Hola Skyman and all, thanks for thinking about me. I´ve been tied up on a project at work for several months and haven´t been around much on the forum.
Things are holding up and looking up in Colombia. The exchange rate is rattling around 2900-3000 which is excellent for expat americanos like me. The Peace Treaty is signed sealed and delivered and now waiting of the last of the FARC guerrillas to turn in their weapons and begin reintegration.

Hopefully the peace will hold and ELN will decide to come to peace soon.

More and more expats coming to Colombia. Makes sense. Cost of living is low, exchange rate is favorable, climate is fair to fantastic depending on where you are and where you came from, the people are still friendly to expats, the women are still beautiful, the kids are still well behaved for the most part, mary g juana is still cheap, plentiful, easy to find and damn potent.

All in all, life is good.

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Good to see you resurface, Cafetero. I had hoped to connect with you when I visited la zona cafetera in February, but you were off-grid.

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Sunset steve, I just now got the PM about your visit. Sorry I wasn´t able to help you. How was your trip? What do you think of it?

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Cafetero - see:
http://www.expatexchange.com/expat/index.cfm?frmid=190&tpcid=3419469

and also search for Filandia - there are 2 threads under that title where some views are discussed in detail. You might find the perspectives therein interesting.

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There's this one:

http://www.expatexchange.com/expat/index.cfm?frmid=190&tpcid=3419683

and I don't know where the other one is.

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Cafetero,thanks for the response ! I'm glad you're not "laid up" with a broken leg or something. It's good to read your posts. You seem to post honestly & with no agenda, .
A guy I met in Cuenca, Ec. just moved to Pereira and is very happy there. I definitely want to meet with you for drinks/dinner in the near future. I'll PM you about the schedule, to coordinate with you, since usted está trabajando mucho. Buena Suerte ! Hasta Pronto !

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Sunset Steve, I did look at the thread you posted and as usual, there are good points and bad points.
First, I´ve always been puzzled by the official figures given for these pueblos and I just don´t believe there are 6,000 people living there, within the confines of the Filandia village.

Maybe in the municipio, but my goodness, Filandia is tiny. I´ve only been there a few times, but I believe it when the guy says he can walk side to side in 10 minutes and length to length in 15 minutes. Really, if there are 6000 people living there I probably would eat my hat, too.

As for restaurants, depends on what you call high quality, which to me means Jimmy´s Harborside or Anthony´s Pier 4 in Boston, not these tiny little restaurants in vacant garages in the pueblos.
And two hospitals? jajajajaja, I´d be surprised if there is even a real health clinic there.

Just my thoughts on that and others mileage will vary and I do hope you can put together a reasonable place to live there.

Which isn´t going to be easy. One of my Colombian friends is a real estate broker in Armenia and lives with her family in Filandia, all her life. She tells me there are almost zero rentals available and hardly ever anything decent for sale. It´s just a tiny little village where the real estate doesn´t turn over very often.

So, I agree with you and I agree with some of the other contacts. It´s a nice place to visit, I´ve been there maybe three times over the past couple years, and the people are real friendly, but it´s not going to be easy to live there. My friend says because Salento has gotten so touristy and so expensive that people are turning their attention to Filandia, which is soaking up all the available real estate and sending prices upwards.

Actually, there seems to be a lot of gringo interest in Filandia, because its cute and separated from the city and has a decent climate. So, it seems like it might be a good real estate investment to build a few apartments or houses to rent to gringos, assuming you could find a suitable parcel of land, of course.

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At a distance of just four miles from Armenia's north side, Circasia -- like Filandia -- is at a slightly cooler and higher elevation.

Circasia could be edging onto the Expat map. One poster on this forum (Kee) told us this weekend his family has just bought a house there.

I have visited Circasia five times in the past month .. and get my medical prescriptions at the hospital in Circasia.

Compared to my one visit to Filandia, my visits to Circasia didn't show anything lacking.

There's a decent seafood restaurant a block off the plaza .. the 'frutero' on the plaza is wonderfully friendly and his 'ayudante' will carry your fruits a few blocks for you if you have a car.

Circasia has Servientrega, a 'perfumería', some supermarkets, a lookout or 'mirador' you might enjoy if you don't mind a climb .. and a lovely plaza, same as Filandia.

It's an easy drive of about ten minutes from Circasia to the Portal del Quindío mall in Armenia.

cccmedia in Quindío

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@CCC - Do not know why, but I drove through Circasia and jsut did not find it charming on the basis of that quick drive-through. I am open to be convinced otherwise.

@ Cafetero - far be it from me to overide the observations of a resident, but I did spend a (mere) two solid days traipsing through almost all of the side streets and back streets of Filandia and it took me the better part of an hour or more. I know small towns. This town is far more than as described by you, once you wander the back streets.

I ate at only 5 restaurants there. Two were significantly BETTER than ANY I ate at in my 5 days in Medellin. It's not Boston. One was Helena Adentro, the spare ribs.

The central plaza and craft shops were full to bursting on the weekend. During the week the pace was peaceful but the shops and restaurants were doing good business. Plenty of farmacies, grocery stores, and two hospitals. I visited both of them to check them out.

The population figures are not challenged in any source except your own personal perception, which I am sorry but I see no reason to accept as being more cogent than my own.

Your comments about the difficulties of finding accommodation are clearly correct and that is my main concern. But that is a small concern as compared with the HORROR if living in a busy city. ;)

It is very possible that I will not be able to make this work unless I can somehow buy a small finca on the road between Filandia and Quimbaya. I hope that I will be able to however. I would like to live there.

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Regarding accommodations in the smaller towns. I can state from experience in the small (reputedly 5,000 including the surrounding fincas) town where we keep an apartment that you will almost never see a "for rent" sign. The people just know. My spouse's family have moved at least 4 times during my three years there. We've had the same apartment for over two years now. We were walking by and my lady pointed up at the second floor apt and said it's for rent. The next day we were moving in. There's plenty of turnover. We were lucky to get such a nice place so easily. There are plenty of street front ground floor places that I would not tolerate unless there was a nice backyard garden included. The thing is you need a local contact in these places to find out what is available. No one is expecting to rent to outsiders so they don't advertise. Word of mouth suffices in these places.

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I find your comments encouraging, poco.

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Look, you asked my opinion, I gave it to you and now you want to prove me wrong. Its just a freaking little village man, get over it, stop trying to make it into something its not. And My advice, My opinion, is never just drive one time through Pereira or through Circasia and write them off as unworthy. Better to get some boots on the ground time, a LOT more than just two days.

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Some useless bits of trivia....according to Google Earth, Filandia village is .7 kilometers wide and 1 kilometer long.
My normal walking speed is 13 minutes per kilometer based on 10 kilo days measured with MyFitnessPal. Not poking around back alleys or ranging up and down every block, just walking from one side to the other. Therefore, I would be able to walk across Filandia in 10 minutes and walk the length of Filandia in 15 minutes, so @meincolombia was right......in my opinion.

Second bit of useless trivia. Filandia is .75 square kilometer. According to Wiki, the population density of Armenia is 2100 persons per square kilometer. In my opinion Armenia is much more densely populated than Filandia.

There are no high rise towers in Filandia, just houses, most of which are one or two story single family. But, even if there were high rise towers the population density would be similar to Armenia, Therefore, in my opinion, the population density of the village of Filandia is about 1575 density per 3/4 square kilometro.

I have no idea how they calculate the total population of Filandia, one report said in 2008 there were 14,000 people there. But, in the village proper, I honestly believe the population to be somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 people. I have no idea where the rest of the 14,000 people are.

By the way, you are right that in the villages people don´t put up signs. You have to walk the streets and ask all the little corner stores, and people passing by, and look for signs of construction or remodeling or for windows with no curtains. then ask the neighbors. It helps if you have one or more natives of the village to help you look.
In the several apartments and houses I´ve rented in pueblos in Colombia over the years, not one of them had a sign in the window.

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The proximity to civilization would be an issue for me.

Filandia is 38 minutes from Armenia (43 from Pereira), per Google maps. Thats an hour and 16 minutes minimum, round-trip.

That's too far given how often I would want to access what's available in the cities.

If I were choosing between Filandia and Circasia (four miles from Armenia's preferred north side), the distance issue would be a dealbreaker for me against Filandia.

cccmedia in Quindío

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I live on the outskirts of a village of 1,200. Filandia is vastly larger.

Don't take offence if I prefer Filandia as a residence over Pereira or Armenia. Or any city. I don't need to spend any time there to know I would never want to settle there. I guess I know what I like and what I don't like, having resided in cities most of my life already. I currently drive 45 minutes to the city and survive quite happily under those conditions.

I prefer to live in a little village. I don't criticize those who prefer to live in a city. Why would I? Why are so many people so god damn touchy?

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As for Circasia, I believe I already indicated having an open mind, not having spent enough tome there to form an opinion.

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Filandia is great!!

And if you didn't eat at the Taco Shop, then you missed out.

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Here we go again.....Filandia=? The reality seems to be that it IS a small village...and that's fine(for one who prefers intimate settings).Personally I have not visited this pueblo, so far. Every city/village in Colombia has plusses & minuses for us all. We all have our needs/wants/desires.
And I have a very good feeling that there is a place for every potential-expat somewhere, someplace....where he/she/we feel at home. each of us has a certain list of "Have-to-Haves" in order to be happy. Could I be happy in a small village...no. but that's just me and my preference for shopping/dining/cultural events. But......I do not attempt to impost my "city-living choices" on anyone else...either. Yes, I am a city-guy...I need a city of at least 400,000 popu. or so, to provide what I'm looking for...but again that's just me and my preferences. We all post for informational reasons & the use of profanity should not be allowed on any site...in my opinion. We have many, many other words...with which to express ourselves. I would only ask that we do post in a civil manner...remembering why we post in the first place...O.K.
Paz, Paz, Paz...a todos.

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I apologize for using strong language - it was uncalled for but in my defense, it wasn't directed at anyone, simply expressing my frustration. It upsets and confuses me when folks seem to actually get angry because I prefer a village over a city. Many expats in fact choose to live outside the confines of a population centre, in the countryside. That is a perfectly normal choice as well, surely.

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Yes everyone filandia sucks you would not want to live here please dont try to you would not be happy here please stay in the city you will be much happier nothing to see here move along

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Finca.....Great Post ! It's like I said in an earlier post...a few months ago.....
There's something for everyone !
We all can find our own "happy place' if we look enough...right ?
I think so.

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Filandia only good for "Steves". :)

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And FincaJam

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Colombia tiene ciudades y pueblos
por todos de nosotros...es el hecho.
Hasta Pronto!

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