This Is Not What We Expected! - Van Life Medical Tourism in Colombia

So the first little bit of the drive takes us out through the valley down along the river and through these canopy of eucalyptus trees and through the cow pastures. It's really a beautiful ride. You guys probably saw it in the last video on the way in but we're headed to a town for Armenia. It's a little bit of a chore day. We've got to get provisions. We got to top up at groceries. We have to get fuel. What else we got to do? Snow, water. We need to start worrying about water. We need to get cash. There's a lot of things coming up on our list to do so we're gonna head to Armenia and get it done. One thing we've learned about Colombia as we've been driving through the country is there are a lot of big cities. Now obviously you've got the huge ones like Bogota, Medellin, Cartagena, Cali but between those there's a lot of large cities and they have high-rise buildings, very modern. They still kind of have that Colombian culture in some of the open markets but a lot of modern cities. You can turn it right there. It says to go up here but I don't know where we'll park but that's what it says. So the first stop along the way is to get groceries and we need some specialty items so we had to come to the big store. Snow's in the van. It's difficult to find parking so I'm headed over here now. I'm going to walk back and after I get groceries I'm going to try to find her. So if you're wondering about what kind of groceries you can get here you can see the produce section and they have your typical wide variety of produce as any store in America or anywhere else in the world would have. I should say that malls are also very popular and it's not uncommon for the nicer grocery stores that have stuff like cat litter and other things, face products are here in the mall so that's what brings us to this area. We finished all our chores here we have to get fuel on the way out of town and then we're headed to our destination. So another thing that's cool around this city we're kind of going through the main way and they have two lanes dedicated to the public transportation and then our driving lanes are the other two lanes but a lot of people in Latin America and in Colombia take public transportation so this is kind of the best solution because normally they're just stopping right in front of There's the pollaria. I don't think so I think it's all cooked chicken. Furnishings, cookware, electronics, hardware store. Those balls you ride motorcycles in. All right it looks like they have a carnival set up and look they have one of those big balls you ride the motorcycle in. I think you can do that for like three bucks for a ride. You go do that. The little stadium here actually it's a big stadium probably a soccer stadium. I think there's a little motorbike track out here that's what that is a motorbike track but look at this stadium. Armenia. I should also add that Colombia is no stranger to toll roads so this one right here is 13,300 pesos so this one's about three bucks between three and four dollars which compared to the price of everything else is pretty expensive and there is a lot of them. So there's loads of bamboo in Colombia. Bananas as well. You probably noticed we came through all those little stands but I love bamboo. We've seen a lot of different kinds. I'm guessing and believing at this point it's native here. In 200 meters turn left. I think I saw it when I looked backwards. Take the next left then your destination will be on the right. Your destination is on the right. Morning everyone. So we found out that Snow's doctor's appointment was delayed for a big day and we both agreed that it really wasn't a big deal because we have so much work to get caught up on. The unfortunate thing is the hostel slash campsite that we found looked really really awesome. Had super fast wi-fi, hot showers. As you guys can tell I need a shave and shower but unfortunately and there was Instagram posts from not too long ago from people who stayed there but unfortunately it's closed. We found this place just down the road a hotel Villa Julian and it's got all the amenities except it's natural showers not hot showers. The wi-fi is not super good but it's gonna work so we'll be here for another night getting caught up on work and the good news is there's tons of birds and there's even a pool here. I should also mention that this place has this nice walking trail. It has all these little spots I believe are for camping. See it's random and you set your tent up there. I'm not sure what the rate for that is. They have some barbecue grills basically an outside kitchen and like I said this little walking trail is full of birds. There's a little soccer field inside of it and then over there they have a pool. So I didn't get in the pool just really was busy but they have a nice pool but it's worked out pretty good. We actually stayed an extra day here but they do they have cut up fruit for us for breakfast and made me a little arepa and stuff and coffee and they've brought cake out to the van and the security guard here is really super cool. So we've just enjoyed our time here but we definitely have been able to get some work done which is what we needed to do because Snow's doctor's visit got delayed an extra day. Nanner's on the dash it's moving day we're headed to Cali and it is a very big day. Yeah it's the last knee appointment before we pick who's gonna do my surgery. So yeah I'm getting nervous guys so let's go get this done let's go we got almost three hour drive to get there let's go. Kurt has made really good time on driving we're right on schedule we'll have plenty of time to find a good parking place by the hospital and I think we're starting to get on the outskirts of the Cali area. We didn't really show y'all much of the drive because there wasn't much to see lots of sugarcane fields and little towns but we're almost there now guys. We have made it to Cali. Kurt's got to negotiate the city traffic and get us to the hospital where the doctor's appointment is. So Cali is no different than the other cities you get entertainment at each red light you can also get your windows washed and buy just about anything but this chocolate is pretty good. He's a soccer player too. So we're sitting here at this red light we look over to our right and we see this old jeep can y'all see that license plate it's got a Florida Dade County license plate on it. It's motorcycles carrying alive chickens guys. As we left our last camp spot and pulled into Cali I think we were both super excited because this is like a big decision for us and the wait is the hardest part and finally we were going to get to meet the doctor and find out what happened but as we pulled into Cali we didn't have the same feeling we had as we rode the Medellin. We were both a little how would you describe it? Bummed um and I think there's some parts I didn't tell you guys. So the Medellin doctor we found through a medical tourism website. I had never met him or talked to him or communicated with any of those people when we went to that appointment. The doctor here in Cali came highly recommended from the first doctor we saw way back in Nicaragua when we found out I needed to replace this knee and I have emailed with him and his assistant quite a bit and they've been super helpful. I was super excited to meet this doctor and I really kind of thought this is where we would be getting the surgery done but when we pulled into Cali it just doesn't have the warm fuzzy feeling of somewhere you would want to live for three months and we drove all around and guys we dropped the ball on vlogging yesterday. We did get a little bit of footage what you're seeing right now and it was just a super stressful day because I was so disappointed and then we went to meet the doctor and I liked him just as much as I thought I would. Kind of even made it worse because she was really blown away by the doctor. She liked the facilities in Cali more. The problem is a couple things. It's really hot here and we do need to do some work on the van. We lost the water pump for the shower so that needs to be changed out but more importantly it's really hard to find apartments here. Yeah it's difficult. We were very frustrated yesterday. We had a bad day just to be honest. It was a pretty crappy day but last night we did some research. The perfect scenario would be as if this doctor was in Medellin but that's not the case. So we have regrouped. We've reset. We are going to give Cali another chance. We did some research last night. We drove out of town last night. We're staying in a cute little hostel about 30 minutes outside of the city. This big giant tree is full of birds. G just wants to be outside chasing them. He does not want to be inside today and I don't blame him. Is the coffee done? All right. So we're still at the hostel waiting on still some emails, some quotes, some pricing and some apartment ideas to come in from Cali. So Kurt decided to take full advantage of the pool here at the hostel. Look at this bright red bird. I don't know if you can see him. He's on the back of the basketball goal thing and he's bright red with black wings and a little black mask and he's cool. Oh he chirps too guys. This campground is loaded with little birds. There's a little tiny hummingbird up there. It's been a nice camp. Maybe 30 minutes outside of Cali. All right they got a little friendly game going on here. Kurt is playing basketball with some of the locals so we're gonna see if we can get any action shots. I did. Yesterday we drove through the neighborhoods of El Pino which was the super rich area of town some really nice parks around it and an area called San Antonio in the neighboring neighborhood. I can't remember the name of it which are more bohemian culture filled type neighborhoods. San Antonio reminded me a little bit of San Cristobal but it just was so hilly and it just didn't seem like a welcoming place to try to live for three months. Nothing against visiting the neighborhood it would probably be nice for a weekend to scope it out and then the El Pino neighborhood just seemed maybe a little too ritzy for us. What do you think about that Kurt? Maybe? I mean yeah and also it's just tough to imagine yourself sort of living in this city when we don't have more information about it. We only see what we see. So yeah so after our research last night there are some more neighborhoods on the south side of town that we are headed to today and a little bit more spread out and maybe we could find an apartment down there where we could keep the van with us so we're gonna scope that out and also I believe to the west of town is where we're headed now a neighborhood called Manga. We have made it to our first suburb that we're checking out. It is called Manga and uh sorry you're hearing our little google lady help us maneuver the roads in the background but that's how you got to do it and this is on the north side of town probably 20 or so minutes from the hospital is that right Kurt? Yep. So but the streets look nice and there's supposed to be um kind of like some corporate apartments out here that are good for short-term rentals. We're finding out that Colombia is not not super happy with Airbnb or Uber. We don't I mean it's just something to do with taxes or whatever so we're thinking that's why it's been difficult to find something through Airbnb so we're trying to find alternative ways and that's where we're at. So we just talked to the lady from Habita Apartments and we'll be getting an email from her later today with some pricings and availability but there's one glitch. They only allow one pet per apartment so she's got to get with administration and see if they'd be okay with two cats. So that's option one. Now we're headed to another part of town. So we're going through Granada which is a promising neighborhood except for parking may be an issue. We'd have to have a public parking lot but it looks like a nice area so we're gonna go check it out a little more. We just figured out that Cali has cable cars. It's the first one we've seen. Looks like it just goes up to that neighborhood up there. All right we've made it to the south side. This is a neighborhood called Jardin. So we're riding around it a little bit. There's a couple of neighborhoods down here we're gonna ride around. Then we're gonna try to find some lunch and talk about what we have figured out this morning and whether Cali is gonna get a chance or not. So this is a nice wooded area. A nice park with some apartments right across the street. So we'll probably try to scope these out online. Pretty on this road. As hard as we're trying to make this not be a frustrating experience driving around the city in the van is a frustrating experience. It's just tough because the van is so big but it is lunchtime. Kurt found a place where we can actually park the van. See it right there in the background and we're about to have some sushi. Right, Kurti? Hungry. And then I think we have toured around the city pretty good. We'll probably find somewhere to park, regroup, do some research, and then it'll be time to start making the decision. But we do have a lady at the international office from the hospital here working on getting the quote for the knee surgery in Cali which is important and for trying to help us find an apartment. So we'll see what she comes up with as well and then we'll have to compare quotes, compare living options, compare cities, compare doctors, and then make the choice. So hopefully by tomorrow morning when we wake up we will know and we will be able to share it with you guys. All right guys we're exploring Cali a little bit more today. We found some pretty cool neighborhoods and we found a park. Parque de Gato. It is cat park. How cool is that? And we got lucky and found a parking spot so we're walking over to check out this place. We hear lots of birds. It runs along the river. It's really pretty and it's right in the middle of the city. Right in the middle of two of the neighborhoods that are showing some promise. El Pino and Granada. Well let's go see what this cat park's all about. Here's a cat at the cat walk and they got all these amazing birds on these signs but look at this. It's actually I think it's called a walking stick but it's a bug. You can see it's two little antlers. Its eyeballs are right here. Kenny he's alive. Look at that thing. That is crazy. So so far I think we've decided this is one of our favorite cats. It's a little banged up. It's got a banged up knee just like snow and so we're here to fix her knee. All bandaged up. I feel a connection. What a beautiful park. There's loads of birds flying around. We don't have the big camera so we're not going to be able to show you that but we're really enjoying these different fancy painted cat sculptures. Also they have big giant bamboo here and like I said the Aves are everywhere. Super nice park right here in the middle of Cali. 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