Medellín

A city of Colombia’s interior, in a valley ringed by mountains, and the country’s most famous — Harry says so straight out, and says why: a violent past that has turned into the country’s tourist and digital-nomad hotspot.

He spends his first day out in El Centro on purpose, avoiding the districts visitors normally see, and says repeatedly that this is not a fair picture of the whole city — El Poblado and Comuna 13 are named as the parts he hasn’t got to yet, and he reaches Comuna 13 the next day. Over a whole day in El Centro he sees almost no foreign tourists.

What it is like

• The land of eternal spring, which is what he is told locals call it: 20–30°C year-round (from video – unverified), and good weather in January.
• Green, and hilly. He notes the greenery inside the city as unusual, and the valley setting with mountains visible at the end of the streets.
• A metro, which he keeps calling ugly and liking anyway — an elevated line running between trees.
• Market stalls everywhere. His summary of El Centro: a sprawling, busy, organised mess, selling everything you can think of, with the mountains behind it.
• Famous for its graffiti, which he says is more colourful here than anywhere else he has been.
• A lot of casinos, which he reads as a sign of an affluent city.

Why people move here

Harry sets out the digital-nomad case without being asked: cheap, very liveable, good internet, a big population, plenty to do, and friendly people. He says it is a city he’d like to live in one day.

• An Airbnb at $20 a night, about £15.20 (from video – unverified) — kitchen, workspace, bedroom, fast wi-fi and Netflix on the television. His verdict is that the price is ridiculous. The one drawback is that the building is part building site.
• Food delivery through Rappi, the local equivalent of the big delivery apps and recommended to him as fast. Two tacos and a juice came to 21,000 pesos, about $5 (from video – unverified), delivered in about 40 minutes. The app adds a default tip of 2,000 pesos, roughly 50 cents; Harry leaves it in on the assumption that tipping is expected, and the driver thanks him for it specifically.

Safety

The most detailed safety material in the cluster, and it is mostly Harry narrating his own risk-taking.

• He is knowingly on the boundary between areas he has been told are safe and areas he hasn’t, and says so while filming with an obvious camera.
• The local rule he passes on: don’t display what you’re carrying — no phone held up, no visible valuables, and stay out of the wrong areas. He says there is a set phrase for it and that he’ll put it on screen rather than attempt it; the phrase is not recorded here because he never says it.
• He walks into a street clearly given over to sex work and turns back without filming it, saying he might be wrong and doesn’t want to judge.
• A woman shouted at him for filming the crowd, and another walked away the moment the camera came on. He moves on both times.
• He stops exploring at dusk, as a rule and not a one-off: places are more dangerous at night, and he says he is willing to take risks but not those ones. He walks home in the dark anyway when the traffic makes a taxi pointless, and calls it a bit risky.
• Helicopters overhead, which he notes usually means trouble somewhere.

See keep moving, which he states as a general rule here and then breaks for ten minutes.

Plaza Botero

The one properly touristy thing he does, and even here he notes the crowd is mostly Colombian. Twenty-three sculptures by Fernando Botero (from video – unverified) stand in the square, with a church and the mountains behind. There is a street portrait trade working the same square — Harry sits for a drawing done freehand with drafting tools, and a crowd gathers around him while it happens.

Eating and drinking

• A grilled meat skewer with potato from a street cart, under £1 (from video – unverified), which he rates one of the best things he has eaten in Colombia. He never establishes what the meat was — it tastes like chicken and he is told it isn’t — and the page doesn’t guess.
• He eats street food against a lot of advice, deliberately, and gives his reasoning: warnings about street food travel the same way warnings about dangerous places do, as a friend of a friend who got ill, and the place is usually fine. He is careful to say it’s a decision each person makes.
• A sweet drink from a cart — a fruit he can’t identify, syrup and a pink topping he thinks is decoration. Very cheap, and better than he expected.
• An energy drink sold everywhere on the street, which he says tastes exactly like Red Bull.

A detail he records without comment, which is the sharpest thing in the video: he throws a mostly-finished skewer into a bin, and a man immediately takes it out and eats it.

Money

• He walks a long way to reach a specific bank’s cash machine to avoid withdrawal fees — and it has run out of money. He uses another bank’s instead. See don’t trust Google Maps: the machine wasn’t showing on the map either, and he found it by asking three people.
• 300,000 pesos withdrawn, about £60 or $75 (from video – unverified).
• A printed shirt: asked 25,000 pesos, sold at 23,000 — about $5 (from video – unverified). See below.

The haggle he only did because of the comments

Worth its own note. In Cartagena Harry paid over the odds for a painting and was criticised in the comments for not bargaining. Here he says on camera that this is why he is going to haggle — and then loses twice in a row. A seller refuses to move at all; a second stallholder and his neighbours hold at 23,000 against his 20,000, which he thinks they agreed between them. His own verdict is that five pounds is not a lot and it was fine either way.

See don’t grind a price down to nothing.

People

His one general observation: the older generation is markedly friendlier than the younger, which he says is the reverse of his experience in Europe.

Harry’s tips

• Walk it, and go to the local part. He states the rule again — arriving anywhere, walk around, it tells you what there is — and applies it by choosing El Centro over El Poblado. See walk the city.
• Stop at sunset. His stated cut-off for exploring anywhere.
• Don’t hold the camera or the phone up. The local advice, which he passes on while conspicuously ignoring it.
• Don’t stand still. See keep moving.
• Ask people rather than the map, especially for cash machines.
• Check you still have everything after any situation where a crowd formed — he does this out loud after the portrait.

Source videos

• Solo in Colombia’s Best City! Medellin 🇨🇴 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSwpryzqBaY
• Exploring Colombia’s Famous Hood 🇨🇴 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CM7u88Xbgc — Comuna 13, and a lookout swing over the valley