Yahoo Finance A Foodie Retirement in Medellin, Colombia
Medellín, Colombia, is a pretty, tidy city with a near perfect climate. It's also culturally and recreationally rich and diverse in a sophisticated, developed-world kind of way. On any given day, you could visit a museum or see a tango show. There's opera in season, shopping year-round, and dance clubs, nightclubs and white-glove restaurants. You will also see interactive outdoor museum-parks, an aquarium, an amusement park, botanical gardens, a planetarium, a "barefoot park" with a Zen garden and dozens of small neighborhood parks and treed plazas.
And it's all available right now at a discount thanks to the continued strength of the U.S. dollar versus the Colombian peso. Your dollars go further in this country today than they have in more than 12 years, making the already affordable costs of living and real estate global bargains.
Medellín is an economic and financial center for Colombia, as well as a literary and an artistic one. It's the base for newspapers, radio networks, publishing houses, an annual poetry festival, an international jazz festival, an international tango festival and an annual book fair. Back in 1971, Medellín was even the venue for Colombia's answer to Woodstock, the Festival de Ancón.
Medellín is a place where things work -- the Internet, the metro, street cleaning and garbage collection. You can count on these services day to day. Taxis are metered, shop keepers are well mannered and the people you pass on the street are well dressed.
This a good choice for someone who wants city life but who also enjoys the outdoors. Medellín is a city best enjoyed al fresco. It is suited to a retiree who isn't interested in hot, humid or tropical and who appreciates Euro-chic, but doesn't want to travel all the way to Europe.
At the heart of Medellín is its upscale El Poblado sector, the best address in town. Within Medellín is a little-known treasure of a neighborhood known as Manila. Along Manila's shady, tree-lined streets, you find a mix of houses, mom and pop businesses and a great number of very nice restaurants and cafés.
One of El Poblado's smallest neighborhoods, walkable Manila is one of the most authentic barrios remaining in the city. Life here continues in a traditional, old fashioned way. However, this is changing as Manila, like many Medellín neighborhoods before it, is becoming trendy and chic. Local Colombians, foreign investors, tourists and, most recently, expat retirees are beginning to pay attention.
The appeal is gastronomic. Manila is home to the original Calle de la Buena Mesa (that's "street of good food" in Spanish). It's a street lined with 13 small cafés and restaurants, offering Spanish, Mexican, Italian, seafood, Peruvian, German, Argentine and Colombian food. While this Buena Mesa idea isn't unique to Manila (similar gastronomic streets have popped up in other barrios across Medellín and become very popular), Manila's street of good food is the first and arguably the best.
In addition to the restaurants and cafes, Manila features an old fashioned greengrocer where you can get your fresh fruits and vegetables. This traditional neighborhood is also home to a barber shop, furniture makers busily filling orders for custom furniture in their open-to-the-street workshop and carpenters framing original artwork in the marquetería.
In contrast, at the edge of Manila, you'll find El Poblado's largest supermarket, Éxito, a superstore offering not only groceries but also a Walmart-style collection of household merchandise. Manila is a neighborhood visibly in transition.
Its location in El Poblado is excellent, and you could easily live in Manila without a car. Near its east and west boundaries are two major thoroughfares providing easy access to the rest of the city. It's also an easy walk to the metro providing commuter train access to the entire Medellín valley. Perhaps best of all from a day-to-day lifestyle perspective, you're only a 10-minute walk to Parque Lleras in the Zona Rosa, Medellín's premier restaurant, shopping and nightlife district.
It's easy to understand why the area is beginning to blossom, especially when you remember the affordable cost of living here. At the current rate of exchange, a couple could live comfortably in this well-appointed neighborhood on a budget of as little as $1,200 per month, including $500 per month for rent.
You could lock in today's dollar discount by purchasing an apartment of your own. At the current exchange rate, you could buy an apartment in Manila for $150,000 or less. Housing (rent or a mortgage) is typically the biggest part of a retiree's budget. If you can eliminate your ongoing housing expense, even a modest retirement nest egg would allow you to enjoy a rich, full retirement lifestyle in this appealing spot, even if the exchange rate moved against you.
Kathleen Peddicord is the founder of the Live and Invest Overseas publishing group .
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