A small market we cover at city level. Read the overview below for what daily life here looks like for foreign residents.
El Retiro is the answer for foreigners who want a small Colombian town as a way of life, not as a real-estate decision. The casco urbano is walkable in the small-town sense; the vereda alternative is available but most foreigners who pick El Retiro pick the town itself. Trade-offs: meaningfully less English-default service than the Aburrá Valley, longer drives to specialized healthcare, and a built environment that does not have much new construction.
They walk to the plaza most mornings. Frank's coffee spot has been the same for six years. Hilde reads the Sunday paper at a different café. They cross paths around 9am at the small market for fruit and bread.
The house is small but the garden is what they came for. Hilde grows herbs and three kinds of tomato; Frank built the chicken coop the second year. They have three chickens whose names have changed twice.
Weekly errands include the Carulla in Rionegro (15-minute drive) and a monthly drive to El Poblado for their cardiologist and dentist. The drive on Las Palmas is the one daily-life thing Frank still complains about: he avoids it in the rain.
Weekends bring visitors. The artisan furniture workshops attract a steady weekend trade from Medellín; the small restaurants are often full. Frank and Hilde know which Sundays to stay close to home and which to drive elsewhere.
Healthcare: their primary care is a 10-minute drive in El Retiro; their cardiologist and dentist are in Medellín. The two-tier setup works fine for them but they note it requires comfort with the Las Palmas drive.