Retired In Medellin, Colombia
If you want to live in Colombia, the very first thing you must do is learn the correct spelling. Not Columbia, but Colombia. If you ever comment on any of the Expat Facebook groups and misspell the country, the negative comments will fly unmercifully. You’ll be called every name in the book, and may feel so embarrassed, you won’t return for weeks or months.
Yes, we live in Medellin, Colombia. Why is that so special? Because we are retired US citizens who chose to live in a foreign country. We are originally from Houston, Texas and except for my time in the US Air Force, we had lived our entire lives in the Houston area.
Our Retirement Adventure Begins
As we started thinking about retirement, we happened to discover an online site called International Living (“IL”). There are thousands of stories about living in almost every country in the world. They discuss costs, benefits, downsides, real estate, starting a business, residency, the best and worst places to live, and many more topics. The more I read, the more fascinated I became. Soon, Paulette (my wife) started catching the excitement. Then we became more serious about finding the best place for us.
One of the best reports IL publishes is their annual “World’s Best Places To Retire” survey. And surprisingly, many of these places are fairly close to the US. They always include Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, and Ecuador. And not too surprisingly, we have tried each of those. And they do have many benefits for US “ex-pats”.
About Us
We have been Christians for many years but hadn’t been active for a long time. The “cares of this world”, etc kept getting in the way. Within a few days of retiring, it seemed that everyone we met was a Christian and they were working in a ministry and going to an English-speaking church. So we started attending the church and soon found some ministries we could assist with a few hours per week. We both began to realize that perhaps God had been directing us to retire in Latin America and find a place to serve the “Great Commission” (See Matthew 28:18–20).
When we decided to leave Boquete, Panama, we felt the need to find somewhere we could both live and serve Christ and spread the gospel.
How We Found Medellin
We will talk more about the other places we have lived, but in our opinion, Medellin is hands-down the best place for us. When we first retired in January 2016, we weren’t looking for one place to live for the rest of our lives. We wanted to have adventures with multiple chapters. Eventually, we got bored with Panama and started looking for another place. And at that time, some friends told us about a wonderful trip they had planned to visit South America. We asked if they would consider letting us tag along, and our friend Eric sent us his “spreadsheet”.
Another friend told us about their friend who was trying to start a Christian church for English speakers in Medellin, Colombia. You may have heard of Medellin from a long time ago when the notorious drug lord, Pablo Escobar was causing great trouble here and across the world. So needless to say, we were a little apprehensive. But we were heading to South America anyway, so we decided to check it out.
“The City Of Eternal Spring”
After living in two relatively small places with limited choices for restaurants and things to do, Medellin was a welcome relief. The city has a population of over 3 million people! The first week of our visit, I ate Sushi five times! So many restaurants to choose from and many are outstanding. Located at 5,000 feet, year-round temperatures are between 60 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Also, there are literally no bugs, so we could leave our windows open without screens 24 hours a day.
However, for some reason during our visit, we couldn’t find an affordable place to live. And we didn’t feel qualified for the ministry opportunity presented to us. So with no ministry and nowhere to live, we left for the rest of our planned trip. We spent almost a month in Peru which is amazing! Don’t miss it. Those Incans were incredible engineers and builders. And they didn’t have power tools!
Our Short Stay In Cuenca, Ecuador
Next, we visited Cuenca, Ecuador. We almost stayed because Cuenca is beautiful, with a sizeable population of North American retirees. But at 8,500 feet elevation, Cuenca’s temps were 50–70. And it made a huge difference to us. Instead of shorts and T-shirts, we usually wore jeans and at least a light jacket. We were cold most of the time.
Our “Epiphany”
During that time, as I was scrolling through Facebook groups, someone set me straight about Medellin’s cost of living. They assured me that we had simply been looking in the wrong places. There were many very nice apartments we could afford. Then a few days later, we spoke with some other friends from Panama who said they were heading to Medellin to start the Christian church for English speakers. And they would love for us to come and help.
We took that as a definite call from God, and a few months later we joined them in Medellin. And as promised, we found a great apartment with a fabulous view of the entire valley that we could easily afford. And we just celebrated our 2nd anniversary as residents of Medellin, Colombia.
Please follow me as I share more about our lives on this blog. And comment to let me know any questions or suggestions for improvement. And check out Medellin as a place to retire.
Steve Tuggle
