Back to the Notaria 1.

 Another day spent at the Notaria 1. It was such an ordeal to get my visa and the kids' stuff as well.  We researched a lot and the "easiest" way for us to stay that long was for the kids to get their citizenship through Leo and then for me to get my visa from being a parent to Colombian citizens.  However, in practice that wasn't that simple.  First of all, Leo was given the runaround by different notaries saying they couldn't process the paperwork at those notaries--total bunk we found out later--they just didn't want to have to deal with it.  So they sent him to Notaria Uno, which was a 45 min to an hour drive from our house, so that added time whenever he went.  Then there's so many steps of getting things translated, notarized, apostilled, etc, and each cost a lot!  We spent more than I ever want to think about.  Then they had to go in for their national id cards (the lady thought they were adopted at that particular appt because they're whiter than Leo.  😂😂).  AND then we had to try to get their passports and spent forever trying to get this lottery system where you sign in on Sunday at 5 PM only to find out later that you can just go to some papeleria's who rig it to get you an appt by having their computer system constantly ping the system.  Anyway, as for me, I had to leave the country with Elena because the paperwork didn't process in time and my 6 month tourist visa would have expired.  

There were all sorts of headaches though, one issue was that the counties where Elena and Efraim were born in Wyoming and New Mexico weren't in the computer system to select at some point.  So we had to request the IT department to add those counties in.  Then they took issue with the fact that Leo's Colombian ID had both his last names but his US passport only had one.  I ended up signing instead of him on those particular sheets because that was the only work around.  Then they had major issues with the fact that I was born in Canada (this info taken from my US passport) did not match where my ID was from (again my US passport).  And yes, we did pay a lawyer to help us through this process, which was completely useless because we went and dealt with all these issues ourselves.  So more money for nothing.

One day at the Notaria 1, Leo had to leave so I spent the next 4 hours or so there waiting (yes, Leo waited there 5-6 hours every time he went), and was finally able to finish some of the paperwork and had to pay in cash for the copies.  I LITERALLY had the exact amount of change for the paperwork.  What a blessing!!!  And delivered those copies to another person at the notary exactly as it was closing, another miracle I made it in time. 

Multiple times we would go and the computer system would be down and so they couldn't do anything for us that day, or we'd go and the paperwork that was supposed to be processed by then wasn't.  And for some reason, we would have to go somewhere else for some part.  It was just a wild goose chase.  When I finally went to get my Colombian extranjero ID (not at the notaria), the printer was broken and they said "Don't worry about it, you don't really need it, since you have the visa proving you can stay (and leave when the time came)."  Well, that became a HUGE issue later when we had problems transferring money to Colombia and I couldn't pick up money myself because no Colombian ID card.  Lovely.  All of this is why Leo was pretty bitter by the time we left and refuses to even consider going back for more than just a visit.  He HATES the bureaucracy and inefficiency.  To be fair, he dealt with it the most.  And at some point, he started answering other people's questions at the notaria because he was so familiar with it by that point, he knew where they had to go for everything.  Poor guy.  

The Brain!!

It's surprising how well, for the most part, the city has been designed to deal with torrential rains.  I mean, I still saw flooded streets during huge downpours, but they wouldn't stick around long. In a couple hours they would be clear again, where in Houston, the streets would stay flooded for much, much longer after major rainstorms.