Medellin Reports

[QUOTE=ChicagoMan;2558528]I was walking down 43 A yesterday at 7 pm and had two young dudes walking the opposite direction suddenly pull out a gun, put it to my face, and rob me of my iphone, wallet, and headphones. I just kept my head down and handed everything over and they took off.[/QUOTE]Did you forget you were in Colombia and not Hyde Park?

This is the new bread of mongers on the scene: walking around Colombia with Beats by Dre headphones on while checking sports scores on their Apple Watch. Smdh.

[QUOTE=MiamiSammy;2558756]Medellin isn't uniquely dangerous for a large city. Shit happens.[/QUOTE]But who are you trying to convince? Not all large cities of the world are created equally when it comes to crime profiles. Medellin is also in distress at the moment in a way not seen in the years preceding the pandemic. Also obvious North Americans and Euros are targets in a way that they are not in many large cities. So yea, let's all take care, operate within our preferred risk levels without suspect generalizations that could lull us into "feeling safe" or a false sense of security.

[QUOTE=Surfer500;2558855]I believe he had this Mall confused with another one.[/QUOTE]Not confused, I have been going to the Monterrey mall for the past ten years. They used to have a fairly good cafeteria on the top floor, now gone. There's many phone accessories stores; but, other than the carrier stores, I could not find any store that had a variety of brands of cell phones. I checked all three levels.

[QUOTE=ChicagoMan;2558528]I was walking down 43 A yesterday at 7 pm and had two young dudes walking the opposite direction suddenly pull out a gun, put it to my face, and rob me of my iphone, wallet, and headphones. I just kept my head down and handed everything over and they took off.

The police came to my airbnb and were very ashamed because when looking at the map. It was right next to the poblano police station. Maybe 200 meters from Parque poblano. Cops said they've never seen a time where robbers were so brazen.

Keep your head on a swivel! Or I guess don't walk alone at night. Obvio.

P.S. - anyone know where I can buy a cheap Iphone?[/QUOTE]Thank you ChidagoMan for the post, this is the type of information that is extremely helpful to know, that the thieves are getting more brazen and coming up into Poblado without regard to the heavy police presence there. This is excellent information for newbies and even for experienced members who regularly stay in Poblado, it is such a pleasant area that it is easy to see why people would let their guard down some. If you were right near that police station then I am assuming that you were just north of that Carulla, that is where the thugs took advantage of the protest and broke into that Bancolombia so I would think they would have more police there, but I suppose the damage was done.

[QUOTE=MiamiSammy;2558972]If you're wearing headphones you've not only put up a sign you've got marketable tech on you, you've also isolated one of your primary forms of defense. Any ne'er-do-well seeing a foreigner with headphones on knows he can walk up on the blind side and ambush someone with impunity. If you're hanging out in iffy areas in a foreign country wearing earphones, you're too stupid to travel. If you were in the jungle you'd be eaten. This is a textbook example of a "dar papaya".[/QUOTE]You think it would be too much to ask that when someone who is in Medellin and reports back with some damn good information that members need to hear, do you think it would be too much to ask that people refrain from calling them "stupid". We do not want to discourage people from making these reports. If you knew Medellin then you would know that this is not an "iffy" area, it is the most touristy and affluent areas and because of this it has its own police station nearby and is regularly patrolled by the policia. He called it 43 a but is also called Avenida El Poblado, these things rarely happen here in normal times, the last report in this area of an on the street mugging was about 2 years ago and it was cone by 2 up on a motorcycle so the new information here is that these guys were on foot. Not something even experienced members would normally think would happen.

All the snips were taken off of Google Street Maps within a block of where he said he was robbed and while there is no way to tell I suspect most of these people are Colombian and what these people all have in common is that they are all openly flashing their "marketable tech" with our regard to thinking they are "dar papaya". Because reputation and statistics show this to be one of the safest areas of Medellin.

[QUOTE=MojoBandit;2558995]Thank you ChidagoMan for the post, this is the type of information that is extremely helpful to know, that the thieves are getting more brazen and coming up into Poblado without regard to the heavy police presence there. This is excellent information for newbies and even for experienced members who regularly stay in Poblado, it is such a pleasant area that it is easy to see why people would let their guard down some. If you were right near that police station then I am assuming that you were just north of that Carulla, that is where the thugs took advantage of the protest and broke into that Bancolombia so I would think they would have more police there, but I suppose the damage was done.

You think it would be too much to ask that when someone who is in Medellin and reports back with some damn good information that members need to hear, do you think it would be too much to ask that people refrain from calling them "stupid". We do not want to discourage people from making these reports. If you knew Medellin then you would know that this is not an "iffy" area, it is the most touristy and affluent areas and because of this it has its own police station nearby and is regularly patrolled by the policia. He called it 43 a but is also called Avenida El Poblado, these things rarely happen here in normal times, the last report in this area of an on the street mugging was about 2 years ago and it was cone by 2 up on a motorcycle so the new information here is that these guys were on foot. Not something even experienced members would normally think would happen..[/QUOTE]I hope my posts about this were not taken as victim blaming.

[QUOTE=FunLuvr;2558990]Not confused, I have been going to the Monterrey mall for the past ten years. They used to have a fairly good cafeteria on the top floor, now gone. There's many phone accessories stores; but, other than the carrier stores, I could not find any store that had a variety of brands of cell phones. I checked all three levels.[/QUOTE]Well there used to be a Claro store but they shutdown and now only have a booth. And your correct in that most of the stores that sell accessories do sell a limited amount of cell phones from what I noticed as well, versus the carrier stores that have a larger variety, but don't seem to exist there anymore as I only recall the Claro store.

[QUOTE=MojoBandit;2558995]Thank you ChidagoMan for the post, this is the type of information that is extremely helpful to know, that the thieves are getting more brazen and coming up into Poblado without regard to the heavy police presence there. This is excellent information for newbies and even for experienced members who regularly stay in Poblado, it is such a pleasant area that it is easy to see why people would let their guard down some. If you were right near that police station then I am assuming that you were just north of that Carulla, that is where the thugs took advantage of the protest and broke into that Bancolombia so I would think they would have more police there, but I suppose the damage was done.

You think it would be too much to ask that when someone who is in Medellin and reports back with some damn good information that members need to hear, do you think it would be too much to ask that people refrain from calling them "stupid". We do not want to discourage people from making these reports. If you knew Medellin then you would know that this is not an "iffy" area, it is the most touristy and affluent areas and because of this it has its own police station nearby and is regularly patrolled by the policia. He called it 43 a but is also called Avenida El Poblado, these things rarely happen here in normal times, the last report in this area of an on the street mugging was about 2 years ago and it was cone by 2 up on a motorcycle so the new information here is that these guys were on foot. Not something even experienced members would normally think would happen.


All the snips were taken off of Google Street Maps within a block of where he said he was robbed and while there is no way to tell I suspect most of these people are Colombian and what these people all have in common is that they are all openly flashing their "marketable tech" with our regard to thinking they are "dar papaya". Because reputation and statistics show this to be one of the safest areas of Medellin.[/QUOTE]No one needs to hear, shoulda coulda woulda but some of his impute is valuable. I think you are living in Colombia, so I think you know that NO WHERE in Colombia is safe anymore. No city, no barrio, EN NINGÚand LUGAR. Telling the truth about this beautiful country and people will not deter us guys from coming for a variety of reasons, mostly for the most beautiful women in the world but please don't describe any area as safe anymore. That will be giving us a false sense of security. Especially any new guys venturing into Colonia for the first time, when they hear 'safe area' they think ok I'm safe here and let their guard down, a very bad thing to do nowadays.

For the last 10 years I have been staying in Chico Norte in Bogota a 'safe area'. Right behind my apartment is a contingent of 100 or more campistas,200 meters long, against the wall of all the closed up restaurants and businesses and all Venezuelans, all lined up with card board boxes and plastic bags. They have even erected a Venezuelan flag over the site. This site is 100 meters from Parque 93 in Chico Norte, here-to-for a 'safe area" there are 3 policemen stationed across the street from this spot, 24 hours a day and still the robberies continue to occur. I stopped and spoked to the cops a few weeks ago and they advised me NOT to venture out of my apartment in the area at night anymore. Every city has become very dangerous, Bogota, Medellin Bucaramanga, Cartagena TODO! With millions of Venezuelans give permeant status by Duque, and no jobs for them or Colombians for that matter to support themselves things can only get worse. One side note. Don't trust anyone, not the people working at the reception desk of your hotel, or the vigilance in a bank, anyone because if they see you have money or are carrying anything of value they will text the bandits, give them your location and description and they will hit you in the street, which may have happened to Chicago man. I love Colombia but until they can end this surge of crime you MUST stay vigilante. Please stay safe.

I wasn't wearing the headphones. They were in my pocket and got them when they searched me. I don't mind being called stupid. And I guess I was for having my cell phone and wallet on me, as well for not calling a cab. But I saw these kids walking towards me and they didn't give off any vibe until they went into robber mode. They just got lucky to catch me walking during a break in traffic and took advantage.

As others have said, I only post to give you guys a heads up to keep your head on a swivel because things do seem a little crazier here around here on this trip. My girls are telling me to avoid centro at all costs for example.

But I think if you take cabs anytime you leave well populated areas, you should be fine. Still love this place and will be coming back.

[QUOTE=JustIncognito;2558814]I live on an island. More than 1 out of 20 people had Covid at the same time a few weeks ago. We did 1 month of night curfews, shutting businesses, not letting anyone meet with other people from different househilds, closed must businesses, and everyone was locked down unless they were outside and away from anyone from another household. We went from over 500 positive cases to 5 in 4 weeks. They lifeted the lockdown. We went to 30. Now back to 20 since the government went to businesses to check and change procedures where they though businesses could do better. The lockdown worked here.

I really think the game changer for where I live was the vaccines. And giving out the vaccines in much greater numbers-while people were locked down. It makes sense. While we weren't spreading the virus we were getting inoculated. And boom--the numbers dropped very very quickly and our systems are not overwhelmed now. They started driving into the local neighborhoods and pushing them-now more than 1/2 the island is vaccinated and its getting better each day. Of course, as more tourists come back--more virus and transmission and spread will happen. If more and more people get vaccinated-then the virus won't have anywhere to spread as much or as easily and will burn out.[/QUOTE]JI,

You are taking an effective therapy for stopping the spread of Covid (vaccines) and then mixing it with one that does not work (lockdowns). Of course, you are going to get great results if you lockdown and vaccinate, but Colombia is not doing that or at least not vaccinating nearly enough.

Thing is I got into Medellin on April 3 around when they started the lockdowns. On April 3, there were 9000+ cases. For the last 2 weeks, there have been about 17,000 cases every day, so the lockdown has been a complete failure, a total disaster.

Thing with public policy "experts" though is they never admit defeat. Even though cases have nearly doubled since the lockdown started, I can imagine what the "experts" would say. Can you imagine how bad things would be if we did nothing?

I do not know how anyone can look at this data and conclude lockdowns work. They do not. They have been utter failures everywhere they have been tried.

[QUOTE=ChicagoMan;2558528]I was walking down 43 A yesterday at 7 pm and had two young dudes walking the opposite direction suddenly pull out a gun, put it to my face, and rob me of my iphone, wallet, and headphones. I just kept my head down and handed everything over and they took off.

The police came to my airbnb and were very ashamed because when looking at the map. It was right next to the poblano police station. Maybe 200 meters from Parque poblano. Cops said they've never seen a time where robbers were so brazen.

Keep your head on a swivel! Or I guess don't walk alone at night. Obvio.

P.S. - anyone know where I can buy a cheap Iphone?[/QUOTE]The Mean Streets of Medellin. I'm sorry Chicago Man, you got robbed like that. That must have been a scary situation.

For me, I'll stay in California, at least for now.

Yep. I never carry my cell phone with me then again I'm usually in Cartegena. It's part of my relaxation process not to have that phone.

[QUOTE=ChicagoMan;2559091]I wasn't wearing the headphones. They were in my pocket and got them when they searched me. I don't mind being called stupid. And I guess I was for having my cell phone and wallet on me, as well for not calling a cab. But I saw these kids walking towards me and they didn't give off any vibe until they went into robber mode. They just got lucky to catch me walking during a break in traffic and took advantage.

As others have said, I only post to give you guys a heads up to keep your head on a swivel because things do seem a little crazier here around here on this trip. My girls are telling me to avoid centro at all costs for example.

But I think if you take cabs anytime you leave well populated areas, you should be fine. Still love this place and will be coming back.[/QUOTE]

Me and a buddy of mine have been putting off our trip to Medellin for the past couple months due to curfews / lockdowns, etc. Now that curfew has moved to 10 pm on weekdays I went ahead and pulled the trigger for June 21-28. We chose a Monday to Monday in case there is still a weekend lockdown. Will we be able to have a good time mongering if things stay the same? We plan on staying near Lleras because that seems to be close to all the action. I've only been to the. Are. And even with curfews there things were pretty much business as usual. If I were in a hotel / club 30 minutes before curfew we could stay until closing time and taxis were permitted to travel after curfew. With the taxi provisions we had no problem ordering food at night or paying a taxi to bring chicas that we met earlier in the day. Any good advice would be greatly appreciated.

[QUOTE=ChicagoMan;2559091]I wasn't wearing the headphones. They were in my pocket and got them when they searched me. I don't mind being called stupid. And I guess I was for having my cell phone and wallet on me, as well for not calling a cab. But I saw these kids walking towards me and they didn't give off any vibe until they went into robber mode. They just got lucky to catch me walking during a break in traffic and took advantage.

As others have said, I only post to give you guys a heads up to keep your head on a swivel because things do seem a little crazier here around here on this trip. My girls are telling me to avoid centro at all costs for example.

But I think if you take cabs anytime you leave well populated areas, you should be fine. Still love this place and will be coming back.[/QUOTE]I said it before and will say it again, your to be applauded for posting. It's a learning curve and and everybody does some foolish things and what happened to you came totally out of nowhere and wasn't expected. It wasn't like you were walking alone on a totally deserted road. I was with one of my Chicas last year and was walking with her during a very heavy downpour and boom two guys on a Motorcylcle puled up from behind, brandished a gun in my Chicas face and took her purse. They didn't mess with me and it happened in all of 15 seconds. So would you expect something like that during an extremely heavy downpour which is called an Aquacero, no but it happened, and now anytime I'm off somewhere by myself and see or hear a motorcycle with two guys on it, I'm ready to run.

You learned a hard lesson and are taking some flak, but I'm sure other guys newer to Colombia will learn from what happened to you. And some guys' who are afraid of their own shadow wouldn't be coming back like you or I.

[QUOTE=ChicagoMan;2559091]I wasn't wearing the headphones. They were in my pocket and got them when they searched me.[/QUOTE]And you never said that you were. Some could benefit greatly by signing up for a Reading Comprehension 101 course at their local community college. This would prevent them from sending conversations off on tangents and getting their feathers ruffled for no reason, a win win for everyone. And thank you for sharing your story.

It is time to reevaluate, without bias and wishful thinking, if it is worth visiting Colombia over other venues.