You Must Visit This Beach in Colombia 🇨🇴

Harry walks the length of Bocagrande, the high-rise beach district of Cartagena, from the skyscrapers to the far point, arriving at sunset. It takes about an hour and he is approached by street vendors for most of it.

The video is essentially a portrait of those vendors. He buys from a lot of them on purpose, tips one who asked for nothing, and says at the end that he doesn’t haggle with people here because the minimum wage is very low and the money is trivial to him — the clearest statement of that habit anywhere in the Colombia cluster.

It also contains the cluster’s first direct answer to the safety question. His position: labelling a whole country dangerous is a bad way to think, Colombia has dangerous areas like everywhere does, and he is currently in tourist areas and will say so rather than generalise from them.

The comic centrepiece is a seafood dish he orders without knowing what it is, cannot swallow, and then defends — not bad food, he says while crying, just not for him.

Key moments

• [00:14] Arrives at Bocagrande at the end of the working day; the beach is packed.
• [00:45] Palm trees, skyscrapers, and the nickname — mini Miami. About 30°C with a breeze, and the sea warm.
• [01:22] Mango with lemon and salt from a vendor; pepper offered and declined.
• [02:04] The vendors take no for an answer first time.
• [02:34] The mango is far firmer than English mango, nearly vegetable-like, which he thinks is why it is salted.
• [04:12] Gives a man about $3 who had asked for nothing.
• [04:44] The safety question, put directly: not dangerous where he is, but he is in the tourist areas and says so.
• [05:51] A cold beer on the sand; police visible along the beach.
• [06:53] Aniseed spirit from a group on the beach — strong.
• [08:25] Where Bocagrande sits: the new city on a near-island, with the old walled city across the water.
• [08:57] Told that Colombians are highly social, and finding the beach full of large groups of friends.
• [09:29] Buys a seafood dish — onion, prawn, lemon, wafers — with no idea what it is.
• [12:01] Has to stand up mid-mouthful, gagging, and ends up in tears.
• [12:36] The correction he insists on: it wasn’t bad food, he just didn’t like it.
• [13:06] What has surprised him most about Colombia is the people — charismatic, confident, and serious salsa dancers.
• [14:08] Buying a bracelet, and asking outright for the local price rather than the gringo price. He is told there isn’t one.
• [15:54] Given a vendor’s stock to hold and sell for a minute, which he does.
• [17:32] A woman starts massaging him unasked; he asks whether it’s free, is told no, and declines.
• [18:06] Sunset at the point.
• [18:37] Expands the safety argument: it is bad to label a country, and every country has areas.
• [19:07] Kitesurfers off the end of the beach against the sunset.
• [20:10] Closing: the minimum wage here is extremely low, making a living is hard, and he isn’t going to haggle over three dollars.

Extracted pages

• Colombia
• Bocagrande
• Cartagena
• The gift that isn’t free