Colombia

[philo]

My wife and I just got back from a trip to Colombia. Friends of ours have a condo and it was a very great and inexpensive vacation.

Since they were not charging us room and board, I figured the least I could do is some repairs.

One sink was not working so we went to a "big box" hardware store called Home Center that is very much like Home Depot and they had everything we needed.

Even though Colombia has been on the Metric System since 1841 or so, I noticed that the American standard was prevalent.

The faucet was on an 8" center and in the nuts and bolts section I don't think I even saw any metric H/W.

Though I ended up doing a bit of repair work, he told me not to bother with the faucet. He had a plumber do it....Labor charge was 40,000 Pesos.

Sound like a lot?

That's $13.00

and he was on time and did a good job.

I think I want to move there

[hubops]

Avoid all travel to the following areas due to the risk of kidnapping and violent crime posed by the presence of illegal armed groups and other criminal organizations: the area within 20 km of the border with Venezuela; the area within 20 km of the border with Panama; and, the ports of Buenaventura and Tumaco.

John T.

[Tekkie®]

philo posted for all of us...

See Juan Valdez?

[Dean Hoffman]

So how much is a cup of coffee? Gasoline?

[philo]

We were in Medellin which I had only known about for it's horrible drug wars.

I assure you it has now been cleaned up and my friends would not have moved there if they thought it unsafe.

The people there are really nice.

There are a lot of police and security people out an about, but it looks like they don't have much to do.

The ONLY trouble we saw was a mob of 15 year old girls milling about and screaming due to some teen idol who was in the area.

[philo]

They do sell Juan Valdez coffee there but most of their coffee is exported. Though all the restaurants have good coffee, it's pretty much the same as here in the US

[philo]

Gasoline is about the same there as it is here, so to Colombians expensive.

Still, for a cab ride it must not come much into play as a cab there is about 1/2 or 1/3 what it would be here. The cabs are small but can hold four passengers....a bit cozy though.

Coffee in a high-end restaurant is about a buck.

[Frank]

I have a friend whose son refused a transfer to Brazil because it was in a high crime area. OTOH there are plenty of high crime areas in US where I would not want to live.

[philo]

I live in Milwaukee and it's probably more dangerous here than in Medellin.

That said...a little common sense goes a long way.