Has Medellin finally become overfished?

[Eric39]

I always have the hostess at the restaurant or at the hotel call a cab, no matter which country I am in. I have never had an incident, but I have heard many from friends and coworkers. Also, if possible, travel with a group of people, especially after dark.

I would only hail a cab from the street if it was a legitimate, clearly marked and numbered cab. When I was in Indonesia, I was always told to get a "Blue Bird" or "Silver Bird" taxi as the others were freelancers and anything could happen.

When I was in Trinidad a few years ago, me and a friend hailed a taxi from the street and after we drove off I noticed a machete next to the gear shift. I showed my friend and he freaked out. The cabbie explained that he has it for people that do not pay, but my friend still talks about that incident to this day.

The only time I felt uncomfortable was when I was in the Old City in Cartagena after dark and I was with my novia and another couple. We had some street urchins begin to tag along wanting money. They finally left, but they kept trying to touch us and I figured they were looking for a wallet or something valuable. If you ignore them, they eventually go away.

[soltero]

Having a working knowledge of Spanish is very useful although I do not see how that would have helped him in this situation, UNLESS the cab driver was speaking to his criminal coharts while the poor guy was in the back seat clueless as to what was going on.  Even with a knowlege of Spanish, a simple code word can be said in a normal conversation and even a native would not know.
Fathertime!

FT, Knowing Spanish helps while the guys are scoping you out. The more a person appears to fit in, the less likely they will become a target. Crooks are lazy otherwise they would have a job. If a person can't communicate, they might as well already have a gag on. Bottom line, Garbling a language or speaking in a foreign language (different from everyone else)  marks a person as different, and different gets attention. Guys walking around looking for victims are like any other predator. Whatever little thing makes their prey stand out from the herd and draws their focus is all it takes.

[bad40]

hello guys... is it possible for us to return to the topic? i would like more opinions on medellin..thanks

[fathertime]

FT, Knowing Spanish helps while the guys are scoping you out. The more a person appears to fit in, the less likely they will become a target.

Sounds reasonable, not fitting in is a factor.  I will never look like a Colombian man and my Spanish will always have an obvious gringo accent so I should be more careful.  If I continue to wear shorts, I am going to paint a big bullseye on the seat of my pants!
 



Fathertime!

[Calipro]

FT, Knowing Spanish helps while the guys are scoping you out. The more a person appears to fit in, the less likely they will become a target. Crooks are lazy otherwise they would have a job. If a person can't communicate, they might as well already have a gag on. Bottom line, Garbling a language or speaking in a foreign language (different from everyone else)  marks a person as different, and different gets attention. Guys walking around looking for victims are like any other predator. Whatever little thing makes their prey stand out from the herd and draws their focus is all it takes.

I'd get out of any cab where the taxista started to make a phone call while driving.

[soltero]

I'd get out of any cab where the taxista started to make a phone call while driving.

Tengo un boracho con bastante plata y tarjetas aka, parse...llamas a Javier, y encuentrasme por la esquina en doce minutos...Si, tu sabes...listo!


 

[utopiacowboy]

My brother-in-law is as paisa as they come and he frequently wears shorts and sandals. No one is ever going to mistake him for a gringo. OTOH, no one is ever going to mistake me for a Colombiano so I just wear whatever the hell I want. Whenever we go to El Centro it's like a commando mission, we drop all the jewelry and watches etc and go in, accomplish our mission and get out. Of course we've also gone to Estrato 2 barrios to visit family friends and former coworkers of my wife's and had a wonderful time without incident.

[el_ruso]

Aside from Cartagena it is not that hot, even in Cali.  There is no reason to wear shorts.  It is not as much a matter of being kidnapped or not, just a matter of respect for another culture.  Why does a grown man must wear shorts away from the beach?

[bundy_138]

ruso:  I guess for the same reasons Europeans wear speedos, they just do!

Bundy

[Kiltboy1]

Man

I love my frigen shorts and if I could wear them 24/7-365, I would. I wear them in Cartagena and Barranquilla all the time and i see many men in shorts (Colombianos) in Barranquilla. They are more intelligent there then the interior i think. Hot is Hot, put on the shorts so you will not sweat your balls. But i do agree that there is a cultural fue paux about shorts in Cali I expect the same in Medellin. I remember my ex wife telling me" GO AHEAD AND WEAR SHORTS IN CALI IF YOU WANT. THAT WAY I WILL NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT OTHER WOMEN BECAUSE THEY WILL LOOK AT YOU AS LOW CLASS" Her words, not mine, so there is a very distinct cultural hate for shorts except on Sundays on there 5 million Bicycles !

KB

[michaelb]

I kind of thought from your nickname (and your signature line) that you would wear a kilt. I've never worn one, but I sometimes hang with guys who do (no, not all the time, for parades and Celtic themed cultural events, maybe a party, etc. I think you what I mean). Wonder what reaction THAT would get in Colombia?

[utopiacowboy]

We always take cabs off the street and we had a little episode once. We had taken my sister-in-law and her kids to the bus station in Medellin late one night and after their bus left, we went to the row of waiting cabs and got into the first one. The cab driver, instead of asking us our destination and driving off, got out of the cab and started talking into a cell phone. My wife nudged me and said let's get out of the cab. We got out and got into the next waiting cab. The driver took us back home without incident. Who knows what the first cabbie was up to but it's better safe than sorry.

[pan de bono]

Medellin over fished, yea right! people have been saying for years that Cali is over fished but trust me cali isnt over fished and neither is medellin.

[Kiltboy1]

You know, I actually thought about taking my Kilt and Bagpipes to Colombia and come out on the beach say in Cartagena and fire up the Pipes to combat the Vallenato. LOL, but I do try to stay somewhat under the radar as I can. But the chicas here have always dug me when I Done my Kilt and at times have copped a feel just to see if I am Regimental or not. LOL

KB

[BogotaJim]

I have been living here for 10 months and have made the following observations:  I know about 25 to 50 gringos who live here full time or part time.  Many of these guys I know beause they travelled originally to Bogota and visited my agency  many years ago and now that Medellin is safe they decided to live here as it truly is a paradise.  We get together frequently so I have become well informed and very happy in my new home.  The center of our lives is Poblado and Parque  Llegas.

The biggest negative here is the "sex tourism " and it centers around the Mansion.  All the locals dislike this operation as they give all of us a bad name.  Their biggest problem is using underage girls and drugs. Sex is for sale everywhere and you don t need to risk arrest by staying at an illegal operation like the Mansion.  Prepagos are available everywhere and most are beautiful and between the age of 18 to 25.  ´

When good guys come here and they have a limitd amount of time they find that most of the nice ladies have jobs and are not always available for meetings and oftentimes the guys will go to the casas or get prepagos to have a good time while waiting or dating the nice girls. 

The ladies in Bogota are more serious and more apt to speak English and more punctual.  The ladies here may come 1 or 2 hours late and sometimes they don;t come at all and they will not even call and that can be hard to take. 

Overall we take the good with the bad and the good is exceptional.  Medellin IS NOT OVERFISHED.  There are so many beautiful women here and very few men so all of us guys living here are dating extremely nice women and thats why we are so happy.

I have opened an agency in the heart of Parque Llegas in a 50 yeaR OLD COLONIAL HOUSE within 1 block of AFA and Orleans restaurant  Rooms are available at $40 and $50 nightly and quite nice.  If you are a good guy and want to see Medellin give us a call at 305-395-7608.

[rpcv]

Has anyone ever traveled to Manizales, Pereira, or Armenia?  I hear the women are very similiar to Medellin.  I also hear the weather is much milder (more comparable to Ohio in the spring and fall)?

I've been to Manizales and the weather there is awesome! It's about 74-77 degrees during the day and about 68-64 at night. Basically year round temps. The women are not that different from Medellin (lots of light skin with dark hair), but the attitude is different maybe because it is a much smaller city. (And there are 4 Universities).

[mudd]

Yep, that would be very true; the mansion in Medellin is definitely giving gringos a bad rep.  Every time they see a gringo in poblado or anywhere near that area, they automatically think " ah, another sex/ pervert gringo".

Manizales is a very nice city, lots of girls, sweeter than Medellin, but a little harder to get too. And I think, still only one agency there.

[bad40]

bogotajim.. give us more details about your agency. i'm looking forward to my nrxt trip there already.

what is the difference between women in medellin and manizales?

[rpcv]

Hi,

Word on the street has it that Medellin has become totally overfished and there are lots of gringo heads around. Especially since now its become the epicentre of sex tourism?

I read the following article in the NY Times travel section this weekend. Haven't been in the city since 2005 but I don't recall anyone recommending it as a tourist stop at that time.

A Drug-Runners’ Stronghold Finds a New Life
IT was Thursday evening in Medellín and the open-air bars and cafes along fashionable Lleras Park were overflowing with after-work singles. At Triada, a stylish lounge with an orange neon bar and low-slung couches, laughter filled the subtropical air along with the deep-toned drumming of cumbia music. From around the corner, a small group of motorcyclists screeched by, their shiny engines puttering like machine guns. No one flinched, and the party kept rolling.
Not long ago, this scene would have been unthinkable in Medellín, once considered the most dangerous place on earth.
During the 1980s, Medellín, Colombia’s second largest city, was home to the drug lord Pablo Escobar, whose infamous cartel turned the city into a bloody battleground and the world’s cocaine capital. Gangs roamed the narrow streets, extortionists preyed on the city’s residents and narcotics traffickers staged attacks against police.
“You couldn’t step outside,” said Bibian Gomez, 28, a commercial real estate broker who sought refuge in the resort town of Cartagena at the height of the violence. “Whenever you saw a young guy on a motorcycle you thought that he was an assassin.”
But in the last decade, this city of two million, with its beautiful colonial architecture and year-round spring-like weather, has awakened from its drug nightmare. Mr. Escobar and his minions are gone and the cocaine trade has been largely dispersed. Bullet-riddled neighborhoods are coming to life with art museums and well-designed parks. And the constant rumble of construction — new shopping malls, flashy casinos and luxury hotels — can be heard throughout the city.
The renaissance is most noticeable in Santo Domingo Savio, a once impenetrable slum of tin-roofed shanties on a hillside in northern Medellín. Though pockets are still marred by a dilapidated jumble of crumbling cinderblocks and concrete stairs, it is now home to paved roads, colorful murals and the gleaming new Parque Biblioteca España. The hulking opal structure has a library, an auditorium, computer rooms, a day care center and an art gallery.
Getting there has gotten much easier, too. What once took an hour on a rickety bus, now takes 10 minutes, thanks to a shiny gondola that opened in 2004, part of a growing public transportation network that is uniting the city and making it more accessible, especially for the poor.
On a recent afternoon, Santo Domingo Savio exuded the easygoing revelry of a small state fair. There were uniformed school children jumping rope, elderly men selling fresh slices of mango, and young couples strolling hand in hand admiring the views of the city below — a landscape of verdant pastures crowned by scattered high-rises and restored 19th-century buildings.
These days, the view also includes construction cranes, largely because of Medellín’s iconoclast mayor, Sergio Fajardo, who has commissioned renowned Colombian architects like Giancarlo Mazzanti and Felipe Uribe to construct libraries and innovative parks in neglected neighborhoods.
The centerpiece is Explora Park, a 398,000-square-foot science and technology park in the northeastern end of town that will be home to one of South America’s largest aquariums when it opens partially in late October. A block south is the sleek Wishes Park, an oasis of concrete floors and polished cherry-wood tables, with a planetarium and a music hall where the Medellín Philharmonic rehearses. Movies are shown outdoors there.
Other education-minded parks, all situated along the improved Metro system, include the Zen-themed Barefoot Park, which invites visitors to walk through a bamboo forest and then dip their feet in cascading water fountains; and the Park of Lights, which resembles a giant birthday cake when all 300 of its 72-foot-tall columns are illuminated at night.
Art has also flourished, led by a native-son, Fernando Botero, frequently referred to as Latin America’s most important living artist. In 2000, he donated 137 of his works to the Museum of Antioquia (Carrera 52 No. 52-43, 57-4-251-3636; www.museodeantioquia.org), including a painting that depicts a pudgy Pablo Escobar toppled by bullets.
But Medellín’s transformation may be most apparent at night. During the cocaine days, those who ventured onto the city’s lifeless, grid-like streets after hours encountered a Wild West showdown of trigger-happy capos. Now, cafes and bars spill onto the sidewalks, lending a festive and carefree vibe to the balmy evenings. Sprawling nightclubs draw thousands with thumping Latin music that keeps the young crowd dancing until dawn.
On a recent Thursday night at the popular Mango’s (Carrera 42 No. 67A-151; 57-4-277-6123), a ranch-style disco with cowboy memorabilia and waiters dressed to match, an eagerly anticipated three-day weekend was about to turn into a four-day party. A cluster of young clubgoers ordered rum-and-coke cocktails as the rhythms of reggaetón and vallenato shook the foggy dance floor.
It was 3 a.m. but you couldn’t tell by the crowd’s infectious energy. They were clearly in it for the long haul, as if making up for lost time.