What It Feels To Arrive To Medellin, Colombia

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Lief and I are counting down the days until our chance to return to Medellín, Colombia, next month.It’s been far too long since our last visit to this city we fell in love with at first sight a dozen years ago.When I think about Medellín, it’s the clear blue skies, warm sunshine, colorful gardens, and red-brick buildings that come to mind first.

The City Is Lush And Green…

Central square in Medellin, Colombia — Adobe Stock/mehdi33300

Medellín is so committed to keeping itself as green as it is that it requires developers to invest in parks and plantings along with their housing communities and apartment towers.For me, arriving in Medellín has always felt like coming to rest after a sprint.As a rule, Lief and I are up before dawn to check emails before dialing in for the daily round of morning video calls…Then I hunker down to draft this dispatch before a hurried lunch…Afternoons are focused on longer-term writing and business development projects.Go, go, go… push, push, push…That’s our day-to-day.We don’t have many opportunities to decompress… but Medellín has always forced us to slow down.

We Recognized This Medellín Effect From Our First Visit

We’d taken off for our initial scouting trip to Colombia feeling typically frazzled and fatigued. Then, after we’d arrived in Medellín and were walking out from the airport, Lief looked over at me and smiled.“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 said. “I know what you mean. I feel like I can breathe easier… better.“I feel brighter… lighter, somehow.”

Lief and I have had that reaction every time we’ve returned to this city since.It’s the climate, I guess, and the elevation. Coming out of the airport here is like stepping into a wellness zone.The crazy, hectic scene we’ve left behind in Panama or Paris or wherever fades in a blink.The rolling countryside reminds us of Ireland. It’s like a patchwork quilt in shades of green.I’ve been telling people how nice it is to spend time in Medellín for years, but the experience is hard to put into words.When we’re in residence in our apartment in the heart of this city, we keep the windows and doors open to the breezes. We’re just blocks away from this city’s very cosmopolitan center, but the only sounds we hear are birds and crickets and our neighbors greeting each other in passing.Next door to our apartment is a whitewashed, Spanish-colonial church that hosts mass twice a day every day except Sunday, when there are four… and at least four weddings every Saturday. It’s a picturesque church.The view from our terrace is of the Medellín valley… expansive…Not only in residential neighborhoods like ours, but along the highways, too, grow trees, shrubs, hedges, flowers, and plants of great variety.Our favorite thing to do in Medellín is… nothing.For us, that’s what Medellín is—one of the most comfortable and pleasant places we know to settle in, settle back, and simply savor the setting, the circumstance, and the company.Sincerely,

Kathleen PeddicordFounding Publisher,Overseas Opportunity Letter