---
type: Place
title: Comuna 13
description: The Medellín hillside district that went from one of the world's most dangerous to a tourist hotspot in a decade — outdoor escalators, free wi-fi, graffiti, and a boundary the tour doesn't cross.
tags: [colombia, medellin, comuna-13, graffiti, safety, tourism, coffee, guides]
coordinates: {lat: 6.2563, lng: -75.6215}
timestamp: 2026-08-07T14:10:00Z
---

# Comuna 13

A hillside district of [Medellín](/places/medellin.md), in
[Colombia](/countries/colombia.md) — houses stacked all the way up the slope, in
a way Harry says looks like a Brazilian favela.

**Its whole significance is the change.** It was, in Harry's telling, one of the
most dangerous places in the world ten to twenty years ago, and is now a tourism
hotspot. He calls it a perfect example of somewhere you shouldn't stereotype and
says it sums up Colombia: it used to be dangerous, and now it isn't. See
[judge a place for yourself](/tips/judge-a-place-for-yourself.md), where the
qualification also lives.

## What's there

- **Outdoor escalators** running up the hillside — described to Harry as the only
  ones of their kind — which are the district's landmark and the thing the tour
  is built around.
- **Free public wi-fi in the neighbourhood**, which he flags as remarkable and
  characteristic of the city.
- **Graffiti on essentially every wall.** The artist responsible for most of it
  has his house on the route, and it doubles as a shop selling original
  paintings — churches, cityscapes, and very heavy colour.
- **Street rappers working the crowd for tips.** They ask people where they're
  from and freestyle about each city in turn — Panama, Ecuador, London — and
  Harry is struck by how fast they are. **2,000 pesos** is what you give
  (from video – unverified), and they will ask before being filmed.
- **A new park** near the top: recently built, very clean, planted, with the view
  back over the whole city.
- **Viewpoints over Medellín** from the upper levels, which are the reason to
  keep climbing.

## How the neighbourhood came to be

From his guide, recorded as the guide's account:

- **Many residents are Afro-Colombian families displaced from elsewhere**, some
  pushed out of their home towns, some displaced by guerrillas. They settled here
  because the rent was cheap and because there was space to build on.
- **A lot of the housing was self-built on land nobody held title to** — roughly
  half of it, on the guide's estimate (from video – unverified), and the
  proportion rises the higher up the hill you go. Some households pay no taxes
  or water charges.
- **Before the tourism there was nothing here but the graffiti and the
  escalators** — no stalls, few visitors.

## Safety, and what the tour doesn't show you

The honest half of the page, and it comes from the same video that calls the
place safe.

- **The video's own description says it is very safe *with a tour guide*.**
- **His guide keeps him out of parts of it.** Venturing off the tourist route,
  the guide explains that people doing illegal things dislike being filmed and
  that plenty of visitors don't come to this part at all. Harry films less here
  and moves on.
- **Police and army work the district**, stopping people and running their ID
  numbers against records on a handheld device. Harry watches an arrest happen
  in front of him.
- **A helicopter circles overhead** while they are in the upper section.
- **His guide describes a shooting near the escalators about three years
  earlier**, while he had a group of six American visitors with him, who were
  badly frightened. He tells it as evidence of how much has changed since.

**So the transformation is real and it is also partial and supervised**, and the
page records both because the video does.

## Practical facts

- **Getting there**: an Uber from central Medellín, about 10–15 minutes for
  **11,000 pesos** — roughly £2 or $2.50 (from video – unverified). Public
  transport is cheaper again.
- **Parking**: informal attendants find you a space and watch the car for
  **5,000–6,000 pesos**, about £1.50 (from video – unverified).
- **A printed shirt: 25,000 pesos** (from video – unverified). Escobar-branded
  merchandise is sold openly to visitors here, and Harry buys some, calling the
  purchase interesting rather than defending it.
- **Iced coffee with Baileys**, whipped cream and caramel, from a café on the
  route that the guide says was built up from a shack. The beans are from
  **Santa Bárbara, Antioquia**. Harry rates it far above the chains.
- **Colombia has 32 departments** — the guide's figure, given with an
  "if I'm not mistaken" (from video – unverified). He explains they are the
  equivalent of US states.

*Obs: the guide's phone number and the clothes shop's contact are both published
in the video description, and Harry says on camera that he will link them. Per
the bundle's naming rule neither is named here — the tour, the shop and the café
are described, the contacts are not.*

## Harry's tips

- **Take a guide here**, and take one who is known in the neighbourhood — the
  guide is greeted by name repeatedly and says himself that not just anyone can
  walk into a neighbourhood that isn't theirs.
- **Ask before filming**, especially above the tourist section.
- **Pay the parking attendant.** It is a pound and a half and it is how it works.
- **Go up.** The stalls and the crowds are at the bottom; the park, the views and
  the quiet are at the top.

## Source videos

- [Exploring Colombia's Famous Hood 🇨🇴](/videos/3CM7u88Xbgc.md) —
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CM7u88Xbgc