All three of us – my husband, my 1 year-old son, and myself – now have health insurance in Colombia. Even with top-of-the-line full coverage, our monthly payment will be less than half of what insurance for my husband and son alone (not including me) cost in the States. We are self-employed, and so insurance in the U.S. has always cost us a lot. It’ll be interesting to see how well this insurance works, but the coverage and available doctors and facilities seem excellent and the immediate savings are a huge weight lifted from our shoulders.
Monthly Archives: August 2012
Y seguimos luchando… (Still struggling…)
Our quest to find an apartment – or rather, to get approved for the one we’ve found – continues. Here’s the latest:
Last time I posted about this, we were waiting to hear what outrageous sum of money the insurance company would require us to invest in a CD as a deposit for rental of our apartment. We were told when we applied for “the CD solution” that the insurer might require anywhere between four and ten months’ rent. We waited anxiously to hear what our insurer would require. The answer? Nine months in the CD, naturally to be followed by the first month’s rent. Continue reading
Posted in Making the Leap
Honey, can you pick up a bag of milk?
At first blush, Barranquilla is a city very much like Miami. There’s all the usual hustle and bustle of people working, kids playing, and errands being run. But for a foreigner, many of those normal-looking life activities have underpinnings that are downright mysterious. Here’s just a few of the surprises that awaited us:
- Milk comes in little itty-bitty bags that you open by cutting off the corner. There’s no wa
y to close them back. There’s also no way to stand them up in the fridge and thus avoid spilling them except by buying this special little plastic rectangle of a container that says “milk” on the outside. I avoided buying one of these at first, opting instead for a small pitcher with a lid. I was wrong. Trust the locals; the milk thingie is better. Continue reading
Posted in Daily Life
Barranquilla or Bust! 