Chatting on a Rented Cell by the Minute

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This is one way poor entrepreneurs make money in Colombia–Minuto Celular. Just take a phone, put up an orange sign, and your neighbors or passers by can make cell phone calls on your phone for some pesos.

We’ve seen these as high as 400 pesos, or as low as 200 pesos in the barrios. This was shot in Santa Domingo, a hillside barrio that our guide explained “on a scale of 1-6, with 6 being the richest, the people who live on this mountain are all 1.

The city has built an aerial tram that takes people all of the way up and connects them to the rest of the city down below. Bullets used to fly between FARC and Paramilitaries but today it is calm and residents enjoy a city-built library up at the top as well as many new schools and some of the worst houses have been torn down.