Just came back from Cali yesterday from a 2 week stay. On the way back to my apartment in the South with a chica I was in the north. We were traveling on la quinta with 3 girls and 3 guys in a private car. I see up ahead a typical Colombian police roadblock (may I say I have seen much more of these roadblocks here in CALI, Maybe due to the bombings the week before?) I cant vouch if this is the same or any other Colombian city because I havent been in MDE since July. ANYWAY the cops jump in front of the car and pull us over, everybody gets out, Everybody's frisked, papers for the car and cedulas demanded from everybody, One cop gets to me and asks me for my cedula, so I look at him and shrug my shoulders telling him respectfully im a GRINGO and dont have any Colombian cedula but I do have my U.S. Drivers license. He looks at it, looks for holograms and brings it over to the sergeant. The sergeant works his way over to me and asks me why I don't have my passport and I explain to him that I never carry my passport for fear of loss or robbery, he tells me thats a bad excuse and walks away for a while, comes back to me 5 minutes later telling me he does not know who I am and he has every right to hold me and put me in a holding cell until they can verify my identity. I told him that I know that, I apologized to him and it would never happen again. All of this while the rest of my girls and friends are talking to the cops and vouching for my existence. The car and everybody's cedulas check out. The cop comes back again and says "listen here, out MOTOS are really low on gas and if I can help him out, I say of course I can not wanting to spend any time in a Colombian jail, I reach in my pocket and pull out a 20k, he says "thats nice but we have 5 bikes here" so I take back the 20k and give him a 50k. He says gracias, walks away and says "alright let them go" I have heard about these common shakedowns but have never in my 3 years traveling all over Colombia experienced one. Moral to the story, Carry a copy of your passport and better yet get it notarized by a Colombian notary and save yourself some time, anxiety, fear and money.

Three years hanging in Colombia and you finally got the bite. Not bad Sobe, not bad at all. The whole carrying your passport or not is a tough question when you're in Colombia. I understand the wisdom of not. I'm sure my buddy over at the Mansion was wishing he'd been carrying his at this point. Like you I always have a copy of mine but then I very really carry that on me. Guess I should start.

Happened to me in february, I was going to Juanchito at 2 AM and my taxi driver and 2 chicas we picked up at a club were pulled over at the top of the bridge before you get in. They asked for a Cedulla I said I didn't have one. the cop looked at me and my driver said look he is a gringo. So they let me go and called in my driver's cedulla. We left. I didn't have any ID. I guess they didn't need gas money.