Embassy of Colombia

CLOSED FROM 1 – 2
I stopped by a few minutes after 1:00pm and the door was locked. I started to look for the number on the website as a staffer walked up with an armful of food. «The embassy is closed from 1 – 2 for lunch», she said. Is that posted anywhere? «I don’t know», she replied. She was polite but not helpful.

«Business hours» listed on the official website for this embassy are 9am-​6pm. My husband took time off work to get a very simple and quick task done and was at the door at 3:30pm but it was closed. Someone opened the door and he walked inside and begged a female staffer to just take 1 minute for his task. She scoffed at him and told him they only work until 2pm (who knows if she was lying or not). When he pointed out the website hours and told her how hard it is for him to take off work she practically cackled and told him to get out. My husband is a very kind and non-​confrontational person – the opposite of the woman he encountered. Needless to say, she turned him away. I wonder how much an ounce of kindness would have costed this woman, especially since the website for her organization provides FALSE INFORMATION to visitors.
The staff at this embassy take all the Colombian holidays and the American ones and work very short hours. Despite this easy living, they treat people like crap, as if they are somehow better than you. Welcome to Colombia??? If these staffers are the representatives of Colombia in the U.S., they are not doing their country any favors.

This is a review of the embassy building and how they treat visitors, not of how ell they accomplish their mission.
The Colombian Embassy is located in what must have been a grand, private family town house in Kalorama. The interior makes for comfortable office space — at least the conference room and the ambassador’s office.
If you’re a visitor, the hospitality is super. And of course the meeting comes with a cup of steaming hot espresso. The beans? Colombian, of course.
Note: LeRoy Place is one of those 2 block long streets in Kalorama that no taxi drivers has ever heard of. Run off the directions and take them with you or you’ll never get there. It’s actually only three blocks from the Washington Hilton.