Rentals in Medellin

Check out the Medellin Guru website. Some good info there...

What can you tell me about living in Barranquilla, I am heading there for the Carnivale in Febrero.

Barranquilla isn't bad. I lived at two different addresses during the 2.5 years I lived there before I came to Medellin about 6 months ago. First place I lived was on Calle 84 and Cr42 and the second was in the Siete Bocas area. If you like being near what would be more considered an 'uptown' or upper middle class area, you would want to live somewhere between Calle 74 and 100. The town is actually growing into that upper number area.

One of the worst things about Barranquilla is that their local power company, Electro Caribe or something like that, is really terrible.... more in some strata of town than others. When I lived on Calle 84, the power went out an average of once a month..and some months even more. The company is a local joke. I would suspect that some of the more upscale condo and apartment buildings have their own power supply (like they do in Manila).

The tow big internet service providers are Une and Claro. I think the quality you would have depends as much on the quality of the infrastructure where you live as anything else. Although...I had Claro where I live in Siete Bocas and it was generally OK.

Of course you'll tend to pay more for living in that strata (you'll also want to stick between the Cr 44 and 60's. The rough area of town in the south.

Some of the homes/apartments there will have air conditioning. My second place did...and I used it most of the time. I paid 1 Million COP @ month there...furnished and everything. Just looking around...there is a lot of building going on in Barranquilla so, depending on your long-term plans, you might be able to find a good deal on rental or purchase.

There are areas of town where you would find uncomfortable but I walked around at night frequently in the aforementioned areas and never felt uncomfortable. Some of the areas on the periphery of Barranquilla are pretty low-class looking....but you won't be living there.

If you're totally on your own and don't have any friends in the area and if you don't speak any Spanish at all, you're not going to like it.... unless you are comfortable making new cross-cultural friends and in amusing yourself.

There's not crap to do in the town other than movies and restaurants. The club scene sucks, IMHO (I'm a Latin dancer). Single girls don't go out there unless it's with girlfriends or in a group. And unless you're a real player, you'll have a hard time breaking into those groups in real time.

The taxis don't use meters but you just need to learn what's fair and stick to that limit. In my 2.5 years there I only had one problem with a taxi driver (he had been sniffing glue or something and didn't know where he was going).

There is a bus system there too...but you have to know how to read and interpret the bus signs.

There is a beach north/west of town... towards Puerto Colombia. It's actually called Kilamanjaro0 (like in Africa) where they have a restaurant, music, etc. That's where most of the local foreigners go.

There are other foreigners in town but, as frequently tends to be the case all around the world, they aren't overjoyed to see somebody from their home country (I'm not like that but a lot of Gringos seem to be). NB: S.Korea is that way too...with ESL teachers.

The police there are just like other places I've seen in Colombia. Usually the cops are younger kids who are nice and usually don't speak much, if any, English.

Getting from town to the airport (or bus station) is expensive (for Colombia)...typically around 35K COP. The airport is nothing to brag about but it's OK. You're also probably aware that Barranquilla is rather ideally situation between Cartagena and Santa Marta.

The terrain around Barranquilla is called 'Tropical Savannah'. It looks OK unless you compare it to Medellin or several other areas in Colombia (i.e. sorta the Colombian equivalent of the Texas Panhandle). But.... it is what it is.

Barranquilla does not seem to have many hostels (I looked) but it does have a lot of BnB's. This Carnival season coming up is VERY busy in town and anything tourist related goes up in price.

There are 3 or 4 universities there too.

They have really bad arroyos on many streets when it rains. Look that up on YouTube. It's amazing.

Also, if you're a guy and looking for another way to meet chics...you'll see a lot of nice girls/women from Barranquilla on ColombianCupid.com.

So...I hope that helps. I have two local contacts there, both ladies, who are very resourceful...if you need any help. If you do use either of them, be prepared to pay for her time and guidance.  One of them helped me find my second apartment.

Regards,
Arr