For the first phase of my relocation to Colombia, I opted to live in Barranquilla for 3 months. This working-class coastal town is less expensive than Cartagena, and seemed like a good place in which to experience Colombia from a non-tourist perspective.

At La Ventana del Mundo

By the way… I get this question all the time, “Why leave the safe and comfortable USA and move to the underdeveloped and dangerous Colombia”? Locals or non-American foreigners ask this question with slight incredulity, but American expats rarely ask, because they already know. My reasons for relocation to Colombia include:

• Overall lower cost of living – my target budget being $1,600/month all-inclusive.
• Note: Throughout my 3 months stay, the average ForEx rate  was 1U$D = 3,750COP
• Better access to healthcare and medications
• Opportunities to learn Spanish via Full Immersion
• Opportunities to volunteer teaching English to under-resourced and appreciative people
• Opportunities to socialize, date, and reintegrate with fellow humans despite the language barrier
• Relative “safety” from random mass-shootings and race-based attacks
• Colombia’s crime rate continues to drop. It is not as dangerous as it used to be in the 70s and 80s.

Conversely, I think it’s paradoxical and slightly humorous that wealthy Latin Americans want to live in the dUSA despite the:

• High and ever-increasing costs of living
• Lack of nationwide Basic Healthcare Services
• Rising inflation (to be fair, we have Global Inflation)
• Lack of strong communal support systems for single people
• Intractable socio political divisions
• Markedly high police brutality and executions, usually against “black and brown” people
• Markedly high prison population, usually comprised of “black and brown” people
• Proliferation of guns, with little or no regulation
• Rude and inconsiderate general population who are always ready to USE said guns
• Sky-high rates of Social Isolation, Anxiety, Loneliness, Depression – a literal epidemic reported by the CDC – and Mental Illness, leading to Deaths of Despair and…
• Daily mass shootings, with only the most egregious (5+ victims) getting media coverage

The dUSA is GREAT for jobs, making money, and doing so while relatively safe and comfortable within the well-established, rules-based systems, services, and Rule of Law. But that’s it! Besides those  (admittedly important) things, the dUSA is not a socially healthy country, not by a long shot. The culture is aggressively hyper-individualistic, Capitalist, and Materialistic – NOT great for people in general, and definitely not for someone with my profile.

I understand that POORER foreigners want to migrate to North America for better jobs and a chance at a decent more stable life, but WEALTHY Latin Americans could do so much better in more than a handful of other Spanish-speaking countries! This is a reality that many Latin American people don’t consider, because THEY are naturally and culturally family-oriented.

To put it bluntly, I’d rather be socializing and living – not merely existing – and then robbed by desperate, poor, hungry people… than being chronically isolated, and maybe fall victim of a mass shooter or worse, executed by a random police officer who technically draws salary from MY tax dollars.

Of course, different people live under different circumstances… Your mileage may vary. Just remember: