That One Time I Almost Got Mugged in Colombia

One of the questions that people always ask is: Is it really safe to travel around the world? The truth of it is that it’s just as safe and just as dangerous as living in most other places, in general… Obviously, you want to avoid places that are known to be dangerous. And you have to be aware of your surroundings and take necessary precautions to not be easily targeted. But most of these things are quite straight-forward and you probably already are cautious enough on a daily basis in your home town. Here’s the story of how I almost got mugged in Colombia. By the end of this story, I think you’ll understand better what I mean.

From Bogotá To Medellín

I arrived in Bogotá around July of 2017, only about 4 months into my round the world trip. I stayed at a hostel and made some friends, many of whom were French. Then, I had a friend who came to visit and together we traveled from Bogotá to Salento and then Medellín. When I said goodbye to my friend in Medellín, I knew that my original hostel friends had also made their way to Medellín and so I decided to stay at the same hostel as theirs. When I arrived that late afternoon, I made some new friends. Many of them French, but also an Argentinian guy. We also went to buy more beer at the liquor store about 4 minutes away.

And after having a good time, around midnight (not that late), we had run out of booze and I thought it’d be nice to continue the night with a bottle of rum. So I asked if it was safe to walk at night alone to buy alcohol. Even the host of the hostel said it’s perfectly safe. I already knew the way and it’s only 4 minutes away.

And so I took off on my own, found the liquor store and bought a bottle of rum and a can of beer, just for the road. As I’m drinking my beer walking my way back home, by the way I was only a little tipsy mostly sober, I’m passing this street which wasn’t very well lit. I see a tall Colombian guy coming my way on the same side of the street. I noticed one of his hands was wrapped in some bandage. In any case, I continued on and as soon as he passed me on my left hand side, he somehow out of nowhere grabbed me from my loose sleeveless shirt from the front and violently pulled at me. The next split-second, I realized he had a knife in his other hand, waving at above his head pointing at me. He was yelling something to me in fast Spanish and I didn’t understand a word he was saying!

Ninja Reflexes

I honestly don’t know what came through my mind at that point. I was just gripped by the fear and the adrenaline shot up in me. I was trying to say something to the guy just to try and calm things down but out of nowhere, I had this ninja reflex to throw my half full can of beer straight at his face! The next thing I knew, I was on the tarmac, my loose shirt over my face. And so I immediately took off my shirt, picked up the bottle of rum from the handle and bottle up in an attack stance, and I got back up. I saw the tall Colombian guy standing further away and he was backing away slowly yelling at me “Gringo! Gringo!”. With the adrenaline still in me, and now somehow maybe feeling more in control of the situation out of his grip, I yelled what was the most gringo thing I could have screamed at him back: “F*** YOU!!! F*** YOU!!!”.

I was slowly backing away myself and when he got out of sight, I turned around and briskly walked back to the hostel while making sure he wasn’t following me. I remember distinctly that when I made it to the better lit intersection, not even 30 seconds away, there was a lit garage with an old man sitting on a stool outside, just chilling. Looking at me with my bottle of rum shirtless. I see him and I’m just passing by telling him in broken Spanish: “Es peligroso aqui! / It’s dangerous out here!”.

I pass him by and to my left is already the entrance to my hostel. I remember my hands shaking as I was trying to grab the lock and fit the key in it to open the gate. And as soon as I got back in, everyone was just chilling, drinking beer, playing guitar and chatting. I sat down, put the rum down, and told them I just got mugged. And they all stopped what they were doing and looked at me and I must have been all shook up because they realized I wasn’t joking. So I tell them the story and they were all flabbergasted! Of course, they were sorry for me, they said they should have come with me. Even the host said that in this part of town, nothing of the sort has happened in at least more than a decade!

And so that night, we stayed up all night and finished that bottle of rum. I can tell you, that was the best rum I have ever had.

Jokingly when I tell this story, I say the morale of the story is that alcohol saved my life! If it wasn’t for that half can of beer and that bottle of rum, I probably wouldn’t have been able to defend myself. Then again, if buying alcohol was not the original motivator for me to go outside at night, I obviously wouldn’t have gotten myself in this situation. In any case, I was understandably shook up for about another week when I was there. But in no way did this make me think that I should stop my travels and go back home.

With Hindsight

With hindsight, I was lucky that the one time this happened I came out of safe and sound with only a few bruises on my back from that fall on the tarmac. I was also extremely lucky that my aim was good and I was able to hit him in the face with my can of beer. Also, I’m not entirely sure if he was holding a real knife. For all I know, it could have been a toy knife or whatever, just something to use as a scare tactic. He might not have had the intention to hurt me gravely, but I acted as though he was ready to slash me. The other thing that I still find mind-boggling is: if he was trying to mug me expecting me to give him my wallet or my phone, I had both of my hands busy carrying alcohol. He grabbed me and yelled at me so violently such that he didn’t even give me a chance to reach out for my wallet! What was he thinking?!

Of course, I’m not condoning violence. When I threw that can of beer, that was all sheer adrenaline for self-defense. If you know me, I’m not the violent type and I don’t like fights or even arguments at all. It was so curious to me where that reflex came from, but I’m glad it was there when I needed it the most. At that time, I wasn’t really exercising or playing any sports that demanded physical reflexes but I had it in me when I needed it!

Isn’t Colombia Dangerous? Well…

So you might think, well this is Colombia, it’s a dangerous place, what were you expecting? It’s true that Medellín has a bad reputation since you might have seen it portrayed as the city where all the drug gangs and cartels were operating. The fact is that in the past decade, it has cleaned up in a spectacular fashion up to the point it has now been a huge tourist destination. It is one of the safest and most developing and prosperous places in Colombia. The mayor there is heralded as the hero who managed to bring peace and prosperity to the entire area that used to be full of gang violence and poverty by introducing all manners of public policies to curb the situation.

The hallmark of his work is the metrocable which is a gondola lift metropolitan transportation system which connected all the poor surrounding areas to the center where all the jobs are. Most of these poor areas are high up on the hills or even on the other side of these hills. That allowed many to find jobs in the city center. Furthermore, since it’s a gondola lift, it doesn’t increase traffic on the streets and its a much more ecological solution to public transportation. And since the success of the metrocable, numerous other cities around the world are exploring and implementing similar solutions.

Rant On Inequality

It also got me thinking about the preconception that poorer countries are dangerous. In my opinion, what leads to violence is wealth and opportunity inequality. When I traveled to many of these less developed countries, I saw that many of locals were not necessarily very rich, but at the same time most other people in their surroundings aren’t rich either. I do believe that no human being is really born with bad intentions with the goal of hurting people around them. Most likely it’s a response to their situation and they’re acts of desperation. And so to be honest, I felt like some of the streets in San Francisco or even New York make me feel a lot less safe. Many of the people on the streets are desperate and they’re seeing how unfortunate they are while people are passing by happy with comfortable lives on a daily basis. And if they turn to drugs and are surrounded by other desperate people, that makes them more desperate and makes the streets even scarier.

What I Learned

So at the end of the day, I was mugged in a city that could resemble many other cities around the world. And that’s what I want to get to. I could have come across this unfortunate situation in the middle of Paris, New York, San Francisco or London! You just have to be careful, get your bearings and try not to find yourself in a dangerous situation. Since then, I try not to go out on the streets on my own at night. I try to avoid walking close to people if I am in that situation. Every time I arrive at a new destination, I always ask my host whether it’s an Airbnb or a hostel, whether it’s safe to walk alone, what the best transportation options are whether they’re public transportation or a car-hailing app like Uber or Grab.

So that’s my experience with almost getting mugged on the streets of Medellín. I’m lucky I didn’t get hurt and haven’t come across any other such events so far in my 3-year adventure. I hope this helps you get a better understanding of what it’s like out there and that it doesn’t discourage from traveling. Just be sure to stay safe and enjoy what the world has to offer.

Thanks for reading and I’ll catch you on the next one!

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