People have been asking for an update, so here’s a quick one!

(That’s us with curious foal who was born earlier that day.)

We were in Canada but returned ahead of schedule due to family issues in Colombia. We spent a week with Brian’s mother and a week in Victoria seeing the grandkids, then rushed back. We were supposed to spend a second week in Victoria and had grand plans to see all our friends, but…life intervened.

Back in Colombia, we decided to get looking at lots in the Eje Cafetero, or Coffee Axis (region). This area of Colombia has a similar climate to the inland areas of Costa Rica, like Grecia, or Victoria in the summer. It includes the cities of Armenia, Pereira, and Manizales, plus many smaller places. It is the safest area of Colombia, and generally has been problem-free that way.

Navide and I checked out a several lots last weekend and then Adriana and I returned this weekend to look at one in particular. It was perfect for the planned retreat: 6 hectares of land that mostly gently slopes down to a river. It has four springs, so is independent of water. Across the river is a forest reserve, so permanently peaceful. Price is fair. It has an existing simple house. It is currently rented out to curious and friendly cows, and there are friendly neighbourhood dogs.

And then…Navide had a rethink. They wanted a retreat in Costa Rica, not Colombia, and may return to Switzerland – they are not sure yet. That land, perfect as it may be, is simply too big a project for Gordanza to take on given that Adriana is still working full-time at a demanding job and the retreat was never Brian’s dream. So, with some tears, we passed on the lot.

We’re back to the drawing board. Brian and Adriana will continue exploring the Coffee Area. Land is going up in price in some areas of Colombia, too, and our nest egg is not getting any bigger, so we can’t dilly-dally. The lot mentioned above was less than most lots, and in fact I have not been able to find a lower-priced lot of any size.

The search continues but with one change: We are looking now only for Gordanza, not a family property. We tried for years to find one on Vancouver Island, but everything was so expensive. With both sides of the family now far away and not interested, we have the freedom to think only about ourselves.

I have another post half-done that covers security in Colombia, so I won’t go into depth here, It is, in fact, pretty safe here depending where you live. Medellin has been a top ex-pat retirement destination for many years, for example. The Coffee Area is safer than many areas of the USA. There have been mass protests here but unlike the protests in Canada and the USA, the Colombian protests were peaceful and not an attempt to overthrow the elected government.

We are even considering a return to Canada, though I’m not sure how that could even be possible – it’s too expensive. Also, Canada is a declining nation while Colombia is a developing nation. Examples of Canada’s decline:

• Health care crisis. A lost her doctor and will never have another one, as there’s a huge shortage. Emergency Room wait times are very long even for serious problems like heart attacks. Emergency rooms are frequently closed. Most provincial governments in Canada are actively making it worse, and it sure looks to me like the plan is to privatise big chunks of Canadian health care a la the USA’s awful system. Pretending COVID is a cold is not helping.
• Housing crisis. The easy and obvious solution is to go back to building social and co-op housing, but federal and provincial Canadian governments have been captured by the rich and their corporations, so instead ‘the market’ is supposed to magically provide. The market is building million-dollar shoebox condos and jacking up rents. At the same time, the Liberal’s immigration plan is aiming to create a population of 100 million by 2100 (triple the current level), while the Conservatives are aiming for 70 million or so (double). This will obviously drive house prices up.
• Opioid crisis. The self-proclaimed left-wing party in power in BC has made this and every other problem in BC worse. If a conservative party gets back in power, it will be even worse because they’ll cut, cut, cut.
• Rise of right-wing extremism. They came damn close to overthrowing a democratically elected government in the USA and they’re still trying. The Canadian division, supported by the leader of the federal Conservatives, is eager to do the same in Canada. These are sadistic fools who won’t wear a mask to protect themselves or others. They won’t vaccinate their children against Covid and are now starting to be against all vaccines. Their stupidity and selfishness puts everyone at risk, but Canadian governments pander to them.
• My parents bought a house in Toronto in the early 1960s for $30,000. My father had just started his first job and my mother had been teaching a couple of years – pre-union days. Today that same house is ‘worth’ more than $2,000,000. As all Canadians know, this has happened across the country. We all tend to think ‘it is what it is,’ but in reality the massive increase in housing costs in Canada represents an equally large decrease in standard of living. Our house in Canada had a mortgage that consumed one entire paycheque of Brian’s each month, not counting insurance, utilities, maintenance, etc.

Next post will cover the city of Armenia in the Coffee Area – hopefully a little brighter outlook! For the Sanji fans, here he was when small and in Costa Rica. If Navide return to Switzerland, Sanji will go, too. 🙁