Medellin Los Alumbrados in Preparation

This year the mayors office started very early preparing for this years Los Alumbrados.  Not many were sure why the preparations were starting in early August but it was apparent something big was hapening.

It started with the installations of huge green water drums all along the river.  The workers were hacking their way through the rocks and dirt that line the river placing these 2-5 hundred gallon water containers and submersing them below ground.  Next came the installation of all new metal support structures across the river.  This is not an unusual sight but the structures themselves were.  Mush more durable, stronger and they looked to have a plan of permanence about them.  They were being built to support something very, very heavy.  Next came the installation of tan tarp like material below the support structures.

 

My curosity was piqued so I began asking around if anybody knew what was going on with this years Los Alumbrados?  The Mayors office finally announced that this years theme was going to be a water theme and all the tanks and support structures were being erected to pump water.  He also promised that this years Los Alumbrados would be the most spectacular in history.

Having attended 4 Los Alumbrados, I find that difficult to believe but if the installations are any indication of what is to come, it will surely be a spectacle to behold.

 

Make your plans early as accommodations fill up fast and expect to pay a minimum of a 20% surcharge from the first of December until January 15th.  Oh, and bring your cameras!

Colombia Moda and Feria de Las Flores 2009

The City of Medellin is abuzz in anticipation of this years Colombia Moda and Feria de Las Flores.  Hotels and apartments are filling or full, many new faces are appearing in local restaurants and nightclubs.  Most stores are stocking up on beverages and snacks.  The street vendors have packed in extra provisions and products in anticipation of record crowds for this years events.

The local people are filled with excitement over this annual event and many are scheduling out the parties they will attend on a daily basis.  Tickets to Colombiamoda events are as hard as hens teeth to come by and many are fetching premium prices for the most desireable shows.  I know one gentleman who paid $250 USD for a ticket to the Leonisa fashion show.

Decide early where you want to meet with your friends and send someone early to hold your spot for Cabalgata on Saturday August 1st.  The parade usually starts around 2:00PM and can last well past midnight.  Stock up early on your refreshments and snacks.  Last year, Carrefour on the Auto Pista sold out of many libations by early evening.

 

If this is your first Cabalgata, you will return home with stories about an event that your friends, relatives and neighbors will just not understand.  Take photos and/or videos and let them do your talking because you will not be able to describe it adequately. Bring a folding chair or be prepared to sit on the ground, curb or stand for long periods of time.  Be prepared for loud music all along the 28KM parade route.  As the parade unfolds into the early afternoon, the Paisas become very festive (and most will be well into a bottle or two of rum or Aguardiente), dancing will break out as well as raucous partying.

We will be taking videos and photos and will post them on the MTG website and YouTube for your viewing pleasure.  If you can’t make this years Festival of Flowers, start making plans now for next years event so you can be a part of one of the most incredible 10 days of partyingin all of South America.  Medellins Colombiamoda and Feria de Las Flores!

Medellin Travel Guide Portal

The original design concept for Medellin Travel Guide was to make it into a portal, a gateway if you will, to finding information about visiting or traveling to Medellin Colombia.  Inclusive of our rental apartments, penthouses and realestate for sale listings we have with our clients, the portal is now well over 180 pages in length.  Too big and too cumbersome for many surfers although our unique visitors continues to grow at a 20% month over month rate.

We tracked some data points, for the past 4 months, of which topics were of the greatest interest to our site visitors and decided to publish an easier to navigate more user friendly website with short snippets of information and links back to individual pages on MTG is there was interest in more detail on a particular subject.

 

It had a natural selection of about 5 main topics;

Accommodations;

Getting Here;

Realestate;

Things to do;

and, Services

 

From those broad categories, we took the top 33 most frequently visited pages/topics and created www.medellinvisitorsguide.com  In some cases, you will be taken to a specific page on Medellin Travel Guide but will never leave the Medellin Visitors Guide Site.  We used the KISS approach in determining if less intensive information would meet your needs for Medellin Information and just created new pages or whether the information on MTG was succint enough to just link you to that specific topic.

A splash or landing page was created about a month ago and we have been periodically working to complete the site.

 

Today, we have re-launched www.medellinvisitorsguide for your perusal.  We hope it meets your needs for information about traveling to or visiting Medellin Colombia.  You can always find more detail on many more topics on Medellin Travel Guide but you may just find what you need on Medellin Visitors Guide as well.

 

Thanks for visiting and helping to make Medellin Travel Guide the #1 English web site about Medellin Colombia on the internet.

 

Regards,

 

MTG

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

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!