I am planning to spend several days in Bogotá, and want to use the public transport within the city (not across the country).
Note that his question is not about if this is a good idea or not, or what alternatives are available - consider this a given.
After extensive research, there is a lot of contradicting and seemingly obsolete information on the web, most from 2008 - 2015, but I couldn't find anything relevant / useful from this year (2019, that is), or even from 2018. Here is my current understanding from what I found:
- after arrival at the BOG airport, I must take a green connector bus, which is free. There is no option to buy a TransMilenio card at the airport.
- using the connector, I will come to a normal bus station
- most larger bus stations are in the middle of the street, as many buses have dedicated lanes
- in most bus stations, I can buy a blank/new TransMilenio card for around 5000 COP
- TransMilenio cards come in blue, green, and red, and depending on the color, have limited validities [according to some sources, this seems obsolete?]
- I can load the TransMilenio card with money, and then use it to ride buses
- two people can ride together with one TransMilenio card
- the waiting lines to buy or load the cards are always 1 - 2 hours at minimum
My question is a) is this all correct, and b) can I pay with credit card, or do I need to have COP cash? What identifies the counter I need to line up on (maybe it's obvious, but I'm rather prepared)? In other words, what is the exact process to get a valid and loaded TransMilenio card?
I would prefer an answer that is reasonably up-to-date and first-hand, so it would be perfect if you were in Bogotá in 2019, or live there - or can cite an official and recent source.