A reduced cost of living might be a nice additional benefit, but I'm going to be emigrating from the US primarily as a climate refugee. Ironically, this sentiment comes from a native southern Californian. So many untold millions of immigrants, both domestic and international, have moved to my homeland in pursuit of our fabled “perfect climate” for generations. But, alas…
Less than 20 miles from the coast, my neighborhood has yet again experienced multiple record-setting high-temperature days this year, maxing out at 116F in early July, with humidity topping out that day at 76%. Maybe climatologists will ultimately decide that global warming really is a myth, but I no longer think of retiring in SoCal, and almost can’t wait to leave.
I enjoyed spending 10+ years of my younger life as an Expat, and last year investigated moving back to a couple of my old favorite haunts in Asia. Although there’ve been some wonderful developments in infrastructure over the years, there are also now some extremely serious pollution issues that hadn’t existed when I’d previously lived there… enough to cause me to scrap all plans for ever living there again.
Researching anew, I’ve decided that Colombia appears to hold promise for me as a retirement destination, and will take some investigatory trips there in the coming months. My plan is to restrict my first trip to areas in which I’d most likely consider living if I do make a move there.
I thought if I offered basic details of my thought process, any misconceptions and faulty logic I’ve employed to draw my “armchair” conclusions will be obvious. With that in mind:
Avoiding oppressive heat in a moderate climate is my primary criterion. I used climate statistics to produce a list of the following popular areas/cities for further consideration:
Armenia, Bogota, Bucaramanga, Cali, Manizales, Medellin, Pasto, Pereira, Popayan and Rionegro.
As I read more about these places, I refined my choices because:
I’d read that trade winds make the suburban cities of Barbosa, Bello, Copacabana and Giradota outside of Medellin a lot more humid than Medellin proper and its other suburbs, so I won’t be considering those areas N/NW of Medellin.
Cali’s temperature statistics show it having just a little bit higher average than the other areas, but, numerous traveler reports I’ve read have indicated that it actually feels much, much hotter than any of the other highland cities—to the point of often being rather uncomfortable—so I crossed Cali off my list.
Rionegro isn’t too hot, but, statistically, there’s a huge swing of 27 degrees between the average highs and lows on any given day throughout the year. Not quite a “moderate” climate, I’ve temporarily written if off… but may devote time for a visit on a future trip since many positive things have been written about it.
Bogota and Pasto are not too hot, but with average high temperatures that never reach 70 degrees, they would actually end up being too cold for me. I want to avoid oppressive heat, not always be cold… so they were crossed off the list.
This left me with: Armenia, Bucaramanga, Manizales, Medellin, Pereira and Popayan
My second important criterion is reasonably close access to “world-class” hospitals and medical care.
As primary caregiver for my parents during their declining years, I experienced first-hand their ability to continue living comfortably for an extended period with a good quality of life by making sure emergency services were delivered in a timely fashion. Oftentimes, minor temporary glitches might have killed them—or, much worse, incapacitated them—if decent medical services had been an hour or two away, as opposed to only ~10 minutes away.
I’m only in my early 60s now, but don’t want to chance suffering an avoidable, permanent and serious decline in health/capacity in the future just because it took way too long to get to a decent hospital due to having been living so far away.
MedellinGuru.com was my source for the information I used here. They listed seven high-end hospitals in Medellin, and one each in Manizales and Bucaramanga.
Per Google Maps, without traffic, Popayan looks to be 2 ½ hours from (the closest) facilities located in Cali, with Armenia 2+ hours from S.E.S. Hospital de Caldes in Manizales and Pereira a little closer but still over an hour away from S.E.S.
So, after considering my top 2 criteria, I’m left with: Bucaramanga, Manizales, and Medellin. I think that I should visit these three places.
Manizales has a relatively small population (370K city) at a much higher altitude (7,090’) and is on the much cooler side (average high just over 70F) than both Bucaramanga and Medellin.
Long before I hit the ground running, I’m wondering if Manizales might be too much of a shock for an ex-SoCal guy (13 million in metro LA) who’s barely spent time any time at even 5,000’ and who, although no longer able to handle stifling heat, is not at all a fan of the cold.
That particular question is obviously one only I can answer for myself. But, just as I was writing the last few paragraphs, I started thinking (deciding?) that even though maybe I should still visit Manizales for the sake of comparison, my focus really does need to be on Bucaramanga and Medellin.
(I do have a number of specific questions about those two cities, which I'll ask later if the conclusions I've been drawing seem to make any sense so far.)
If anyone has any observations they’d care to share about where my train of thought may have derailed itself so far, that would be great.
If it helps direct any advice, I’ll just add that I’m early 60s, single, and spoke fluent Spanish for a few years in my early 30s thanks to a Mexican GF. Pero, hace muchos anos, mi espanol se fue.
If I move down, I’d take classes to become fluent enough again for daily life, then specifically for medical (practical reasons) and tax/financial (my professions) proficiency. I don’t want to work there, but it stands to reason that Colombia’s income tax code might continue being revised and expanded in scope for the foreseeable future, so that eventually it could become a factor that affects almost every substantive decision I’ll be faced with if I end up choosing to live there.
I'd like to have a basic understanding of their system, if only to be able to double-check the veracity of any advice I might find myself feeling the need to pay for...
I guess only a retired Tax Accountant who's true to stereotype would have that as one of their goals for the future?
Thanks in advance for any advice/opinions...
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