It has taken us a long time to get here, but we have finally arrived in Colombia.

I’ll admit that when we told our friends and co-workers that we planned to come to Colombia to see if we would like to retire here, we heard statements like these:

Is it safe?

Are you going to sell drugs?

Why would you go there with all the crime?

But, our son who lived in Bogota, Colombia for ten years told us that if we used common sense, as in any big city, we would be fine. His reassurances, however, came with his real-life experience of having been robbed twice.

So, off we went, hoping for the best but using caution to keep ourselves safe.

The People of Medellin

We arrived at the airport and were greeted by friendly customs officials who spoke no English. The customs agent looked at our passports and gave us a ninety-day tourist stamp. We exchanged a few dollars at the ATM in the airport and called Uber on our phone. We had been advised to avoid taxis due to taxi drivers who might overcharge us because of our limited Spanish skills.

The Uber driver arrived and was patient with our limited Spanish. The drive from the airport in Rio Negro to Medellin took almost an hour and we drove down the mountain from approximately 10,000 feet to 4,500 feet. It was a long, windy road downhill.

When we arrived in Medellin after dark, our driver had some trouble locating our Airbnb in the curvy one-way streets of the Laureles neighborhood. She first dropped us off in front of an apartment on the wrong street, and we rushed to catch her before she left us on the dark street. After a few minutes looking for the correct one-way street, she found our apartment. We rang the doorbell and Natalie leaned over the third-floor balcony and greeted us. We carried our bags up three floors into our apartment. After she showed us around (Natalie spoke English) and offered to help us with anything we might need, we sat on the deck and relaxed. The city lights shone all around us in the hills which surround the city.

The Neighborhoods

Medellin, the capital city of the state (Colombians call them departments) of Antioquia and is in the Aburra Valley surrounded by mountains.

Laureles Neighborhood

It’s a 20-minute walk to the Suramerica metro stop which connects us to all parts of the city. A 15-minute walk in the other direction, leads us to Avenida 70 with many shops, restaurants, clubs, and grocery stores.

The Weather

We arrived on October 2, the start of the rainy season which lasts until the end of November. Since we arrived, it has rained most days. We carry our umbrella with us all the time in our backpacks. Usually it rains for an hour in the late afternoon, but the rest of the day is sunny, with low humidity, and temps in the low to mid 80’s. The evenings are very pleasant.

Our First Days

We walked to the Parque Berrio metro station to meet our guide for a downtown walking tour. The traffic was heavy and cars and motorcycles weave in and out of their lanes making traffic feel chaotic. It is not good enough to “Look Both Directions” before crossing the street. In Medellin, you must “Look in ALL Directions” before crossing the street. That includes left, right, in front of you and behind you. Once downtown, we viewed the incredible sculptures of world-famous Fernando Botero, from Medellin. Botero’s style features people and animals in exaggerated volume. We walked to the Parque de los Luces, the City hall, and Parque San Antonio.

Botero’s Famous Roman Solder

 

Our First Two Weeks

We both have been studying Spanish for quite some time before coming to Colombia, but we are not able to communicate fluently with the locals yet. So, we took placement tests and enrolled in a Spanish school. Elefun is located less than a mile from our apartment and is in the Laureles neighborhood. The staff has been very friendly, the other students are young and taking a week or two of classes before moving on to another city or country. We are studying two hours per day in class and one hour per day with private conversational practice. We plan to continue our studies indefinitely. In addition to classes, this school offers tours, local food tastings and get-togethers. We are taking advantage of these extra activities, including salsa lessons. Our Spanish has improved greatly since we arrived and we are able to communicate pretty well.

Our new Spanish School

Our Take on Medellin-So Far

We have met young people from Switzerland, Netherlands, Norway, and Brazil at our Spanish school, Elefun, and during the tours we have taken. Everyone has been very nice and seemed impressed that a couple, the ages of their parents or even older, have left their lives, sold their home and moved to Colombia.

On the 3^rd day here at a local restaurant, we met a gentleman from the Netherlands who offered to help us with any issues we may have and gave us his phone number and email. He later sent us the name of a person he recommends as a Spanish tutor.

The manager of our Spanish school speaks no English, but because he speaks slowly and clearly, we understand much of what he says. He showed Marc around the neighborhood and suggested some apartments. He wants us to stay in Laureles near the school after our three-week Airbnb term is up.

The Medellin metro system is clean and efficient. The local people are warm and welcoming and each one has been patient with our broken Spanish. The cost of living is low and the apartments we have looked at to rent for the next few months rival our upscale apartment in Minneapolis for one-third the cost.

The locals are very proud of their city and the investments made to improve the lives of the poor. Medellin is working hard to overcome its reputation from the last decade when drugs and gangs ruled the city and the progress the city has made is amazing.

We will be writing more about our experiences in the coming weeks. If you have been to Medellin or have any comments for us, please share your comments below.