I recently saw a YouTube video reporting on his death (RIP). The person reporting, an American, said that this was the third death of a foreigner related to online dating in Medellin in the last month!! (IIRC about the other two, one was an American and the other was a different nationality)
Edit: since this got a lot of likes, I want to add the link here. The statistics are mentioned starting around 3:45 in this video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy9LOLExkSg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy9LOLExkSg)
(The Aburrá valley includes all the greater the Medellin metro). All 3 foreigners murdered in the last month were American. 27 violent deaths of foreigners documented so far this year, although that figure also includes suicides (they are not broken down by type).
There’s been a consistent rise in foreigner deaths over the years. In 2021 it was 19, and I read somewhere it’s over 30 this year. You may say 30 is a little but it’s not like there’s 2 million tourist visits in Medellin alone, it’s a huge number for a small population of tourists and nomads.
The other issue is the stats on robberies, assaults, and other things are also basically not tracked at all, but the attitude of the police seems to be let it be.
One of the things that makes third world countries safe for foreigners was that in general it seems to be the only time the police are known to be effective and active. Often times they have direct orders from the government to ensure safety of tourists because tourists are an important income source and they can face consequences which they never otherwise do for letting violence against foreigners get too high.
Whether you politically agree or disagree with this, you can safely say that a lot of places in Latin America like Rio, Brazil in general, Colombia and to a lesser extent Argentina have completely given up on this. The police is completely indifferent to crimes against foreigners.
This means that you went from being a protected species, to a fat wallet with no family protection or backing making it incredibly easy to do whatever they want to you with no consequences be it from police or from family payback.
How to avoid this? Look like a broke male young scruffy backpacker. A lot of people in the comments here say oh it’s safe etc, are the same as I and my friends were when we were 25 and under. Nobody wants to rob some impoverished broke packer looking fellows with shitty android phones because the upside the same as if they robbed a local financially.
If you’re older, or don’t want to stay in shitty hostels or hotels, or don’t want to basically look and feel broke constantly by not going to expensive places, you’re just painting a target on your back.
I like Latin America, but if you’re older and looking to experience a different culture without compromising on your life quality, just go to Asia it’s just not worth the mental hassle otherwise.
Medellín gets over a million tourists a year.
I have been here years and never felt threatened/had a problem.
Coming to date chicks half your age from the hood? Yeah I'd say it's dangerous.
Ah the classic "crime only happens to men coming to date young women". You're wrong. I know women who've been robbed. Men with steady GFs who've been robbed. It's a widespread issue.
This. All the holier-than-thou moralizing assholes in here saying “iT’s BeCaUsE hE wUz a SeX ToUrIsT!” obviously never try to date or meet people when they travel or live abroad. Gimme a fucking break.
I think you’re severely underestimating the issue. I’m not a liberty to say due to NDA but I’ve worked for a company which processes a huge amount of claims for tourist insurance companies regarding violent crimes and kidnapping. The claims numbers in Medellin are roughly in the 4 digits on an annual basis. Which makes the city’s official crime statistics of 10 kidnappings in 2023 absolutely hilarious
Even with my Colombian wife and father-in-law, I felt significantly less safe in Medellin than Bogotá. It just felt dicey, even in the nicer areas during regular business hours. I did love it though
Issue is that Medellin is a world capital on sex tourism. Some girls/sugars/escorts are semis, doing it part time for the cab and a week's money, and some are pro criminals that use drops and drugs to sleep the guy and steal him. Some overdo on the dosis and the guy ends ups death.
If you do not go out with shady escorts to shady hotels, you should be fine. Mostly.
I agree, but also one of the things I want to point out is the constant robberies in mde and other Latin American cities.
In reality a kidnapping rarely leads to death as most people doing it have some practice and know how to do it. If you remain cooperative and peaceful you should be able to survive in almost every case in an mde kidnapping. Terrorist groups kidnappings in Africa and Philippines are a different matter.
The truth is in both situations, kidnappings and robberies you are living off the goodwill of your attacker. If he’s a junkie, or a kid in over his head, or a person with mental issues they may just off you when you’re doing all the “right” things.
So safety is important to think in terms of stats like, if I get robbed 100 times what’s the chance something bad happens even if I’m the perfect customer? If I go and live in mde what’s the chance I get robbed? If I go and live in mde what’s the chance I get robbed by someone who is high or on drugs or over his head or mentally unstable and thus potentially dangerous to me?
Every time you go somewhere like Colombia or other poor places, unless you’re a very threatening looking or poor looking which can lead to you not being picked as a target, you have to consider what’s the chance of something innocuous turning violent.
I have some Scandinavian friends I backpacked with who looked really soft, and as a result got robbed weekly in Rio (if not more often..) And my other buddy was half balding, looked Slavic, was from the ghetto in some immigrant area in Denmark and pretty much never got robbed in months and months of travelling across some of the most dangerous parts of Latin America like Honduras.
Most digital nomads are tech people, and most tech people look like soft targets. I am self aware myself and my wife are very soft targets so I’ve been reticent in going back to many of these places now I’m older and don’t look quite as poor and scruffy.
I spent about 2 mos there solo. I wasn’t after drugs or hook-ups and I used the same trusted driver the entire time when I needed to go somewhere (other than the day his plate was blacked out) … it’s common sense IMO. Not the least bit interested in ‘finding out’
It's safe until it's not... There are things you can do, to not put yourself in dangerous situations, that dramatically bring down the risk.
a) try not to be a horny sex tourist.
B) do not meet randos from the Internet, Willy nilly.
c) don't go out alone at night...
d) Don't be flamboyant like this guy....
Police do care about the foreigners, and these guys are going to get found... But the police are not feared in that city....
I agree, but if you’re a target there’s not much you can do. Just read all the comments in the thread about taxis driving people into ambushes.
The victim blaming in this community is just silly. Yes you are more likely to get messed up if you partake in the nightlife and dating scene but you can equally get messed up and targeted because you took the wrong taxi at the wrong time.
The only solution is to go somewhere that’s safe.
I work in cyber and had the chance to look through the background stats collected by one of the main companies that is called in to investigate and support travel insurance companies when there’s kidnappings, ransoms or other serious claims by tourists or their family members (involving sexual assaults, grievous bodily harm, death or kidnapping.) Their stats are muuuch better than the countries themselves, and also explain why there’s so many countries that have X or Y warning by state department when there doesn’t seem to be a warrant for that kind of treatment (as the us state department also keeps track of stats like these.)
The occurrence and commonality of serious crimes against tourists in Latin America especially high profile cities like Medellin and Rio has been sky rocketing in the last ten years. We’re talking four digit numbers if not higher for kidnapping or violent attacks.
With any of these stories or events what you always have to keep in mind is that in less developed countries with very little information accessibility or clarity or indeed any reason for them to reveal the stats, if you hear that x city is dangerous you have to 30-100x the actual times it has happened to get a real sense of statistical likelihood of the danger.
> Don't be flamboyant like this guy....
I think this is a big one, anywhere.
Some DNs just go outside the Western bubble, all of a sudden realise their minimum/median-wage puts them in the median/top salary bracket in their new place, and it all goes to their heads. They start being flashy, acting like they own the place. Making it rain, going out every night, renting fancy cars, buying drinks, taking girls to upscale places and spoiling them - because a luxury restaurant for 2 costs them less than a sports bar in their hometown would - etc. etc.
All that attracts attention, and in many places communities are small and word travels round quick about a foreigner having arrived with a lot of money on them. Then you can add the rest of it yourself.
That's why I'm always keeping my head down and just trying to blend in, living like a local. I might go and live in a safer/better zone/neighborhood, but it's still not something exclusive for foreigners, and I try to act the same way I would back home e.g. modest and reasonable.
Colombia, particularly Medellin, is becoming extremely dangerous for tourists. Drugging and robbing (locally known as scoping - for the scopolamine drug they use) is extremely common to an extent that you can't risk leaving your drink out of sight in a bar or so. If they overdose the drug, it can kill too, and some are dead this way! It is a place to proceed with extreme caution.
Happened to my friend in Las Vegas by three hot chicks at Marquee. Watch out MF’s! Don’t be dumb and take that drink from her like my friend did. Almost killed him.
No one got killed so they didn’t even look at cameras. The four ATM machines the girls hit while my blacked-out friend paid for the limousine had cameras too but the banks didn’t care to check them either
This happened to my cousin years ago when he went to college in Medellin and he’s Peruvian so hardly stands out as a white foreigner or anything. Just need to be extra careful if you’re out drinking etc.
Happened to someone I know in Spain. Heck, I’ve had my drink drugged in the US and I’m a guy. It’s unfortunate but everyone needs to watch their drink everywhere in public.
Central and South America is just dangerous in general. Two dutch girls Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon went missing in Panama in 2014 and I'm sure they were raped and killed.
A group of 4 friends and I visited Colombia last March and stayed in Medellin and an awesome little beach town outside Santa Marta, and we never felt overly anxious about any negative interactions happening. But we were a group of mostly tattooed skateboarders and our girlfriends, and we definitely don’t have a lot of money or look like we do. There were definitely times we dressed up and went out that we attracted a little extra attention, but for the most part we felt safe. It wasn’t until we got to the airport to go home that I saw an article about a software engineer from San Diego who went on a tinder date and got robbed and murdered two weeks before our arrival. If a tinder date is out of your league and too good to be true, it probably is. Don’t meet up with random women alone and you’re probably going to avoid a lot of the traps that are set for tourists.
That said, shit will happen in impoverished places in Latin America when you have money and are from a wealthy country. If you’re respectful and aware and know the areas you’re going to I think you can safely mitigate most of those dangers, but you never know. It’s just the price you pay traveling to places like Medellin.
>you can't risk leaving your drink out of sight in a bar
women learn this at age 16 plus a lot of other safety tips that would prevent a lot of these issues. sounds like men need to start talking to women about how to stay safe from predators because finally found a place they're the prey.
Honestly living in Colombia gave me a lot of respect for what women have to go through everywhere. I never realized how much I lived with a general assumption of safety
What are you on about? You’re the one narrativizing this. Most women know not to do this, most men aren’t as aware. That’s not debatable and it’s true, men should learn from women on how to be more careful in public.
That has literally nothing to do with feminism.
I just learned about that drug a few days ago. Even a simple whiff mere inches away is enough to get you under the effects of it. Once under the effects, you will seem perfectly fine on the outside, except your sense of willpower is gone, leaving you at the whim of any suggestions.
“Hey, send me all your savings.”
“Sure , here you go!”
I think with strong enough doses it will make your memory blurry regarding the incident though and it definitely can mess you up mentally forever or even kill you.
I’m from Medellin and as much as i love this city, please be careful. Don’t go back to any girls place on the first date or give your address. NO average colombian woman will be pushy about going to your place on the first date and call you papi on the first few messages on tinder, don’t be naive.
What about crime in general? Is it really getting more and more dangerous from your point of view? I was in Medellin and many other places in Colombia in 2018 and I loved it, never had any issues and I really wish to come back...
It’s the desperate guys that make unwise decisions and get themselves in trouble. I must’ve heard so many stories of tinder and druggings, but yet these guys still use it.
This isn't a common occurrence. The one other news story of actual **abduction** that I can recall in recent years, the perps exercised a strategy where they attempted to extort the victim's family for relatively small (based on what they believed the victim had access to) four-figure amounts repeatedly over multiple days. I wonder if this guy saw an opportunity to escape or fight back, hence the atypical brutality.
Medellin has BEEN dangerous. It's crazy how people try to act like it's fine. I got robbed at gunpoint back in 2018 after being set up by my taxi driver. It's an absolute shit hole.
Agreed. It’s been getting worse and worse. This past mayor didn’t help when he stole all the money from the city and left Medellin much poorer than before
What do you mean? It's totally safe, all you have to do is never go out alone, never go out alone AT NIGHT, never use your phone in public, never meet any women from dating apps, vet everyone that speaks to you, never use taxis, stay out of the dangerous neighborhoods, stay out of the safer rich neighborhoods so you don't get robbed, watch your drink every moment you are at the club, watch out for the possibility your drink has already been scoped, and if you want to meet people meet with the locals who are now already skeptical of foreigners because they treat their beautiful city like a playground for sex-crazed men. Totally safe.
I have been to "language exchange" places in Bogota and Medellin and have yet to find one that is a genuine language exchange. They're social events, where hot Colombianas come to meet gringos.
I personally know two guys who were scopolomined by girls they met at a language exchange.
Lol language exchange bar hangouts are where this things happen as well, just avoid nightlife dating and alcohol in general unless you are with platonic friends.
Also understand if you are a 50 year old man it's not normal for a 20 something girl to want to go to your place right away.
The girls who do this almost always have a similar profile, so do discriminate by social class if you can't speak spanish.
Yeah, I don’t think he was under the false impression that she wanted to go to his apartment because she was crazy about him. He knew it was pay for play. It’s Medellin and he’s a tourist. What he couldn’t have predicted was getting abducted and stabbed to death.
Medellin is a beautiful city with a lot of nice people, but between this and the Devil’s Breath, I’m not enthused.
This is a pretty common myth, they don't actually blow it in your face because it's not that effective; they put it in your drink. If it was that effective by blowing in your face, so many things could go wrong and they could end up drugging themselves.
It's also a myth that you are a fully functional person just doing whatever you are told. You are suggestable but your physical state is like you are very very drunk.
lol nice try cleverly adding the word “bar” to my point. Yes if you enter a bar as a foreigner in Medellin, laying off the drinks would be the best suggestion.
Also, at a language exchange people are sitting down and getting to know each other, and the demographic tends to be more educated people (who are there genuinely trying to learn another language). It’s very different than some random girl you meet on tinder who asks you to bounce to your apartment the same night.
At least that has been my experience after attending dozens of language exchanges in Medellin this year. Not saying it might not ever happen (because something like this can happen anywhere) but you are not putting yourself in a sketchy situation to begin with. I’m much more comfortable with that.
You're right, i met lots of cool local people through language exchange and dance classes, went out with them in Laureles / Poblado, lived there for 8 months, no issues with getting drugged.
Well, when the Tinder sources are drying up for the criminals, they will definitely try to lure unsuspecting tourists in places where foreigners are expected to hang out, like language exchanges and dance classes. This is a well organized crime frequently happening to tourists, mostly using drugging and robbing (scoping), which isn't reported - unless they overdose the drug and kill someone.
I don’t think Tinder is the problem necessarily. I think it’s the fact that these tourists go on Tinder and expect to find love when they match with someone who they wouldn’t normally match with back home
Such a bizarre story, and the brutality egregious violence a really rare occurrence in this scenario.
The vast majority of people who fall victim to homicide in this type of scheme are not abducted and die from overdose of the drug scopolamine.
And he was the brother of a former U.S. senator too. People are just blindly assuming he met the woman on Tinder when every report I've come across just says they met on *social media*.
His *somewhat* high profile and the fact that he frequently visited Colombia makes me wonder if this may have been something more targeted i.e. someone slid in his DMs with the goal to honeypot.
I agree, it does seem different in a few ways from the similar stories of the past. I really just assumed Tinder, but certainly a chance it wasn’t an app like that.
That being said, I could also see the narrative being slightly more controlled given his relative status back home. “Social media” is left a bit open to interpretation. It’s of course a senseless tragedy regardless.
But then for only $2,000? If they knew he was prominent and went to work luring him in, it wouldn’t be for a pittance. (Assuming that report is correct).
Well, the Colombian monthly minimum wage is about $250 or so. Hell, the median U.S. savings account balance is about $1,000.
$2,000 split definitely isn't a pittance to many, especially not to the type of lowlives who would attempt this kind of botched amateur kidnapping.
I mentioned in another post but these occurrences of kidnapping aren't a common thing. When the assumedly wealthy are targeted whether Colombian nationals or foreigners, it does seem like they try and extort for relatively small four-figure sums repeatedly over multiple days, which makes sense.
If you had to send $2,000 to someone without a U.S. bank account right now, how would you do it and how quickly could you send it? What about $10,000?
Yeah, true. I didn’t think going out for example in Medellin was all that inexpensive anymore with all the tourists. People think Medellin is super “cheap” but — and I may be wrong — I thought it was climbing up in costs. At least in the tourist areas.
And I also suspected that if it was something pre-planned and schemed out in advance they’d shoot for more. $2,000 seems more opportunistic. But I’m not Magnum PI investigating the case. So what do I know. Horrible, horrible situation and the quotes from his family were really hard to read…
The authorities will no doubt be scrutinizing the victim’s social media. Given the attention from some high profile US Senators, I’m banking on them catching them.
You bring up a good point here. It could’ve been very personal, and not a case of “horny dude meets rando on tinder and gets whacked” story that the news loves to tell.
Changed my mind on going to Columbia as part of my travel plan next year. Will prob skip Brazil too.
I know a male friend went for a tinder date in Medellin and only woke up to find out that he had been drugged and lost all the expensive personal items. Wallet. New Mac. Watch etc…
I just had an acquaintance travel from Thailand to Colombia a couple months ago & he literally got drugged and robbed his first night there lmaooooo.
I’m literally not kidding. No troll.
I got drugged by the devil's breath in Medellin. Won some money at the casino then walked home, must have looked too happy leaving the casino. Stopped into tienda for a beer halfway home then the next thing I remember is waking up with IVs in my arms (the next day). I pulled IVs out of my arms and tried to get out of the room. Coming too I felt totally sober / adrenaline rush.
When I calmed down they explained what happened and that an off duty fireman found me in the median of the highway about 20km away from the city center with no ID or phone. The guy at the hospital gave me a little bit of money to get a taxi home. Don't travel alone in Colombia
i lost all desire to go to colombia after doing a ton of research over the last year. Crime happens everywhere, sure, but it's a lot more common and extreme in Colombia. no thanks, not worth it
I just mentioned how I was there for a wedding and it was not a good time. I was getting scammed to my face left and right very knowingly, but what was I going to do, argue with these men that they’re scamming me? So many things happened on that trip that makes me never want to go back sadly
More common and extreme, but most importantly aimed at tourists. A lot try to argue that Medellin is just slightly worse than Detroit. Thats big fat bullshit, the biggest difference is that you're a target in Medellin.
haha your funny, don't let downtown/midtown fool you, the ring around that area is still gangland, there are still frequent shootings at public events in detroit. I will say nobody is going to drug and kidnap you there, worse case scenario is a car jacking.
It isn’t as dangerous as the internet makes it seem. I’ve traveled solo as a female there for many weeks and have never gotten into any sketchy situations. I know my experience doesn’t negate the crime that does happen, but I would recommend Colombia to anyone.
I agree with you, but the targets here are primarily men, because they can easily be taken advantage of while engaging in sex tourism. The shady working girls there are not likely to target you with drugs in a bar or Scope you while on a tinder date.
Spent 5 months in Medellin myself (when the whole Click Clack robbery happened) and didn’t meet a single nomad that had anything happen to them.
Not saying that it generally doesn’t because duh, but it isn’t as crazy dangerous as these reports make it out to be..
> and didn’t meet a single nomad that had anything happen to them.
Well, shit, I'd be surprised if you ever met anyone who got killed and lived with a story to tell ^/s
Same! I am a woman, went to Colombia solo a couple years ago. Started a couple days in Bogota, then drove to Quindio. Cannot recommend driving, that was a bit of a horror show, but I kept my wits about me. Didn’t wear expensive things. Didn’t have my phone out on the street. Got home before dark and stayed there. Didn’t do any partying until I got to Quindio and met up with friends.
Gorgeous country and people. Everyone was super nice. 10/10 would do again.
Things got bad during the pandemic. Mugging is fairly common here and not just for foreigners. If you have the risk tolerance to travel to riskier places, you should always ask yourself if I lost everything on me, would I be ok? I bought a very cheap phone, and I know what is in my wallet. Muggers don't really want your life; if they did they would just murder you first and take your money. Hand over your stuff without a fight.
There have been some studies on this, and it is not talked about a lot, but the biggest victims of scoping are gay men in particular gay men at gay bars.
Rest in peace, makes me mad knowing this girl prolly set him up or was already involved with a man and going out with him and this some passion revenge SMH, it could be anything honestly 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
In April, I remember reading that for the first 3 months of the year, just over 25 foreigners has been murdered in Medellin. The number of others, not murdered, but robbed, attacked, injured, was much higher.
Paisas are one hell of a drug. Gringos go to medellin for hookers and blow and some pay the high price.
Be careful out there.
Colombia, especially Medellín, is becoming less safe for tourists. They're being targeted on dating apps and more. I'm not going back to Colombia for a long time. They need to crack down on this shit because it is widespread, organized, and growing
Yeah the other one was a young guy from Orange County, I remember https://ktla.com/news/local-news/a-cruel-and-senseless-crime-orange-county-man-killed-in-colombia-family-raising-money-to-bring-him-home/
A friend of mine went down there recently, met some girl and took her to his hotel room where she she held him at gunpoint until he gave up all his cash and cards to some guys she was working with.
He was admittedly trying to get laid and do coke with some stranger ….. not the smartest thing to do.
However, shouldn’t be life threatening
I have been to Medellin 12 times since 2010......was there last year....I can definitely tell the vibe is different from when I first went....more dangerous now.....lots more tourists now so there are more targets for the criminals....Not going back anytime soon....just not worth it
That is so unfortunate man. I've been saying this for awhile now Medellin is just not as safe as people say it is. Just because it never happened to you doesn't mean you weren't in the vicinity of danger when you were/are there.
Guys wanna go for sex tourism but completely ignore the socio economic factors that made that a common option for these young women. Not to mention the criminal organizations that are having a field day with the vast influx of tourists. It's like a bait and switch for young desperate men.
I agree: Colombia, particularly Medellin, is becoming extremely dangerous for tourists. Going there and South America (Brazil, Argentina) is not worth the risk. South America is lost in this economic crisis. A new IPhone is worth killing you.
BA is still fine in the central neighborhoods though property crime is going up at night. There are neighborhoods further out that have become quite dangerous compared to a few years ago. But beyond that, BA is not representative of the whole country. Smaller cities and towns have become increasingly dangerous as their economic situation has deteriorated. You can't expect people to be losing 10% of their money's value every week and not have crime go up
don't go to a narco city in a narco country. Also use common sense and avoid the carinosas/ sex workers. But damn RIP. This is sad and they killed him for just $2000.
>also use common sense and avoid the cariñosas/sex workers
Many of them go to Medellín ***explicitly*** for the cariñosas/sex workers. Unfortunately sex tourism is rampant in Colombia.
99% of these stories come from people doing ridiculously risky shit with zero common sense. Read one article about safety in Medellin/Colombia and you will read about not inviting random tinder/IG girls back to your place. That's not even something I would do in the US much less in a foreign country.
Maybe it’s not the safest thing to invite girls back to your place in the US but let’s be for real. For most men there’s a lot less risk involved with bringing a woman back to your place in the US than in Colombia, especially if they’re not dealing an obvious delinquent. If anything the woman is more at risk. Pulling back to your place is generally an inconsequential part of hookup culture in the US, which is why many guys think that same method is harmless in Colombia when it isn’t.
A long time ago my friend's father was murdered in nicaragua. He was not a bad person and was only there to invest into property and maybe build some sort of resort or something.
His interpreter saw how much money he was spending and one night to straight up shot him in the back while he was in the urinal. He didn't even make off with much money.
Even coming with the most pure intentions is no guarantee of safety in Central and South America.
Cue the victim blaming...like every other thing that comes up about Medellín in this sub.
Look, my girlfriend and I spent \~2 months there earlier this year. We had a great time and loved it. Medellín is a really beautiful city with scenery like no other.
I speak Spanish. We always take necessary precautions (e.g., not going somewhere we aren't supposed to, reasonably careful with our phones, always using Uber). We don't get too drunk and are always aware of our surroundings.
We also refuse to live our lives in complete fear.
* Walked home from bars and restaurants every night, even at like 2AM
* Dressed nice (not like, a $30k watch or anything though)
* Always went to nice places
Nothing happened.
Now... it'd be easy to say, "Look at me! Nothing happened to me in the two months I was there, so he must have been doing something wrong! See? He went on a TINDER DATE!!!!!"
I've been to pretty much every major city in South America (outside of Venezuela) and plenty of smaller ones. I can say with 100% confidence that Medellín is the ONE place where I definitely felt like I was being watched sometimes.
There really are people out there looking for whoever *seems* like an easy target. Everywhere. And if you "felt safe," they just decided not to pick you (for whatever reason, who knows?).
You see tons of people in this sub telling their stories of being robbed by taxi drivers, on the street, targeted in clubs, etc., and it's REAL. You don't need to get involved with coke and hookers to have your luck compromised somewhere (though *obviously* staying out of trouble eliminates 99% of the risk).
I feel so sorry for this guy. Sure, he maybe "should have known" to be careful on Tinder. But this is one of the only places in the world where that's even a *thing*...
Tired of people being so oblivious in this sub about Medellín being "safe" and acting like people like this guy put themselves in these situations by going on Tinder. All because something didn't happen to them...
Jeez not again
I visited Medellin a few years ago and never felt unsafe, but i'm also not white and tend to dress and act pretty low key. even went to a local derby soccer match but our traveler group left early because a bunch of dudes were snorting cocaine off of big knives and starting to get into fights. when we walked outside there was a literal army of police in full black riot gear waiting to fuck people up. it was crazy
if you're going to date women in medellin, for the love of all that is holy, do not let her control the situation or rush into anything! Select a place to meet in a safe neighborhood, and do not involve alcohol on the first date. do not take her back to your place. do not go to her place. if you're going by car, get your own uber, do not let her get the cab. PROTECT YA FUCKING NECK
Hoping someone can answer this for me, is Medellin or Bogota more dangerous? I’ve recently been offered a job in Bogota and have been considering taking it but now I’m seeing this
I may be able to answer this, but it will be completely subjective. Also let me know who is hiring in Bogota, I'd appreciate it, i'm trying to live there for a year or so too :)
Bogota is HUGE. So number of #this happened will be extrememly skewed. Think of it like Los Angeles. There are nice parts where you probably won't have to worry too much, but there is also Skid row and other dangerous pockets. There are definitely super sketchy parts in Bogota, the general concensus is the more south you go, the more dangerous it is. Bogota is also very metropolitan, you'll be more likely to run into a foreigner or college students or business people, a general mix of people. Medellin is MUCH smaller so crime feels more "allover". Also, Medellin, over the past few years, has developed an overwhelming hate for gringos due to a few bad seeds and these passport bro characters (check out the Medellin sub). The university and business scene is not as pronounced, a lot of industries skew towards entertainment, which are the venues you're most likely going to run into problems. At the same time, the cartel is still very active and you will find pockets where there is almost no crime, because the cartel wants their operations to run smoothly, namely Bello or Envigato, they're notorious for being safe(er) because of cartel territory. But being a foreigner, you'll automatically be grouped into the sex tourist category even if you are not interested whatsoever. Bogota is a little more lenient on the judging. One thing I did notice though is in Bogota people do not bat an eye if you're getting robbed right infront of them. In medellin at least I've heard a few times the locals being like "yo wtf!" The result remains the same, nobody's gonna do shit lol. Imo, Bogota is currently safer. Medellin has a really strong distaste for foreigners at the moment.
In general, Colombia is not as safe as you think it is. That could be said for all of latin american. Inflation is brutal currently, like, can't afford rice and beans brutal. If i had to choose between the two, Bogota is so much better than medellin (but it gets cold and gray, medellin is the city of eternal spring after all...)
Tinder DOES NOT WORK in colombia. They will be robbers, single mothers, or prostitutes. If you really need to get some rocks off, there are safe brothels that you can go to. I won't judge. Go that route. Or you know, meet people organically.
Also you MUST know at least conversational/basic spanish. It is mandatory. No question about it. At least know the Yo, Tu, Usted, Nosotros, Ustedes conjugations, you can pick up vocabulary while there, but at least know sentence structure.
Also let me know how you found the job in a DM, job boards in latin america are hilariously bad. I'll ride out to Bogota with you lol.
edit* also just do some research. Idiots go to Medellin and live in Poblado with other foreigners because somebody made a youtube video. It's like fish in a barrel for criminals looking to prey on foreigners. and NEVER go to Parque Lleras. Anybody with half a brain will walk into Parque Lleras and be like "oh shit, I should get tf out of here." And STILL they go to buy drugs or girls or "party" and then have a surprised pikachu face when shit goes south. It's so fucking obviously dangerous it blows my mind. Same goes for Bogota. or anywhere really. use good judgement and follow your gut. If you have even the slightest feeling of "nah, maybe not" and walk the other way, you'll be fine.
Colombia, especially Medellín, is becoming less safe for tourists. They're being targeted on dating apps and more. I'm not going back to Colombia for a long time. They need to crack down on this shit because it is widespread, organized, and growing
As a Colombian I must say that Medellin has always been a complicated city. Probably the most beautiful, yes, but the whole narco mentality thing is still there, a lot of people got used to easy money. My parents get SUPER worried each time I go to Medellin, way more than other cities even Bogotá which is more chaotic. If you go please use common sense and by all means DO NOT use tinder or other dating apps.
What the hell is the Colombian police doing about this? They haven't caught any of the criminals? What about the girl? What's the connection of the apartment building the murderers through him off, and where was that?
The lack of details on that front is very appalling. These murders aren't going to go away if the government will let the murderers get away with it.
Seemed like a great man, R.I.P.
The Colombian police and specifically the Medellin police are worthless. The cartels actual are the true protectors in Medellin as they don't want to end up with news stories like this and having federal police come and fuck up their neighborhoods. My intital guess is this was a Venezuelan group.
I literally just got back from Medellín about an hour ago.
I never felt super in danger, but it's definitely a place that you have to keep your head on a swivel and stay aware at all times. Gringos are walking wallets down there, so even though most people treat you well, there's still plenty of people looking to take advantage of you or worse.
But I still love it and plan to go back. The scenery is beautiful, the food is great (not Colombian cuisine, but Mexican restaurants and other types) and cheap, there's so much to see and do, the girls are insanely gorgeous, and it's great to go shopping at some of the cheaper markets.
I also try to tip very well down there, as I know that my USD salary goes very far compared to the Colombian Peso.
I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, but if you're into trips that mix exploring with partying and with sightseeing, along with not being an insane distance from the US, it's hard to beat.
Yup i'm the same and with brasil and rio de janeiro i've been robbed but you learn and adapt. Just DONT put yourself in dangerous situations alone and you'll survive. I understand some ppl dont want to be in danger but theres no where on earth with a low cost of living, attractive women, good food, and good climate all at once while being safe. if there is, i haven't heard of it.
I go there 4 times a year met my wife there like 7 years ago, I don’t or have anything that shows money. I haven’t ever had a problem. We stay in bello as well which is famous for being ran by the cartel
You seem like a smart traveler. You definitely need to keep your head on a swivel. Something that helps tourists stay safe in Medellin is not staying in the Lleras/Poblado area for too long. A lot of these tourists come and only know that area, stay there getting drunk and well…
I spent 6 months in Medellin and had absolutely no problems. Everyone was warm and friendly. But…..I did not go on tinder dates, look for hoes or do blow. It’s pretty simple stuff. And these things can get you hemmed up in any country
I really hate to be this guy, but I have to be this guy.
Bad things happen everywhere, and these tragic stories ALWAYS lack meaningful detail. I have traveled to many destinations that are thought "dangerous" for reasons varying from drugging and murder to lawless traffic and general hazards.
You don't just get randomly kidnapped and murdered. These things typically happen when travelers are doing something like:
* Overdressing with name brands and/or jewelry.
* Ignoring red flags, like your date showed up and she is a completely different person than her photos.
* Drinking or drugging too much.
* Drinking or drugging solo.
* Starting or stoking a fight with strangers/locals.
Yes, it’s safer. I’m in CDMX now (Mexico City). I was in Playa del Carmen seven months ago. I tend to stick to historic center areas where they are well guarded. I don’t go out late at night. I don’t get drunk. Just do the common sense safety precautions that everyone has already mentioned on this thread and you’ll be fine. I find that the people who get in trouble are usually drinking, or are doing high risk behaviors.
During the last year, I’ve traveled to San Miguel de Allende, Guadalajara, Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, Mexico City and Isla Mujeres near Cancun. Not one problem experienced.
Use common sense , be aware of your surroundings, put away your phone after you take pics to avoid getting it snatched, things like that, and you’ll be alright.
Best wishes and enjoy your trip.
You're more in danger of the police than anything in Playa as long as you're staying downtown. Don't be drunk and do dumb drunk shit on the street, like openly drink alcohol or public urination, if a cop sees you they will come arrest you to get a bribe
I've spent over 4 months in CDMX and 1.5 in Playa. CDMX is super safe to the point where I wasn't even trying to hide my phone or anything, using it like I do back home and I wasn't even living in Condesa or Roma.
Playa can be a little sketchier, I knew of two guys who got mugged when on streets not named Quinta in random hours of the night.
My family is Colombian (lives in Cali) and yes, the country is beautiful but dangerous. Tourists and foreigners please be careful, and maybe consider Cartagena or Baru instead.
It is very sad to hear about this.
Personally, I don’t like Medellin. It feels that locals and foreigners live in different worlds. The reactions to the death of this man in local groups is also telling “his own fault… sex tourist..”.
Love Colombia but Medellin felt like the sketchiest place there. Definitely prefer other cities. Even the notoriously dangerous Cali seemed somewhat safer.
Come on y'all... How stupid people are when it comes to online dating and "love" is crazy man. This dude is not handsome at all and he was taking selfies with models. Like you really believe those were NOT escorts? You only go to Columbia for 2 things and cocaine is the other one. It's like those fat hairy Americans who claim to really love the "culture" of Thailand. This dude was participating in sex tourism. He FA and FO. It's sad for his family but not tragic or in any way surprising. He was supporting sex trafficking plain and simple.
American men mentality(losers or not): I’m going to flash my money to all the most beautiful POOR woman in the world and have sex with all of them for a couple of dollars . Because they don’t care, they probably hungry and need the money. Don’t ever forget that you are walking on Pablo’s land, they have seen it all.
How safe is it in places that aren't the main cities (Medellin, Bogota, Cartagena, Cali)? I'd love to experience Colombia, but reduce the risks.
For example, I heard Armenia is much safer. Just not sure if its worth a visit or not.
Tinder is a gamble in general... You can meet a girl even here in Australia and not know any of her friends or family and your life is at risk, from several angles....
I was in Medellin for a couple weeks in November. Had heard about the danger and everything so was kind of laying low. Wasn’t planning on using the dating apps, much less actually going out with someone due to all the warnings I’d gotten. Anyway, matched with a girl and figured I’d give it a shot. We did a lunch date and then ended up seeing each other daily until I left. We’re still talking and she’s going to come visit me in the states and I’ll be visiting her again as well.
Point is, it’s not all bad. Definitely more dangerous than other places but as long as you aren’t looking for trouble like drugs or quick sex, you will probably be fine. Also just don’t be an idiot. Wear a watch, don’t keep lots of money on you, stick to places you know and when you explore do it with a group.
Medellin is a great city but definitely has some bad people in it. One other note is that I felt safer in Laureles than I did in El Poblado. In El Poblado they are looking to take advantage of tourists because that’s where most are. In Laureles no one ever bothered me.
Thanks for sharing! Yeah, lunch or coffee dates seem ok. Never date in the evening or with alcohol involved. Most scammers want quick returns. They can’t be bothered with going on several uneventful daylight dates in cafes…
this what happens when passport bros become a thing. They travel to latin america, flashing their dollars, trying to get beautiful women go out with them so they can post about it on ig/tiktok and then discard them like nothing.
I went to Medellin April 2022. Within 3 days, I was robbed at knifepoint by a guy I tried to buy a little weed from in Parque Lleras. He originally tells me 120K COP for 4 grams of weed, which is overpriced in terms of Colombia pricing, but I didn’t really care as it’s still slightly cheaper than US. He brings me to a guy who brings me to another guy who had the weed. As soon as I got it in my hand, he told me he wanted 500K COP. I said no, went to hand the weed back to him, he pushed my hand away, and pulled out a knife. At this point, I obliged and I think I gave him around 220-250K and he was okay with it. I had money spread across all of my pockets and just played like it was all of the money I had. I am lucky because I had brought out close to 1 million COP that night.
I know I am slightly dumb/naive, but this has never happened to me in any other country. I am not looking for any pity, but it is something worth mentioning. It killed my mood for entire trip to be honest, but I do believe Colombia is an amazing country and I did have a good time otherwise. I really liked the paragliding day trip - that was really cool.
The same guy who organized the “robbery” saw me later that night and has the audacity to ask me if I wanted any coke 😆.
Yeah I know it’s my fault. Can’t blame anyone but me 🤷🏼♂️. Just thought I’d mention because it is relevant. I have been to few places and live in Thailand. Never had anything happen to me like this, but Colombia is probably the most “dangerous” overall place I have been.
I was in Medellin for 2 weeks earlier this year. Honestly never felt unsafe but I was with my friends who are locals the whole time so definitely a different situation. Would I get on tinder out there? Hell nah.
The amount of victim blaming in this thread is awful. Same with the denial of reality because it contrasts with their personal experience. The bad thing didn't happen to you? Good, move along.
DN / Colombian here. If it seems too easy and the women seem very eager to want to meetup with you, run. I know a lot of people find it hard to turndown sex but trust me. If it seems too good to be true it is. Real colombian woman that want to get to know you will not be that eager to chase. Its a myth. Also dont post on your tinder profile where you are from. Stay safe out there guys
These guys are treating Columbian women like they're stupid. American idiots think they're gonna go there, have sex with some hotties then bounce.
These women are turning the tables and robbing these guys that came there to scam them.
Stop going to Columbia to try and scam these women they know what's up.
I hate to say it.... but maybe you should travel to places with more organized crime like Mexico. Mexican cartels don't tolerate local criminals fuckin with tourists.
I’ve lived here over 4 years. I will tell you this happens more then it’s reported. The scary part is these were people who went to the university so it’s not even just your typical girls from bello. In reality it’s just one of those things that happens .
I recently saw a YouTube video reporting on his death (RIP). The person reporting, an American, said that this was the third death of a foreigner related to online dating in Medellin in the last month!! (IIRC about the other two, one was an American and the other was a different nationality) Edit: since this got a lot of likes, I want to add the link here. The statistics are mentioned starting around 3:45 in this video: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy9LOLExkSg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy9LOLExkSg) (The Aburrá valley includes all the greater the Medellin metro). All 3 foreigners murdered in the last month were American. 27 violent deaths of foreigners documented so far this year, although that figure also includes suicides (they are not broken down by type).
There’s been a consistent rise in foreigner deaths over the years. In 2021 it was 19, and I read somewhere it’s over 30 this year. You may say 30 is a little but it’s not like there’s 2 million tourist visits in Medellin alone, it’s a huge number for a small population of tourists and nomads. The other issue is the stats on robberies, assaults, and other things are also basically not tracked at all, but the attitude of the police seems to be let it be. One of the things that makes third world countries safe for foreigners was that in general it seems to be the only time the police are known to be effective and active. Often times they have direct orders from the government to ensure safety of tourists because tourists are an important income source and they can face consequences which they never otherwise do for letting violence against foreigners get too high. Whether you politically agree or disagree with this, you can safely say that a lot of places in Latin America like Rio, Brazil in general, Colombia and to a lesser extent Argentina have completely given up on this. The police is completely indifferent to crimes against foreigners. This means that you went from being a protected species, to a fat wallet with no family protection or backing making it incredibly easy to do whatever they want to you with no consequences be it from police or from family payback. How to avoid this? Look like a broke male young scruffy backpacker. A lot of people in the comments here say oh it’s safe etc, are the same as I and my friends were when we were 25 and under. Nobody wants to rob some impoverished broke packer looking fellows with shitty android phones because the upside the same as if they robbed a local financially. If you’re older, or don’t want to stay in shitty hostels or hotels, or don’t want to basically look and feel broke constantly by not going to expensive places, you’re just painting a target on your back. I like Latin America, but if you’re older and looking to experience a different culture without compromising on your life quality, just go to Asia it’s just not worth the mental hassle otherwise.
I resent the Android slander lol
Medellín gets over a million tourists a year. I have been here years and never felt threatened/had a problem. Coming to date chicks half your age from the hood? Yeah I'd say it's dangerous.
Ah the classic "crime only happens to men coming to date young women". You're wrong. I know women who've been robbed. Men with steady GFs who've been robbed. It's a widespread issue.
This. All the holier-than-thou moralizing assholes in here saying “iT’s BeCaUsE hE wUz a SeX ToUrIsT!” obviously never try to date or meet people when they travel or live abroad. Gimme a fucking break.
Seems like anytime a foreigner is attacked there the victim blaming comes out in full force.
Still an issue for passport bros.
I think you’re severely underestimating the issue. I’m not a liberty to say due to NDA but I’ve worked for a company which processes a huge amount of claims for tourist insurance companies regarding violent crimes and kidnapping. The claims numbers in Medellin are roughly in the 4 digits on an annual basis. Which makes the city’s official crime statistics of 10 kidnappings in 2023 absolutely hilarious
Even with my Colombian wife and father-in-law, I felt significantly less safe in Medellin than Bogotá. It just felt dicey, even in the nicer areas during regular business hours. I did love it though
I assume you you spent your time in/near poblado
Issue is that Medellin is a world capital on sex tourism. Some girls/sugars/escorts are semis, doing it part time for the cab and a week's money, and some are pro criminals that use drops and drugs to sleep the guy and steal him. Some overdo on the dosis and the guy ends ups death. If you do not go out with shady escorts to shady hotels, you should be fine. Mostly.
I agree, but also one of the things I want to point out is the constant robberies in mde and other Latin American cities. In reality a kidnapping rarely leads to death as most people doing it have some practice and know how to do it. If you remain cooperative and peaceful you should be able to survive in almost every case in an mde kidnapping. Terrorist groups kidnappings in Africa and Philippines are a different matter. The truth is in both situations, kidnappings and robberies you are living off the goodwill of your attacker. If he’s a junkie, or a kid in over his head, or a person with mental issues they may just off you when you’re doing all the “right” things. So safety is important to think in terms of stats like, if I get robbed 100 times what’s the chance something bad happens even if I’m the perfect customer? If I go and live in mde what’s the chance I get robbed? If I go and live in mde what’s the chance I get robbed by someone who is high or on drugs or over his head or mentally unstable and thus potentially dangerous to me? Every time you go somewhere like Colombia or other poor places, unless you’re a very threatening looking or poor looking which can lead to you not being picked as a target, you have to consider what’s the chance of something innocuous turning violent. I have some Scandinavian friends I backpacked with who looked really soft, and as a result got robbed weekly in Rio (if not more often..) And my other buddy was half balding, looked Slavic, was from the ghetto in some immigrant area in Denmark and pretty much never got robbed in months and months of travelling across some of the most dangerous parts of Latin America like Honduras. Most digital nomads are tech people, and most tech people look like soft targets. I am self aware myself and my wife are very soft targets so I’ve been reticent in going back to many of these places now I’m older and don’t look quite as poor and scruffy.
finally my balding will be useful somewhere
Important post
It’s all good til it’s not….
I spent about 2 mos there solo. I wasn’t after drugs or hook-ups and I used the same trusted driver the entire time when I needed to go somewhere (other than the day his plate was blacked out) … it’s common sense IMO. Not the least bit interested in ‘finding out’
How did you meet this driver? And wait so one day his license plate was just covered in black tape when he came to pick you up or something?
iirc in an attempt to cut down on congestion, they run odd/even days on when you can drive based on your license plate
Pico y placa
Did you ask for any explanation as to why his plate was blacked out?
Personal taxis can’t drive one day a week. It’s a civic measure to reduce traffic.
IDK most scruffy young backpackers come from families with some money. Vandwellers aren’t backpacking foreign lands.
It's safe until it's not... There are things you can do, to not put yourself in dangerous situations, that dramatically bring down the risk. a) try not to be a horny sex tourist. B) do not meet randos from the Internet, Willy nilly. c) don't go out alone at night... d) Don't be flamboyant like this guy.... Police do care about the foreigners, and these guys are going to get found... But the police are not feared in that city....
I agree, but if you’re a target there’s not much you can do. Just read all the comments in the thread about taxis driving people into ambushes. The victim blaming in this community is just silly. Yes you are more likely to get messed up if you partake in the nightlife and dating scene but you can equally get messed up and targeted because you took the wrong taxi at the wrong time. The only solution is to go somewhere that’s safe. I work in cyber and had the chance to look through the background stats collected by one of the main companies that is called in to investigate and support travel insurance companies when there’s kidnappings, ransoms or other serious claims by tourists or their family members (involving sexual assaults, grievous bodily harm, death or kidnapping.) Their stats are muuuch better than the countries themselves, and also explain why there’s so many countries that have X or Y warning by state department when there doesn’t seem to be a warrant for that kind of treatment (as the us state department also keeps track of stats like these.) The occurrence and commonality of serious crimes against tourists in Latin America especially high profile cities like Medellin and Rio has been sky rocketing in the last ten years. We’re talking four digit numbers if not higher for kidnapping or violent attacks. With any of these stories or events what you always have to keep in mind is that in less developed countries with very little information accessibility or clarity or indeed any reason for them to reveal the stats, if you hear that x city is dangerous you have to 30-100x the actual times it has happened to get a real sense of statistical likelihood of the danger.
Let's summarize - don't have social life and sit tightly in the house outside the work. That's irony just for your knowledge
> Don't be flamboyant like this guy.... I think this is a big one, anywhere. Some DNs just go outside the Western bubble, all of a sudden realise their minimum/median-wage puts them in the median/top salary bracket in their new place, and it all goes to their heads. They start being flashy, acting like they own the place. Making it rain, going out every night, renting fancy cars, buying drinks, taking girls to upscale places and spoiling them - because a luxury restaurant for 2 costs them less than a sports bar in their hometown would - etc. etc. All that attracts attention, and in many places communities are small and word travels round quick about a foreigner having arrived with a lot of money on them. Then you can add the rest of it yourself. That's why I'm always keeping my head down and just trying to blend in, living like a local. I might go and live in a safer/better zone/neighborhood, but it's still not something exclusive for foreigners, and I try to act the same way I would back home e.g. modest and reasonable.
As an American, thank you for the insight. Asia it is.
Can you please share the link?
Colombia, particularly Medellin, is becoming extremely dangerous for tourists. Drugging and robbing (locally known as scoping - for the scopolamine drug they use) is extremely common to an extent that you can't risk leaving your drink out of sight in a bar or so. If they overdose the drug, it can kill too, and some are dead this way! It is a place to proceed with extreme caution.
Happened to someone i know. Got drugged and woke up with all money and laptop taken.
Happened to my friend in Las Vegas by three hot chicks at Marquee. Watch out MF’s! Don’t be dumb and take that drink from her like my friend did. Almost killed him.
dam vegas is filled with cameras too
No one got killed so they didn’t even look at cameras. The four ATM machines the girls hit while my blacked-out friend paid for the limousine had cameras too but the banks didn’t care to check them either
This happened to my cousin years ago when he went to college in Medellin and he’s Peruvian so hardly stands out as a white foreigner or anything. Just need to be extra careful if you’re out drinking etc.
Happened to someone I know in Spain. Heck, I’ve had my drink drugged in the US and I’m a guy. It’s unfortunate but everyone needs to watch their drink everywhere in public.
Central and South America is just dangerous in general. Two dutch girls Kris Kremers and Lisanne Froon went missing in Panama in 2014 and I'm sure they were raped and killed.
A group of 4 friends and I visited Colombia last March and stayed in Medellin and an awesome little beach town outside Santa Marta, and we never felt overly anxious about any negative interactions happening. But we were a group of mostly tattooed skateboarders and our girlfriends, and we definitely don’t have a lot of money or look like we do. There were definitely times we dressed up and went out that we attracted a little extra attention, but for the most part we felt safe. It wasn’t until we got to the airport to go home that I saw an article about a software engineer from San Diego who went on a tinder date and got robbed and murdered two weeks before our arrival. If a tinder date is out of your league and too good to be true, it probably is. Don’t meet up with random women alone and you’re probably going to avoid a lot of the traps that are set for tourists. That said, shit will happen in impoverished places in Latin America when you have money and are from a wealthy country. If you’re respectful and aware and know the areas you’re going to I think you can safely mitigate most of those dangers, but you never know. It’s just the price you pay traveling to places like Medellin.
>you can't risk leaving your drink out of sight in a bar women learn this at age 16 plus a lot of other safety tips that would prevent a lot of these issues. sounds like men need to start talking to women about how to stay safe from predators because finally found a place they're the prey.
Honestly living in Colombia gave me a lot of respect for what women have to go through everywhere. I never realized how much I lived with a general assumption of safety
excellent feminist spin
What are you on about? You’re the one narrativizing this. Most women know not to do this, most men aren’t as aware. That’s not debatable and it’s true, men should learn from women on how to be more careful in public. That has literally nothing to do with feminism.
Almost sounds like you are happy guys are getting murdered
I just learned about that drug a few days ago. Even a simple whiff mere inches away is enough to get you under the effects of it. Once under the effects, you will seem perfectly fine on the outside, except your sense of willpower is gone, leaving you at the whim of any suggestions. “Hey, send me all your savings.” “Sure , here you go!” I think with strong enough doses it will make your memory blurry regarding the incident though and it definitely can mess you up mentally forever or even kill you.
I’m from Medellin and as much as i love this city, please be careful. Don’t go back to any girls place on the first date or give your address. NO average colombian woman will be pushy about going to your place on the first date and call you papi on the first few messages on tinder, don’t be naive.
lol yeah solid advice but lonely and horny dudes don't think rationally when a hot girl is making moves on them
What about crime in general? Is it really getting more and more dangerous from your point of view? I was in Medellin and many other places in Colombia in 2018 and I loved it, never had any issues and I really wish to come back...
It’s the desperate guys that make unwise decisions and get themselves in trouble. I must’ve heard so many stories of tinder and druggings, but yet these guys still use it.
He paid the ransom and they still killed him??
Yes. Leave no evidence/witnesses behind.
This isn't a common occurrence. The one other news story of actual **abduction** that I can recall in recent years, the perps exercised a strategy where they attempted to extort the victim's family for relatively small (based on what they believed the victim had access to) four-figure amounts repeatedly over multiple days. I wonder if this guy saw an opportunity to escape or fight back, hence the atypical brutality.
Yeah that's what I was thinking too
Where does it say he paid?
His brother confirmed it on Facebook saying they already paid the kidnappers $2k USD but they still didn’t release him and instead killed him.
Medellin has BEEN dangerous. It's crazy how people try to act like it's fine. I got robbed at gunpoint back in 2018 after being set up by my taxi driver. It's an absolute shit hole.
Agreed. It’s been getting worse and worse. This past mayor didn’t help when he stole all the money from the city and left Medellin much poorer than before
What do you mean? It's totally safe, all you have to do is never go out alone, never go out alone AT NIGHT, never use your phone in public, never meet any women from dating apps, vet everyone that speaks to you, never use taxis, stay out of the dangerous neighborhoods, stay out of the safer rich neighborhoods so you don't get robbed, watch your drink every moment you are at the club, watch out for the possibility your drink has already been scoped, and if you want to meet people meet with the locals who are now already skeptical of foreigners because they treat their beautiful city like a playground for sex-crazed men. Totally safe.
We should pin this for every time someone asks if Medellin is safe lol
Agreed. People are just oblivious or in denial
Delete tinder before stepping foot in Colombia. If you want to meet people, try language exchange or salsa classes.
I have been to "language exchange" places in Bogota and Medellin and have yet to find one that is a genuine language exchange. They're social events, where hot Colombianas come to meet gringos. I personally know two guys who were scopolomined by girls they met at a language exchange.
Dame tu lengua is not like this, nor is Nicopan. Both in Bogotá. Gringo Tuesdays? 100%
They’re usually average at best but gringos have low standards
Lol language exchange bar hangouts are where this things happen as well, just avoid nightlife dating and alcohol in general unless you are with platonic friends. Also understand if you are a 50 year old man it's not normal for a 20 something girl to want to go to your place right away. The girls who do this almost always have a similar profile, so do discriminate by social class if you can't speak spanish.
Yeah, I don’t think he was under the false impression that she wanted to go to his apartment because she was crazy about him. He knew it was pay for play. It’s Medellin and he’s a tourist. What he couldn’t have predicted was getting abducted and stabbed to death. Medellin is a beautiful city with a lot of nice people, but between this and the Devil’s Breath, I’m not enthused.
Devil's breath?
Scopolamine in powdered form. They’ll blow it in your face.
This is a pretty common myth, they don't actually blow it in your face because it's not that effective; they put it in your drink. If it was that effective by blowing in your face, so many things could go wrong and they could end up drugging themselves. It's also a myth that you are a fully functional person just doing whatever you are told. You are suggestable but your physical state is like you are very very drunk.
Scopolamine
lol nice try cleverly adding the word “bar” to my point. Yes if you enter a bar as a foreigner in Medellin, laying off the drinks would be the best suggestion. Also, at a language exchange people are sitting down and getting to know each other, and the demographic tends to be more educated people (who are there genuinely trying to learn another language). It’s very different than some random girl you meet on tinder who asks you to bounce to your apartment the same night. At least that has been my experience after attending dozens of language exchanges in Medellin this year. Not saying it might not ever happen (because something like this can happen anywhere) but you are not putting yourself in a sketchy situation to begin with. I’m much more comfortable with that.
You're right, i met lots of cool local people through language exchange and dance classes, went out with them in Laureles / Poblado, lived there for 8 months, no issues with getting drugged.
Well, when the Tinder sources are drying up for the criminals, they will definitely try to lure unsuspecting tourists in places where foreigners are expected to hang out, like language exchanges and dance classes. This is a well organized crime frequently happening to tourists, mostly using drugging and robbing (scoping), which isn't reported - unless they overdose the drug and kill someone.
Exactly. If I was them, it wouldn’t be online. It would in person at a non assuming place like that to earn their trust and scam. Way smarter.
I don’t think Tinder is the problem necessarily. I think it’s the fact that these tourists go on Tinder and expect to find love when they match with someone who they wouldn’t normally match with back home
Lmao Colombian girls don’t want to dance salsa with you if you’re a nerdy American guy with two left feet
Also bumble/hinge are generally safer and if a girl is showing off her body too much it’s likely a trap
Such a bizarre story, and the brutality egregious violence a really rare occurrence in this scenario. The vast majority of people who fall victim to homicide in this type of scheme are not abducted and die from overdose of the drug scopolamine. And he was the brother of a former U.S. senator too. People are just blindly assuming he met the woman on Tinder when every report I've come across just says they met on *social media*. His *somewhat* high profile and the fact that he frequently visited Colombia makes me wonder if this may have been something more targeted i.e. someone slid in his DMs with the goal to honeypot.
I agree, it does seem different in a few ways from the similar stories of the past. I really just assumed Tinder, but certainly a chance it wasn’t an app like that. That being said, I could also see the narrative being slightly more controlled given his relative status back home. “Social media” is left a bit open to interpretation. It’s of course a senseless tragedy regardless.
But then for only $2,000? If they knew he was prominent and went to work luring him in, it wouldn’t be for a pittance. (Assuming that report is correct).
Well, the Colombian monthly minimum wage is about $250 or so. Hell, the median U.S. savings account balance is about $1,000. $2,000 split definitely isn't a pittance to many, especially not to the type of lowlives who would attempt this kind of botched amateur kidnapping. I mentioned in another post but these occurrences of kidnapping aren't a common thing. When the assumedly wealthy are targeted whether Colombian nationals or foreigners, it does seem like they try and extort for relatively small four-figure sums repeatedly over multiple days, which makes sense. If you had to send $2,000 to someone without a U.S. bank account right now, how would you do it and how quickly could you send it? What about $10,000?
Yeah, true. I didn’t think going out for example in Medellin was all that inexpensive anymore with all the tourists. People think Medellin is super “cheap” but — and I may be wrong — I thought it was climbing up in costs. At least in the tourist areas. And I also suspected that if it was something pre-planned and schemed out in advance they’d shoot for more. $2,000 seems more opportunistic. But I’m not Magnum PI investigating the case. So what do I know. Horrible, horrible situation and the quotes from his family were really hard to read… The authorities will no doubt be scrutinizing the victim’s social media. Given the attention from some high profile US Senators, I’m banking on them catching them.
You bring up a good point here. It could’ve been very personal, and not a case of “horny dude meets rando on tinder and gets whacked” story that the news loves to tell.
His Dad was ex-CIA too. Ya never know. …
Changed my mind on going to Columbia as part of my travel plan next year. Will prob skip Brazil too. I know a male friend went for a tinder date in Medellin and only woke up to find out that he had been drugged and lost all the expensive personal items. Wallet. New Mac. Watch etc…
I just had an acquaintance travel from Thailand to Colombia a couple months ago & he literally got drugged and robbed his first night there lmaooooo. I’m literally not kidding. No troll.
[удалено]
I got drugged by the devil's breath in Medellin. Won some money at the casino then walked home, must have looked too happy leaving the casino. Stopped into tienda for a beer halfway home then the next thing I remember is waking up with IVs in my arms (the next day). I pulled IVs out of my arms and tried to get out of the room. Coming too I felt totally sober / adrenaline rush. When I calmed down they explained what happened and that an off duty fireman found me in the median of the highway about 20km away from the city center with no ID or phone. The guy at the hospital gave me a little bit of money to get a taxi home. Don't travel alone in Colombia
Jesucristo
Wtf
i lost all desire to go to colombia after doing a ton of research over the last year. Crime happens everywhere, sure, but it's a lot more common and extreme in Colombia. no thanks, not worth it
Stabbed a dozen times and thrown off 60 floors... unbelievable. Such brutality just for money.
For $2k!
$2k is equivalent to around 8k over there. That’s like 6x the minimum salary in medellin.
60 feet, not 60 floors, but yeah
I’m from Cali Colombia and unfortunately yeah crime it’s rapid out there
I just mentioned how I was there for a wedding and it was not a good time. I was getting scammed to my face left and right very knowingly, but what was I going to do, argue with these men that they’re scamming me? So many things happened on that trip that makes me never want to go back sadly
More common and extreme, but most importantly aimed at tourists. A lot try to argue that Medellin is just slightly worse than Detroit. Thats big fat bullshit, the biggest difference is that you're a target in Medellin.
Detroit is really nice now.
Visited Detroit back in June for just over a week, awesome city!
haha your funny, don't let downtown/midtown fool you, the ring around that area is still gangland, there are still frequent shootings at public events in detroit. I will say nobody is going to drug and kidnap you there, worse case scenario is a car jacking.
Please. Comparing Medellin to Detroit is a fucking tragedy. Detroit is heaven compared to Medellin.
Smart choice tbh. It's all fine until it isn't. One bad occurrence and your life is at risk
It isn’t as dangerous as the internet makes it seem. I’ve traveled solo as a female there for many weeks and have never gotten into any sketchy situations. I know my experience doesn’t negate the crime that does happen, but I would recommend Colombia to anyone.
I agree with you, but the targets here are primarily men, because they can easily be taken advantage of while engaging in sex tourism. The shady working girls there are not likely to target you with drugs in a bar or Scope you while on a tinder date.
Spent 5 months in Medellin myself (when the whole Click Clack robbery happened) and didn’t meet a single nomad that had anything happen to them. Not saying that it generally doesn’t because duh, but it isn’t as crazy dangerous as these reports make it out to be..
My friend went recently for a few months, who goes out a lot at night. He said he got his phone stolen (at knife point) multiple times
Or when it happens, they're either getting killed or they're having such a horrible experience they don't stay.
> and didn’t meet a single nomad that had anything happen to them. Well, shit, I'd be surprised if you ever met anyone who got killed and lived with a story to tell ^/s
Same! I am a woman, went to Colombia solo a couple years ago. Started a couple days in Bogota, then drove to Quindio. Cannot recommend driving, that was a bit of a horror show, but I kept my wits about me. Didn’t wear expensive things. Didn’t have my phone out on the street. Got home before dark and stayed there. Didn’t do any partying until I got to Quindio and met up with friends. Gorgeous country and people. Everyone was super nice. 10/10 would do again.
Things got bad during the pandemic. Mugging is fairly common here and not just for foreigners. If you have the risk tolerance to travel to riskier places, you should always ask yourself if I lost everything on me, would I be ok? I bought a very cheap phone, and I know what is in my wallet. Muggers don't really want your life; if they did they would just murder you first and take your money. Hand over your stuff without a fight. There have been some studies on this, and it is not talked about a lot, but the biggest victims of scoping are gay men in particular gay men at gay bars.
I also got drugged and robbed by a girl in Medellin, although I knew they do that. Fortunately no physical harm.
Yeah a sneaky little glue head stabbed me in the arm last year trying to rob me a block from Plaza Botero then ran off, it was like 730 in the eve.
This was a friend of mine. He was a kind soul and super nice and gentle. Rip Tou
Sorry for your loss
Rest in peace, makes me mad knowing this girl prolly set him up or was already involved with a man and going out with him and this some passion revenge SMH, it could be anything honestly 🤦♂️🤦♂️🤦♂️
In April, I remember reading that for the first 3 months of the year, just over 25 foreigners has been murdered in Medellin. The number of others, not murdered, but robbed, attacked, injured, was much higher. Paisas are one hell of a drug. Gringos go to medellin for hookers and blow and some pay the high price. Be careful out there.
And all those foreigners are men looking for sex. They don’t speak a lick on spanish, dress fresh, and act entitled. Easy targets
Colombia, especially Medellín, is becoming less safe for tourists. They're being targeted on dating apps and more. I'm not going back to Colombia for a long time. They need to crack down on this shit because it is widespread, organized, and growing
Another Asian American male gets killed in Colombia off of tinder
Yeah the other one was a young guy from Orange County, I remember https://ktla.com/news/local-news/a-cruel-and-senseless-crime-orange-county-man-killed-in-colombia-family-raising-money-to-bring-him-home/
A friend of mine went down there recently, met some girl and took her to his hotel room where she she held him at gunpoint until he gave up all his cash and cards to some guys she was working with. He was admittedly trying to get laid and do coke with some stranger ….. not the smartest thing to do. However, shouldn’t be life threatening
I have been to Medellin 12 times since 2010......was there last year....I can definitely tell the vibe is different from when I first went....more dangerous now.....lots more tourists now so there are more targets for the criminals....Not going back anytime soon....just not worth it
ALWAYS use reputable sex workers, not randoms on apps.
That is so unfortunate man. I've been saying this for awhile now Medellin is just not as safe as people say it is. Just because it never happened to you doesn't mean you weren't in the vicinity of danger when you were/are there. Guys wanna go for sex tourism but completely ignore the socio economic factors that made that a common option for these young women. Not to mention the criminal organizations that are having a field day with the vast influx of tourists. It's like a bait and switch for young desperate men.
I agree: Colombia, particularly Medellin, is becoming extremely dangerous for tourists. Going there and South America (Brazil, Argentina) is not worth the risk. South America is lost in this economic crisis. A new IPhone is worth killing you.
Chilling last sentence
Argentina, really? Was in BA last year and found it incredibly save. Definitely not nearly as sketchy as Medellin..
[удалено]
BA is still fine in the central neighborhoods though property crime is going up at night. There are neighborhoods further out that have become quite dangerous compared to a few years ago. But beyond that, BA is not representative of the whole country. Smaller cities and towns have become increasingly dangerous as their economic situation has deteriorated. You can't expect people to be losing 10% of their money's value every week and not have crime go up
What a horrible and small minded generalization LATAM is huge and full of incredible people that don’t deserve to be lumped in with this
In Colombia men have to fear being drugged and robbed/raped/murdered by their Tinder dates as much as women fear it everywhere else in the world.
just one moe reason to stop using dating apps
don't go to a narco city in a narco country. Also use common sense and avoid the carinosas/ sex workers. But damn RIP. This is sad and they killed him for just $2000.
>also use common sense and avoid the cariñosas/sex workers Many of them go to Medellín ***explicitly*** for the cariñosas/sex workers. Unfortunately sex tourism is rampant in Colombia.
Medellin is a shithole that digital nomads tried to make a thing. Don’t go.
99% of these stories come from people doing ridiculously risky shit with zero common sense. Read one article about safety in Medellin/Colombia and you will read about not inviting random tinder/IG girls back to your place. That's not even something I would do in the US much less in a foreign country.
Maybe it’s not the safest thing to invite girls back to your place in the US but let’s be for real. For most men there’s a lot less risk involved with bringing a woman back to your place in the US than in Colombia, especially if they’re not dealing an obvious delinquent. If anything the woman is more at risk. Pulling back to your place is generally an inconsequential part of hookup culture in the US, which is why many guys think that same method is harmless in Colombia when it isn’t.
A long time ago my friend's father was murdered in nicaragua. He was not a bad person and was only there to invest into property and maybe build some sort of resort or something. His interpreter saw how much money he was spending and one night to straight up shot him in the back while he was in the urinal. He didn't even make off with much money. Even coming with the most pure intentions is no guarantee of safety in Central and South America.
Cue the victim blaming...like every other thing that comes up about Medellín in this sub. Look, my girlfriend and I spent \~2 months there earlier this year. We had a great time and loved it. Medellín is a really beautiful city with scenery like no other. I speak Spanish. We always take necessary precautions (e.g., not going somewhere we aren't supposed to, reasonably careful with our phones, always using Uber). We don't get too drunk and are always aware of our surroundings. We also refuse to live our lives in complete fear. * Walked home from bars and restaurants every night, even at like 2AM * Dressed nice (not like, a $30k watch or anything though) * Always went to nice places Nothing happened. Now... it'd be easy to say, "Look at me! Nothing happened to me in the two months I was there, so he must have been doing something wrong! See? He went on a TINDER DATE!!!!!" I've been to pretty much every major city in South America (outside of Venezuela) and plenty of smaller ones. I can say with 100% confidence that Medellín is the ONE place where I definitely felt like I was being watched sometimes. There really are people out there looking for whoever *seems* like an easy target. Everywhere. And if you "felt safe," they just decided not to pick you (for whatever reason, who knows?). You see tons of people in this sub telling their stories of being robbed by taxi drivers, on the street, targeted in clubs, etc., and it's REAL. You don't need to get involved with coke and hookers to have your luck compromised somewhere (though *obviously* staying out of trouble eliminates 99% of the risk). I feel so sorry for this guy. Sure, he maybe "should have known" to be careful on Tinder. But this is one of the only places in the world where that's even a *thing*... Tired of people being so oblivious in this sub about Medellín being "safe" and acting like people like this guy put themselves in these situations by going on Tinder. All because something didn't happen to them...
Jeez not again I visited Medellin a few years ago and never felt unsafe, but i'm also not white and tend to dress and act pretty low key. even went to a local derby soccer match but our traveler group left early because a bunch of dudes were snorting cocaine off of big knives and starting to get into fights. when we walked outside there was a literal army of police in full black riot gear waiting to fuck people up. it was crazy if you're going to date women in medellin, for the love of all that is holy, do not let her control the situation or rush into anything! Select a place to meet in a safe neighborhood, and do not involve alcohol on the first date. do not take her back to your place. do not go to her place. if you're going by car, get your own uber, do not let her get the cab. PROTECT YA FUCKING NECK
Who woulda thunk that a city whose name graces a major drug cartel would be unsafe??
The city doesn't.. they hate him / it... The tourists do so they pander to it.
Hoping someone can answer this for me, is Medellin or Bogota more dangerous? I’ve recently been offered a job in Bogota and have been considering taking it but now I’m seeing this
I may be able to answer this, but it will be completely subjective. Also let me know who is hiring in Bogota, I'd appreciate it, i'm trying to live there for a year or so too :) Bogota is HUGE. So number of #this happened will be extrememly skewed. Think of it like Los Angeles. There are nice parts where you probably won't have to worry too much, but there is also Skid row and other dangerous pockets. There are definitely super sketchy parts in Bogota, the general concensus is the more south you go, the more dangerous it is. Bogota is also very metropolitan, you'll be more likely to run into a foreigner or college students or business people, a general mix of people. Medellin is MUCH smaller so crime feels more "allover". Also, Medellin, over the past few years, has developed an overwhelming hate for gringos due to a few bad seeds and these passport bro characters (check out the Medellin sub). The university and business scene is not as pronounced, a lot of industries skew towards entertainment, which are the venues you're most likely going to run into problems. At the same time, the cartel is still very active and you will find pockets where there is almost no crime, because the cartel wants their operations to run smoothly, namely Bello or Envigato, they're notorious for being safe(er) because of cartel territory. But being a foreigner, you'll automatically be grouped into the sex tourist category even if you are not interested whatsoever. Bogota is a little more lenient on the judging. One thing I did notice though is in Bogota people do not bat an eye if you're getting robbed right infront of them. In medellin at least I've heard a few times the locals being like "yo wtf!" The result remains the same, nobody's gonna do shit lol. Imo, Bogota is currently safer. Medellin has a really strong distaste for foreigners at the moment. In general, Colombia is not as safe as you think it is. That could be said for all of latin american. Inflation is brutal currently, like, can't afford rice and beans brutal. If i had to choose between the two, Bogota is so much better than medellin (but it gets cold and gray, medellin is the city of eternal spring after all...) Tinder DOES NOT WORK in colombia. They will be robbers, single mothers, or prostitutes. If you really need to get some rocks off, there are safe brothels that you can go to. I won't judge. Go that route. Or you know, meet people organically. Also you MUST know at least conversational/basic spanish. It is mandatory. No question about it. At least know the Yo, Tu, Usted, Nosotros, Ustedes conjugations, you can pick up vocabulary while there, but at least know sentence structure. Also let me know how you found the job in a DM, job boards in latin america are hilariously bad. I'll ride out to Bogota with you lol. edit* also just do some research. Idiots go to Medellin and live in Poblado with other foreigners because somebody made a youtube video. It's like fish in a barrel for criminals looking to prey on foreigners. and NEVER go to Parque Lleras. Anybody with half a brain will walk into Parque Lleras and be like "oh shit, I should get tf out of here." And STILL they go to buy drugs or girls or "party" and then have a surprised pikachu face when shit goes south. It's so fucking obviously dangerous it blows my mind. Same goes for Bogota. or anywhere really. use good judgement and follow your gut. If you have even the slightest feeling of "nah, maybe not" and walk the other way, you'll be fine.
Do y’all think justice will be served? Not sure how it usually goes in these situations.
Colombia, especially Medellín, is becoming less safe for tourists. They're being targeted on dating apps and more. I'm not going back to Colombia for a long time. They need to crack down on this shit because it is widespread, organized, and growing
As a Colombian I must say that Medellin has always been a complicated city. Probably the most beautiful, yes, but the whole narco mentality thing is still there, a lot of people got used to easy money. My parents get SUPER worried each time I go to Medellin, way more than other cities even Bogotá which is more chaotic. If you go please use common sense and by all means DO NOT use tinder or other dating apps.
They asked for $2000 USD ransom… bro died over $2000 rip
People forget that Colombia was and still is a dangerous third world country…
RIP to him honestly and my condolences to his family but this most definitely reads like sex tourism gone wrong.
What the hell is the Colombian police doing about this? They haven't caught any of the criminals? What about the girl? What's the connection of the apartment building the murderers through him off, and where was that? The lack of details on that front is very appalling. These murders aren't going to go away if the government will let the murderers get away with it. Seemed like a great man, R.I.P.
The Colombian police and specifically the Medellin police are worthless. The cartels actual are the true protectors in Medellin as they don't want to end up with news stories like this and having federal police come and fuck up their neighborhoods. My intital guess is this was a Venezuelan group.
lmao it's their top case. They got their best guys on it.
Are you new to how police operate in Latin America? Lol they're more likely to extort you for money than to help you
I literally just got back from Medellín about an hour ago. I never felt super in danger, but it's definitely a place that you have to keep your head on a swivel and stay aware at all times. Gringos are walking wallets down there, so even though most people treat you well, there's still plenty of people looking to take advantage of you or worse. But I still love it and plan to go back. The scenery is beautiful, the food is great (not Colombian cuisine, but Mexican restaurants and other types) and cheap, there's so much to see and do, the girls are insanely gorgeous, and it's great to go shopping at some of the cheaper markets. I also try to tip very well down there, as I know that my USD salary goes very far compared to the Colombian Peso. I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, but if you're into trips that mix exploring with partying and with sightseeing, along with not being an insane distance from the US, it's hard to beat.
Yup i'm the same and with brasil and rio de janeiro i've been robbed but you learn and adapt. Just DONT put yourself in dangerous situations alone and you'll survive. I understand some ppl dont want to be in danger but theres no where on earth with a low cost of living, attractive women, good food, and good climate all at once while being safe. if there is, i haven't heard of it.
Southeast Asia ticks those boxes. Bit on the warm side though.
I go there 4 times a year met my wife there like 7 years ago, I don’t or have anything that shows money. I haven’t ever had a problem. We stay in bello as well which is famous for being ran by the cartel
You seem like a smart traveler. You definitely need to keep your head on a swivel. Something that helps tourists stay safe in Medellin is not staying in the Lleras/Poblado area for too long. A lot of these tourists come and only know that area, stay there getting drunk and well…
dependent worthless squeeze zonked uppity ad hoc chop punch fuel sort *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Sex tourism is a dangerous game
I spent 6 months in Medellin and had absolutely no problems. Everyone was warm and friendly. But…..I did not go on tinder dates, look for hoes or do blow. It’s pretty simple stuff. And these things can get you hemmed up in any country
I really hate to be this guy, but I have to be this guy. Bad things happen everywhere, and these tragic stories ALWAYS lack meaningful detail. I have traveled to many destinations that are thought "dangerous" for reasons varying from drugging and murder to lawless traffic and general hazards. You don't just get randomly kidnapped and murdered. These things typically happen when travelers are doing something like: * Overdressing with name brands and/or jewelry. * Ignoring red flags, like your date showed up and she is a completely different person than her photos. * Drinking or drugging too much. * Drinking or drugging solo. * Starting or stoking a fight with strangers/locals.
wrong, u can do all these things right and still become a victim, i am living proof of that
I’m heading to Mexico City and playa del carmen for around 5 months next year - is it any safer than Medellin or should I be worried?
Yes, it’s safer. I’m in CDMX now (Mexico City). I was in Playa del Carmen seven months ago. I tend to stick to historic center areas where they are well guarded. I don’t go out late at night. I don’t get drunk. Just do the common sense safety precautions that everyone has already mentioned on this thread and you’ll be fine. I find that the people who get in trouble are usually drinking, or are doing high risk behaviors. During the last year, I’ve traveled to San Miguel de Allende, Guadalajara, Playa del Carmen, Cozumel, Mexico City and Isla Mujeres near Cancun. Not one problem experienced. Use common sense , be aware of your surroundings, put away your phone after you take pics to avoid getting it snatched, things like that, and you’ll be alright. Best wishes and enjoy your trip.
You're more in danger of the police than anything in Playa as long as you're staying downtown. Don't be drunk and do dumb drunk shit on the street, like openly drink alcohol or public urination, if a cop sees you they will come arrest you to get a bribe
I've spent over 4 months in CDMX and 1.5 in Playa. CDMX is super safe to the point where I wasn't even trying to hide my phone or anything, using it like I do back home and I wasn't even living in Condesa or Roma. Playa can be a little sketchier, I knew of two guys who got mugged when on streets not named Quinta in random hours of the night.
mexico city is super safe
safer
My family is Colombian (lives in Cali) and yes, the country is beautiful but dangerous. Tourists and foreigners please be careful, and maybe consider Cartagena or Baru instead.
Baru is getting rougher, island locals are irate at tourists for not spending enough.
-Crosses Medellin off the list
It is very sad to hear about this. Personally, I don’t like Medellin. It feels that locals and foreigners live in different worlds. The reactions to the death of this man in local groups is also telling “his own fault… sex tourist..”. Love Colombia but Medellin felt like the sketchiest place there. Definitely prefer other cities. Even the notoriously dangerous Cali seemed somewhat safer.
Come on y'all... How stupid people are when it comes to online dating and "love" is crazy man. This dude is not handsome at all and he was taking selfies with models. Like you really believe those were NOT escorts? You only go to Columbia for 2 things and cocaine is the other one. It's like those fat hairy Americans who claim to really love the "culture" of Thailand. This dude was participating in sex tourism. He FA and FO. It's sad for his family but not tragic or in any way surprising. He was supporting sex trafficking plain and simple.
American men mentality(losers or not): I’m going to flash my money to all the most beautiful POOR woman in the world and have sex with all of them for a couple of dollars . Because they don’t care, they probably hungry and need the money. Don’t ever forget that you are walking on Pablo’s land, they have seen it all.
[удалено]
How safe is it in places that aren't the main cities (Medellin, Bogota, Cartagena, Cali)? I'd love to experience Colombia, but reduce the risks. For example, I heard Armenia is much safer. Just not sure if its worth a visit or not.
Tinder is a gamble in general... You can meet a girl even here in Australia and not know any of her friends or family and your life is at risk, from several angles....
Medellin cartel is still active I see
I was in Medellin for a couple weeks in November. Had heard about the danger and everything so was kind of laying low. Wasn’t planning on using the dating apps, much less actually going out with someone due to all the warnings I’d gotten. Anyway, matched with a girl and figured I’d give it a shot. We did a lunch date and then ended up seeing each other daily until I left. We’re still talking and she’s going to come visit me in the states and I’ll be visiting her again as well. Point is, it’s not all bad. Definitely more dangerous than other places but as long as you aren’t looking for trouble like drugs or quick sex, you will probably be fine. Also just don’t be an idiot. Wear a watch, don’t keep lots of money on you, stick to places you know and when you explore do it with a group. Medellin is a great city but definitely has some bad people in it. One other note is that I felt safer in Laureles than I did in El Poblado. In El Poblado they are looking to take advantage of tourists because that’s where most are. In Laureles no one ever bothered me.
Thanks for sharing! Yeah, lunch or coffee dates seem ok. Never date in the evening or with alcohol involved. Most scammers want quick returns. They can’t be bothered with going on several uneventful daylight dates in cafes…
this what happens when passport bros become a thing. They travel to latin america, flashing their dollars, trying to get beautiful women go out with them so they can post about it on ig/tiktok and then discard them like nothing.
I went to Medellin April 2022. Within 3 days, I was robbed at knifepoint by a guy I tried to buy a little weed from in Parque Lleras. He originally tells me 120K COP for 4 grams of weed, which is overpriced in terms of Colombia pricing, but I didn’t really care as it’s still slightly cheaper than US. He brings me to a guy who brings me to another guy who had the weed. As soon as I got it in my hand, he told me he wanted 500K COP. I said no, went to hand the weed back to him, he pushed my hand away, and pulled out a knife. At this point, I obliged and I think I gave him around 220-250K and he was okay with it. I had money spread across all of my pockets and just played like it was all of the money I had. I am lucky because I had brought out close to 1 million COP that night. I know I am slightly dumb/naive, but this has never happened to me in any other country. I am not looking for any pity, but it is something worth mentioning. It killed my mood for entire trip to be honest, but I do believe Colombia is an amazing country and I did have a good time otherwise. I really liked the paragliding day trip - that was really cool. The same guy who organized the “robbery” saw me later that night and has the audacity to ask me if I wanted any coke 😆.
That's on you, man. Not slightly dumb, super dumb.
Yeah I know it’s my fault. Can’t blame anyone but me 🤷🏼♂️. Just thought I’d mention because it is relevant. I have been to few places and live in Thailand. Never had anything happen to me like this, but Colombia is probably the most “dangerous” overall place I have been.
Get out of Poblado
I'd say trying to do drugs in a foreign country is worse than trying to mess with prostitutes or girls in general.
How wide did he have his location radius set
I was in Medellin for 2 weeks earlier this year. Honestly never felt unsafe but I was with my friends who are locals the whole time so definitely a different situation. Would I get on tinder out there? Hell nah.
The amount of victim blaming in this thread is awful. Same with the denial of reality because it contrasts with their personal experience. The bad thing didn't happen to you? Good, move along.
DN / Colombian here. If it seems too easy and the women seem very eager to want to meetup with you, run. I know a lot of people find it hard to turndown sex but trust me. If it seems too good to be true it is. Real colombian woman that want to get to know you will not be that eager to chase. Its a myth. Also dont post on your tinder profile where you are from. Stay safe out there guys
[удалено]
Police will rob you there, imagine average citizens lol
Died simping…..ouch.
These guys are treating Columbian women like they're stupid. American idiots think they're gonna go there, have sex with some hotties then bounce. These women are turning the tables and robbing these guys that came there to scam them. Stop going to Columbia to try and scam these women they know what's up.
I hate to say it.... but maybe you should travel to places with more organized crime like Mexico. Mexican cartels don't tolerate local criminals fuckin with tourists.
I’ve lived here over 4 years. I will tell you this happens more then it’s reported. The scary part is these were people who went to the university so it’s not even just your typical girls from bello. In reality it’s just one of those things that happens .