We first met Bill in 1993 when he was running AOL's Electronic Schoolhouse. He was directly responsible for us getting involved with AOL, first as volunteer tutors then as employees. One of our fondest memories of our AOL days was spending a Christmas vacation with Bill and Gloria in Florida, picking fresh grapefruit off their trees for breakfast,

Soon after, Bill moved to Colombia, South America where he still lives. When he heard about Slightly Creaky he agreed to write a series of articles about Americans who retire to places outside the United States. His insight of life in Colombia has been well received and we hope he continues to contribute.

• Part 1: March 2008
  
  
• Part 2: April 2008
  
  
• Part 3: May 2008
  
  
• Part 4: June 2008
  
  
• Part 5: July 2008
  
  
• Part 6: August 2008

Part 1. March, 2008

I have been asked to write a column for this Web Page for Baby Boomers. I guess I am a little older than most of you, having been born before the war in 1941. I have really had 3 separate “lives”, with 3 very different life styles. “Life One” was spent in upstate New York where I worked in Medical and Geological research, lived on a farm 50 miles away from work and got my BS degree.  “Life Two” was spent as a Science and Computer teacher in South Florida with some other jobs thrown in.  I worked with the founders of this website while we were all involved as teachers and administrators on AOL for many years.

Before I decided to move here, I agreed to go to Colombia for a vacation to check the place out. When we arrived at the El Dorado International late at night, we were the last people to go through Customs and Immigration. As we approached the exit to the city, I noticed a large crowd outside the doors. All the bad press about Colombia ran through my head. A terrorist attack?  A paramilitary  operation? A Strike? Robbers?  No, none of these, just a few members of Gloria’s family coming to welcome us to Colombia.

As I found out later Gloria has a very large family, a family get-together can easily be nearly 50 people and double that if it for a special reason. For the new Millennium the family rented a finca (farm) in a moderately warm area and 85 people were together for a week. Quite a shock for an only child.

The first real argument I had with my wife was about the words “Climate” and “Weather.” For this displaced New Yorker, climate was a long-term constant.  New York State has a “temperate climate” for example. The short-term changes were weather; “today is a hot day” for example. She was asking me what climate I wanted for today. WHAT?? That would be weather, right? Wrong!

Colombia is a country about the overall size of Florida. It is transected by 3 high mountain ranges (The Andes), interspersed by deep river valleys, including headwaters of the Amazon.. Colombia is located very close to the Equator, dead center tropical. The climate in Bogotá is really quite cold even though it is tropical. What Gloria was trying to tell me is a person can find the climate they want on a drive of a few hours. Go down the mountain and it gets warmer then hotter and finally tropical. Go up the mountain and you can get ice and depending on the mountain even snow. Due to the location near the Equator, Colombia does not have seasons. Before buying our finca, altitude was the most important factor we looked at. We had spent years in Bogotá, too cold, and a year in Cali, too hot. We looked for an altitude in the middle. More about this selection process next time.

Bill Turley          Somondoco, Boyaca         Colombia       

Part 2. April, 2008

  Hello, welcome to my second column about my experiences moving to and living in Colombia.  As I recounted before, we came here for a 2 month vacation to see how I felt here and to know more about this new place before I moved here. The most significant thing I was surprised by is the variety of foods. We were here for 2 months, 60 days, and during that time we ate with family members and friends every day. During this month there was only one duplicated menu, ajiaco. This is the most famous dish of Bogotá, so it was appropriate. I tried to think about meals at friends in the US and I had difficulty even thinking of 20 different ones.

I first got a job working in school that was very similar to the US. The school had a policy of limiting imported teacher to 2 years. I wanted to move here permanently so I looked for an alternative. I got a position with a company that was training teachers to use a new program to teach English. I was luckily the only native speaking teacher in the group of seven. This short term position led to a position as a Coordinator in a Bilingual School in Bogotá. They were trying to bridge the gap between being English Intensive to being really bilingual. I had the responsibility for directing the school in that direction, while also disciplining students and faculty. 

I then spent a year as a principal in an English Language school in Cali. Cali was too hot, and while my job was great, my wife hated the city. I was old enough to retire and found that my retirement benefits were almost exactly the same as my pay would be to work full time. So I choose to get paid for doing  nothing.  

After a week to relax from the move back to Chia, where we had maintained a rental house, we started to look for the ideal place to spend the rest of our lives. In Colombia it is common practice for people who can afford it to have a place in the country and a place in (or near) the big cities. During the week days we would look through the classified ads both in the newspapers and in magazines of classified Ads. We also started to drive to the towns that we known for nice weather.  It soon became apparent that the most important feature of property was the altitude. I bought a hand-held altimeter, it was a great investment. With that little device I could quickly eliminate areas either too low (too hot) or too high (too cold). We would go to see property one or two days during the week and every weekend. We checked out 280 parcels both with houses and without and everything in between.

The next most critical feature was access. I was surprised to find out that in some areas many of the farms did not have road access.  We found a very nice chalet than was being repossessed by the bank.  The previous owner was a distant family member, so we went to look at it. The price was very fluid as a sale rather than a distress auction, so we were considering the purchase. We talked about the finca with close family members, several were apprehensive because it was in the “Red Zone”. More investigations showed us that indeed that area was often plagued by either the guerrillas or paramilitaries.  So we kept looking, and looking, and looking.

Bogotá is located on a large plateau, surrounded by mountains. There are a few passes through the mountains leading to lower and warmer areas. We looked in the dozens of small towns all around the Sabana de Bogota, as the plateau is called. We were looking for a place in the country, near a town for supplies and within 4 hours or so, of Bogotá. We had a list of what we wanted to find. The house should have the following (or as many as possible):

  1)      Road access
  2)      Safe area (not a Red Zone)
  3)      Good to Excellent views
  4)      Utilities such as water, Electric, phone, etc
  5)      Wooded areas and flat areas
  6)      Abundant water
  7)      Space for a horse ( just in case)
  8)      Stream or other flowing water (to attract Wildlife)
  9)       A variety of Birds and other wildlife
  10)  A body of water for boating
  
  Next time I will tell you how well we were able to satisfy this list.
  

Bill Turley, Somondoco, Boyaca, Colombia      

Part 3. May, 2008

  Hello again, to this my third installment about my experiences in Colombia. I guess that this would be a good time to discuss the reasons why I was looking for a place in Colombia in the first place. Why would a Man from Upstate NY chose the forgo the pleasures of snow  belt winters?  Why would a snowbird in Florida want to live where there were NO hurricanes, No tornados, No freezing temperatures?  Why would a teacher who had been struggling financially for decades want to live where expenses were much less? Why, when the projected Social Security benefits  indicated a life style very much lower in the future, would the prospect of a good life style be attractive? Obviously the answer to all of the above questions is clear. These are all factors as to why I am living in Somondoco. 

So back to our search. I was using the time while I was waiting for my SS checks to start arriving, to locate  our future home. My wife  and I have complementary abilities and points of view. I am more detail oriented and she is more artisticly sensitive.  We were limited by our financial situation, there were many beautiful places on the market but most had very high ( for our budget) prices.

After about 6 months of searching we went to see a property which it was claimed was near to a road.  We had an appointment in a small isolated village. We were to arrive at the Parque Central, or Central Park at 10:00 in the morning. We got there a little early and looked around the small square. It was unremarkable, clean but small compared to many we had seen. Our contact arrived and he directed us up a dirt road going out of town up a steep grade. The road soon became impassable even for a 4WD vehicle. We got out and started to walk.

Very soon the walk became a climb up  a steep stream bed. About 30 minutes later we left the stream bed and walked along a level area about ¼ of mile to an old house. The view from the house was great, but certainly not worth the hard climb. There was an easier way down which in part consisted of sliding down the muddy mountain side. We were glad to get back to the car.

The seller said that there was going to be a road it just wasn’t built yet but the mayor was working on it. We went back to town and bought a couple of bottles of Coke before returning to Bogotá. On our way back to the city, Gloria thought of a very close friend who might have a finca in the area. A phone call  from a cell phone confirmed that indeed Maria Elisa and her husband did indeed have a weekend finca near the village of Somondoco.  She was very surprised that we had been to the village and promised to help us find a place in the area.

A couple of days later Gloria got a call from Ma Elisa, inviting us to visit them at their finca the next weekend.  This started our voyage of exploration of Somondoco in the Valle de Tenza.  There is no river Tenza, so how could there be a Valley of Tenza?  I will answer this and other discoveries next time.

Bill Turley, Somondoco, Boyaca, Colombia   

Part 4. June, 2008

            Hello again, Last time I told you about finding Somondoco, Now I will discuss the choice of the land and buying a place.  We received an invitation from Maria Elisa and her husband Ernesto to spend a weekend at their place outside of Somondoco. We accepted immediately and spent a weekend with them. The next morning, Saturday we started to drive around and drove on winding dirt roads until we got to the place Ernesto had in mind. It had rained a lot over the past days and so the roads were muddy and slick. My altimeter was in the desired range of about 1700 meters. (5900 ft)

We walked around on a lot that belonged to a friend of a cousin of Ma El. The cousin also has a very old house next to the lot for sale. As we walked I was standing at the lip of a depression when I saw the moist beautiful sight! A gorgeous, large, iridescent blue butterfly. I later learned it was the magic butterfly that was in the movie “The Blue Butterfly”. I have come to believe that it does indeed have magic in its shinny wings. I guess that when I saw that gorgeous iridescent Blue Butterfly, I really started to fall in love with this piece of paradise. 

When we were finished exploring and pacing the lot the two ladies decided to walk up to see the old house. I thought it would be fun to try to use the 4WD in my little car. I drove up behind the women when my over confidence in 4WD created a situation I will never forget. My little Samurai slid straight sideways ending up with one rear wheel hanging over a chasm. I panicked and when I tried to shift to low range  the car went in neutral. This form of neutral requires a mechanic to correct the situation!

Here I was, essentially alone in a very strange place.We were with friends of my wife's. My wife as usual left the area. She went to town with our friend's husband. She called for a tow truck and went to town to wait for that. Her friend called out to some one I couldn't see, who answered. Shortly men started to arrive one with a team of oxen. They pulled me back on the road helped me to push it so I could turn it around and then to push me so I could go down the hill to a main (dirt) road. This was my first experience with the community sense of caring that is a fact of life here.

This preceded a period of negotiation and haggling until finally, 2 months later on November 14, 2003, we signed the papers and bought the lot. We had looked at and called about over 280 parcels of rural land. 

The time during our negotiations was filled with finding out about construction systems here and how different they are from the states. There is no concern about hurricanes but a lot of concern about seismic activity. Basements are very expensive and totally unnecessary additional expenses. I spent many many hours on my computer working on the perfect house design. I checked with many people who built houses and after exhaustive comparisons settled on a large company, Servivienda. Their construction method utilizes high density concrete panels. I worked with their architects and found they could build my design with only a slight modification that was required to support the roof.