Four days into my first visit to Medellín, Colombia, in 2008, here’s what I had to say:
The Euro-undertones are strong, from the way the women dress to the way that people greet you in passing on the street. Wandering around Medellín is more reminiscent of walking around Paris than Panama City, my two most ready points of comparison.
In other words, as Lief remarked as we exited the international airport upon arrival, “Welcome to South America.”
The differences between this continent and the one just to the north are striking.
Medellín is a miniature version of Buenos Aires, Argentina—one of my favorite cities in the world—from its annual International Tango Festival to its Botero Museum.
Medellín is more manageable than B.A., and cleaner. Otherwise, the neighborhoods, the parks, the downtown shopping areas, the antique shops, the arts and literary history… these things all remind me of that very European city way down at the bottom of this continent.
Here were other of my observations after my first few days in Medellín:
- This city boasts the world’s friendliest and most helpful taxi drivers. We’ve yet to encounter even one who was rude or unpleasant…
- Medellín is also home to the world’s cleanest public toilets (note that you typically pay to use them, from 100 to 600 pesos… that is, pennies)…
- This is a green city, with trees, plants, and small gardens and parks everywhere…
- It’s also an architecturally consistent and pleasing city. Most every building is constructed of red brick and topped with red clay roof tiles. The overall effect is delightful, especially when viewed from some height. From the windows of the penthouse apartments we’ve visited, for example, the city appears a sea of red clay tiles and red brick buildings interspersed regularly by swatches of foliage and flowers…
- This city is remarkably clean. In the central neighborhoods, you see no litter anywhere. The Metro (a point of pride for the population of Medellín and a great way to get around parts of the city) is spotless and like new. I’ve looked for but been unable to find even a cigarette butt or piece of gum on the ground in any at any of the stops we’ve visited…
One year after that first visit, Lief and I invested in an apartment in Medellín’s El Poblado neighborhood. We’ve returned many dozens of times over the years since, with our children, with friends… for short and extended stays. Medellín has become a home base.
Returning now after too long away, what’s changed?
The rest of the world has caught on. Back in the day, Lief and I were anomalies as we moved around this city. We’d go days without encountering fellow non-locals. No more. Medellín today is a top-tier stop on the digital nomad circuit and home to a sizeable community of foreign retirees.
Good for you, Medellín… way to go. The good folks of this city, some of whom have become close friends over the two decades we’ve been hanging our hats here, worked hard to overcome the stigma of Medellín’s past. They and their very special city deserve the recognition they’re now getting.
Arriving in Medellín is like coming to rest after a sprint following a marathon. The past month in Panama Lief and I hosted annual business meetings with staff from across the globe… and a retreat at Los Islotes for our Live And Invest Overseas management team.
When we packed our bags and set off for Tocumen Airport, Lief and I were frazzled and fatigued. We boarded the plane in Panama City with slouched shoulders and long faces.
Emerging from the airport in Medellín a few hours later, it was Lief who said it first.
“I don’t really understand why,” he said, after we’d loaded into a taxi for the drive down the mountain to the city, “but I suddenly don’t feel as tired as I was feeling this morning.”
“Yes,” I replied. “I know what you mean. I feel like I can breathe easier. I feel brighter… lighter, somehow.”
We’ve had that reaction every time we’ve arrived here. It’s the climate, I guess, and the elevation. Coming out of the Medellín airport is like stepping into a wellness zone.
The crazy, hectic scene we’d left behind in Panama City faded in a blink. Before us were the rolling fields of the Medellín valley. The countryside reminds me of Ireland, a patchwork in every shade of green.
I’ve been telling folks how nice it is in this corner of the world for many years. Still, often, they don’t believe me. I understand. Old stigmas die hard. Medellín is a place you must experience yourself to appreciate.
The first thing I do when we arrive home to our apartment here is to throw open all the windows and doors. The constant mountain breezes fill the rooms… along with the sounds of birdsong and crickets and our neighbors greeting each other in passing.
Next door is a white-washed Spanish-colonial church. It hosts mass twice a day every day except Sundays when there are four, every one well attended.
The view from our terrace is of the Medellín valley. Our apartment is in the heart of El Poblado, the center of the city, yet everywhere is green, not only in residential neighborhoods like ours, but along the highways, too. Trees, shrubs, hedges, flowers, and plants of great variety everywhere you turn. This city is so committed to keeping itself green that it requires developers to invest in parks and plantings along with their housing communities and apartment towers to maintain a managed ratio of green spaces to population density.
As far as I can tell, a day into this return trip, Medellín continues to offer everything that got our attention years ago. Plus now the expat, foreign retiree, and global investor have more company and more support all the time.
Over the past two decades that we’ve been paying attention to Medellín, property values in this city have appreciated 5% to 10% per year on average… as we predicted they would. The cost of buying a home or apartment in Medellín was a screaming bargain when we arrived on the scene, seriously undervalued on a global scale. It didn’t take a genius to forecast an upward trend.
Is Medellín today a buy?
That’s the question Lief and I have come to town this week to answer.
Otherwise, our plans for the next two weeks in residence in what I’m delighted to be able to report remains one of the world’s most appealing places to spend time are modest. We’ll dine out with old friends (Medellín boasts an inordinate number of great restaurants) and meet with local property contacts to get a read on the current market and to begin to vet a new opportunity that has our urgent attention.
Otherwise, our schedules are open.
“After the past four weeks, I’m really looking forward to doing a whole lot less for a little while,” Lief said as he carried our bags through our front door, articulating what I’d been thinking myself.
Until next time,
Kathleen Peddicord
Founding Publisher, Overseas Opportunity Letter
