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Post by colombiana on Jul 26, 2017 9:10:31 GMT -5
Thanks for posting that link to medellinguru.com/I agree that it has some great photos and good articles. Medellin Living looks old in comparison since it is full of old articles that are out of date and now even starting to do a bunch of sponsored articles and even that fake best hostels list. And funny that no new articles on Medellin Living since a sponsored hostel article on July 6. While this new Medellin Guru site looks to be publishing new articles regularly and has a policy of no sponsors.
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Post by dannyboy on Aug 3, 2017 23:30:58 GMT -5
I was going to show that fake best hostels list to a buddy but found that the medellinliving.com/ site is gone with a 404 error. No real loss in my opinion.
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Post by colombiana on Aug 4, 2017 12:07:50 GMT -5
I was going to show that fake best hostels list to a buddy but found that the medellinliving.com/ site is gone with a 404 error. No real loss in my opinion. LOL, and I just looked and now medellinliving.com/ says " BRAD HINKELMAN BLOG Your SUPER-powered WP Engine Blog." Why not just redirect everything to en.casacol.co/
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Post by billyb on Aug 4, 2017 15:06:53 GMT -5
There is a message on their homepage that they were hacked and were recovering.
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Post by wildstubby on Aug 4, 2017 17:19:06 GMT -5
So there is such a thing as karma!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2017 17:31:37 GMT -5
Thanks for posting that link to medellinguru.com/I agree that it has some great photos and good articles. Medellin Living looks old in comparison since it is full of old articles that are out of date and now even starting to do a bunch of sponsored articles and even that fake best hostels list. And funny that no new articles on Medellin Living since a sponsored hostel article on July 6. While this new Medellin Guru site looks to be publishing new articles regularly and has a policy of no sponsors. Looks like Medellin Guru is just regurgitating the same old crap.
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Post by jabberwocky on Aug 4, 2017 18:17:17 GMT -5
What? Does this mean no more Medellin meet-ups? Actually went to one early this year and was surprised about how well attended it was. A lot more women were there than I would have expected - ex-pats, not Colombianas looking for gringo sugar daddies - well maybe the expats were looking for sugar daddies also - I did not inquire.
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Post by dannyboy on Aug 4, 2017 23:33:45 GMT -5
Thanks for posting that link to medellinguru.com/I agree that it has some great photos and good articles. Medellin Living looks old in comparison since it is full of old articles that are out of date and now even starting to do a bunch of sponsored articles and even that fake best hostels list. And funny that no new articles on Medellin Living since a sponsored hostel article on July 6. While this new Medellin Guru site looks to be publishing new articles regularly and has a policy of no sponsors. Looks like Medellin Guru is just regurgitating the same old crap. Same old crap? I respectfully disagree. That new site doesn't have old out of date sh$t from 5+ years ago written by backpackers without a clue that was found on Medellin Living. Plus Medellin Guru has some decent photos and no sponsored BS. I think its the start of a much better site.
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Post by dannyboy on Aug 4, 2017 23:39:10 GMT -5
There is a message on their homepage that they were hacked and were recovering. Now it says "under maintenance, we are brewing some coffee. We'll be back soon" So nice backup of the site.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2017 9:18:56 GMT -5
Looks like Medellin Guru is just regurgitating the same old crap. Same old crap? I respectfully disagree. That new site doesn't have old out of date sh$t from 5+ years ago written by backpackers without a clue that was found on Medellin Living. Plus Medellin Guru has some decent photos and no sponsored BS. I think its the start of a much better site. [b Bottom Line Photos are nicer, content same old crap.
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Post by colombiana on Aug 6, 2017 8:38:20 GMT -5
I agree the photos are much nicer on Medellin Guru. But I disagree about "same old cr*p". I think the content is much better on the new site. Also the weekly newsletter you can sign up for on medellinguru.com/ is pretty good. Medellin Living now sucks with obviously sponsored posts. And not even one post about the flower festival. This is probably because they couldn't get someone to sponsor writing about the flower festival so they didn't even cover it. Or maybe its because all their writers quit? Who would want to write for that POS when there is a new better site?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 6, 2017 12:21:28 GMT -5
I agree the photos are much nicer on Medellin Guru. But I disagree about "same old cr*p". I think the content is much better on the new site. Also the weekly newsletter you can sign up for on medellinguru.com/ is pretty good. Medellin Living now sucks with obviously sponsored posts. And not even one post about the flower festival. This is probably because they couldn't get someone to sponsor writing about the flower festival so they didn't even cover it. Or maybe its because all their writers quit? Who would want to write for that POS when there is a new better site? Most of the content seems to copied and pasted from the old Medllin Living site. But lets look at some of this content objectively-for example - Recommended Tourist Itinerary for a Day in Medellín. I imagine someone who would be visiting for a very short time in Medellin would be interested in this topic. Now with that said, this entry is advocating spending time at the Tesoro Mall, and get this-eat dinner at we recommend Parmessano-Really, seriously.(I would eat Ms Pauls frozen fish sticks before eating here). If I took this advice I would be one angry %^%%*%. I mean who travels to South America for a short visit and wants to eat at a mediocre Italian Restaurant?-in shopping mall no less? I guess it could be an authentic experience if the served your pasta with one of those small hockey puck arepas. Are you sure someone is not getting paid?, or is it just bad advice? Curious if people are geting paid to promote this new site.
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Post by jabberwocky on Aug 6, 2017 13:58:10 GMT -5
The mall thing is a bit puzzling - if only in town for a day or two - seems kind of ridiculous to mention a mall - if a week sure - good place to get ice cream. Of course if its an older dude and hooked up with some young thing he met at the club the night before - might have to make a quick stop at the mall to buy her a few items at Studio F
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Post by livinginmedellin on Aug 6, 2017 15:06:35 GMT -5
I agree the photos are much nicer on Medellin Guru. But I disagree about "same old cr*p". I think the content is much better on the new site. Also the weekly newsletter you can sign up for on medellinguru.com/ is pretty good. Medellin Living now sucks with obviously sponsored posts. And not even one post about the flower festival. This is probably because they couldn't get someone to sponsor writing about the flower festival so they didn't even cover it. Or maybe its because all their writers quit? Who would want to write for that POS when there is a new better site? Most of the content seems to copied and pasted from the old Medllin Living site. But lets look at some of this content objectively-for example - Recommended Tourist Itinerary for a Day in Medellín. I imagine someone who would be visiting for a very short time in Medellin would be interested in this topic. Now with that said, this entry is advocating spending time at the Tesoro Mall, and get this-eat dinner at we recommend Parmessano-Really, seriously.(I would eat Ms Pauls frozen fish sticks before eating here). If I took this advice I would be one angry %^%%*%. I mean who travels to South America for a short visit and wants to eat at a mediocre Italian Restaurant?-in shopping mall no less? I guess it could be an authentic experience if the served your pasta with one of those small hockey puck arepas. Are you sure someone is not getting paid?, or is it just bad advice? Curious if people are geting paid to promote this new site. Thanks for the feedback. But absolutely none of the content on Medellin Guru is copied from anywhere else. That would be a copyright violation. Content on Medellin Living wouldn't be worth copying, as it's out-of-date. The average article on Medellin Guru is over 1,600 words . On Medellin Living the average post is much less, as many are < 400 words. Two of the authors for Medellin Guru used to write for Medellin Living so content may seem similar, but it's absolutely not copied. That "Parmessano" recommendation is taken out-of-context. Three of the best restaurants in Medellín were actually recommended in the article, see: medellinguru.com/tourist-itinerary/. The article actually recommended Carmen, Oci.Mde and El Cielo. But it also recommended Parmessano and Chef Burger if eating in the mall. If you don't like the content on medellinguru.com/, why is it the "same old cr*p"? And what would you do to make it the best Colombia travel blog found online? By the way, thanks to the over 30,000 people who have visited the new site in less then 3 weeks.
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Post by ozgringo on Aug 6, 2017 18:32:48 GMT -5
@ livinginmedellin Good luck with the site. @premonition colombiana Who cares if someone is getting paid or if it's a sponsored article or not.
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Post by livinginmedellin on Aug 6, 2017 21:23:38 GMT -5
@ livinginmedellin Good luck with the site. @premonition colombiana Who cares if someone is getting paid or if it's a sponsored article or not. ozgringo, Thanks!
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Post by charlie640 on Aug 6, 2017 22:03:19 GMT -5
Maybe the meet was at the San Lucas Wings place because they offered the largest Kick Back on total food sales LOL
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hogan
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Post by hogan on Aug 7, 2017 11:17:15 GMT -5
To some extent, I guess I can see premonition's point that the material on medellinguru is "the same old crap." There are a number of articles which, although they may not be identical to those posted on medellinliving, cover the same topics. I suppose these may not be that useful to seasoned expats. As a newbie, I still find them to be a very useful reference though. In addition, there are a lot of newer articles that i especially like. I enjoy the site and look forward to reading the updates. Although i enjoy restaurant recommendations, what i enjoy most are articles about activities in and around Medellin. I liked your coverage of the flower festival and hope you'll write articles about other popular events in and around Medellin. I also like your articles about about Medellin side trips or ideas for mini vacations. I'm not sure if it would make for a good article, but i'm also interested in hearing how some expats spend their time (e.g. hiking, cycling, running clubs or volunteer organizations). I wish you the best of luck with the blog; it looks great.
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Post by búfalo on Aug 8, 2017 7:39:41 GMT -5
More articles brings more expats/tourists brings higher prices/dorkiness/traffic and ends up screwing up the place. Why can't people leave enough alone?
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2017 12:20:08 GMT -5
More articles brings more expats/tourists brings higher prices/dorkiness/traffic and ends up screwing up the place. Why can't people leave enough alone? And it is even worse that they exagerate and paint the place as a Utiopia, ironically destroying any positive attributes a place may have. And these blogs do tend to attract idiots to a place, just the other day I heard one such idiot talking about how safe he was because he read it on a blog.
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Post by jabberwocky on Aug 8, 2017 13:10:37 GMT -5
I doubt tourists are making much impact on traffic - especially gringos - Medellin has 3 million people - an extra 100,000 tourists over a years time isn't going to effect much, they generally don't rent cars, mostly taxi's and probably Uber - some will ride the bus and Metro - but it is a minuscule amount compared to the locals. Whats driving up traffic is more locals having cars, more locals moving from small towns into the city. Once outside of Poblado touirsts have almost no impact - how many go to Bello, Belen, Envigado, maybe some to Sabaneta but not much. If one hangs in Parque LLeras - yea probably feels like an awful lot of gringos - but hang in just about any other Parque in Medellin - virtually no gringos.
As far as increase in ex-pats - it seems that there are a lot of twenty somethings internet net types in Medellin, they mostly seemed to be centered around Poblado and Estadio sectors - most of them don't have a lot of money - so not buying cars - possibly driving rents up a bit when they overpay due to no co-signers.
I for one like the new tourists from the US - I see a lot more couples, families and retirees, and single women traveling than before - 10 years ago the flights were mostly Colombianos with a dozen or so middle aged single gringo guys per flight - diversity is a good thing. Safety for tourists - I would bet the crime rate against tourists in Medellin is lower than the same in Miami, although that might not be saying much. If you follow travelers comments on Tripadvisor or other travel websites I would say 95% post very positive comments about their experience in Medellin.
I will get off the soapbox now - but you can't stop it ( barring some outbreak of violence) there are going to be more tourists in Medellin in the coming years - can't wait to see the giant Duck tour vehicles - floating gently down the rio next to the Metro and pointing out the very nice drainage pipes some of the poorer locals live in -
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2017 13:25:07 GMT -5
I doubt tourists are making much impact on traffic - especially gringos - Medellin has 3 million people - an extra 100,000 tourists over a years time isn't going to effect much, they generally don't rent cars, mostly taxi's and probably Uber - some will ride the bus and Metro - but it is a minuscule amount compared to the locals. Whats driving up traffic is more locals having cars, more locals moving from small towns into the city. Once outside of Poblado touirsts have almost no impact - how many go to Bello, Belen, Envigado, maybe some to Sabaneta but not much. If one hangs in Parque LLeras - yea probably feels like an awful lot of gringos - but hang in just about any other Parque in Medellin - virtually no gringos. As far as increase in ex-pats - it seems that there are a lot of twenty somethings internet net types in Medellin, they mostly seemed to be centered around Poblado and Estadio sectors - most of them don't have a lot of money - so not buying cars - possibly driving rents up a bit when they overpay due to no co-signers. I for one like the new tourists from the US - I see a lot more couples, families and retirees, and single women traveling than before - 10 years ago the flights were mostly Colombianos with a dozen or so middle aged single gringo guys per flight - diversity is a good thing. Safety for tourists - I would bet the crime rate against tourists in Medellin is lower than the same in Miami, although that might not be saying much. If you follow travelers comments on Tripadvisor or other travel websites I would say 95% post very positive comments about their experience in Medellin. I will get off the soapbox now - but you can't stop it ( barring some outbreak of violence) there are going to be more tourists in Medellin in the coming years - can't wait to see the giant Duck tour vehicles - floating gently down the rio next to the Metro and pointing out the very nice drainage pipes some of the poorer locals live in - I agree with most of what your saying, except not sure what these tourist are going to do once they get here, probably go to the Tesoro mall-haha.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 8, 2017 17:00:54 GMT -5
Medellin Living monthly meet up tomorrow August 10th. My guess is that Medellin Living and the gringo realtor will have a much closer relationship.
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Post by colombiana on Aug 8, 2017 17:42:12 GMT -5
Medellin Living monthly meet up tomorrow August 10th. My guess is that Medellin Living and the gringo realtor will have a much closer relationship. Check your calendar, tomorrow is the 9th, the 10th is on Thursday. I bet they will be hurting for attendees. It looks like only 37 RSVPs per their Facebook. Not surprising as that site is going downhill fast. I went to one of their previous meetups early this year that was organized by the guy that now started Medellin Guru. It had about 90 attendees and none of the owners of Medellin Living were there.
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Post by dannyboy on Aug 20, 2017 17:53:11 GMT -5
LOL, I see those clowns at Medellin Living now added advertisements to every single page on Medellin Living. It look like there are 3 ads on every post with some ads mixed in the text of every post. What a POS! So Medellin Living in my opinion is now absolutely worthless since it is full of out-of-date content, sponsored posts and fake best lists, unrelated advertisements on every page and almost no new content. Hard to believe that 50 people are still donating $207 a month to worthless Medellin Living with the money actually going to the Casacol real estate company that owns the site.
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Post by jabberwocky on Aug 20, 2017 20:07:59 GMT -5
The family( and my moto) have relocated to La Pintada - so we now have an a rental house there ( with a pool), so maybe I will have to start up a Pintada Living site and have gringo meet-ups- but it would just be me sitting by myself and looking into a mirror for ex-pat company. The guaro is very cheap however.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 21, 2017 8:18:27 GMT -5
The family( and my moto) have relocated to La Pintada - so we now have an a rental house there ( with a pool), so maybe I will have to start up a Pintada Living site and have gringo meet-ups- but it would just be me sitting by myself and looking into a mirror for ex-pat company. The guaro is very cheap however. Don't sell yourself short, you could be a La Pintada Expert, or perhaps even a Guru. Haha
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Post by dannyboy on Sept 8, 2017 17:57:32 GMT -5
Time to wake up this thread LOL, looks the clowns at Medellin Living can't find anyone to write for the site. I see nothing published in over 3 weeks. I bet that nobody wants to write for that blog owned by a real estate company with ugly ads on every page. I guess word is out. But I'm surprised there are still 46 donating $191 per month to Casacol for Medellin Living. But that's down from over $200 a few months ago. It's such a fraud that they solicit donations from readers as Dave the founder even though he is long gone. Any thoughts?
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