Well, after six months of living in Medellín, we say good-bye.  We are now in Ecuador to experience new adventures and challenges.

Over that period of time, we felt really comfortable living in Medellin, we figured out how to get around, learned about the neighborhoods, the people, and the culture. On balance we really liked the city, but no city is perfect, and there are some aspects of Medellín we really liked and other aspects we didn’t like.

DISLIKES

Noise

The city can be noisy at times. I’m not referring to the typical big-city traffic noise but the noise from loud music and people. The people of Medellín love their music and unfortunately, they want everybody to hear it. There is music blaring from stores, street vendors and at events. At some stores, speakers are set up right outside the door. Maybe it helps sales, I don’t know.

At one large open market, there was a row of small outdoor bars and restaurants, literally next to each other. Each establishment had a big speaker blasting music. We could not even distinguish one from the other. It was as if each establishment was trying to be louder than the other.

On a few occasions, we were kept awake by parties in nearby apartments. People would stand on the balcony and sing into the night until 4 am. That is a lot of singing.

Most times even at small private events like birthday parties, there was a microphone turned on. The party attendees didn’t seem concerned that their noise would bother others.

At first, noisy street vendors were a novelty, announcing their fresh fruit from megaphones in the streets. The fruit carts are great, but the megaphones were a disturbance.

Respect for People

In addition to the noise, we constantly experienced a lack of courtesy toward others. We walked every day and usually, there were many people on the streets. As we walked, groups of people walked toward us. Two, three or even five abreast. As we approached them, they did not move over to allow us or others to pass. It seemed as if they were totally unaware of others around them. This happened often, almost daily. It seemed as if people will take up an entire grocery store aisle or walkway and make no effort to accommodate anyone else passing by.

People cut in line, parked their cars on the sidewalk forcing the pedestrian to walk in the street, and insisted that employees answer their questions while we waited in line for service.

Pollution

According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2018 Ambient Air Quality Database, Medellín is ranked the 9th most polluted city in Latin America. Medellín is located in a canyon with mountains surrounding the city which does not allow for easy dispersion of pollutants. So, pollution generally stays in the metropolitan area although rain does help clean up some pollutants.  Trucks, motorcycles, and cars cause over three-quarters of the pollutants.

Medellin has a program to reduce pollutants called Pico y Placa which limits the use of vehicles on the road to reduce the pollutants depending on the last digit of the license plate. This program also helps reduce traffic congestion during peak times.

Usually, we could not see the pollution. But it did affect us. On some days when I ran just four to five miles, I had a hard time breathing. I may be out of shape but some days it was a lot harder to run than others. Only after paying attention to smog reports did I realize it was due to the level of pollution that day. During times of heavy exertion, we were breathing harder.

Medellin is innovative when it comes to public transport, but it needs to do more to proactively tackle this problem because it is serious, and it gets worse every year.

Traffic

Probably the biggest problem in Medellín is traffic. During peak hours, traffic is at a stand-still. The roads are packed with cars, motorcycles, buses, and trucks. It was so much easier to hop on the metro than to take a taxi or Uber to our destination.

Over the years, traffic congestion has been getting worse. The city has grown rapidly in the past 15 years and vehicles have increased 182 percent. Motorcycles have increased 411 percent during the same time period. It is estimated that there are now 800,000 motorcycles in Medellín. There are motorcycles everywhere weaving in and out of traffic, between cars, on the shoulder of roads, and over sidewalks.

I think traffic is a real danger for pedestrians. Pedestrians have to be very careful crossing streets and approaching intersections. It doesn’t matter if there is a designated crosswalk or stop sign, vehicles don’t give pedestrians the right of way.

Many intersections in the neighborhood in which we lived have crosswalks and stop signs. In Spanish, pare means stop. But over the course of time, I realized what pare really means. It’s an acronym for “Pedestrians At Risk Everywhere”. Nobody stops at intersections unless there is oncoming traffic, not even police. Pedestrians must look in all directions, even behind them and carefully time their crossing between and around vehicles.

In addition, hardly anyone uses their turning signals. We waited at crosswalks and tried to determine which way the vehicle was going because they did not use turning signals. And when they did make a turn, they used the entire street. They cut corners, they turned right in front of us or behind us as we crossed the street. To make matters worse, they often turned from any lane.

Vehicles do obey traffic lights. However, the green light for pedestrians at some intersections is very, very short to the point we could not even cross unless we had our track shoes on and sprinted across. Okay, maybe I exaggerate. There was one intersection near us that was very wide with 6 lanes of traffic controlled by a stop light. Unless we started crossing immediately when the light turned green, we would barely make it across. Some pedestrians became stuck halfway and waited on a narrow boulevard for the next green light.

I do wonder how bad traffic congestion would be if vehicles did obey all stop signs and crosswalks. How slow would traffic be if motorcycles did not drive on the shoulders of the streets and weave between vehicles?

LIKES

Weather

Medellín is called “The City of Eternal Spring”. Even though it is near the equator, the altitude cools the temperatures to a spring/summer-like range every day. Temperatures in the morning are typically in the low 60’s and the daily high ranges from mid-70’s to low-80’s. This is the weather year-round.

Colombia doesn’t have four seasons, only rainy seasons and dry seasons. Even in the rainy season, a typical day would be sunny until late afternoon with an hour of rain and then sunny to partly cloudy the rest of the day.

Everyday Kathy and I would say, “another perfect day,” which was how we felt about the weather in Medellín. It’s perfect. Not too hot, not too cold.

Health Care Service

We have read and heard from many sources how good the health care system is in Medellín. This city has some of the best medical facilities in South America. During our 6-month stay, we experienced first-hand the high level of health care service.

Both Kathy and I went to a dentist for an exam and cleaning. The dentist spoke English and has many English-speaking patients. The dental office was top-notch, similar to dental offices in the U.S. with the latest and greatest equipment. The total cost for the exam and cleaning was $30 each. That is NOT a co-pay and there were no additional costs paid for by an insurance company. Kathy had a complete set of 16 x-rays done and the total cost was $30. On our second visit, the dentist did not charge to review the x-rays.

Kathy contacted a doctor to get prescriptions renewed. First of all, she actually talked to the doctor on the phone and through e-mail. When she made the appointment, the doctor asked if Kathy wanted to come to the office or whether she wanted the doctor to come to our apartment. We were surprised by this but talking with others, it is common for a doctor to make “house calls”. The fee for the exam by the doctor was $30.

Filling the prescription at a pharmacy was easy because the doctor informed us that Kathy’s medication did not require a prescription. Many common medications are only 30% of the cost in the U.S.

We spoke with several other people from the U.S. who told us that they fly to Medellín for dental work or medical procedures. The cost of the airline ticket, lodging, and the procedure is cheaper than the procedure alone in the U.S.

Affordable Cost of Living

The cost of health care is only one part of the cost of living. We found that furnished apartment rentals in Medellin are about one-third of the cost in Minneapolis.

Groceries are also about a third of the cost as in the U.S. However, popular brand-named items like Hunt’s Ketchup is MORE expensive in Medellín. We tried not to buy American products and relied on fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs, chicken and fish for most of our meals.

We paid less than $1.75/ea. for a first run movie at a theater. Food at Medellin restaurants was considerably less expensive than in the U.S. But, on the other hand, a hamburger in a restaurant costs about the same as a hamburger in the U.S.

Public Transportation

Public Transportation is one area Medellín really shines. It has a comprehensive public transportation system that integrates light rail (Metro), a tram line (Tranvia), cable cars (Metro Cable), and buses (Metro Bus). There are other bus lines that connect the city and other metro areas.

With a metro card, we had access to all of these types of transportation which were inexpensive, convenient, safe and reliable. We never missed owning a car during our time in Medellin. The people of Medellín are very proud of the metro and the trains are spotless with no trash, damage or graffiti.

Friendliness

We were told the people of Medellín are very friendly and we experienced their friendliness over and over again. People went out of their way to help us if we were lost or needed help in communicating. A typical introduction or greeting is not just a short hello or good-bye but a short conversation with “How are you”, “Hope you have a good day.” And they are sincere about it. Not just a quick “How are you?” and not even expecting or waiting for a reply. Paisa’s consider it rude if you do not engage in these salutations and we enjoyed getting to know the people around us.

Our stay in Medellin was wonderful. We really enjoyed getting to know the people and culture of Medellín. Of course, every city has issues and no city in the world is perfect. But for us, the positives of Medellín far out-weigh the negatives.

We met a lot of very nice people in Medellín. We met Paisa’s and people from all over the world. It was always interesting to hear about other travelers’ adventures. Many people told us there was no need to travel any further because we had already found the perfect city. They said that the other places we planned to visit would not be as nice as Medellín.

As we settle into Ecuador we will find out if Medellín is indeed the perfect place for retirement.