2 photos
The view from my 14th story room at the Botero.
75 k a night for a double, OK with multi guests. In the heart of Centro though so if you need to be near a Hooters, Dunkin Donuts, Dominos or $200 Lleras hookers look elsewhere.
Centro: Not for everybody.
If you are a retired Green Beret from 7th Special Forces Group, Centro is OK for you.
If you are a fat paper pusher who lives in a gated suburban community who speaks no Spanish and wears a Rolex, cargo shorts and sandals and your last trip was a Carnival Cruise and couldn't fight your way out of a paper bag it is not for you.
Can you run fast or talk your way out or fight your way out? If not Centro may not be for you.
That being said most the low-lifes in Centro don't look like they could afford a gun, if I had a gun and wanted rob Gringos I would go to Poblado, so don't feel so safe there either, more Gringos get robbed there because more Gringos are there.
Personally I am nowhere near as nervous in Centro as the year I lived in a bad part of Washington DC and was one of 7 white kids at my high school, or the time the Tall Ship I crewed on lost the bob-stay chain and most of the fore-stays and almost the whole rig in a North Atlantic storm 5 days from land, or the year I spend dodging rockets and IED's and RPG's in Kandahar Province (2005) or the time I raced Daytona Speedway in the rain at 150 mph on a motorcycle. It's all about perspective and experience.
Me: 5 years in a crappy port town in Costa Rica (Puntarenas) , fluent accent-less Spanish. That's important, if some low life says: "Dame tu reloj!" are you going to know what he said? I suspect most the cases of "stabbed / shot resisting a robbery" are lack of language skills.
I have 3 years of martial arts training with a very old school Korean instructor who did unarmed Vs knife / sword training and 1 vs 2 and 1 vs 3 training.
I will give up my wallet most likely but then if he still wants to dance, lets dance. (vs knife or hand to hand, not gun unless it's going south anyway).
Without all that I might stay out of Centro too.