6 Weeks In Medellin Or Buenos Aires?

[joemama]

Almost unanimous for Medellin over bsa is good enough for me. Now i need to find an apartment any advice?

Honestly I would not use the consensus of BAExpats to make a decision. In general there is a lot of complaining on this site. Complainers are in general louder than happy people, so you're getting a bit of a skewed take.

I've been to both and I'd say the following

Food: BA has better restaurants, this is mainly because it is a bigger city. Yes there are a lot of crappy resto-bars in BA, but there are some really great restaurants. Medellin has some restaurants, but is not really on the same level as BA. Medellin does have more fresh fruit and veggies. BA has better meat.

Nightlife: BA has better nightlife, hands down. Same thing here - its a lot bigger, more international city so there are a lot more options.

Niceness: Colombians I think are nicer/less arrogant that porteños. I think you'll get that vibe though when comparing any large city with a smaller one (e.g. New York vs. Indianapolis, Paris vs. Lille).

Cost: If you have dollars its about the same. If you'll be earning a local salary, Medellin is cheaper.

Security: Both are relatively safe. I'd say toss-up there.

Spanish: echo the board here. Colombian spanish is more neutral and easier to understand. I think there will be more language schools here in BA, but I'm sure you'll be able to find one in Medellin.

Expats: If you want to have friends, then either place you'll likely be relying on English-speaking expats. I think BA is better for that aspect. Personally I love my expat friends, it is one of the best parts of living in BA. I'm pretty sure there is a much larger expat community here in BA. Medellin is growing as a destination, but it is still saddled with people thinking it is a drug lord haven, so not as many people go there. From my experience there are a lot of sex tourists in Medellin.

Cost of Flight: A flight to Med from the US is roughly half of flying to Argentina, sometimes even cheaper.

Culture: BA has more cultural activities (concerts, art galleries, theatre, etc).

Outdoors:The outskirts of Medellin are prettier than BA. That being said, Argentina has more awesome places to go as a country (patagonia, Iguazu, Salta, etc). So that depends on if you want to travel.

 

[Hybrid Ambassador]

But Argentina has the scent, the aura, the passion, warmth, for a reason it is called the, Paris of the south, and to add to mention: Huge land mass..! But the Colombian girls are very pretty too.!

 

[Matiasba]

But Argentina has the scent, the aura, the passion, warmth, for a reason it is called the, Paris of the south, and to add to mention: Huge land mass..! But the Colombian girls are very pretty too.!

That "Paris of the south" thing was in the beggining of the century or maybe up to the 40s, after that lots of old precious and stylish buildings has been demolished, and architecture became very eclectic and ordinary.

 

[Dublin2BuenosAires]

Paris of the South sounds like something a bad travel writer would say without ever having visited the place.

Of course, not all of Paris is a glimmering example of architectural beauty!

 

[Michaelcorleone]

To put everything into context, I am 40 married with no kids and for the first time in my life my division shut down and I am unemployed. We have a lot saved and my wife's salary can pay for everything with quite a bit left over, we can't just save as much as we did before.

Until I retired, I didn't think I would ever have more than 2 weeks off. I feel like a kid that just got off school for the summer, it is a weird feeling, you aren't prepared for it until it comes. SOOOOO, I decided with my wife's blessing to travel for a month, the only downer is that the month is January. So I was trying to decide whether I should just go live in Buenos Aires or Medellin for a month or whether I should go to Southeast Asia, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Shanghai...etc.

So long story short I get to have the literal Trip of a Lifetime for a month and my budget is around 10K. I want somewhere safe so I don't have to worry about getting robbed....I am a bit on the paranoid side when it comes to crime in foreign places. I have been to the EU multiple times but no where else besides the USA.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[DontMindMe]

Sound like the opportunity of a lifetime! Awesome. I wish you had told us your level of Spanish. People are going on as if you're talking about going somewhere for six years, not six weeks. The odds of any dialect or accent sticking within such a small time frame are unlikely. If you're just learning beginner Spanish, especially at 40, it's not going to really matter which location you choose if you're only studying for six weeks. (I have a MA in Spanish linguistics and have lived in Argentina, Spain and Colombia, so this is not just a personal opinion.) In Medellín they'll teach you to say buenos días; in Buenos Aires it will be buen día. That's just one example of dialectical differences but for a beginner, again, not enough to make a difference.

In linguistic circles, we don't rank different dialects in terms of so-called purity or superiority. We study variation and evolution, yes. Sociolinguistic factors and things like that, absolutely. Linguistic prejudice comes from other prejudice so take people's comments with a grain of salt. With that said, in the real world, those prejudices exist and there are indeed dialects that are less common and harder to understand even for other native speakers. The Spanish spoken in Buenos Aires is one of those dialects. The "pure" Colombian Spanish people are referring to is not spoken in Antioquia (the departamento where you find Medellín). It's spoken in Bogotá and surrounding towns. Lots of call centers there because yes, it is a dialect that is easy for all native Spanish speakers to understand. The Colombian coast is another world both linguistically and culturally, where the Spanish you hear will sound closer to Dominican and other Caribbean dialects than anything you will hear in Bogotá or Medellín. The first time I had a conversation with people from Medellín I had to concentrate really hard to understand them, and I'd been fluent for years. On the coast it took me a few days. Native Spanish speakers worldwide still consider the peninsular dialect spoken in central Spain the most prestigious worldwide. The factors that contribute to that opinion have more to do with postcolonial issues of class and race than they do linguistics, so I'll stop there.

As for safety, if that is a genuine concern and you tend to get paranoid, I'd say head for Spain. I absolutely loved living there and it was such a relief not to have to look over my shoulder all the time. Coming back to a large Latin American city was hard in that sense. I had just started to relax again. Spain is also extremely affordable at the moment, dare I say even cheap for a tourist. If you've never been to the "third world," you might spend a lot of your time adjusting to what that looks and feels like rather than just relaxing and enjoying this once-in-a-lifetime trip. On the other hand, Latin America would be a whole new world, and that could be really exciting. There are a lot of expats down here for a reason!

With all that said, I think you will have a great time no matter where you go. Embrace the experience and enjoy!

 

[Matiasba]

Id say that today, regarding to safety, theres no big difference between Argentina and Spain.

 

[Michaelcorleone]

You guys are great, thanks for the input...based on my post above, but I want to rephrase the question. If you had a month off and 10K, where would you go and what would you do, anywhere in th world?

 

[Matiasba]

I would go to the summer. And by that I mean at least 2 weeks of beaches. Then I would travel. Maybe 2 weeks in Brazil and 2 weeks in Argentina (Patagonia, Salta, Iguazu, there are lots of different places to see in 2 weeks). 10 k its fine for that.

 

[garryl]

You guys are great, thanks for the input...based on my post above, but I want to rephrase the question. If you had a month off and 10K, where would you go and what would you do, anywhere in th world?

Dude, you have asked the same question 5 times now. Do what you feel like to do, not someone else tells you. No one knows better what is good for you than yourself.
You are 40 years old, not 14. I was also laid off when I was 40 years old, I never returned to my high tech job in Silicon Valley. Now I make more $ and worked a lot less hours, it was the best gift the employment gave me. Think out of the box! ( and invest in bitcoin, just kidding)