---
type: Video
title: "Solo in Colombia's Best City! Medellin 🇨🇴"
description: A whole day in Medellín's El Centro rather than its tourist quarters — street food against advice, a haggle attempted only because commenters demanded it, and a $20 Airbnb.
tags: [colombia, medellin, el-centro, street-food, safety, haggling, digital-nomad, markets]
timestamp: 2026-08-07T13:40:00Z
resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSwpryzqBaY
video_id: OSwpryzqBaY
upload_date: 2022-02-10
duration: 2657
---

# Solo in Colombia's Best City! Medellin 🇨🇴

Forty-four minutes in [Medellín](/places/medellin.md), spent almost entirely in
**El Centro** — chosen deliberately over the districts visitors normally see, and
he says so at the start and again at the end. Over a full day he sees almost no
foreign tourists.

**Two things make it the most interesting video in the
[Colombia](/countries/colombia.md) cluster.** The first is that he narrates his
own risk-taking honestly: he knows he is on the boundary of areas he has been
warned about, he is holding an obvious camera, he passes on the local advice about
not displaying valuables while visibly ignoring it, and he says out loud that he
backs himself. The second is that he haggles — badly, and twice — for the stated
reason that his comment section told him off for not haggling in
[Cartagena](/places/cartagena.md). Both sellers hold firm.

It also contains the sharpest image in the cluster, recorded without editorial:
he bins a mostly-finished meat skewer, and a man takes it straight back out and
eats it.

The last quarter is the case for Medellín as somewhere to live — a $20 Airbnb
with fast wi-fi, tacos delivered for $5 — which is the argument the city's
reputation with remote workers rests on.

## Key moments

- [00:14] Heading for El Centro on purpose: he wants to show what Colombia is
  actually like rather than the tourist areas.
- [00:44] Medellín is the country's most famous city because of its violent past
  and is now the tourist hotspot.
- [01:16] Told not to wear shorts because it marks you as a tourist; he wears
  them anyway.
- [01:16] The land of eternal spring — 20–30°C year-round.
- [01:46] Greenery in the city, and the valley it sits in.
- [03:02] A street energy drink that tastes exactly like Red Bull.
- [04:06] Street sellers every ten seconds — his favourite thing about Colombia.
- [05:46] A grilled meat skewer with potato, cooked in front of him.
- [06:23] Tastes like chicken, isn't chicken, and he never finds out what it is.
- [06:54] Why he eats street food anyway: warnings travel as a friend of a friend
  who got ill, exactly like warnings about dangerous places.
- [07:25] The local rule he passes on — don't show your valuables, don't hold
  your phone up, stay out of the wrong areas — while doing two of the three.
- [08:28] He knows he is on the border between the safe and unsafe areas.
- [08:59] Under a pound for the skewer, and one of the best things he has eaten
  in the country.
- [09:30] A man takes his discarded skewer out of the bin and finishes it.
- [10:11] Older Colombians are far friendlier than younger ones — the reverse of
  Europe, he says.
- [10:42] Walking a long way to a specific bank's cash machine to avoid fees;
  Google Maps doesn't show it and three people are asked.
- [11:43] Found — and it has run out of money. He uses a different bank.
  300,000 pesos, about £60 or $75.
- [12:15] A sweet cart drink he can't identify, and likes.
- [14:50] Into a street given over to sex work; he turns back and doesn't film
  it.
- [15:21] Helicopters overhead, which he says usually means trouble.
- [15:52] The haggle he only tries because the comments told him to.
- [16:33] It fails; the seller doesn't move.
- [17:36] A shirt asked at 25,000, he offers 20,000, and the stalls hold at
  23,000 — about $5 — which he thinks they agreed between them.
- [18:06] Plaza Botero, and a crowd that is mostly Colombian.
- [18:46] A woman shouts at him for filming the crowd.
- [20:24] Twenty-three Botero sculptures, a church, and the mountains behind.
- [20:56] The rule stated: in a foreign situation don't stall, keep moving, never
  stay in one place too long.
- [21:27] Another woman walks away as soon as the camera comes on.
- [21:58] Sitting for a street portrait — and a crowd gathering because he is
  visibly spending money.
- [25:11] Almost no foreign tourists all day, and the districts he hasn't seen
  yet: Comuna 13 and El Poblado.
- [25:43] The method restated — arriving anywhere, just walk around.
- [30:35] Checking he still has all his valuables afterwards.
- [31:36] The case for Medellín: cheap, liveable, good internet, nice people —
  and why digital nomads come.
- [33:07] What the city is famous for besides its past: graffiti, and more
  colourful than anywhere else he's been.
- [33:39] His cut-off — he stops exploring at dusk, because places are more
  dangerous at night.
- [34:39] Walks home in the dark anyway, traffic having made a taxi pointless,
  and calls it a bit risky.
- [34:39] Rappi, the local delivery app, recommended to him as fast.
- [35:41] Two tacos and a juice for 21,000 pesos, about $5.
- [36:13] The app's default 2,000-peso tip, left in, and the driver thanking him
  for it.
- [37:13] The Airbnb: $20 a night, fast wi-fi, Netflix — in a building that is
  half building site.

## Extracted pages

- [Colombia](/countries/colombia.md)
- [Medellín](/places/medellin.md)
- [Keep moving](/tips/keep-moving.md)
- [Don't trust Google Maps](/tips/dont-trust-google-maps.md)
- [Don't grind a price down to nothing](/tips/dont-grind-down-people-with-nothing.md)