Finding a neighbourhood to call home

When people ask how to choose a neighbourhood in a new city, the practical answers come easily: proximity to the metro, safety ratings, the price of a flat. These things matter. But after six months of moving around Medellín — a month in El Poblado, a few weeks in Envigado, a stretch in Laureles — I’ve come to think the real question is simpler and harder: where do you want to spend your ordinary mornings?

For me, Laureles won. It’s not the most scenic neighbourhood, not the most expat-friendly, not the cheapest. But it has a bakery that opens at 6am, a park where people walk dogs and argue about football, and a tienda on the corner whose owner has started to hold my usual order without being asked. These are not tourist experiences. They are the texture of actually living somewhere.

The romantic version of living abroad is all arrival — the wonder of the unfamiliar. The real version is the accumulation of small routines until the unfamiliar becomes yours. It takes longer than you expect. It’s worth being patient with the process.