MOON Parque Lleras, Medellin Colombia Clubs and Discos

M

OON in Parque Lleras, Medellin Colombia is one of the more popular Zona Rosa Disco/Clubs. It is small by Medellin standards. In fact, you could probably put 10-15 Moons in Mangos, Palmahias or Universal but do not let it’s size dissuade you from considering a visit.It was a special promo night and a friend managed to get us passes and management approval to take videos. We are finding that the Medellin Clubs are actually quite video/photo friendly as are the patrons.

Moon could best be described as a shotgun architecture 3 times as long as it is wide. The front part of the disco/club has leather sofas lining the entry for patrons to sit, relax and enjoy the “blaring music” that eminates from the rear of the club. It is the same music that you hear in many other discos and clubs in Medellin, the dancing is the same, the patrons dress the same, the cost of drinks on par with other Medellin Discos and Clubs, dark, loud music, flashy light shows yadda, yadda, yadda!

So, what was different about MOON? It was the young upscale Parque Lleras crowd, much like Cienaga was the young Envigado/Sabaneta Crowd. Many seemed to know each other, danced with many partners, hung out in small groups and partied big time together. Is this a pattern? Possibly.

At Mangos, Palmahias, Universal, Circus, Carnival and the other larger clubs, there seems to be a cross section of people from all over Medellin. At the smaller clubs there seems to be more of a neighborhood, High School, College grouping effect in place; and, They move from club to club, week to week depending on who has some kind of special or promotion.

Well, never let it be said that young people are not resourceful! Young Paisas are down right crafty in how to stretch their party pesos!

Crowded would be an understatement. Any self deserving Fire Marshall in the US would have fainted at the sight. If there had been a fire the chaos and pandemonium would have left hundreds dead. As it was, they seemed to be in their element and did not mind the closeness of being with their friends. It was impossible to move amongst the crowd without becoming “very familiar” with the people you were trying to get past. Very few girls breasts went unscathed by elbows, chests or shoulders but they really did not seem to be bothered by the fact. They were partying, dancing, drinking and enjoying a night out with their friends.

Even though it was crowded and filming was difficult, MTG still gives this very upscale, popular Parque Lleras Club a resounding two thums up as a place to visit while you are in Medellin.

 

 

 

Paisas returning home

During the late 80’s and early 90’s, many Paisa families left Medellin and Colombia and sought sanctuary in neighboring countries and many immigrated to the USA in an effort to avoid the lawlessness that was present in Medellin at the time.

Many have made their homes in the US but return often to visit friends and relatives but an ever growing number are returning to their native Medellin to live permanently now that safety and security have been improved so much.

 

I was talking with a recent returnee the other day who had formerly lived in Miami for about 17 years.  He told me it was more dangerous (not to mention more expensive) to live in Miami than Medellin.  The Naitive Paisas that are returning are generally well educated, many are professionals and having sold property or liquidated investments in the US are returning to Medellin with lots of money.  Many are buying or establishing businesses in Medellin and quite a few are catering to the bi-lingual needs of the ever increasing number of tourists to this fair city.

 

Like I get asked so often, “Why are you living in Medellin Colombia?”  I ask them, “Why are you returning to Medellin Colombia?” The answers are very similar. “The people, the climate, the cost of living, the women and I have a lot of family here”.  Well, I can’t include that last one in my answers but everyday I am here I feel more and more like they are becoming family.

The mayors office estimated over 8,000 Colombians returned to Medellin last year from neighboring countries and the US.  As the Civil War with the FARC seems to be subsiding due to large numbers of desertions and three of their top leaders dying or being killed withing the past few months, the government is expecting even more and more of these former Paisas to return home.

 

Frankly, I don’t blame them one little bit.

 

Bienvenidos Paisas. Welcome home!

Medellin Antioquia Colombia- City of El Penol Annual Fishing Tournament

On August 17th, the City of El Penol will hold it annual fishing tournament on Lake Penol.  Anyone may enter and it is open to the public. Prizes for various categories will be awarded.

I am told by some of the locals that a large number of peope participate each year.  I am also told there is some real gamesmanship and some underhanded things that take place but who cares?

The Sirena Finca Hotel, American owned and operated, will be a sponsor of the tournament.  They will also have their own tournament on August the 16th.  $150 entry fee of which $100 will be awarded as prizes for: 1) Largest Fish; 2) Most Fish; 3) Largest Variety of Fish; 4) Most Overall Weight. You are also invited to stick around another day for the El Penol tournament or visit the cities of El Penol and Guatape. There will be a fish fry Saturday night.  Categories include Black Bass and Tilapia.

Contact info@elpenoltours.com for more information or reservations.  Maximum of 25 entrants for the Sirena Tournament so book early.

Medellin Travel Guide Launches Affiliate Web Sites

At a 180+ pages and growing, the Medellin Travel Guide portal has become somewhat daunting for many that are not skilled browsers on the internet.

 

In an effort to make finding information about Medellin Colombia a little easier, we have launched several new web sites specifically focused on topics people are interested in finding about Medellin.

 

www.medellinpenthouses.com is dedicated to furnished Penthouses and apartments for sale and short or long term rentals;

www.medellinrealestatguide.com is dedicated to Medellin Property, sales of homes, condos, apartments, penthouses and fincas

www.medellinfincas.com is dedicated to finca sales and rentals as well as finca hotels for visits;

www.medellinadventuretours.com is dedicated to providing you with information about things to see and do in Medellin ranging from museum and finca tours to paragliding and whitewater rafting.

www.medellinvisitorsguide.com is a scaled down version of the Medellin Travel Guide with quick links to many favorite topics like Medellin Accommodations, Medellin Restaurants, Medellin Attractions and of course, Parque Lleras

 

www.medellinhealthtourism.com is dedicated to helping people find Medellin Doctors, Medellin Dentists and Medellin Hospitals that need health related assistance.

 

There are about 8 other web sites related to Medellin Realestate, Medellin Apartments and visiting Medellin that we have also launched.  Hopefully, you will discover that finding information on specific topics about Medellin Colombia a little easier to find now.

 

Regards,

 

Medellin Travel Guide

Medellin Rental Properties

One of the most frustrating things about owning rental investment property is having it sit vacant.  Expenses continue like monthly condo fees, taxes, utilities, placing ads in papers and on the internet etc.

 

In Medellin, you can drive around and see literally hundreds of “arrienda” signs in windows and if you pay attention, they stay there month after month after month. Many are listed with multiple agencies and yet, they still stay empty.

There are several reasons this phenomenon exists:

1) They are asking too much money for rent (but refuse to lower it).  It is an interesting part of the culture here.  They would rather sit on it, vacant, paying the monthly services, taxes and utilities than take 1 dollar less than they think it is worth per month??

2)  Most owners here will not fix up a place until it is rented so many do not show very well.  If they only realized a little sprucing, cleaning and painting would help their place show better, they would have money coming in each month instead of money going out!

3) One of the biggest hurdles is the infamous “Feador” system that is in place. To rent an apartment, you must have 2 Colombian residents…with good credit….to guarantee your rent should you fail to pay or; you may be required to pay up to 6 months in advance plus a security deposit!  Probably out of the reach of the average person in Colombia and foreigners wishing to rent do not have Colombians that will co-sign for them.

4) Lastly, many building administrations will not allow foreigners to rent in their buildings!  Yes, you heard that right.  No discrimination laws here preventing them from doing so either!

 

There is an evergrowing presence of ex-pats moving to Medellin Colombia that are buying up property and converting them to furnished and unfurnished rentals.  They are targeting their offers to visitors who want short term Medellin Accommodations as well as long term furnished and unfurnished apartments.  They are clever enought to use all the free and low cost vehicles for advertising and marketing their properties including having their own web sites, pages on other peoples web sites, free ads on Craigs List and more.  They know how to use Poor But Happy, WordPress and other Blog sites to get their property noticed and keep it occupied.

 

On Medellin Travel Guide, we have over 15 furnished Apartments and Penthouses listed.  Some are private owners while the lions share of them are listed by realtors. These properties have had over 90% occupancy for the past 90 days.  Several are currently leased on long term agreements. To say the rental market here is brisk would be an understatement.

But what about those of you that have properties that are sitting vacant.  Are you frustrated?  Thinking of throwing in the towel and selling?  Finding it difficult to manage the property from a long distance?

 

If you want to see some action on your property and increase your occupancy levels, you should place it in the hands of a competent local property management company who will advertise it, show it, collect rents, keep it maintained, meet and greet tenants attend to cleaning after departure and get it ready for your next guest.

Medellin Travel Guide highly recommends First American Realty Medellin for these services.  A trusted and reliable American owned operation that really does give “First Rate” service.

 

Secondly, if you already have someone that is performing these services for you but you just want a little more exposure to boost your occupancy performance, then you should consider placing your property on the Medellin Travel Guide Apartments listing page and having your own separate page on the site.  It is inexpensive and provides you coverage from the largest English Language portal about Medellin Colombia in existence.  You get your own page, your own photos, links from 22 other MTG pages and 14 other Medellin property,  Medellin realestate, Medellin apartments and Medellin Penhtouses related web sites that all drive traffic to your individual page.

 

Worth a look, wouldn’t you say? How much more profit would you make with a 5-10-20% or more increase in your occupancy? Even moreso now that we are offering special pricing for property listings and pages on the site. Check it out at www.medellintravelguide.com/medellin_advertising.html

Colombian Birds

It is a well known fact that Colombia has the largest species count of birds in the world.  At 1,810 and counting it far outpaces it’s closest rival.

 

What do I mean by “and counting”?  It seems like every month, one or more new species is added to the list.  Many are new species resulting from cross breeding of similar species whether in captivity or in the wild.

 

As security improves in Colombia, more and more neo-tropical birders are making their way to Colombia for Photog. opportunities of some of the rarer species.  As such, many of the tour companies have started offering bird photography (and watching) tours as another element in their arsenal to attract tourists to Colombia.  One such tour here in Medellin is led by a noted ornothologist, writer and photographer of Colombian Birds and offered by AS Eventos (a local tour company).

 

My PHD Anthropologist friend is thinking about including her on some of his eco tours he is offering.

I guess you could say I am a birder of 5th grade porportions.  I can’t tell you the species or genus of many of them; I can’t tell you their native habitats, feeding or mating habits.  Since the age of 2 I have owned birds (actually had a parakeet that would walk around with me on my head all day).  Even during college I had birds in my apartment (much to the dismay of a couple of my roomates…he he).

After graduating from college, I graduted to more exotic species including, African Greys, Double Yellowheads, Cockatoos and yes, even had a McCaw once (had to get rid of that one after it nearly took a finger off one day).  I raised a baby Yellow head from birth (it actully imprinted me breaking out of it’s shell)  I mouth fed it (Yep, you read that right, I fed it right out of my mouth just like its mother would have), tamed it, had it talking, went everywhere with me on my shoulder, sat with me while I watched TV, would fly to it’s perch if it had to go to the bathroom and then fly right back to my shoulder, was the awe of my friend and relatives but then a strange thing happened. 

When my daughter was born, the bird became very jealous of the attention the baby was getting.  Actually nipped her a couple of times while I was holding her.  The wife finally put her foot down.  Either the bird goes or she does.  At the time it was a tough decision but Britie found a great home with a Vet’s assistant. I even negotiated visitation rights as part of the sale….he he!

 

Now I just feed the wild birds daily on my apartment balcony.  They greet me every morning looking for their breakfast and a couple have become very brave, actually taking food out of my hand.  So far, I have counted 19 different species including a couple of incredibly beautiful species in the woodpecker family.  The brutish doves scare many of the little guys away but they always seem to get their fair share as well!

 

So if you are an avid Neo-Tropical Birder, you should put Colombia on your list of places to visit.  who knows, maybe you will discover number 1,811?

 

Medellin Travel Guide

 

Visiting Colombia or Brazil

Since I lived in Brazil (actually, the correct spelling is Brasil) for almost 2 years and have now lived in Medellin for over a year, I get a lot of inquiries about which place is better to visit.

 

Well, from a pure vacation standpoint, it is probably Brasil and Rio in particular.  It has beaches, tourist attractions, fantastic nightlife, gorgeous sensuous women, great restaurants and food and decent shopping. On the other hand, the likelihood of being mugged or robbed is about 5-10 times a greater possibility in Rio than it is in Medellin.  People that visit or live in Rio comically say that, “you haven’t visited Rio until you have a good robbery or mugging story to tell.  To make matters worse, the Rio police are perhaps amongst the most corrupt in the world and many times are in on the scams. The other downside is the language barrier.  Many Western people speak a little Spanish or had some in school somewhere along the way.  In Brasil it is 100% Portuguese and although there are some similarities, they will not understand your broken Spanish nor will you understand their Carioca Portuguese. You also have to get a rather expensive visa for Brasil and you don’t for Colombia

You are not going to find a lot of tourists traps in Medellin Colombia simply for the reason that Medellin doesn’t have many tourists (although that is changing rapidly now that the security has been improved).   The small towns in and around Medellin, like Santa Fe De Antioquia, El Penol, La Pintada, Copacabana (in Antioquia Colombia not Rio) are great places to visit and get a real sense for Colombian life and it’s culture.  Personally, I prefer doing that kind of traveling as opposed to touristy things anyway. Another way of putting it;  You won’t find Medellin Colombia T Shirt shops all over town like you will find Brasil and Rio T-shirt shops in Rio!!

 

Once you have seen Botero Plaza in Medellin, perhaps visit a few of it famous parks (Barefoot Park, Park of Dreams etc), maybe see one or two of the old churches, ride the cable metro up the mountainside and shopped in either the upscale malls of Oviedo, Tesoro and Premium Plaza or the catacombed El Centro shops of Hueco and Palacial National, you will have done and seen just about all there is to do here.  Of course, if you enjoy discos, dancing and partying, make sure your visit includes a Thursday-Sunday stay as this is a party town every week on those days.  You will also see more than your fair share of beautiful Paisa girls at these venues that will leave your chin on your chest gawking at them!  The next one prettier than the last one!!

 

Of course, no visit to Medellin would be complete without an evening in Parque Lleras.  It is in the upscale area of El Poblado and is the in place for the well to do upper class Paisas to eat, drink and party although you will see Paisas from all walks of life while you are there.

 

Maybe it is my age or the fact I have traveled to 74 countries but let me put it this way.  My Brasilian visa has expired and I have no plans of renewing it anytime soon.  I just renewed my visa for the second year to remain in Colombia.  I guees it really depends on what type of vacation you are looking for but be informed before you decide.

 

Medellin Travel Guide

Moving to Medellin- Working Virtual

A very good friend that I had known when I lived in Rio made a visit to Medellin last September to see if it might be a place he wanted to move.  He returned to his native Ft. Lauderdale determined to make a permanent move here and began a long arduous convincing effort with the owner of his company.  He was able to demonstrate his ability to perform his job virtually, even better than in his office.  His boss finally agreed but put a few stipulations to the agreement.

 

My friend called me and told me he wanted a really nice place to live in Medellin and maybe even a furnished Medellin Penthouse apartment.  When he saw this one he told me to book it for him for 3 months with an option to extend longer.  The only other thing he required was a really fast internet connection because his job involves uploading and downloading a lot of large graphics files.  We settled on a 4Mb ADSL service from EPM/UNE in Medellin.  He also needed a desk immediately, wanted provisions in his fridge when he arrived and needed everything completed over a weekend so he did not miss a beat at work and would be fully up and operational by Monday morning.

 

He arrived on a Thursday and after a scary Friday internet instalation that was not successful, he was up and working Saturday morning.  We bought his desk and office supplies, added to the meager yet basic provisions I had acquired, got maids in to clean (yes, maids as in plural; 2 for two full days at a total cost of just over $60 US!!)

 

It was a mad dash to the finish but he was up and working first thing Monday morning and it was business as usual.  Not to say it was an easy accomplishment in this sometime “manana” mentality environment but with a lot of planning and a little advanced research we pulled it off.

I think his boss was pleasantly surprised and has seen an actual improvement in my friends sales results.  My friend is beside himself with his first completed week in Medellin. Now, a few rugs, some plants and a little art work and he will be living in a truly spectacular 4 Bedroom Medellin Penthouse apartment with million dollar views for little more than his 3 bedroom apartment in Ft. Lauderdale.

 

I think he is here to stay!

Medellin Summer has finally arrived

Medellins summer officially started on June the first but the daily rains of May continued up until a few days ago.  For most of March, April and almost everyday in May it rained.  Not hard rains everyday but rain none the less.

Schools are letting out for the summer and many people are making their travel plans as evidenced by the run on hotels, apartments and other Medellin Accommodations

 

The Finca Hotels in and around Medellin Antioquia Colombia do a brisk summer business as do the tour operators at Lake Penol where many Paisas go for their summer vacations and the college kids go to party.

 

This is really the prettiest time of the year in Medellin although in late June through July it will also be the warmest time of the year.  Don’t worry, it rarely gets above 85 and the evenings are always refreshing.

 

If you are planning a visit to Medellin or anywhere in Colombia during the next several months, you should be making your reservations for a place to stay now.  You can find all price ranges for most any budget.  The Medellin Hostels get really full during the summer months with college kids and the backpacker crowd so don’t delay on that point!

 

Medellin Travel Guide

Medellin Antioquia El Penol inaguration of Viejo Penol

The town of El Penol plans an inaguration of Viejo Penol (a reconstruction of the old city that was flooded when the hydroelectric dam was built) for 6 days starting June 25th.  The proect was started about a year ago and has many replica buildings under construction.  There will utlimately be a cable car that runs from Guatape to the restoration project.

 

This event will represent the towns inauguration and people from all over Colombia and South America are expected to attend. Like most ferias in Colombia, this will most likely turn into a 6 day party…….!

 

If you would like to plan a few days to attend this event, the Sirena Hotel, located right next door to the project, is now taking reservations.  www.elpenoltours.com