Return to Medellín

The hills didn’t look as green as they did last year, the smog seemed worse, as did the traffic. We had spent about five weeks in Medellín a year ago  in December and early January sharing an Airbnb apartment with our friends. We were looking forward to returning and spending three months with these friends in their new apartment.

Finding Apartments

Our friends, Leah and Steven, have moved to Medellín for at least a year. They arrived November 1 of 2018, which was their third visit. We were scheduled to arrive the second week of January and live with them in their new home for about three months. Well, as they say, things don’t always go as planned. They  found securing a residency visa took longer than expected and securing a long-term rental turned out to be a bit challenging for them as expats.

Apartment #1

Our first two months were spent in Airbnb apartments which we shared with Leah and Steven. The first one was an excellent 3 BR apartment in an elevator building. Unfortunately, our friends found and visited the apartment on the afternoon of New Years Eve when all businesses were closed and we found out later buses were on reduced schedule.

Turns out that even though the apartment wasn’t on a main street, we were on a major bus route (every 5-10 minutes) and across the street from a car stereo installation shop. Use your imagination.…Ian spent the entire month when inside the apartment wearing his (thankfully!) newly purchased noise-canceling headphones. We didn’t care for the overall neighborhood, Los Colores, and we had to cross a major street or two (more on this in a bit) to get to most of the places we wanted to go.

A big plus, though, was that we were close to the stadium with its extensive outdoor gym equipment. Another plus: Justo y Bueno across the street Tienda D1 a block away! Two low-priced small grocery store chains, including some reasonably-priced drinkable wine. Ian kept wondering what the portero (doorman) thought every time he went across the street and came right back with only a bottle of wine.

The Ghost Apartment?

Between Apartment #1 and Apartment #2, let’s call it our ghost apartment. We booked through Airbnb, an hour later the host asked for $500 more. When we revisited the listing, the location had changed. Instead of being in the hills above one of the nicest areas (Poblado), it was now in the slums. The owner had also created a new listing in the original location.

We contacted Airbnb and learned that since we had booked for 28 days, we were under the long term cancellation policy. Instead of automatically getting a refund within 48 hours, we had to open a case. The next 48 hours were tense as we thought we had been scammed. We were negotiating with the owner, he wanted more money, we wanted him to cancel our reservation, while waiting for Airbnb’s case manager to get back to us. In the end, we did get a refund. Our new rule: never book a long term rental (28 days or more) unless the owner has lots of good reviews. This one didn’t.

Apartment #2

Also 3 BR, we call it orange couch; can you guess why? A small, dark, apartment/hotel building run by a bunch of very friendly twenty-somethings, who could often be found on the roof terrace enjoying a variety of recreational activities. On the same terrace was the only washing machine and clothesline, which we used to do our laundry. This washing machine was also used by the staff to wash all the linens and towels for the hotel rooms in the building.

In our apartment, only two of four stove burners worked, the kitchen had barely any silverware (about enough for 1-2 people (we were 4, and the ad said sleeps 5) and limited dishes. Leah scrubbed the grease off everything before we used it. Bonus: the kitchen drawers didn’t open, so we have no idea what was inside them. Of course, when we brought these issues up, we were told that the repair guy would be there “en la mañana”. In this case, mañana didn’t mean in the morning, or tomorrow, it meant never. They pretended that things would be fixed, we pretended to believe them. Oh, and did we mention the sewer gas coming up from the drains?

The plus: the neighborhood! A very big plus!! We loved to walk through the tree-lined streets with a combination of different types of houses and condo towers and neighborhood parks. Often, our main activity for the day was simply walking and exploring the different streets. We were in the barrio of Laureles, not on the side known for its many restaurants, bars, and expats. And we could walk to La Migueria, Ian’s favorite pastry shop from last year.

In the past year, Colombia’s tourism has increased by 35%. We certainly saw the effect this change has had on short term apartments in Medellín: what would have cost $1000 per month last year was now $1600 or more. While there has also been an increase in long term rents, it’s nowhere near the inflation that’s occurred on short term rentals.

Apartment #3

Wonderful! Yes, Leah and Steven finally found a special new home for at least a year!  A very large, 3 BR, 3 ½ BA 3^rd-floor walk-up, no problem for us after 5^th and 6^th floor walk-ups in Spain and Bosnia. It has a very large kitchen for Steven and a bonus sewing and crafts room for Leah. Our friends have already equipped the large balcony with comfortable furniture, lots of plants, and open invitations to the neighborhood birds. This apartment is not too far from Apartment #1, but in a much quieter, more gentrified area of Los Colores, just outside the barrio of Estadio.

We were just a short walk from our favorite restaurant, Padre Nuestro, where we often (yes, the owners and waiters knew us!) went for lunch. The menú del día included a choice of soup, entrée, and fresh fruit juice (just fruit and water, and sometimes a little sugar). The entrée is served with rice, a tiny salad (usually lettuce and shredded carrot), a large piece of avocado, and patacón (we’ll let you Google that one on your own). The cost:  8000 COP (Colombian pesos), about $2.80 US.

We think that perhaps if we were in Apartment #3 from the beginning, or at least most of our time, we might have come away with a more positive feeling about this year’s stay in Medellín.

Eating in Medellín

Bottom line: Food is generally very inexpensive, both in grocery stores and restaurants.

We often enjoyed the menú del día in a variety of restaurants. In general, the food is tasty, although not highly seasoned. One of our favorites was sopa de frijoles (bean soup) which seemed to be a staple at almost every restaurant. You generally won’t find a lot of vegetables on restaurant plates.

That said, we walked past many fruit and vegetable stores and many carts selling fruits and vegetables on street corners. Vendors often pushed their carts through the streets calling out their offerings. Thinking back, we realize that these carts were selling mostly fruits, particularly avocados, pineapples, papayas, and bananas.

Speaking of carts, Ian’s favorite was the one that sold “helado full cream”. These carts roamed the streets with the same amplified recording as we heard in parts of Mexico. While writing this post, we just realized he never tried one of these ice creams from a cart.

How We Spent Our Time

We did other things besides eating. One of the biggest challenges, other than finding an apartment, was crossing the street. We often planned our activities based on time of day, day of the week, and which major streets we had to cross. When possible, we planned activities for Sundays, when many fewer vehicles raced around town. And so many motos! Possibly because with a car, a person can only drive in the city certain days a week based on their license plate.

On three occasions when crossing a major street, we had cars or motos switch lanes so they were coming right at us, so we had to move faster. Were they trying to hit us? We don’t think so, just having a little fun, or maybe they didn’t even see us. We found out from some new friends that Panama City is even worse. Remember, pedestrians do not have the right of way.

Medellín Walking Tour

We did a walking tour of Medellín with Real City Tours . We know, we know, we should have done this during our first trip. It was a great overview of the downtown area of Medellín, which to be honest we found a little intimidating on our first excursion last year. Lots of people, lots of traffic, a lot of hustle and bustle.

Our excellent tour guide started off with a discussion of safety. She told us to take off the bling (darn, knew we should have left the Rolex back at the apartment!), and that she would let us know when we were in areas to take special care of our cell phones. Basically, be aware of petty theft. Although we probably wouldn’t want to be in some of the areas after dark.

We learned about the history of Medellín and found out why there are no colonial buildings, i.e., because the Spanish never built a colony here. The tour included a visit to the old train station, no longer in service, but there’s talk of bringing it back to help relieve overcrowding on the Metro. We walked through Parque de las Luces, 300 tubes which were part of a Medellín improvement project to clean up Plaza de Cisneros of drug addicts and homeless people. The tour included several other stops at various parks and squares and sites that played instrumental roles in the city’s tumultuous history. Our guide recounted this history with sensitivity but without bias. Highly recommend for a first visit to Medellín!

Metrocable to Parque Arvi

Riding the Metrocable  to Parque Arvi  for excellent views and hiking is one outing that can be enjoyed many times over. One day this year, we planned a hike in Parque Arvi with our friends: Leah, Steven, Marj, and Paul. When we rode the Metrocable (gondola), by the time we got to the top, it was cold and raining pretty hard. So, we just stayed on and rode back down. Someone suggested the Botanical Gardens  which was new to us and made for a pleasant, picturesque walk.

Another day, we all got back on the Metrocable, this time planning to hike in Piedras Blancas . Unfortunately, the website failed to mention that the park was closed on Tuesdays. We still had an enjoyable day out and got to pass through the village of Santa Elena on our crazy bus ride back down to the city.

Group Hikes and Cultural Walks

We did a couple of group hikes with Kinkaju Hikes and Adventures . We did a Cultural Walk through Barrio Moravia, which although still poor, is experiencing a sort of renaissance. The tour was very enlightening  and put our apartment travails in perspective.

We also did a Group Hike along the Medellín River. This same river that is a dirty canal in the city of Medellín is a beauty of nature near the town of Caldas just a short distance outside of the city.

Besides these organized hikes, we hiked El Volador several times with small groups of friends. We could walk to the base of El Volador from Apartments #1 and #3.

Side Trips Nearby Medellín

El Retiro

A short, 45-minute bus ride from Medellín is the quaint mountain town of El Retiro. We had visited this pleasant town last year and returned for two day trips this year. Our friend, Tedi, owns a townhouse there and rents out rooms on Airbnb. We had hoped to spend a week or so with her, but a pipe break put the kibosh on that plan.

El Carmen de Viboral

A short 54 km (34 mi) bus ride from Medellín, the pueblo of El Carmen de Viboral is known for its ceramics. Ann took a day trip there with Leah and Steven, where a friend of theirs who was born in that village showed them around. One of the highlights was a visit to a pottery workshop where they could see the process from start to finish. This included observing people hand painting designs on every single piece. Ann was amazed how even on close inspection, each piece with the same pattern looked identical. They also enjoyed a walk along Ceramics Street, filled with murals made from colorful pieces of pottery and whole plates embedded in the walls of buildings.

The recently renovated village square looks much more modern than in other towns in Antioquia, the department of Colombia in which Medellín is located. The church was rebuilt after it was destroyed in an earthquake in 1962.

Jericó and Jardín

We also took two very enjoyable 3-day trips to Jericó  and Jardín , both about a 3½-4-hour bus ride from Medellín.

Wrap-Up

Toward the end of our 3-month stay, the rainy season began a bit early this year. The hills surrounding the city became greener, and we had some less smoggy days. Although we are glad we went back to Medellín, we probably will not spend any extended time there again. We enjoyed our time with our friends and would visit them again, but Medellín has dropped off our list of top expat destinations. This latest trip to Medellín has helped us realize that we are not large-city people. We still like Colombia. It’s a beautiful country with friendly people and a low cost of living. We have discussed the possibility of returning and spending some extended time in El Retiro.

Reflection

It took us a long time to publish this post. How do we explain how a place that was our first choice as an expat destination could change so much in our eyes? Did Medellín really change that much in a year? No (other than the Airbnb prices). We think it’s a combination of factors.

When we arrived in Medellín the first time it was after travelling in Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Panama for three months. Compared to those countries, the infrastructure in Medellín was almost first world. This time, we arrived after having spent seven months between Europe and the US. Even Eastern Europe surprised us with how safe we felt even at night, how clean the streets and sidewalks were.

We have also learned a lot more about what we like and don’t like, such as size of cities, etc. We’ve now learned that it takes multiple longer-term visits to see if a place is right for us. In the end if it was a choice between going back to work or living in Medellin full time, we’d be on the next plane back. But after spending two years living this way, we realize that this lifestyle suits us and is financially sustainable, at least in the short to medium term. Who knows? Maybe we’ll still discover that one place that just grabs us and announces that it’s the one. Of course, we’ll have to visit it multiple times. In the meantime we’ll just enjoy them as temporary homes.

After writing this post, we realized it is a bit more personal than a lot of our posts. If you’d like more details about any of our briefly-mentioned activities, please comment below or send us an email at iann@expatortornot.com. We’d also like feedback on your preferences, i.e., more location details, or more personal reflection. Thanks, as always, for tagging along with us on this journey.

Side Notes

After Colombia, we spent a whopping 27 days in Hawaii. Major budget-buster! Our total daily expenses for both of us in Colombia were about $40 per day, in Hawaii $220 per day. Most of the expense in Hawaii was accommodations and rental car. We found food in grocery stores to be a bit less expensive than on previous visits and only ate out five times in 27 days on three islands: Kauai, Maui, and Oahu. Every time a car stopped when we crossed a street, we did a double take.

We are spending the month of May in Arizona and NJ (also Cape Cod for Ann). At the end of May, we head back to Europe, this time for three and a half months.

After two years of spending the winter in Latin America, it’s time for a change of pace. Next winter we head to SE Asia. No changing our minds this time: our one-way frequent flyer tickets into Singapore have already been booked.

Next Up: Montpellier, France