lines.
Local phone calls have nine digits and begin with a number from 2 to 8; 9 is reserved for pay phones. For domestic long distance, Colombia has three carriers covering specific cities and regions of the country. Only ETB is nation-wide. Domestic long distance calls are prefixed with “0,” followed by the code for the carrier: 5 for Orbitel, 7 for ETB and 9 for Telefónica. The third number in the initial series is the region code.
Phone Code Department Capital
1 Cudinamarca Bogotá
2 Valle del Cauca Cali
Cauca Popayán
Nariño Pasto
3 Not used ------
4 Córdoba Montería
Chocó Quibdó
Antioquia Medellín
5 La Guajira Riohacha
Atlántico Barranquilla
Magdalena Santa Marta
Cesar Valledupar
Sucre Sincelejo
Bolívar Cartagena
6 Caldas Manizales
Risaralda Pereira
Quindío Armenia
7 Norte de Santander Cúcuta
Santander Bucaramanga
Arauca Arauca
8 Boyacá Tunja
Tolima Ibagué
Casanare Yopal
Huila Neiva
Meta Villavicencio
Vichada Puerto Carreño
Caquetá Florencia
Putumayo Mocoa
Guaviare San José de Guaviare
Guainía Puerto Inírida
Vaupés Mitú
Amazona Leticia
San Andrés, Providencia, Santa Catalina

Nationally emergency number is 112, in Bogotá and Medellín it is 123.

To make an overseas call, numbers are prefixed with “00.” Some internet and phone cafés have international phone service, charging $0.15-0.30 per minute to the US and more for other countries. Skype is a more affordable option, though in some parts of the country it is unavailable (especially in the Southern and Eastern regions). It is also possible to make collect calls.

For calling to Colombia from overseas, the country code is 57.


Cell phone
Some travelers, especially if they are staying long-term in Colombia, pick up on a cellular phone to keep in touch. Shop around, as the three companies here are quite competitive. In the major cities many small shops specialize in the sale of refurbished cell phones. Cards to recharge your saldo (credit) come in 5,000, 10,000 and 20,000 COP. Also, many businesses also have mobile phones. The area codes for each of the three carriers are:
Tigo: 300, 301, 302, 304
Comcel: 310, 311, 312, 313, 314
Movistar: 315, 316, 317


Internet:
Internet cafés are found in towns of any significant size. Connections are usually fast (most have broad band) and charge $0.80-1.55 per hour. But, yes, Virginia, there are still many small villages in all of Colombia where the populace does not have access to the Web. A trend in all Colombia is to boycott Microsoft programs, using instead Open Office.

Only hostels geared towards international or higher-budgeted travelers have on-site internet. WiFi is still uncommon in much of the country and is frequently charged for. Before sitting down with your laptop and logging in, make sure you will not be charged for this connection.