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Plaza Botero is safe in the day time. Don't go around there at night and be careful with the immediate streets/areas to the north and west of the plaza at any hour of day. The same applies to Parque Bolivar, which is a very, very sketchy place after nightfall (it looks the opposite from google maps with the nice church etc). As a general rule of thumb, the east side of downtown is somewhat safer than the west, but the entirety of el centro is an easy place to get robbed if you look out of place. The most dangerous parts of el centro are on the west near to the river; barrio triste (which you won't have a reason to go to) and the section around Ferrocarril leading to Prado and the Minorista.
To me it seems right around 8:00 pm is the witching hour for downtown Medellin. The shops start closing so there are less people about, the plazas that seemed safe and lively an hour earlier when it was lighter are suddenly really sketchy. Berrio is a little better at night because so much foot traffic from the metro, but San Antonio and Bolivar are both best avoided at night. San Antonio has lots of weirdos about 24/7 but gets tour groups constantly during the day because of the blown up bird so usually lots of security around in the day.
You can't go by what the looks of a neighborhood tell you because to your eyes as a foreigner one neighborhood can look exactly the same as another but one will be much riskier due to a prevalence of criminals. Nobody except locals will know the difference. The other thing is that certain street blocks will be used for nepharious activity, this changes periodically so it's a matter of being up to date with it. Kind of like NYC in the 1970s.
Some residential neighborhoods which are okay to wander around in the day are risky at night.
another thing to be aware of is that thieves will keep an eye on ATMs and will sometimes follow a person who has withdrawn money for long distances until they see their opportunity to mug them. This happened to a family member of mine in Cali. He withdrew money then he drove home. He lives in a decent Stratus 4/5 neighborhood. The guys followed him until he parked his car and got out. Then they approached him with a pistol. His mom was looking out the second-floor balcony window and yelled at them. They got suprised and fired the gun at him and then split.
It's more a combination of looks of a neighborhood, learning/hearing about different areas, and a general rule of not being in places where there are no other people around, especially at night. Lots of the areas where tourists go in Medellin it's quite obvious, foreigner or not, that it isn't a good place to be at night. Hell Bolivar is dodgy in the day even though they have a police substation set up right in the middle, lots of drug addicts and drunks that have got nothing to lose. The area around our apartment in Medellin was nice enough but I still didn't like walking home later at night when the streets were empty so we'd usually take a taxi even if it was only a 15 minute walk. My wife's gym was a block away but I'd still go meet her when her yoga class ended at 8:30pm, there was usually others from her class leaving too but I didn't like not knowing that for sure.
A good person to ask about areas to avoid is taxi drivers. Owners of guest houses or hotels that might be motivated to portray their surroundings in a more positive light, but taxistas will give you the truth. Our favorite answer was in San Salvador earlier this year, we asked our taxi driver which parts of the city are dangerous he answered "todas partes" and laughed.
We usually find a nice modern mall to use ATMs, I don't like streetside ATMs very much where one stands out individually using it, and I've got to be really desperate for cash to use an outdoor ATM at night.
The topic is Medellin specifically, and most obvious precautions have already been given both in a general sense and the city itself.
Something else one can do if you need to take a taxi off the street is take a picture of the back license plate with your cell. The driver will see you do it and shouldn't take too much offense if they are the 99% honest folks trying to make a living. It could also potentially discourage someone who might be planning to take you on the alleyway assault express.
It's probably better to take an Uber than to use a regular taxi, unless you call AHEAD.
Have the hotel arrange taxi for you.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lieqiang
Something else one can do if you need to take a taxi off the street is take a picture of the back license plate with your cell. The driver will see you do it and shouldn't take too much offense if they are the 99% honest folks trying to make a living. It could also potentially discourage someone who might be planning to take you on the alleyway assault express.
Sorry but this is naive. Taxi drivers who work with criminals to set passengers up for robberies (or worse) - of which there are a number in Medellin - don't care a whif if you take a photo of their car.
It's best not to hail taxis on the street. Your best bet is to have the hotel do it for you.
Here's a link to a video that was taken a few days ago in Medellin. This video shows an armed robbery happening in daylight in a busy street. Two guys on a motorcyle are using a gun to rob the occupants of a vehicle:
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