what's up guys how y'all doing today i want to make a video talking about what you should not do when you go to colombia some of these things on the list are kind of obvious to me but i lived in columbia for many years but saying that these things might not be that obvious to many people the first thing that i would recommend don't wear flashy stuff all right i'm talking about very nice watches like rolex's cartier all that jewelry necklaces expensive earrings whatever may be designer clothes suits all that good stuff that you might wear back in new york or miami or whatever wherever it is you're from or your home country but in medellin colombia you don't wear flashy stuff you don't flaunt your stuff you don't act like you're or if you're wealthy or rich you don't show that you're wealthy rich or you don't act like you're wealthy or rich okay even i have friends colombian friends who are super wealthy but you won't see them walking around and they can afford it they can afford the nice watches the rolexes that kind of stuff but you'll never see them walk around that you'll see them in the streets and you'll never you won't even realize that they're wealthy all right because in colombia you you dress down you blend in you gotta blend in so that's the first thing just dress down but at the same time you don't want to dress like a bum all right so there's backpackers who have been back who backpacking the world live eating out sardine cans having one backpack and wearing the same clothes day after day not maybe not washing or whatever you know i'm talking about like the the extreme backpacker people which hey if you're that way that's fine that's totally cool but you're gonna stick out like a sore thumb because hygiene in colombia is very important people smell good and they want everybody to smell good actually i have some friends who are traveling right now and they're noticing that some other foreigners in their group don't smell too nice all right so columbia hygiene and the way you smell and the way your clothes are clean your shoes are clean that kind of stuff is important but you don't want to flush be flashy if that makes sense all right guys so i hope i'm making sense let me know in the comments by making sense the next thing is uh it goes to wearing clothes you want to dress like a local you want to be like a local so definitely don't wear shorts sandals tank tops around medellin colombia nobody dresses that way in the streets nobody goes out of their house with their shorts or their tank tops or especially sandals okay the only time that could pass is on sundays because sundays in colombia is actually like the the official unofficial sports day like to do sports activities outdoors many people will go to the park to the stadium it's an outdoor activity day so yes people wear shorts people wear shirts or tank tops to do physical activity they won't wear sandals though they won't be wearing sandals and the reason why people in colombia especially in medellin colombia don't wear sandals because it goes back to the hygiene right you're at a restaurant you're eating your food you don't want to see another person's toes sticking out and just walking around with your feet open to the elements it's not it's not a colombian thing to do especially a medellin where you can wear sandals where is i guess common is at the pool if you go to a pool party you can wear sandals you can wear a bathing suit you wear a tank top so either pool or the other place you you wear shorts like if you're walking in the streets you're wearing shorts and a shirt like i'm wearing like right now it's because you're either going to the gym or you're coming from the gym okay so think back i remember when i was a kid back in the 80s early 90s my dad and my uncles i'm hispanic so hispanic family south texas so i remember my dad and my uncles never wore shorts my uncles they had a ranch they owned a horse ranch and i remember the time when they come visit us and they go to the pool they wear their swimming shorts and their legs were so pale because they literally never wore shorts outside and that's how men were back in the day you only wear shorts if you're doing sports activities or swimming children wore shorts or small boys wear shorts back in the day so that's kind of how it is in colombia especially in medellin colombia all right it's a long tangent on that one and that's going to keep you guys from being a target as an obvious tourist all right if you're coming to medellin you're wearing shorts tank top and sandals you're a tourist all right so don't walk alone in empty areas if you don't know the area all right even if you might know the area try not to walk around alone in empty streets and empty areas because that's a not very safe place to be especially if it's in a wealthy area too because a lot of times in wealthy areas in in colombia especially in medellin colombia there's not that many people in the streets because most wealthy people they drive cars or they're in their house right so they leave their house in their cars they don't really walk that much in the wealthy areas and thieves tend to target wealthy areas they know people have money and they know it's kind of empty in the streets so around dusk the night time if it's empty just don't be walking around that area especially you don't know it it's best just to grab an uber to get to where you need to get to don't try to impress people with how much money you have don't talk about how much money you have don't talk about the kind of job you do or how much you bring in or all that kind of stuff again i'm not sure where you're from or the states wherever it is unfortunately in other cultures is all about impressing people how much money you have and what kind of car you drive what kind of career you have that kind of stuff in colombia you don't want to be talking about that kind of stuff you want to keep it to yourself if people ask you what you do i mean you know you can say what you do but that if they ask you don't be that person oh i'm i just got promoted like again majority people aren't this way but there are some people who are kind of just need to try to impress other people with what they do how much they make do not use atms in the streets if you want to use the atm go into the malls every mall has atms inside you go to the atm that's the first thing you do you walk in the mall you go straight to atm pull your money out then you go do other things around the mall you go window shopping you go to the grocery store you go buy whatever you need to buy do some other stuff first and then you leave the mall just to make sure nobody's staking out the atm to try to see who's a good target who's a good victim it doesn't just happen colombia happens everywhere in the world but that's just one safety measure you can take don't pull money out of the atm in the streets there's atms in the streets just don't do it it's not even worth it go to a mall don't talk ask or make jokes about pablo escobar this is a very sensitive topic unfortunately there's been tourists or foreigners who come to colombia or even my friends people i know who are columbia who go abroad and then people ask them where you're from they say colombia the first thing that people ask is oh pablo escobar like when i came here to brazil and i one of my airbnb hosts they asked me yo where where are you from i said i'm from texas but i live in colombia where in colombia medellin ah medellin pablo escobar all that stuff colombians don't like that topic they don't like talking about it it's not a nice topic to talk about and like i was saying before unfortunately a lot of foreigners and tourists that go to colombia they think that pablo was a folklore hero you know like a robin hood for the people and it's not that's absolutely not true many people many colombians lost loved ones uh close friends relatives to that time to what happened back in those day those days so to bring up that topic especially in a joking manner or making that guy out to be more than he was or better than who he was that still hurts okay it's almost like going to new york and asking people about not 9 11 and joking about 9 11 and making it out to be no big thing many people from new york lost loved ones so and i have a friend from new york who actually made that comparison so it makes total sense so that's the topic you don't want to talk about there are probably escobar tours imagine i think it's just people taking advantage of that situation that happened to make money i've never been on one i have no desire to go to that one if you want to do a research doing a research but most colombians don't want to talk about it the next one i want to talk about is uh this is kind of funny don't take off your shoes when you go visit colombians in their homes most colombians let me know in the comments if this is true what i know about most colombians is they don't take off their shoes in their house and if you do take up your shoes when they go into their house they're going to think it's strange i think it's because they they believe that walk around barefoot or in your socks on towel floor you can get sick that's what they believe that's it i mean i know i've always taken i i love taking my shoes off when i come in the house it just feels right to me but i don't do when i go visit my friends my clummy friends all right two more things not to do in columbia this next one is you've probably heard of it but don't take your cell phone out too much in the streets i know many people say don't take your cell phone out at all in the streets and then the question is well how can i use my google maps or or get an uber that kind of stuff without taking my cell phone out and that's not entirely true you can't take yourself out on the streets you have to be aware of your surroundings i'm always aware of my surroundings if you guys see me when i videotape in the streets i'm always looking around and again and i have to explain this all the time in the comments people was that dude so paranoid in the streets why so paranoid about no i'm that way when i'm videotaping so i have my camera out like this you know and talking to myself like a lunatic and most people who outside of california against l.a don't normally see people vlogging the streets talking to themselves to a camera so it's not very common all right so those multiple things and me giving papaya with my my camera out my phone i'm i'm ultra aware of my surroundings those times but when i don't have my camera out and i'm walking normal i don't look around all the time like this but i do look around i'm always scanning my horizon i'm always looking at uh my peripheral and every once in a while as i'm walking i'm always looking behind me to see who's behind me not all the time but every once in a while that makes sense so i know my surroundings at all time i'm pretty aware of my surroundings and when i feel that i'm in a good situation where i pull my cell phone out i do it but i don't pull it out like a fool or a dummy i don't pull it out and i look at myself like this you know have it out like this and facing the street because oftentimes that's when motorcycles will come out and snatch arrive your hand that has happened before many times in medellin where most of us come they'll see somebody with their cell phone out looking like this you know or whatever and then snatch they they drive off so what i do i'm gonna try to put this the camera back hopefully i can get a good angle so here's look see i can't see myself but here we go so here's the the my phone it's in my pocket right it's in my pocket so what i do is here's the street car is coming by i'm seeing i'm i'm aware of my surroundings i know nobody's right behind me so here's the street again i turn my back to the street i'm basing the stores or whatever like the buildings here and i pull my cell phone out of my pocket and i put it right here in my my stomach with the street to my back i put it here i look all right i look at my cell phone to look at the map or the uber or see if the uber is closed or whatever i need to do and then i put it back in my pocket and then i then i turn back around so that's how i keep myself safe when i'm pulling my my cell phone out i don't because i don't give myself i don't give them the opportunity to make me an easy victim all right does that make sense so take my advice and heed my my warnings and the last thing the last thing about what not to do in medellin colombia and it's actually all over colombia don't go to mom and pop stores and restaurants and pay with 50 000 pesos or above i think the biggest peso the currency is 100 000 pesos but nobody really uses that don't go to a mom and pop store and try to buy something with that 50 000 peso you you're going to be using 20 000 peso and below and coins even learn how to use coins in colombia so the mom and pop stores love coins i had a friend who he didn't understand how to use cash using cash is kind of a lost art in most countries in the states even here in brazil used credit card for everything people forgot how to use the spare change to buy things so my buddy was in colombia for six months and he literally had a bag full of coins that he was just you know what to do with it i said look man give that to me if you're gonna i'll use it and i literally use his coins for two weeks to pay my lunches lunch in colombia cost about two dollars and fifty cents all right it's about ten thousand pesos i literally like two weeks paying all in coins and every time i went to the restaurant the mom and pop restaurant they loved me because i paid with handfuls of coins man they loved it that way they can break the the bills so if you have 50 000 pesos large currency you break those bills in the grocery store the major grocery store like alexito for example that's where you go i don't care if you have uh smaller bills in your pocket to buy groceries you pull out those crisp 50 000 pesos and you pay your groceries to those that break it that's how you do it all right so there's the things not to do when you go to columbia