The Side of Medellín Tourists Don’t Always Talk About

There is a version of Medellín that is very easy to fall in love with. The mountains, the views, the warm weather, the Metro, the dancing, the cafés, the fruit and, most of all, the people. We met so many lovely and welcoming people during our time there, and there was always something happening somewhere in the city. That is the Medellín we enjoyed and the one we would happily talk about for hours. But the longer we stayed, the more we also noticed a side of the city that is much harder to ignore and that you don’t necessarily see in the typical travel content about Medellín.

Before we arrived, we had already heard and seen a lot about Medellín’s connection to sex tourism. It comes up constantly on social media, in videos and in conversations about the city, and it was something we were aware of before we even arrived. But actually seeing it for ourselves was very different. Around Parque Lleras in particular, it was incredibly visible. You could see groups of men walking around, women standing outside clubs or around the park, and a whole nightlife scene that made it very obvious why Medellín has become so strongly associated with sex tourism. La Provenza felt different to us. It is also a very busy nightlife area with bars, restaurants and huge numbers of people, but the sex tourism was much less obvious there and felt more like something you noticed occasionally rather than something that seemed to be part of the entire atmosphere.

We actually walked through Parque Lleras one evening while filming for our YouTube channel. We were just doing our own thing, talking to the camera and filming parts of the area when I started noticing how many of the women seemed uncomfortable around the camera. We were never intentionally filming anyone, and as soon as we noticed someone didn’t want to be in the background, we made sure not to film them. But several women would turn away, cover themselves or deliberately avoid looking towards us. I found that interesting because, at the same time, you could clearly see the other side of the situation: groups of men walking around, women waiting outside clubs or standing around the park, and this very visible dynamic between the two. It was almost exactly the kind of scene you would imagine if someone described Medellín’s sex tourism to you beforehand.

One particular moment has stayed in my head ever since. It was around eleven in the evening, and we were standing on the street near the park, still filming for our YouTube video. A large, dark SUV pulled up and stopped nearby. The rear window was only slightly open, and there was a group of girls standing close to the car. They looked very young to me, although I obviously have no idea how old they actually were and I don’t want to make assumptions about them. One of them was then called over to the vehicle and got in. When the door opened, I could see several men sitting inside before the car drove away. I have absolutely no idea what happened after that. Maybe there was a completely different explanation, and I don’t want to pretend that I know something I didn’t see. But standing there and watching it happen still left me with a very uncomfortable feeling. Not because I felt personally unsafe, but because it was simply difficult to watch and not wonder what was actually happening.

What made the whole subject even more interesting to me was how divided the attitude towards sex tourism seems to be among people in Medellín. On one hand, you can clearly see that there is a market for it and that some parts of the city have become known internationally for exactly that reason. On the other hand, when we spoke to ordinary people from the city, the reaction was often very different. We heard very clearly that many locals hate the way Medellín and Colombia are associated with sex tourism and that they don’t like the idea of tourists coming to their city primarily because of it. That made me think about how strange it must feel to see your home become internationally famous for something that you personally don’t want it to be known for. I can understand why people would be frustrated by that. Medellín has so much more to offer, and it would be a shame if someone travelled all the way to Colombia and only saw the city through that one lens.

At the same time, it would also be dishonest to pretend that this side doesn’t exist. It does, and in some places it is extremely visible. There are also serious issues surrounding poverty and inequality that become difficult to ignore once you start looking beyond the areas most visitors spend their time in. We saw people living in situations that were clearly very difficult, including Indigenous women who appeared to have come to Medellín to make a living, some of whom we saw sleeping on the streets. We also saw children working or spending time in situations that made us uncomfortable. As visitors, we could walk through these places, take everything in and then eventually go back to our Airbnb. For the people we were seeing, this wasn’t a temporary experience of Medellín. It was their everyday life. That difference is something I found difficult to forget.

The nightlife itself is another example of why I think there are always two sides to a place. Medellín has an incredibly lively party scene, and we genuinely enjoyed going out and meeting people. But we were also warned several times to be careful with our drinks and with drugs because we met people who told us that they or someone they knew had been drugged and robbed. We heard enough stories to take those warnings seriously. That doesn’t mean every night out in Medellín is dangerous or that you should be afraid to go out. It simply means that there are real risks, and pretending they don’t exist because you are having a great time would be irresponsible. You can enjoy the nightlife and still be careful.

I also don’t want this post to turn into a list of everything that is wrong with Medellín, because that wouldn’t be an honest representation of our experience either. One of the things that stayed with me just as much as the difficult things we saw was how much community seemed to matter. There was a warmth in the way people interacted with each other that reminded me of places I know from Southern Europe, especially Portugal. People seemed connected to their neighborhoods and to each other in a way that felt different from what I am used to in Germany. Maybe that comparison is completely subjective, but it was genuinely how it felt to me while we were there. And I think that contrast is exactly what made Medellín so interesting. You can see poverty and wealth, tourism and everyday life, beautiful places and difficult realities, sometimes within a very short distance of each other.

That is probably what I want to remember most when I think about Medellín. It wasn’t simply the beautiful city in the mountains that we had seen in pictures, but it also wasn’t the dangerous place people had warned us about before we went. It was much more complicated than either of those versions. We saw things we loved, things that surprised us and things that made us uncomfortable. We had conversations with people that changed the way we looked at certain parts of the city, and we also saw things that we still don’t fully understand. I think that is one of the reasons I enjoy travelling so much. You arrive somewhere with an idea of what it will be like, and then reality gives you a much more complicated picture. Sometimes that picture is beautiful, sometimes it is uncomfortable, and very often it is both at the same time.

I don’t think a city should be reduced to its problems. But I also don’t think we should only show the beautiful parts because they make for better travel content. Medellín has so much to offer, and the people we met deserve to be seen for more than the stereotypes that surround their city. At the same time, the difficult parts are part of Medellín too. For me, acknowledging both is much more honest than pretending either side doesn’t exist.

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Written by Fabienne, Medellin, Colombia