Feria de Las Flores 2009

RCN Noticias (the local 24 hour news station) is estimating that 4,000 foreign visitors will be in Medellin this year for Feria de Las Flores.  About 1,700 of those will have visited Colombiamoda the previous 3 days.  Now, to many of you, that is not a staggering number but to the promoters of the event, it is about an 85% increase over last years foreign attendance. They are also expecting in excess of 50,000 Colombians from other cities to be in town as well.

RCN also announced that there are very few if any hotel rooms available in the city during the 10 day event.  Surely a good sign for the Medellin economy. Expect a 20-30% premium over normal posted rates for this event.

 

The festival begins on July 31st and runs through August 9th.  This year, Cabalgata is on Saturday August 1st..  Cabalgata has been trumpeted as the worlds largest outdoor horse parade with over 7,000 riders and participants in last years parade.  It is an event not to miss if you are in Medellin.

 

There are plenty of places to view the prade along the 28 kilometer route.  Just a word of caution.  Avoid large crowds of people as there are many pickpockets working the event.  Protect your valuables, money, cameras, don’t wear flashy jewlery etc.  A fanny or back pack is recommended.

The Mayors official website has a schedule of events for the Feria; http://www.medellin.gov.co/alcaldia/jsp/modulos/V_medellin/index.jsp?idPagina=1015

For the locals and many Colombians that visit from other cities, this event is an opportunity to party for 10 days. For the visiting foreigners, they will see Medellin life at it’s best.

MTG

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 Fincas

Going to your finca (country home) for the weekend is a Paisa way of life.  Many times it is just family, sometimes family and friends and often a whole group of friends to party. There are some very elaborate fincas in Medellin Antioquia but most are more like weekend lake or mountain homes in the US.  Somewhat rustic and more of a lodge typ of structure.

Well, Medellin Travel Guide began asking around about fincas that were available for rentals, either by the room or the entire finca.  Afterall, why should the Paisas have all the fun.  We were very surprised at what we found.

 

Many of the fincas in the surrounding area around Medellin (Copacabana, El Penol, Andes, Santa Fe de Antioquia, Rio Negro and other small communities are actually finca hotels, bed and breakfast types of places. We became intrigued and decided to visit one close to Jose Maria Cordoba Airport in Rio Negro  with the aid of a local AgroTourist company.  What we found was not only a pleasant surprise but it turne out to be a very worthwhile use of our time.

 

We visited Siete Cueros (it means seven skins…more later).  The main house is like a big hostel. It has 4 rooms but only two of them would really be usable.  The other two are equipped with bunkbeds for families with children.  Then, there were 4 cabanas.  Cabana del Agucate (avocado), Cabana Siete Cueros, and Cabana de Paja (Straw Roof)  These were all former care takers residences that have been converted to rooms. They are all very rustic, especially Cabana de Paja but you are only going to be sleeping in them. They all have hot water, double beds, small kitchens, living rooms and dining areas (well, Paja is more of an outdoor balcony dining area).

What became even more interesting was meeting the owner. He used to live in the US for almost 15 years and spoke very good English.  I asked about the history of the place (and about the name…Promise, I’ll get to it).  He was the original owner of 35 years ago and built the first house on the property.  It consisted of…get this….20,000 Cuadras (blocks) of property.  They mainly raised agricultural products and some cattle.  He began subdiving the estate and selling large tracts to friends, neighbors and people from Medellin that wanted to build fincas. Much of the progress came to an end during the Pablo Escobar era when the owner and his family moved to the US.  They were delighted to return and resume their Paisa country lifestyle. The owners wife is a very pleasant lady and the staff of the finca hotel were quite delightful as well.  We had a simple dinner of “Carne en el Trapo” which is like a filet mignon wrapped is a cheese cloth that has been rubbed down with salt and other spices.  They throw it right into the flames of a fireplace and let it cook until all the cloth has been burned away.  They then slice off the burned outer layer of meat to get to the juicy and succulent inside of the filet.  Interestingly enough, there was an ample supply of well done, medium, medium rare and rare pieces to go around to suit everyones taste.  Also inclued were salted potatoes, salad and green beans.  No one went hungry.

 

The owner offered to show me around some more and I found a very large outside patio where one could throw a huge party.  ” Wouldn’t it bother the neighbors?” I asked.  He smiled and said, ‘There is only one and they don’t mind”! Also discovered a huge steam room that could easily accommodate 15-20 people, lush grounds that are actually used for raising avocados and ferns for use in flower arrangements. The are also two very small but stocked lakes (he plans to do some additional work on these)

 

So, I finally got around to asking him about the name.  You see, Cuero is Spanish for leather or hides.  I asked, “Why did you name the place 7 hides?”   He smiled and said, “It also means 7 skins”.  I was almost afraid to ask but he volunteered. Seems there are 7 very unique trees on the place. Flowering trees that rival a bogainvillea  in colors but is much larger. It’s bark resembles a birch tree and does in fact look like thin layers of skin.  I think he realized my relief and just chuckled.

It was a wonderful experience and hopefully I will be able to return with a group of friends for a weekend fiesta at our very own Medellin Finca Hotel.  We now have a large list of finca available for rent and have posted our first three on the web site at www.medellintravelguide.com/medellin_fincarentals.html  We will be adding more frequently (there are about 50 to choose from).

 

MTG 

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Colombiamoda 2008

Colombiamoda 2008 will be held July 8th-10th. at Plaza Mayor and other locales in Medellin.

If you are into fashion, you will love visiting Medellin.

Colombiamoda is billed as the largest fashion show in Latin America. Having celebrated its 18th anniversary this past July it is rapidly becoming known internationally as one of the most important fashion events to attend in the world.

Medellin is regarded by many as the largest textile center in Latin America so it is little wonder this event continues to grow in importance for the local economy.

Well attended you ask?:

450 national and international exhibitors.

1730 international buyers.

7260 national buyers and visitors from Alemania, Argentina, Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Bélgica, Belice, Bolivia, Brasil, Canada, Costa Rica, Chile, Ecuador, El Salvador, España, Estados Unidos, Francia, Guatemala, Holanda, Honduras, Israel, Italia, Japan, Mexico, Noruega, Holand, Panama, Peru, Polonia, Reino Unido, Dominican Republic, Singapur, Suiza, Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.

60.000 meters of exhibition and services space.

400 national and international journalist.

The trade show

A place where you can find the new trends for formal, casual, jeanswear and sport collections for the feminine, masculine, junior, children and baby market. Ideal for wholesalers, chain stores, department stores, boutiques and distributors.

Business, fashion, sensations and brands is what everybody breathed this past year in Colombiamoda. It takes place every July.

This important business center that has become one of the most important in the Latin American textile and apparel sector is held at the Plaza Mayor Medellin, its Recinto Ferial, Centro de Convenciones and The Teatro Metropolitano.

**For visiting the catwalks you need an invitation, the Colombiamoda’s badge is not valid.

These invitations can be hard to come by but if you get lucky and snag a couple of tickets to attend a catwalk fashion exhibition it will dazzle your eyes with the beauty of the Colombian fashion models. Knowing somebody in the industry is always an advantage.

The general exhibition halls are open to the public on a daily basis. Entrance ticket purchase required. Eye candy is free.

Medellin Travel Guide – Medellin Apartments and Penthouses

As has been noted, Medellin Colombia is experiencing an incredible building boom. As of October, 2007, there were 145 high-rises under construction in Medellín, including 29 being approved, and 25 being proposed.

Many of these construction projects are for new high rise apartment buildings and most of them are Class A properties.  This is resulting in a lot of vacant apartments and many are being rented.

It is never easy to rent an unfrunished apartment in Medellin as a foreigner.  Most times they want a Feador (co-signer or guarrantor for the rent).  If you don’t know a local Colombian with good credit, the likelihood is that you can’t rent an apartment unless you pay 6 months or more of your rent in advance.

As far as furnished apartments go, many Ex-Pats have purchased and furnished very upscale apartments and penthouses as rental properties, second homes, retirement homes or for investment.  These properties are generally rented short term, a week or two, possibly a month or longer.  In most cases, you will not require a feador to rent these properties if you are just visiting Medellin for a short stay or are coming here to buy a property of your own.

Most come fully furnished with cable TV, wireless internet, VOIP phones for free calls to the US and W. Europe, pools, gyms, saunas, 24 hour private security and more.

If you are visiting Medellin for the first time, it is recommended that you stay in one of the nicer Poblado Hotels or any of the Bed and Breakfast locations around town.  If you are a seasoned Medellin visitor, you may want to consider a furnished Medellin apartment or penthouse for your visit. If you are traveling with a couple of friends, you can have a very upscale Medellin penthouse for less than the cost of many hotel rooms.

Look around.  You might be surprised at what you find.

Portofino Casino-Medellin Colombia

One of the newer and certainly more upscale casinos recently opened in Medellin is the Portofino Casino in Portofino Plaza on Av. Poblado, El Poblado, Medellin Colombia. Medellin has the second largest number of casinos in Colombia for any city where it has been legalized but these are not gigantic casinos like you would see in Vegas, Tahoe, Reno or Atlantic City.  These are more like a few thousand square feet rather than a few million. Attached in the same complex is the very upscale Holiday In Express along with shops, restaurants and offices.

I am not a big gambler and don’t go to casinos with any regular frequency but yesterday, a visiting friend wanted to go play some roulette so I decided to join him.  I had been inside Portofino once before just for a look around shortly after it opened.  I was impressed with it’s layout, it’s decor, it’s professional staff and the range of gaming offered.

Many casinos in Medellin only offer slot machines.  Some offer limited table games while Portofino offered a wide range of slots, several Black Jack tables, Roulette, Caribbean Poker and more.  They also have several promotions offered this month (and usually every month there are several).  This month, they are offering $20,000 pesos in playing money just to sit down at a table.  You can double down against a dealers ace and if you loose, they do not take your double down bet.  If you win, they pay both.  Anytime you get a blackjack, they give you an entry ticket to win a free car and one is awarded every month. Drinks are free, light snacks are served at the tables and the dealers and pit bosses are very friendly (many speak English). The minimum bet at the table is $5,000 COP (about $2.50 USD).  General Black Jack rules apply including your ability to surrender a crummy hand and get back 1/2 of your bet. You may play multiple hands on vacant seats.

Normally, when I go to a casino, I play $100USD.  If I win $100, I quit.  If I loose $100 I quit.  I got close to winning but ultimately walked out a looser.  Such is the life of gambling.  I am probably even on winning/losing over the years and have never really made a big deal out of keeping track.  For me, gambling is a form of entertainment that I do so infrequently as to make it merely something different to do for an afternoon or evening.

If you are visiting Medellin, we can highly recommend the Portofino.  It is in an extremely safe and seure area of town, has a lot of security, will hail and escort you to a passing taxi, you can walk there from most Poblado Hotels, you will find a number of local ex-pats, tourists and Medellin visitors and as mentioned, many of the staff speak some English.

Medellin Travel Guide

Medellin Travel Guide-So whats in a URL name?

We are www.medellintravleguide.com We are Medellin Travel Guide.  We are the largest English web site dedicated only to Medellin Colombia.  We live in Medellin Colombia. We have over 150 pages of Medellin centric topics, accurate and current information about visiting Medellin Colombia.  We have over 150 Medellin photos. We have over 150 links to Medellin Hotels, Hostels, Bed and Breakfasts, Restaurants, Tour Agencies, Malls, Museums, Attractions.  We have 11 videos about Medellin Festivals, Nightclubs and Discos posted on YouTube.  Everything on our site is current, correct (to the best of our knowledge), updated monthly, ever evolving and yet, we do not have position 1 page 1 for a search for Medellin Travel Guide on any search engine in existence.

For example on Google,  page 1 position 1 belongs to World66.com.  Granted, they are a world wide travel site focused on cities all over the world and their contributors are actual travelers but, their last post was from August of 2006? They have 3 posts about Medellin Accommodations from the owners of the establishments; They have a brief mention of the Medellin Metro as a means of transportation without any mention of buses or taxis; They mention 2 museums in a city teeming with over 40 to visit; They mention 3 internet cafes in a city with the most internet connections in Colombia, hundreds of internet cafes and no mention of Wi-Fi Hot Spots; They only mention the Feria de las Flores in a city that has ferias almost every month; and, they have a whopping 30 photos posted of the city.

Third place goes to Virtual Tourist.  A travel site consolidator that gets travelers to post trip reports of their travel experiences. They boast 20 members living in Medellin, 99 photos and 71 Medellin Tips. Their last person living in Medellin that posted was Feb of 2007?

Position 4-This one is a real standout.  Title Page: Medellin Travel Guide | MyTravelGuide.com.  Another travel site consolidator for hotels (a grand whopping 1 hotel listed, 0 restaurants, 0 attractions, and 2 outdated deals listed by Travelzoo), well, it just goes downhill from there!

Somedays, I do not know whether to be honored or angry that they use our website/URL name in their title page.

Then there is Wikipedia in position 2.  We love this organization and all it has done to bring knowledge and information to the world at your fingertips.  We have even recently opened an account to help edit the information on Medellin on it’s site.  Not only is it outdated, much of it is downright wrong including the name of the person that discovered Medellin. For the sake of world knowledge, we will endeavor to commit an hour per week to getting it corrected.  We like Wiki and will help them all we can and are proud to have them use our name in their title page.

Then, there are the creative wannabes: TravelGuide-Medellin; Medellin-Travel-Guide; Colombia_Medellin_travelguide

We also like the sites that refer you to a city in Spain or the Phillipines named Medellin (don’t get on the wrong flight). Whatever they are, there are page after page of websites listed on Google, MSN, Yahoo. AltaVista and others that use Medellin Travel Guide as their 1st position Title Page description but……….There is only one www.medellintravelguide.com

Somedays we chuckle at what we find on other websites.  For instance, one site listed its favorite restaurant and even recommended it’s favorite item to order from the menu.  Save your taxi money. That particular restaurant was closed and bulldozed over a year ago to make way for a casino expansion.  Or the site that advertised special hotel rates for Feria de las Flores.  Unfortunately, the rates were from 2004 as were the dates for the festival. The best one was for a very upscale Medellin Hotel that really had us searching high and low for where this hotel was located. Suddenly a light went off about the address and we realized this hotel had been purchased and it’s name changed in 2005. Then there are the clubs and discos that have been closed for years or changed names, directions to local attractions that are incorrect, old maps that do not show new highways, links to sites that do not exist anymore or never existed in the first place and ad infinitum.

We spent hundreds of hours researching our data and facts.  We do monthly updates and announcements and on some pages, daily updates, we have people stopping us on the streets or approaching us in restaurants for information (The best was, “Hey, how many species of birds are there in Colombia?”  Our response, “1810, more than any country in the world”.

We must have done something right in choosing our name (and we made sure we had the .net  .info and .mobi URLs as well.  Now if we can just get the search engines to give us our credit due with page positioning we will be very happy.  We are working on it and hopefully someday soon, you will see our website where it belongs when you do a Medellin Travel Guide search. Just don’t put a lot of faith in the information you see on other websites unless it is current.  We’d hate to see you try to book a room at a hotel that no longer exists!

Medellin Travel Guide