The popular Medellin Guru blog in Colombia has now been under attack for well over four months in a row with millions of DDoS attacks, SPAM, fake comments and fake emails.
We were unable to publish any new articles this week due to having to defend the Medellin Guru website daily. We are fighting every day with a huge increase in DDoS attacks and many fake emails.
The attacks started with a DDoS attack: on April 24. And the Medellin Guru site was attacked by a denial of service attack which shut the site down briefly in the afternoon.
In a recent week we were hit by 230,690 DDoS threats blocked by DDoS protection for for a period of a week as of September 1,
The attack of fake emails has increased so we have a new policy. If you are not a Patreon subscriber or a subscriber to our free email,we will not answer your questionbut will send an email challenge asking for proof you are a real person before answering.
Also, we suspect a company behind the attacks that is a competitor to one of our partners. Readers if you know something about this please contact us.
Colombia isn’t well known around the world for its cuisine and Colombian food. But there are a number of delicious traditional Colombian dishes that are worth trying.
Some countries are well-known for their cuisine. So, you can find Italian, Chinese, French and Indian restaurants in cities throughout the world. But you would be hard pressed to find a restaurant specializing in Colombian food in many cities around the world outside of Colombia.
Colombian cuisine varies regionally and is influenced by Spanish, African, Arab and some Asian cuisines.
Medellín is located in the Aburrá Valley in the Andes mountains, offering fantastic panoramic views of Medellín.
This gives the second most populated city in Colombia, an incomparable charm with many very scenic views in the city. And we look at seven of the best views in the city.
Medellín has many scenic viewpoints. But we chose what we believe are the seven best panoramic views of Medellín for this article.
Also, with Medellín’s location in a valley surrounded by mountains, many apartments in the city have stunning and scenic views of the city and mountains.
We provide a guide to grocery shopping in Medellín with tips to save money. By smart shopping it’s possible to save substantially on your grocery costs in Medellín or other cities in Colombia.
The easiest way to grocery shop in Medellín is to go to a big store like Exito or Jumbo where you can buy everything. But this won’t be the cheapest option. By smart shopping you can easily save over 30 percent compared to the prices at Exito or Jumbo.
While it is convenient to do all your shopping at a big Exito or Jumbo you can save substantially by shopping at some of the discount grocery stores or the local grocery stores and tiendas found in most neighborhoods.
Cell phone services are relatively easy to establish in Colombia for foreigners but there are a number of regulations. So, we provide a comprehensive guide to buying and using cell phones in Colombia, updated for 2021.
Colombia has a relatively modern telecommunications infrastructure with several Colombian competitors offering mobile phone services. This is due to Colombia opening up its telecommunications industry in 1991.
The competition between the mobile providers in Colombia helps keep the price for mobile services in Colombia generally lower than in the U.S.
Also, it’s very easy to get prepaid (prepago) mobile services established in Colombia. And you can recharge cellphones in so many places. Postpaid plans require a cedula. So, unless you have a visa, you can’t get a postpaid plan.
We provide a guide to choosing a city in Colombia to live for foreigners looking to live in Colombia. We look at which cities win or lose in 13 different categories.
Foreigners who move to Colombia do this for a variety of reasons, a lower cost of living, a beach lifestyle, a mountain lifestyle, better climate, retirement, love and more.
In addition, Medellín has been described by a number of publications including U.S. News, Huffington Post and CNN Money as a top foreign retirement location. Also, Medellín has been touted for many years as a top foreign retirement location by the foreign retirement publications. And Medellín is a beautiful city in a valley surrounded by mountains.
However, Medellín is not the only city in Colombia with foreigners. There are many foreigners living in other cities and smaller pueblos throughout Colombia.
Most foreigners living in Colombia live in the larger cities including Bogotá, Medellín, Cali and Cartagena. But there are foreigners living in smaller cities and pueblos as well.
The Medellin Guru visa services was launched in March 2019. And in 30 months, a total of 454 visas have been successfully received by Medellin Guru readers:
In addition, this visa service renewed 55 American passports in Bogotá and provided visa stamping services to 10 clients. In addition, 28 clients extended tourist visas using this visa service.
So, in total we had 547 clients of the Medellin Guru visa service in 28 months, which is an average of 18 clients per month.
Many Medellin Guru readers have asked about health insurance and other types of insurance. So, we partnered to offer Colombian insurance services to readers, which has now helped over 155 Medellin Guru readers obtain insurance in Colombia.
Features of this Colombian insurance service include:
Bilingual – English and Spanish.
Email quotes.
Free consultations.
Offers health insurance, travel insurance, auto insurance, homeowners’ insurance, life insurance.
Moving to a city in a foreign country is complicated. Medellin Guru offers services for expats in Colombia. In 29 months we helped over 1,060 clients.
Medellin Guru starting offering services in March 2019. Since that time with our partners we have helped over 1,060 clients with visas, insurance, expat consultations, apartment rentals, real estate services and Spanish classes and expat consultations.
We helped over 115 new clients in December, January and February! In March, April and May 2021 we helped over 110 new clients. And since March 2019, we helped over 1,060 Clients.
We partnered to offer visa, health insurance, real estate, furnished rentals and Spanish school services to foreigners to help with relocation:
Our partnerships are affiliate relationships (like the Amazon affiliate program).
If you use our partner services, Medellin Guru receives a small commission and you support the website. This is at no additional cost to you. The price remains the same, whether you use a button or affiliate link for these services on this website or not.
In addition, we offer a popular Expat Consultation Service to answer all your questions about visas, renting apartments, neighborhoods, health insurance, buying property starting a business and many other topics. We have done over 330 Expat Consultation calls or in-person meetings in less than two years.
We want to thank our partners and clients and subscribers! We now have a total of over 1,900 clients and paying subscribers.
Medellin Guru uses a partial subscription model with premium content locked for paying subscribers. Starting in January 2020, Medellin Guru starting moving to a partial subscription model.
We already published 84 premium content articles on Patreon in FULL. That means about 12 percent of the best content on Medellin Guru is premium content, which is the most comprehensive series of articles about moving to Colombia available.
Over the next three months, we plan that about 15 percent of the over 670 articles on Medellin Guru will be locked for Patreon subscribers and available on Patreon.
By asking for help from our readers to remain ad free, we already have over 910 paying subscribers (patrons). Thanks everyone!
Popular Premium Articles About Visiting and Moving to Colombia
We plan to publish any new premium locked articles and updated locked articles in full on the Patreon website. So, you can now think of Patreon as the new home for Medellin Guru’s premium content.
Subscribe nowto Medellin Guru's premium content for as little as $3 per month.
Medellin Guru is the only blog in Colombia that has a policy of not letting articles on our website become out-of-date.
Some articles have been updated multiple times, as things change constantly in Colombia. Things are now changing so fast due to coronavirus in Colombia.
We are trying our best to keep up and we continue to update more articles than ever before!
In the past 136 weeks we updated a total of 1,994 articles. Here are 9 of the 18 updated articles from the past week:
We look at nine reasons why Sabaneta has become the second most popular neighborhood for expats living in the Medellín metro area.
Sabaneta has become more popular for expats living in Medellín. Sabaneta is unlike Medellín. The pace is slower in Sabaneta and more laid-back compared to Medellín’s modern and more energetic feel.
Sabaneta feels more like small-town Latin America. There are many high-rises in Sabaneta. But you’ll find friendly people and life with an old-fashioned, Spanish-colonial feel. And you can even see horses on the streets at times.
In addition, Sabaneta has become increasingly popular with foreigners looking for an alternative. Property rentals in Sabaneta can be cheaper than in El Poblado, Envigado or Laureles-Estadio.
More and more expats are discovering the small-town ambiance in Sabaneta, with lower property prices and a lower cost of living plus walkability.
You must be a Medellin Guru Patreon subscriber to read this premium content.
This article was updated with our latest list of best restaurants in Sabaneta and updated a few other sections of the article..
There are several downsides of owning a car in Medellín. A majority of expats in the city do not own a car and we look at the pros and cons of owning a car.
While driving a car may be convenient and often a fun way of getting from one place to another, owning a car also has several downsides when compared to other modes of transport in Medellín, such as public transportation, bicycling and walking.
We surveyed over 200 expats in Medellín a few years ago and found that over 80 percent did not own cars.
One of the benefits of living in Medellín is the good public transportation with the low-cost Medellín Metro system, inexpensive buses and inexpensive taxis.
We look the pros and cons of owning a car in Medellín, 13 cons and 3 pros.
You must be a Medellin Guru Patreon subscriber to read this premium content.
This article was updated with updates to several sections
El Poblado vs Laureles. We comprehensively compare two neighborhoods popular with expats in Medellín to see which is a better place to live. We compare the two neighborhoods in eight categories.
El Poblado is the most popular neighborhood for foreigners living in or visiting Medellín. Also, El Poblado is considered the most upscale neighborhood in the city of Medellín. In addition, El Poblado is where the most hotels and furnished apartments catering to foreigners are located.
Laureles-Estadio has many areas with tree-lined streets and much fewer high-rise apartments than are found in El Poblado. Also, Laureles is primarily a residential neighborhood.
In our El Poblado vs Laureles-Estadio comparison
Laureles-Estadio wins four of our eight categories.
El Poblado wins two of our eight categories.
The two neighborhoods tie in two categories.
The bottom line in our El Poblado vs Laureles comparison is that the best to live is the best place to live for you. Everyone has different priorities. The only way to know which neighborhood is the best for you is to spend time there.
You must be a Medellin Guru Patreon subscriber to read this premium content.
This article was updated with more current information where possible for the categories.
Laureles-Estadio is popular neighborhood for foreigners living in the city or visiting, we look at the pros and cons for expats living in Laureles.
In 2019, we interviewed John and Susan – two expats that moved to Medellín from Panama. John and Susan decided to live in Laureles due to it being extremely walkable, with quiet leafy streets and large parks. Also, they found that Laureles has a sufficient number of restaurants for them.
Laureles is experiencing more foreigners moving there due to better walkability and lower costs than El Poblado. However, no neighborhood is perfect and we looked at the pros and cons of Laureles in this article.
Laureles is not quite as posh as Poblado but the area around Nutibara Avenida feels plenty posh. We expect that Laureles will continue to be popular with some foreigners looking for an alternative to El Poblado.
You must be a Medellin Guru Patreon subscriber to read this premium content.
This article was updated with updates to several sections.
Colombia plans to vaccinate 35 million in Colombia for COVID19 this year. To meet this goal, Colombia needs to ramp up COVID-19 vaccinations.
If Colombia wants to vaccinate 35 million people this year, the country needs to ramp up the vaccination rate, which it is doing.
As of September 14, Colombia had administered a total of 37,830,713 COVID-19 doses.
In 105 days from June 1 to September 14, Colombia administered 27,738,591 doses, which is an average of 264,177 doses per day in the 99 days from June 1 to September 14. So, the vaccination rate in Colombia starting in June, July and August has increased over the rate over the prior few months.
You must be a Medellin Guru Patreon subscriber to read this premium content.
This article was updated with vaccination data for Colombia from September 14.
The Colombia investment visas are intended for foreigners who make an investment in Colombia. We provide a 2021 update with recent visa changes. And these visas are relatively easy to get once you have made an investment in Colombia.
The visa agency we partnered with has helped 22 Medellin Guru readers obtain investment visas and has helped several readers open businesses in Colombia.
This article was updated with the current investment visa requirement in USD for the Colombia three investment visa options at the current exchange rate.
Colombia’s retirement visa is intended for retired persons receiving a retirement income. This retirement visa is relatively easy to get with a low-income requirement and only a few documents needed.
Medellín in particular in Colombia is gaining a reputation as a top foreign retirement location.
At the current exchange rate, the retirement income requirement for a Colombia retirement visa has dropped to $717 USD at the exchange rate of 3,803 pesos to USD,
The visa agency we partnered with has helped 154 Medellin Guru readers obtain Colombia retirement visas including 9 in July and has helped several readers open businesses in Colombia.
This article was updated again with the current retirement income requirement in USD for the Colombia retirement visa with the current exchange rate.
We look at eight of the best Asian restaurants in Medellín and nearby that are popular with good Korean, Japanese, Singaporean, Thai and Vietnamese food.
I like Asian food having lived in Asia for five years when I was younger. However, so far in over eight years living in Medellín, I haven’t found a really good Chinese restaurant, even though there are many Chinese restaurants in the Medellín area.
So, the overall coronavirus death rate in Colombia among confirmed cases on September 6 was 2.55 percent. This has been unchanged for several weeks.
I have eaten at over 30 Asian restaurants in Medellín and nearby over the past several years. With my Colombian wife’s help, we both collaborated to select and order our list of the eight best Asian restaurants in Medellín and nearby.
This article was updated to remove the Messkla Thai restaurant that has closed.
Medellin Guru really needs the help of Readers this month, particularly after the continued DDoS attack, which required adding DDoS protection.It only costs as little as $3 per month to subscribe via Patreon and have access to everything.
Save 15 Percent on Annual Subscriptions to our Premium Content
Medellin Guru now offers annual subscriptions on Patreon for access to our premium content. Save 15 percent compared to the regular monthly rate for a limited time.
If you are a current monthly subscriber to Medellin Guru, you can upgrade TODAY to annual and save 15 percent!
This discount was popular with readers in past months so we brought it back until the end of September.
You can choose to pay for Patreon on an annual basis instead of monthly. It’s a great way to show your support of Medellin Guru. And in return you’ll get a discount of 15 percent when you do.
In addition to reducing transaction fees, you’ll help us create quality content faster and reduce the chance your credit card declines in the future.
By asking for help from our readers to remain ad free, we already have over 910 paying subscribers (patrons). Thanks everyone!
It only costs as little as $3 per month to subscribe via Patreon and have access to everything.
Readers you now can “Buy Medellin Guru a Coffee” to support Medellin Guru. Medellin Guru needs the help of readers to remain ad free with no sponsors.
Many readers have asked for the ability to make a one-time donation instead of an ongoing Patreon subscription. So, we have a way for readers to make one-time donations.
You can buy just one coffee for only $3 USD (or you can buy more then one coffee, you can enter how many coffees at $3 USD each).
Medellin Guru has helped thousands of foreigners over the past 3.5 years. And we absolutely would hate to add advertising. Also, we would like to add staff to help with the growing site.
We provide a curated list of weekly Medellin events if you are looking for something fun to do in Medellín. Our popular weekly update covers events from September 23 to September 29, 2021.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic most regular weekly Medellín events in the next week are canceled.
Also, OSLA International normally hosts virtual language exchange online each Wednesday.
We decided to include in our calendar this week the regular weekly events that are canceled so readers will know which weekly events were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
We may start to see some events being scheduled later in September. So, bookmark this page that is updated weekly so you don't miss any events.
The weekly Medellin Guru newsletter now has sponsors. We currently have seven sponsors for our weekly newsletter:
Darrell and Diana Reamer
David Williams
Mary Johnson
Charlie
Anonymous
Anonymous
Anonymous
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, see our article about Medellin Guru on Patreon with our different membership levels.
Join the Medellin Guru Events & Discussion Forum
30 months ago we launched the Medellin Guru Events & Discussion Forum, which is very active with over 3,590 members.
This Facebook group is intended for the followers of Medellin Guru and other expats and readers interested in sharing experiences and ideas about living in Medellín and visiting Medellín and Colombia.
In the past 30 months, over 920 events have been posted in this group as well as over 3,500 other posts, which are categorized. The following are the most popular categories of posts:
Colombia News - 858 posts
Healthcare - 847 posts
Expat tips - 629 posts
Visas - 321 posts
Travel in Colombia - 284 posts
Restaurants - 264 posts
Transportation - 240 posts
Venezuela News - 195 posts
Things to See and Do - 187 posts
In addition, this group is actively moderated with absolutely no real estate ads permitted unlike other Medellín Facebook groups.
Colombia plans to start the bidding process for the construction and modernization of three airports in the fourth quarter as part of a larger $13 billion infrastructure plan.
The expansion of the capacity of the airport that serves Cali, the nation’s third-largest city, as well as those of Buenaventura and Neiva, in western Colombia, have an estimated cost of 3 trillion pesos ($786 million). Photo: the airport in Cali, Colombia.
We are always looking for feedback and we are happy to answer questions. So, if you have suggestions for articles or the website or have any questions, please reply to this email.
Best regards,
Jeff and the team at Medellin Guru
P.S. If you are a new subscriber you can see all the previous Medellin Guru newsletters here:
