How Two Foodies Found Paradise in Medellín
“We are living a lifestyle in Medellín we never could have in the U.S.,” says Shelly Owens about the life she and her husband, John Woolley, have built in Colombia. “We can afford a maid to come and clean twice a week,” Shelly says, “and I buy flowers every week.” A huge arrangement of exotic Birds of Paradise flowers and beautiful white roses cost her only $17. “These would easily cost between $60 to $70 back in the U.S.,” she says.
“The stars aligned for us,” John says. “We had aggressively worked on our 401Ks and with my military pension we were ready to look for a place to retire.” Colombia was not the first place on their list of countries to check out for retirement. “We had spent some time in Malaysia and Thailand,” John says, “but we’re not really beach people.”
After reading several articles in International Living about Colombia, Shelly suggested they visit. John admits that he had a 25-year-old view of Colombia at first, and opposed going. His opinion quickly changed after reading Shelly’s research.
The first thing they did when they arrived in Medellín on a fact-finding mission, in the summer of 2016, was to check out the grocery stores, farmers’ markets, and malls. “We had to know if we could find everything we needed,” Shelly says. Both she and John were chefs and professors of culinary and baking arts at Johnson & Wales University in Denver, Colorado, so food is their passion.
High-quality ingredients are important to John. “Chicken, eggs, and fruit taste better here. The food doesn’t have to travel to get to you,” he says. “The egg yolks have an incredible intense yellow color. And I can get fresh tomatoes to make my sauce year-round. Buying milk in bags at the grocery store was a little surprising at first.”
We chat while nibbling the most amazing walnut and coconut baklava. Shelly, who once worked as a pastry chef at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York City, tells me that Medellín checked all their boxes for places to live. “We needed a place that had an international airport nearby, that was walkable, and where I wouldn’t melt in the heat.”
John and Shelly bought their three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 1,700-square-foot apartment in a 20-year-old building in May 2017 and moved in the following month. “The location [of our apartment] exceeded our expectations,” John says. “It has morning sun, is on a quiet street, and has a one-floor layout.” Shelly says. “We live in the best neighborhood and it only cost $240,000. In Denver you would pay $1.2 million for it.”
Still in their Medellín honeymoon period, they reveal their first impressions of living in the city.
“The weather is never too hot, and it is not as dry as Denver,” says Shelly, “my skin stopped itching.” They both find that the local people are welcoming, and there are more expats living in Medellín than they originally thought.
“We have a busy social life and have met a great community of adventurous, like-minded people.” John really loves walking the ciclavia (where main roads are closed and become pedestrian ways) on Sundays. “This is a forward-way of thinking,” he says. “It is the coolest thing I’ve seen.”
“I love that the current is the same as the U.S.,” says Shelly. “I brought my Kitchenaid mixer, computer and other electronics, and they work without a problem.”
Shelly and John shipped a fair amount of their personal possessions, but not their furniture. “We downsized our cookbooks and gave away tons of stuff,” she says, “I would have brought more if I had known. We only paid 92 cents per pound to ship it with Avianca Express.”
“Now that we are in a place with such a low cost of living, we have more disposable income to travel,” Shelly says. John adds: “I want to get to 1 million miles with United so that we can have lifetime gold status.”
