Cartagena: Pros and Cons of Expat life in this Tourism Based city

Cartagena: Pros and Cons of Expat life in this Tourism Based city

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you've been thinking Colombia you've decided  that the andies mountains are too cold for you   instead you're looking to relocate to a warm  and coastal city what if I told you that Carta   is much more than a tourist destination it is  actually a possible xat [Music] Hotpot today I   give you reasons why and why not caha could be  your ideal expat location hey it's from generic   expats and welcome to season 2 South America we  give you boots on the ground real life videos   and perspectives on living in and moving to Latin  America focusing on safety cost of living healthc   care weather and telling the story of expat  currently living in both xat hubs and undiscovered   gems here in the region as I slowly drive through  and live in each country in L after driving for   nearly 2 years from Minnesota down through Mexico  and Central [Music] America I literally have been   preparing to do this solo project for the past 15  years and I hope you enjoy all the content coming   at you right now hey guys it's Eric here from  generic expats welcome to pla B today I'm going   to be walking you around the historic beautiful  downtown of [Music] ctha I'm going to be giving   you a summary of what I've experienced this past  week Natalie and I did a lot of research a lot of   things in order to bring to you our knowledge  and experiences and information about not only   being a tourist but also living here and we met  a lot of cool people so we're going to talk about   that today we're going to be walking past the pla  leave out here and I'm going to be starting off   with the [Music] history the history of this city  is one of the most rich and it's one of the oldest   cities in all of Colombia therefore coming to this  city is definitely something you want to do if you   want to learn about things that brought Colombia  to be what they are today right the history of   the Spanish coming over and how that brought a  huge diversity of people from around the world   um there's a lot of the African diversity here  and that is something you won't see in all of   Colombia therefore coming here is necessary to  be able to have the full spectrum of the type of   people that have been living here for so long so  it's a kind of an important Place historically as   well as culturally it is also a UNESCO heritage  site and actually had a little bit of difficulty   with a couple construction projects that they  were starting to do in the downtown area which   almost got them disqualified from being a UNESCO  heritage site therefore it is a thing that the   city is still hanging on to at the moment however  it has battled a little bit with this in terms of   some newer construction projects that would  have disqualified them in the [Music] end it   might not be obvious if you're watching me with  this long sleeve shirt but I'm wearing a bandana   now because of the extreme heat that you can feel  here in cartha it's definitely one of the hottest   cities I've ever been in people all around are  just sweating buckets I mean there is non-stop   intense humidity and heat and it is just a place  where if you do not like the intense heat it's   going to be kind of a difficult place to not only  visit but definitely to live in if you are a bit   sensitive to this type of weather the average  Fahrenheit humidity and weather that you'll   experience here at least in August when I was  here the entire week was I think 93 fahit which   is about 35 cels real feel and then it reaches  up to the mid 100 so 105 or so every single day   depending on how much sun there is and how much  sun there isn't so that's going to be a big factor   however it this goes without saying when you're in  the sea level areas of the tropical countries this   is going to be the weather you're dealing with  and it's not easy if you're not used to it or   if you're not expecting it so definitely have your  expectations set for it it is the standard Tropics   of of the coconut trees and insane heat that you  would expect not every place has it in the tropics   but this place [Music] does we're now entering  into what is the square of the Customs or custom   Square Plaza de Alana and I want to be talking now  a bit about the safety Cara is regarded to be this   super unsafe Place very dangerous compared to the  rest of Colombia and Columbia in general is not   considered to be the most safest place either I  mean as of right now 2024 some of the most safest   countries would be El Salvador that recently  became super safe and other places that used   to be safe like Ecuador supposedly has become  a lot less safe this city actually in the past   week that I've been here it hasn't really seem  to be a very dangerous place at all I haven't   had any issues with people that are trying to take  advantage or Rob or petty crime that type of thing   didn't happen I mean one week is not enough time  to really give a good conclusion however it didn't   have the actual feeling the atmosphere didn't  feel I mean that's not a great way to describe   it of course your feelings doesn't usually mean  that much but yeah based on Intuition or based on   feelings it didn't have the super extra dangerous  feel that I was expecting and a lot of people talk   about when coming here I think perhaps a big  reason for that is that I didn't go out with   at super late times of the night we are pretty  much always doing stuff by day early morning late   afternoon and going home at 8 so perhaps some of  the dangerous things that people do and the danger   and the crime that does happen it happens due to  going out at maybe the Late Night 10 and beyond   for the night life maybe the night life scene is  a bit more dangerous however if you're coming here   for just a daytime fun if you're planning to go  to to see some natural beauty go to the beaches   if you want to come out check out the historic  downtown like here you're going to have a pretty   good time I mean this is something that we  found out from being here is that the nature   is fantastic but perhaps the even better part is  the actual historical downtown its history its   beautiful architecture and its atmosphere here  you can tell this is absolutely swamp full of   tourists I mean in the shade right now cuz it's  so hot it's about 103 degrees or so I actually   tried taking in Uber Moto which is one of my  favorite ways to get around in Latin America   especially with these historic districts always  have very very narrow streets it's hard to pass by   and I'd like to take the bikes well the bikes  aren't even allowed in here but in general if you   can get a motorbike Uber Moto whatever you call  it that's going to be the fastest way around I   tried to get one my first night here and I did get  a couple options and then they ended up cancelling   on me and I was like what and they said oh you I  can't pick you up cuz you're a man I'm like I'm a   man like what I can't take motorcycles cuz I'm a  man like I didn't understand at all and then the   third Taxi actually picked me up but said I can't  bring you to where you want to go I'll drop you   off nearby and I said well why he said it's called  Paro Paro so it's actually having a passenger on   your motorcycle and Paro being masculine you  can't have a male passenger on your bike and   there's certain streets where you see the sign  and says noo like you know with a no sign I'm like   okay so it's is it just they don't like the men  especially men on motorcycles they're like well   supposedly it's to help combat the crime and a lot  of crime or maybe a high percentage of that crime   does happen with men two men on a motor motorcycle  and it has been for probably years actually when   I chatted with some expats about this they said  that it's been in effect this policy for quite a   some time quite a few years so this is something  I believe more than six years old in the city PTO   something I haven't seen before in any parts of  the world to be honest this is the first time I've   ever seen it Paro to keep the city safe Perhaps it  is doing its job I don't know I just arrived here   for the first time but it was a bit of a shock  to me that I had to plan around going to places   on motorbik taxis or the Uber Moto based on this  [Music] policy if you're coming here on vacation   it can be a bit difficult to know what to do and  where to go and if you really just researched in   the prices that's going to be your best option for  not getting taken advantage of getting the right   prices and not having to negotiate with a person  without knowing the the standard price of most   tours and most things you're going to be paying  also if you don't have cash an extra 5% on credit   cards it's just not part of the culture here to  use credit cards therefore whenever you want to   pay with it if it's even an option which is not  always an option they're going to charge you that   extra 5% and if you get you know for example me  with Charles Schwab I don't have any charge at all   from taking out cash so there's no extra charge  for me I'm much rather paying cash now in terms   of the tourist pricing and having researched what  you want to do beforehand I mean there's a lot of   informal sales go out here people will come up to  you and be like where do you want to go what do   you want to do and if you don't know more or less  what it costs people we're going to say well come   here come there and this is what you want to do  and they're going to give you the highest possible   price talking to people like K Perham so so give  you some options and you'll you'll say okay well   I want to do this that this or that and if you  didn't look online at least do a quick go Google   search it might be a little bit difficult to know  if you're getting the double the price because you   can be kind of surprised when basically the  example we have is we went to apply a Blanca   and we were a bit surprised at what the price we  paid included so that's something to keep in mind   in order to not at least be taken advantage of  while being a tourist also living here is just   a really good type of tip in order to get the  best out of what you're trying to do here in   terms of price and value now going back to the  example I mentioned about paa Blanca Natalie and   I wanted to go to the most popular Beach which  is called the white Beach and it of course was   a fantastic experience it was really really  beautiful it was a little complicated to be   honest about it because we went on a holiday  now if you're coming on a Colombian holiday on   Sunday specifically on a three-day weekend it's  going to be very very busy and that's exactly our   experience it it was super busy and it was a bit  too busy to enjoy it so in terms of research I   mean besides researching the price I mean knowing  what days to avoid especially if you're a tourist   on holidays it's good to maybe make your decisions  based upon what isn't the current local holiday in   order to be swamped with people we we were on  the beach in Playa Blanca and the main Playa   Blanca Beach was pretty horrendous way too busy  way too many people had to walk over them and   there's probably 5,000 I don't think it's even  a joke 5,000 people were there everywhere and   we had to walk past them we went to play tanila in  the end and that was great but we ended up finding   out that the 70,000 Paces which is about $18  only really covered the transport and the lunch   the lunch was nothing special I mean it was fine  um and we were worried about okay well this is a   super touristy Beach it's super expensive cartha  is one of the most expensive tourist zones in the   country okay well it's good to have the the lunch  you know already pre-sold or guaranteed and then   transport options we did a bunch of research  and it was just almost impossible literally   impossible to get out there easily without taking  like three different types of transport from where   we were staying in like kind of the local area of  CA we discovered it was 20,000 there and back if   he wanted just the transportation however that  included their extra fees of basically trying   to charge the highest possible amount in order  to get big commissions so that's going to be   another thing to keep in mind of how much the  actual standard rate is and if you can just   separate the different Services yourself in order  to not get super taken advantage of we felt a bit   cheated but then again I mean we we were able  to go to the place we wanted to go to and we got   food and we you know we were given everything  more or less that we wanted they said that we   have we would have chairs on the beach which we  did not so something to keep in mind if you're   trying to go to a specific place play aanka  it's a bit oversaturated especially on holiday   definitely avoid it on holidays that was our  [Music] experience next topic I'm going to   bring up is the cost of living and their prices  not only for tourists but for locals so I met a   couple expats and they gave me some ideas of what  to expect for paying somewhat more local prices   for accommodation and what tourist prices are  for around here in the downtown historic district   it's beautiful place to stay However you're  talking $100 to $200 per night if you want a   nice apartment or a nice hotel room and if you  want to live in like a bit more local area then   you can find stuff for as low as from one of the  xats I chatted with uh he mentioned almost around   $200 per month so you have a massive variation of  tourist prices per day which are similar to the   local prices per month $200 per day if that's  your budget that should be okay for you I got   the hand is a good spot for you to go stay in  the nicest spots of the city and to enjoy the   nicest parts of it but if you're trying to go on a  budget the downtown area definitely isn't good for   you Natalie and I we stayed in the area called Las  Gaviotas Las Gaviotas is a very local place it was   actually quite convenient uh in the location that  we were able to take the local transport because   I don't have my motorcycle right now I left it in  N so being that we wanted to have decent transport   options without having to depend on a bit more  expensive Ubers because it's so far out it's a   30- minute drive from the city center we decided  okay well it's good to be near public transport   and that's what we did now these are the different  options for accommodation if you want to either   live here or be a tourist in G of course there's  going to be hostiles there's going to be lower   cost options but in general if you're looking to  come here and you want the nicer experiences it's   it's going to be a bit more difficult to find  that there's so many international airports so   many people coming in with so much money that  the prices are just naturally more elevated   based upon those types of people that are coming  for those nicer locations and nicer experiences another interesting part of kaha is the culture  of course I mentioned in the beginning that the   types of people that are here the diversity  that here is very different from other parts   of Colombia therefore it's always good to be  able to learn about the history and the people   and who they are and why they are here based  on what happened in the past and with Spanish   colonialism and their slave trade of course that's  going to be a big part of how the diversity came   to be here I actually just passed a a restaurant  here that actually seems pretty good price for the   historic district whereas in general you're not  going to find super low prices you can find a   177,000 to 20,000 lunch year uh in this spot  right here which is uh I don't know the name   of this placei uh in general you're going to be  finding around 30 to 40,000 in a lot of places   we're actually walking towards what is called the  uh District of hamani which is the Art District   and it's a bit more of the artistic cheaper um  Bohemian side of the city which is always awesome   to go go to I went there a few times and really  enjoyed my experience and you're going to find   much lower prices there you're going to find some  really good options I went there for a 14,000 pce   of Lun which is just over $3 and you're going to  be able to find lower price drinks however you're   going to spend a little bit more just based on the  cool atmosphere of the area speaking of the local   culture Hall it's quite a bit different from other  parts of Columbia and the world they have quite a   bit of a afro Caribbean type of a Vibe which is  great and the food definitely reflects that the   food has nice co that type of rice there's a lot  of fried fish everywhere it definitely has the   kind of Caribbean Coastal type of Cuisine with  plantains sweet and the regular plantains and a   mixture of um that with beans sometimes lentils  I mean that's what we had pretty much every day   so that was kind of a cool experience eating the  local food here you can find it on other parts of   Columbia but it's of course it's going to be  a bit more authentic here this is where it's   from and besides the food in the culture you have  the music now the type of music here is very very   good with salsa Champa is another local type of  regional type of music and machata M all of those   things are going to be very easier to find one of  the expats I ended up interviewing Kevin he said   that he loves the music he has a passion for music  he's a very passionate guy about this particular   thing and he said this is kind of his paradise  because of that this is a very good place to   dance to go to bars and have type of local people  enjoy a fun time of enjoying the local type of   culture when it comes to a bit of local beers poia  beers along with some salsa dancing throughout   the [Music] night an interesting difference from  caha to the other parts of Colombia is that it   might not be all of caran it might not be all of  other parts of Colombia however it is actually   pretty common to see kind of issues with trash and  issues with a bit more of a dirty atmosphere seems   like the overe exploitation this city has still  not been totally controlled to the point where   it's it's a bit nicer and cleaner I mean of course  in the streets right now it's quite nice and I   believe the city center is quite nicely uh taken  care of in the daytime at least and it does become   kind of dirty throughout the night of course they  can only clean so much but in terms of the rest of   kahena and the areas we went to for example Playa  Blanca Playa Blanca was actually quite dirty it   was pretty intense it could have been because we  went on a holiday however it just seems like the   type of culture of taking care of Nature and  making sure that the roads are slightly clean   or that people like bring stuff with them that  is not quite so much a priority in other cities   for example in medine I mean you're going to be  seeing dirt dirty places you're going to be seeing   garbage in some places but the levels that you'll  see are far lore it seems like the city's taken   care of a lot better in that regards and that's  kind of an interesting difference between kaha and   other cities like medine or santand for example  when I spent my month in bukar manga it did have   some areas where there people you know ditching  their trash or they're sorting to trash to try and   get some you know to try and do some recycling  for cans or whatever it is and those were left   a little dirty but in the end they're actually  quite a bit cleaner than here in many parts I   mean of course like I said we're in the historic  downtown that's probably not going to be quite so   common but outside of the downtown tourism zone  is actually quite interesting taking the bus back   where we were staying in Gaviotas I mean we passed  through some some pretty dirty places so that type   of the culture was definitely a different it was  definitely quite interesting to see just within   Columbia how those differences can be how drastic  from medine bu manga to here to [Music] cart   welcome to the plaza Fernandez de Madrid this is  another little stop as we're walking through this   beautiful historic part of caha by far the best  part of the city I believe here in the historic   downtown there's been a lot of remodeling done and  it looks fantastic it's so cool it's so beautiful   and it's it is what it is based upon all those  efforts and that's great however not everything   has really good infrastructure the place we went  to in the example I gave before many times is play   Blanca play Blanca to go there you need to take  a bus it's pretty much mandatory if I would have   had my motorcycle of course none of this would  have happened but I left it in medine for now in   terms of going to the beach there is just really  bad sand beaches with huge massive holes and the   buses go super slow and there were so so so many  buses and the parking area was just not adequate   the infrastructure there was just not the correct  way to go about things to make sure that you know   maybe the one of the most visited places top  visited places in the cahana area for one of   the most touristic cities of the entire country  they don't even have a parking lot and it took   us 2 hours to just leave the parking lot on this  bus that was literally mandatory that was a bit   disappointing because we wanted to be able to  you know go back and check out other parts we   haven't seen the castle yet and we weren't able  to go to be honest because it just there was   enough time and that didn't fit into our schedule  so we missed out on a couple things based upon   kind of inefficiencies but this is just part of  the infrastructure of the area so that was kind of   a sad part of going there although like I said if  I had my motorcycle wouldn't have been an issue so   I I guess one of the things you can do to avoid it  is have your own transport or just not taking the   bus and then the bus is basically the best way  to go because we looked into other ways it was   super expensive or it was just super difficult so  that was our little lesson on the infrastructure   at least outside the city inside the city it seems  to be pretty decent in terms of transc eBay which   is the bus system that takes you around it's  3,000 pesos per ride and that infrastructure is   quite decent and you know walking around here  it's mostly I mean it's partly walking street   so that's kind of nice but then there's also  still quite a bit of traffic so that's going   to be another issue that I hope at some point the  city actually becomes a bit more Walker friendly   because that's that's kind of what a lot of people  want right A lot of people want to come here walk   around enjoy the streets without getting hit by  a car don't fly through the streets but still   it's [Music] not all right to wrap this entire  little discussion about Cara haa up I'm going   to be talking about the expat community that is  always a a big thing for people if you don't speak   any Spanish it's going to be very helpful if you  speak some Spanish it's still nice to see people   from your own country possibly from your own state  or whatever you're from the United States or from   Canada nearby similar cultures you can chat about  you know different types of the the culture that   you know you find interesting or different or  challenging or fun and that's always going to be   good since I've been here I was able to sit down  and chat with two different foreigners staying in   the caha area and one has been here super longterm  Christie and then one is in the process of getting   a digital Nomad Visa stay tuned for those videos  and guys uh this community really surprised me   I wasn't expecting to see such a big group of  foreigners living here because it's such a tourist   place I thought okay well I've lived in tourist  cities before I think I've mentioned in many   videos Cancun Ando are the biggest ones the best  examples I mean Mexico City is massive as well but   it's also you know the capital and the biggest  city so it's a little bit different they have   their kind of expad or or foreign bubbles however  I've lived in like Cancun which is just tourism   and that's it uh Rio is kind of a mix that's kind  of an interesting City because it has you know the   industries and the outskirts but then the tourism  in the beach areas kaban Panama all that stuff so   so I I personally like Rio but it's a bit intense  to live there and canu and I wasn't too big of a   fan just too much aggressive tourism and that's  just something that happens here people are   accustomed to it if you come as a tourist I mean  if you go anywhere you're going to have a bit more   aggressive type of sellers vendors in the streets  trying to promote their stuff and that's their job   I mean that's what they do but you have to respect  them and just say you know Gass is in Spanish and   just keep walking and they'll leave you alone  generally so I didn't find that to be a big   problem however you know after living here I was  expecting a lot less because this being surrounded   by the atmosphere can be a bit difficult but  Christie lived in an area or she lives in an area   where she's feeling uh comfortable with living in  the you know biggest tourism city of the entire   country and then there's another zone right next  to the airport called ceso uh that's where the   other expad is living and he mentioned that this  is a Hidden Gem because it's a residential area   right next to the airport super convenient but it  doesn't look nice from the road the main road and   from the airport so it's quite a it's quite  a shocking area to be in thinking that it's   not going to be that nice so in terms of the xack  community the first thing I did the second night   I came there was to go to an xat Meetup and I met  all these great people and they're super friendly   they a nice community of people helping each  other and when you go to some Facebook groups   and you go to some uh types of events or mostly  the Facebook groups I refer to uh the people are   about aggressive they're a bit unhelpful and they  just kind of instead of being super friendly and   super uh respect ful about maybe you being a  first time or you don't know much about the   place or the culture or whatever they just you  know they kind of rip into you I don't I don't   like that I I don't at all participate in those  groups that have those type of people however the   US xat Community was it's much smaller but is  full of much nicer people so this is kind of a   really cool part of that of this city Cara has  people that are super friendly foreigners that   are willing to help and they're willing to be  there to meet up with you I mean I I was only   here for a week and I met up with too it was super  fast other cities I didn't have that same luck and   yeah I want to say thanks to all those all those  that did meet up with me and share their story and   to talk about what they're doing I mean meeting  up with other expats other people living abroad   it's always so great and having them on my Channel  having them give good useful tips is great and I   mean these are my tips for you guys this this is  my summary of living in Carta of staying in Carta   for one week as this was all the time I could put  into being here I wanted to come here for a month   but things didn't work out the way that I was  planning in the beginning and that's totally fine   I came here for a week and that's good enough  I mean I'm absolutely dying of the heat that's   just typical of the coastal areas some aren't as  nearly as hot as others for example Santa Marta is   a little little less humid from what I experienced  when I was living there in 2020 however yeah that   is going to be the final topic is xat community  great people that surround you here if you're   looking for a nice crowd that will kind of  belittle you you can actually jump into those   Facebook groups and they are very helpful so guys  if you're enjoying all the content I'm producing   if you like following me around all these Latin  American places talking about my experiences   giving you pointers and information about all of  these different topics that I find important as an   expat as a as a foreign person in Latin America  as a global citizen as some people say hit that   like subscribe that notification Bell if you want  to support all of the work that I'm doing all the   extra uh flights and all the extra videos and  all the I spent anything guys you can hit that   buy me a coffee definitely you can energize me  up and get me to talk a little bit faster than   I already am I'm I'm stealing this one from you  Scott and guys I'll see you in the next one laim [Music]

2024-10-07 19:59

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