July 2024 Expenses & Backpack Travel in Colombia

July was a busy month. We moved twice, a friend from the US visited us, and we took 3 1/2 weeks of Spanish classes.

The first 5 days were spent in the Manila area of Poblado finishing up the 4-week stay in the room we were renting in a private home. From Poblado, we moved to a new neighborhood, Ciudad del Río, about a mile away to a nice two-bedroom apartment in a high-rise. We had this place all to ourselves for a few days before our friend, Dian, arrived. It was like living in luxury! We took a week off school and played tourist. When Dian left we moved again. This time, to a more inexpensive neighborhood south of the city. We resumed our classes and commuted to Poblado every day on the Metro.

It was an expensive month, about $894 over budget. Extra money was spent on tourist stuff, Spanish classes, and replacing my stolen phone.

Expenses

* A few notes about these expenses. Because Spanish classes are not a “normal”  travel expense, I am presenting this expense separately from the total of everything else. In the past, I report exactly what actually comes out of my bank account each month, but since we may book one or two months of accommodations, transportation, or Spanish classes ahead of time, I’m now reporting not when I spent the money but what month the money was spent on.

Spanish Classes: $1,311.27

Everything Else: $2,557.59

The Grand Total: $3,894.06

Spanish Classes

We took almost 4 weeks of Spanish classes ($1,311.27) in July. These classes were a bit more expensive than the ones we took in June. We cut our hours from 4 a day to 3, but we also opted for private classes, which cost more.

Our school has a lot of fun cultural activities, and we were able to attend one during the month. It was Colombia’s Independence Day. We met at a theater called La Pascasia for a late afternoon Menu del Dia (a two-course meal with a set menu), visited a small festival of fermented drinks from around the country called A Media Caña, returned to the theater for a play, and ended the night with a tour of the home theater of the theatrical company that produced the play.

Teachers, event organizers, and students from our Spanish school.

Our first vegetarian Menu del Día. It was amazing!

Greg made a friend at the fair.

Tasting fermented drinks at the fair.

The play. We didn’t understand a lot of it but it was pretty easy to follow the plot line and was a visual treat with amazing music.

Communication

We did pretty well on this expense in July. Greg’s Google Fi bill was only $29.76 due to us switching up plans and being charged extra in May. I purchased another month of data ($10.14) from the local phone company, Claro, for my phone.

We recently received a notice from Google Fi, and it looks like they will be cutting off Greg’s data at the 3-month point of being in South America. This is just as well because the service has been pretty spotty here in Colombia. We signed up with Google Fi eight years ago because of their international data plan. I didn’t realize then that there was a 3-month cap. Although we’ve been happy with Fi, and it has been great to get somewhere new and not have to worry about finding a sim immediately, we will be rethinking our phone plan once we return to the US.

Consumables

Food ($297.99) seemed reasonable in July, considering how expensive it has become in the United States. Produce tends to be cheap in Colombia, but some specialty foods are more expensive. Back in the US, we got hooked on sourdough bread. We looked for sourdough at the big supermarkets in Medellín but had no luck. Then one day we saw that the owners of the room we were renting had a big round loaf of crusty bread sitting on top of their coffee maker. It was from a European bakery a few blocks away. The next day we bought a loaf and have returned once or twice a week to get more. At $5 a loaf it’s not cheap (and I’m sure it would be more expensive in the US) but it makes amazing sandwiches. We are spoiled and will be searching for a European bakery in our next long stay in a major city, Quito, Ecuador.

Since we had company we had a drinking at home expense of $36.68. We bought some toilet paper ($2.14 – super cheap!), and eye drops and ibuprofen ($12.73).

Entertainment

We tend to eat and drink out once or twice a week, but with a friend visiting, we ate out a lot more. Our total for the month, $448.53, was a whole lot of eating out. The most we spent for dinner with drinks for the two of us was $39.12 and the least was $21.28. For the most part, the food was tasty and plentiful.

We eat a lot of pizza when we can’t find good vegetarian food. This pizza came from Bianco Pizza in Envigado. They only serve vegetarian and vegan pizzas.

My birthday dinner at a vegan restaurant in Envigado, Oh! Food. Greg got the best entree with the veggie burger, but my tacos were pretty good too.

Patacones (plantain chips) at Restaurante Hacienda in Ciudad del Rio

Plantain chips and corn from Restaurante Hacienda in Ciudad del Rio.

Amazingly delicious Papas Boom, fries smothered with lentil protein, guacamole, refried beans, tofu, pico de gallo, green sauce, sesame seeds and topped with a fried egg at Lavocadería in Poblado.

This picture looks so much better than the food actually was. Fried miniature empanadas, arepas, and tortilla chips at La Marquesina Café-Restaurante.

Buritto from Govinda,s Restaurante in El Centro.

While Dian was visiting we also spent money on Museums, tours, and entertainment tips. We visited the Museo of Antioquia, ($14.43 for two), the Museo de Arte Moderno ($11.93 for two), and Palacio de la Cultura (free). We did a free (tip-based) walking tour of Comuna 13 (we tipped $24.05 for the two of us) and a tour of the Museo El Castillo ($11.93 for two). Other money was spent on tips for street entertainers and in one case, a bus musician.

Personal

Gifts/Charity

Since our friend was visiting from the US, we used the opportunity to buy some gifts for family that she could take back with her and mail to the recipients. I wasn’t intending to buy a gift for my niece but when I saw this beautiful and unique scarf ($30.15). I knew she’d love it. And she did. Since we don’t do holidays or birthdays, we are always looking for gifts to send to Greg’s grandson, Gabe. Colombia was competing in La Copa de America and there were jerseys for sale everywhere. I think he loved his gift ($6.03) too.

Gear

At the end of June, my phone was stolen. I was participating in the Pride Parade with members of our Spanish school. It was super crowded and my phone was taken from my camera bag. One of our companions from the school saw it happen, but it happened so quickly and the crowd was so thick that by the time she alerted me the person had gotten away. It sucked. But mostly I was upset that I ruined the parade for our friends. I tried to track the phone and when that didn’t work, I did a remote lock and erase. Hopefully, the perpetrator just ended up stealing a useless bit of plastic, metal, and glass.

Luckily this happened right before Dian’s visit and I was able to order a new one and case ($397.46) and have it sent to her, which she brought to me.

I also spent $9.99 on a book for a virtual book club in July.

Subscriptions

We subscribe to Netflix, Abode Photoshop, The New York Times, and Michael Fox’s (A freelance filmmaker, journalist, podcaster, and musician reporting from the road in Latin America) Patreon account ($56.41).

Traveling Life

Storage

We pay $76 for a storage locker back in the US.

Accommodations

We went a little over budget ($66.46) our $900 budget for accommodations in July. We spent $130.26 for the last 6 nights in our rented room in Poblado then moved on to another place big enough to accommodate us and our friend Dian in Ciudad del Rio.

Ciudad del Rio

After 4 weeks of renting just a room, we were ready for more privacy and space. We had initially visited the Ciudad del Rio neighborhood to watch an outdoor movie at the Museum of Modern Art. We liked the vibe of the area and would often stroll through on our daily walks. So when I was looking for a two-bedroom apartment for Dian’s visit, the one I found in Ciudad del Rio seemed perfect.

So far out of the 8 different places we’ve stayed in Colombia, the one in Ciudad del Rio has been the nicest (although, not my favorite). Located in a high-rise building, it was practically brand new. In fact, they were still putting the finishing touches on the inside of the building during our stay. It was sleek, modern, comfortable, and well-appointed. The bottom floor of the building hosted a variety of restaurants. The Modern Art Museum was directly across the street. It tended to be a little noisy due to the construction of another highrise right next door. But the noise didn’t bother us too much as we were out for most of the day and we enjoyed watching the workers who we could see on the ground from our balcony. At night we had a great view of the city lights. There were no reviews when we booked it, but it has 4 now and they are all 5 stars. I’m sure once all the construction is done, this one will be out of our price range.

We split the cost of this place with our friend. Our expense came to $293.58 for 8 nights (3 nights with the apartment all to ourselves).

A view of our building (left) and the one being constructed in Ciudad del Río.

Photo from Airbnb of the living room.

Photo from Airbnb of the balcony.

Photo from Airbnb of the master bedroom.

View from the balcony at night.

Envigado

After our friend left, we moved again. I had searched for our next place in several different areas of the city – downtown, the expat Laureles area, and back in Poblado, but nothing in our price range ticked all our boxes. Finally, I started looking in Envigado. Envigado is sort of like a suburb with its own downtown and its own charm like Decatur, Georgia is to Atlanta. The apartment I found was about 4 miles away from school. But it had everything we wanted, including an affordable price ($542.62 for 18 days in July).

On school days we’d walk a little less than a mile to the Metro station, take the train 3 stops, and walk a half-mile to school. On the way back from school the Metro dropped us off right by a mall with a major supermarket so every other day or so we’d stock up on groceries on our way home.

It was a big apartment with two bedrooms, one bath, a balcony, and a nicely appointed kitchen. It was located on a dead-end street which you would think would have made it quiet – but there was a large sports complex on the dead end and whenever there was a game, cars would be backed up for the entire street. A courtyard sat in the center of the apartment and opened up to the apartments above. Sounds from the upper floors drifted into our apartment through this courtyard. Usually, it was just music, if we were lucky, rock-n-roll. There was a bakery on the corner and every afternoon the smell of sugar would waft into the apartment. The bedroom being towards the back of the apartment was quiet at night.

None of the noise was too loud to be disturbing and I kind of enjoyed the smell of sugar. And it was always a surprise what we’d see outside our window.

Photo from Airbnb of the kitchen in the Envigado apartment.

Photo from Airbnb of the living room and balcony.

View to the left from the balcony. You can see the sports complex at the end of the street. The last few days we were at the apartment, a gigantic stage (perhaps for a concert) was being built in the complex. Unfortunately (fortunately) we left before the festivities.

The bakery on the corner.

A party across the street included fireworks one night.

Transportation

We moved around a lot in June availing ourselves of rideshares, the Metro, a tuk-tuk, and buses for an out-of-town excursion. For rideshares, we used the inDrive app. inDrive is just like Uber but instead of a fixed price you bid on your ride. The app will suggest a starting amount, but drivers can counter your offer. inDrive is also only cash – which I like better after having my cellphone stolen and no longer wanting to have credit card info on my phone. Because ridesharing is illegal in Colombia, one passenger always needs to sit in the front seat. This way you all just look like friends. We used inDrive to get from one Airbnb to the other and a couple of times to get to Poblado in a hurry. During Dian’s visit, we used the app a lot and took turns paying the fares. Fare tended to be pretty cheap, ranging from $2.50 for a short trip to almost $5.00 for the same distance on a busy Friday night when I had to accept a counterbid. In total, we spent $22.96 on rideshares in July.

While Dian was visiting, we took a day trip to see a giant rock and the cute little town of Guatapé. Bus tickets cost us little less than $5 each way and a tuk-tuk to get us from the big rock to the town ran a little more than $5. The total trip cost us $29.34 (we paid for one of Dian’s bus rides).

We refilled our Metro card many times in July going from our Airbnb to school. I’m not sure I really understand the fare system for the Metro (here is a link) but each ride seemed to cost a little less than 4,000 COP (a little less than $1). In total for the month, we spent $52.23 reloading our card. Commuting was a little chunk of money but trying to find a place in Poblado would have cost us a lot more and, besides, riding the Metro was often interesting and sometimes a good way to engage with people and practice a little Spanish.

Right Now

We have left Medellín and are making our way slowly to the Ecuador border while visiting other towns and cities in Colombia along the way. We just spent 3 nights in Jardín, and 3 nights in Salento, and are currently in Cali for a 5-night stay. From Cali, we will stop in Pasto and Ipiales, each for 2 nights before heading to Otavalo, Ecuador. By September 1 we will be in Quito, Ecuador for a 4-week stay. We are enjoying seeing more of Colombia. And we feel like our Spanish has greatly improved since we arrived in the country almost 12 weeks ago. It feels so good to understand what people are saying to me!

To see all of our expense reports, click here.

If you are interested in reading other expense reports from nomads who really know how to live cheaply while still having a good time, check out the blog from our friends Mark, Liesbet, and Maya who are traveling in their truck camper in South America at Roaming About.