Is the cost of living really cheaper than europe/north america ?

also we are bringing a product for the cat because it s too expensive in colombia... weird!

my friend in france just bought a second hand car and the father of mmy girlfriend also did buy a car in pereira for similar price.

the car from colombia is a shitty old car from the 80...
the car from france is bigger and it s from 2001.

Overall life should be much cheaper in Colombia than in most developed countries.  This of course depends on your lifestyle.  Imports will always be more expensive in Colombia due to the high tariffs the government places on them.

Food is generally not expensive unless you insist on eating differently than most Colombians.  They eat a lot of chicken, rice, soups, platanos, yuca and many fruits and other vegetables. 
See here for some fruits you may encounter:
http://off2colombia.com/destination-col … n-colombia

Meats can be good, especially pork, but many cuts of beef may not be quite as tender and tasty as many in developed countries are used to.  Here you can explore prices in one of the larger chains in Colombia, La 14, they have a store in Pereira:

http://www.la14.com/Tiendala14/Default.aspx

As a rough guide, numbeo.com can help to compare prices between various cities, here between Barcelona and Pereira:

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/c … Comparison

The price you pay for utilities - water, gas, electricity - is determined by the estrato of the neighborhood you live in.  Estratos 1, 2 and 3 receive a subsidy; estrato 4 pays the actual cost; and estratos 5 and 6 pay extra.  You can see electricity costs for Pereira here, where estrato 4 currently costs about 506 COP per kWh, which is about $0.17 USD.  Remember that in general the climate is mild so that you do not have extremes like in many countries where heating and cooling is needed much of the year, which runs costs up:

http://www.eep.com.co/informacion-al-ci … s-12-meses

Howz about the price of fresh fish in Colombia? I mean specifically yellow fin tuna, dorado, corvina, mero.......all the choicest of fish products......oh, not to forget pargo and camarones.........Im sure it depends on where you are but just a general idea.......For example here in Chiriqui I buy fresh tuna or dorado direct from the fishermen for between $2.50 and $3 per lb..........

dumluk wrote:

Howz about the price of fresh fish in Colombia? I mean specifically yellow fin tuna, dorado, corvina, mero.......all the choicest of fish products......oh, not to forget pargo and camarones.........Im sure it depends on where you are but just a general idea.......For example here in Chiriqui (Panamá) I buy fresh tuna or dorado direct from the fishermen for between $2.50 and $3 per lb..........

In Medellín, I have learned that hunting for bargain-priced fish in this city can be a loser's game.

Carulla supermarket near Calle 11 in El Poblado often posts promoción stickers on packages of fish, especially salmon.

The promotional salmon is typically worthless because it has already spoiled or is bad before you get it home.

Even the non-promotional-price fish from Carulla usually lasted only a few hours and had to be tossed the next morning though refrigerated overnight.

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FYI, in Lima, Peru, the locals believe that fresh fish lasts only 12 hours before losing its essential goodness.  When in Peru, do not order that country's favorite seafood dish ceviche after 2 p.m. unless you want the locals doing eye-rolls at you.

cccmedia in El Poblado

Hahahajajaja........entonces........When in Medellin or el eje cafetero........forget fish.......embrace chicken...........or just go vege..........

Food here is equal in price to EEUU except little shops where you can buy Colombian fare at 2-3 dollars a shot. Otherwise, most prices are equal. Some exceptions are restuarants where you can get a nice meal like Crepes y Waffles. I ususlly eat on teh cheap side in EEUU so a nice meal in a mid to upper end resturant is mucho more expensive back home than Colombia. I ate an incredible seafood meal in Cartagena for 2 without drinks on the ocean very romantic with appetizers and non-alcoholic drinks for $60 US which was the most expensive meal i have had here. Otherwise a nite out for 2 without alcohol runs $20-30 for a decent menu.

Food is cheaper in Colombia, overall, than the USA.  Numbeo.com provides a rough guide that is pretty accurate, and I can personally testify that in Buenaventura, Cali, Bogotá and other towns in Colombia, it's cheaper for basic foodstuffs.  You can verify this by looking at prices in the link I provided above for the national grocery/household goods chain La 14.  For instance, for tomatos, La 14 lists the price for a kilogram of Tomate milano at 2980 COP - that's 2.2 pounds of tomatos for under 1 USD.
http://www.la14.com/Tiendala14/Products … ID-93.aspx

Here, for instance, is a comparison between Nashville, TN and Cali, Colombia:
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/c … Comparison

Almost everything is more expensive in Nashville.

And my guess would be that Nashville is cheaper than most of the U.S.  40c or 45c a lb for tomatoes is already 50% cheaper than here in Panama......