These are the Colombian cities that are among the cheapest to live in South America

The Serbian firm Numbeo draws up a ranking of the most expensive cities to live in the world, according to the criteria of cost of living, rent, groceries, restaurant prices and local purchasing power. Compared to the last update, it turns out that the main Colombian cities, compared to comparable ones in South America, stand out as the cheapest in the region.

The indices, which take into account those of New York at 100%, rank Montevideo, Uruguay, as the most expensive in the South of the Americas with a cost of living of 52.24% of that recorded in the great American city. Soon after, comes Paramarimbo, Suriname, which has a cost of living of 48.63%.

Santiago de Chile follows with 47.86%; and later Caracas, Venezuela, with an index of 46.22. Next come Quito and Guayaquil, Ecuadorian cities with a cost of living index of 43.26 and 39.71.

Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, is the seventh to appear in the mid-year measure with 39.48. Next is La Paz, a city in the same country which recorded 38.26. Brasilia, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro follow with 37.78, 37.44 and 36.96 respectively.

Next comes Buenos Aires, Argentina, with 36.50; Cuenca, in Ecuador, with 34.14; Belo Horizonte, Brazil, registered 33.77; and close the top 15 Lima, Peru, with an index of 33.17.

After Curitiba in Brazil and Asunción in Paraguay, the final positions are occupied by the main cities of Colombia. In 18th place is Barranquilla, with an index of 29.47, compared to New York. After 19, there is Medellín, which recorded 28.87. Bogotá, for its part, ranked 20th in Colombia with the highest cost of living at 28.87.

Finally, the cheapest cities in Colombia are Cali, the capital of Valle del Cauca, and Bucaramanga, the capital of Santander, with 26.28 and 24.85 respectively. These cities, consecutively, are also the cheapest, joining the North, Central and South America lists, ranking 148 to 152.

According to Johan Mauricio Caldas, an economist consulted by the newspaper La República, it is because Colombia has a weaker currency against the dollar, which serves as the basis for understanding the document.

“This type of study compares the cost based on the same currency, the dollar, therefore, countries which have their currency more devalued will have a lower cost”, indicated to the economic environment, which assured that this does not mean that it is cheaper for Colombians themselves to live in these cities.

Barranquilla has a carnival queen

In the morning of this Friday, August 20, the mayor Jaime Pumarejo and Martha Moreu, director of the Carnival of Barranquilla, announced at a press conference that Valeria Charris Salcedo is the new queen of Carnival 2022, A 23-year-old girl who is already sparking a debate on social networks for winning the crown from Valentina Lapeira, the other most optioned candidate.

Charris has been passionate about carnival from a young age, besides being a dancer and studying for an industrial engineering scholarship at the University of La Sabana in Bogotá. The young woman received the news through a call from the city president and the director of the Carnival while she was at work at Monomeros.

Moreu greeted Valeria and told her that “It brings me a lot of memories, I want to tell you that you are our future Barranquilla Carnival Queen and I want to tell you that this is such important news in these times of crisis due to the pandemic. I think that because of your history and your CV that you are going to give us a beautiful Carnival and that you are going to represent us the authentic Barranquilla ”.

For his part, Charris replied that “It will be so, together we will make this Carnival better … I am in shock.”

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