As she sipped a cappuccino in a buzzing café on a tree-lined street in Medellin, Cindy Crawford Thomas said that escaping South Florida to retire in what was once the world's most notorious city seemed like a no-brainer.

"Deciding to leave Florida was easy," said the former Coral Springs high school teacher. "It was too hectic. ... You seldom knew your neighbors. It was all these people but no community."

In Medellin — once the home of Pablo Escobar and the world's bloodiest drug cartel — Thomas and her husband, David, say they've found a friendly, cosmopolitan city where rent is cheap, the weather is fine and the healthcare puts the U.S. to shame.

And in many ways, they say, they feel safer here than back home in Florida."People still think that Medellin is the murder capital of the world," she said, "but it's not."The couple are part of a growing wave of adventurous expat retirees who are calling Colombia's second city their new home.