Where have you traveled or lived before in Colombia, that you are worried about crime in Armenia?

Armenia is much safer than many bigger places and is certainly not a hotbed of crime - like, for instance, Cali which has too many gangs and drugs. Yet I am completely at home in Cali, they don't call it the "sucursal del cielo" for nothing...

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Sorry, I've been living in Lat.Amer. (Mex.and Arg.) for the last 18 years, but have never been to Colombia. Your comments, along with others, have helped me make my decision to move to the Eje del Cafe, gracias!!

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Armenia, especially in the north, is one of the safer places I know of in Colombia. I feel very comfortable here. But just like most of Latin America there is crime to be wary of. Even nice new apartment buildings have the occasional break in. It happened in our building (not our apartment) one holiday weekend. It may have been a blessing because now we have an extra guard and you won't get by the portero quite as easily.

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Thanks a million! Stay safe with your belongings!!

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Stats never tell the whole story. Never believe a crime rate on paper.

No matter where you are in the world, having basic awareness and street smarts drastically reduces your chances of being a victim of a crime. I am sure that you know how to be safe.

You are also not a new expat, and your fluent Spanish will serve you well. Obviously there are no guarantees, but I am quite confident that you will be just fine.

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Dear gringo2u,

From my personal experience, I found Ecuador far more sketchy than Colombia. I met a Dutch physician who got stabbed in the arm in Cuenca, and in Quito I was unnecessarily harassed by the police, had a wasted druggie pathetically try to pick my pocket (he got nothing), and a dude at the hostel where I was staying in San Blas was robbed at gunpoint at 7:00 am by two teenagers on a dirt bike. All of this occurred within a four week span.

I've never been to Armenia, but nothing outside of the ordinary ever happened to me or around me in six weeks between Cali and Medellin last summer.

I did a semester abroad in Bs. As., and have traveled extensively through Brasil and Uruguay, so I feel like "I get it" when it comes to Latin America and street smarts.

I currently live in south Florida where insane people shoot up the airport, and unarmed black dudes regularly get murdered for the crime of being a black dude. People say Colombia is dangerous?!? Get real.

All best,
#overit

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Going by the statistics and current media hype, my home city, Chicago, is an all-out warzone and near-federal disaster area. I can imagine Europeans or Asians who are thinking of moving to the US being told "Stay away from Chicago. It's a violent cesspool and you will get killed." Haha. Not quite. As long as you don't go was wandering around a few select neighborhoods on the West and South Side after midnight, you're fine. I just got back from a week in eje cafetero. Armenia was cool, never felt anything close to danger there. The horseback riding near Salento was the most violent aspect of the trip. I had a crazy horse and a rider behind me got kicked in the leg. Rider behind me was also kind of irresponsible and maybe drunk

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JW, where else were you in the Eje and did you single out Armenia for being cool compared to other places there? (I call it "the Eje" like "the Beaches" in Toronto :) Like I am so familiar with it!)

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I am looking at temperatures in Armenia in the 80s and Manizales in the 70s. What about the crime in Manizales?

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I agree.

Armenia, Quindío, safe.

Parts of Chicago not safe.

Salento: usually safe if you don’t go horseback riding with a crazy horse and drunken riders.

cccmedia in Quindío

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Thanks so much!!

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Thanks so much!!

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Thanks!

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Thanks so much!!

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I had time to look up the putative crime evaluation at numbeo.com that shows Armenia, Colombia -- a relatively safe city in reality -- to be supposedly a high-crime place.

There is a disclaimer on the Armenia crime page stating that numbeo has “no much” (sic) information about crime in Armenia, Colombia. That alone makes the high-crime designation suspect, to say the least.

---

The other issue is that, like Chicago and other places, you basically need to know what areas to visit and which ones to avoid.

If you avoid Santander, El Centro and any unfamiliar neighborhoods at night .. you should be okay in this city. Practically everywhere is good in the daytime.

Safe areas at night include Avenida Bolivar from UniCentro mall past the medical district, Mocawa complex, the Quindío university, San Juan Hospital up to about the Calarcá turnoff.

You can get practically anything you need in Quindío in these areas near Bolivar during the local businesses' hours of operation -- from healthcare to plentiful shopping and restaurants to casinos -- and feel plenty safe. There are many security personnel on duty except perhaps some spots late at night.

cccmedia in Quindío

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Steve: I was actually only in Armenia for an afternoon and night, and then next morning. Admittedly, not nearly enough time to know sh1t about Armenia, but I at least didn't get any sort of dangerous vibe or even unpleasant vibe. I would consider living there. I spent the same amount of time in Pereira, and honestly, I have to agree with a lot of people in here who aren't big fans of Pereira. My quick impression was that it's a little feo, sort of like a tiny Medellin, but with not all that much to see. Although the Pereira air is cleaner than Medellin's, so that was nice.

Girlfriend and I took a bus from Medellin to Armenia, walked around the zona Rosa and ate at a place called El Solar. Good restaurant, very reasonable prices. Then the next day we went to the Recuca coffee farm, which was beautiful, fun, interesting. Coffee was terrible. Kidding. We then hopped a bus to Salento, and stayed there for 2 days and nights. Salento we really liked. Nice little pueblo, great live music bar on the square. We did the Valle de Cocora while in Salento. Tallest palm trees in the world, which made for some great Twitter and Instagram posts. Also, the trees made me ponder the beauty of the universe. Valley of the Hummingbirds was also great, one hummingbird with a long blue tail made my bird-loving sister in California extremely jealous.

We then went on to Pereira. As mentioned, I wasn't blown away, but again, short time there, so what do I know. Girlfriend noticed there's a laguna near Pereira that looks nice. We never made it. Instead we went to.the town of Santa Rosa, because my girlfriend was well aware that there are natural hot springs near that town, and after my somewhat rough horseback ride through the Valle de Cocora, the idea of soaking in t
Natural hot springs sounded divine. The termales (hot springs) at Santa Rosa were incredibly crowded. We went there at 9 pm hoping it wouldn't be packed, but it was. But I still loved it. It was also my first time in a hot spring, and I never had much jacuzzi action in my life, so Im definitely not one to rate a hot spring. But it made my a$$ and back feel better after the incident with the caballo loco, and there were half-naked Colombian women everywhere, which even my girlfriend had to admit was a pleasant sight for those interested in looking at half-naked Colombian women, which is a majority of the world's male population. Then we returned to Medellin. This trip was not planned in any way. My girlfriend found out of nowhere that she had 5 days off of work due to a job change, and so we ran out the door and hopped on a bus within hours of getting the news. She basically works 7 days a week all year round, so news of a few days off is like winning the lottery.

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Oh, and girlfriend and I also went to a good restaurant in Pereira, which I recommend. Leños y Parrilla. Argentinian-style food, for the most part. Great service, place has a fancy feel, waiters in bowties, but customers mostly casual. I got a pretty good filet mignon with papas and plantains done up in that warm, mushy-delicious style, with a jugo de fresa en agua, for about 12 bucks USD.

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And Steve: I saw you in the Panama forum recently. You cheating on Colombia with Panama now, or what?

I'm flying to Panama City on Sunday for a quick little 3-day business-ish trip. Hopefully the businessy stuff will be wrapped up on day one so I can see some Panama Canal sites, and head over to Santa Clara beach just past Coronado for a day in the Pacific. God how I wish Panama City had beaches in the city ala Rio de Janeiro. But as it stands you have to drive a good 2 hours outside of PC to get to the first nice beach. That woman in the Panama forum, XS Memories, just so happens to have her oft-advertised motel/camping ground near Santa Clara beach, so I may very well end up finally taking her up on a stay there

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Sorry guys. We missed that numbeo.com has the crime rate data.

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We live in Panama and looking to maybe relocate to a cooler climate. The temp was up 1.69F this year and so we expect this to continue. We live 2 hours outside PC in El Valle de Anton about 40 minutes from Coronado if you would like to meet up someplace.

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@ JW: If I am the Steve you spotted i Panama Forum (and what were YOU dong there?) the fact is I got my Pensionado visa for Panama last year but have since changed my mind because of the high cost of living and limited temperate locations. But I have spent some time there and remain interested in a general sense. In the Panama forum I tend to answer questions, in Colombia I ask them. :)

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Steve, You are right about Panama. We went through the whole process of getting our pension visa and cedula over a year ago to find out it is now too expense and warm to live here. The only cooler climate is in and around Boquete where there are 10,000 gringos living in a little town. All you see is whites as the wife says.

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Thanks Steve Sawyer. I'll let you know how my journey is looking after I've looked into the business I have to take care of there. This thread has a Huck Finn feel to it somehow, Sawyer. Reckon I'm plannin to head on over to ol Panama, float down that canal on a raft. lookin up at the stars winkin real purdy.

Steve Sunset: yeah, it seems there have been quite a few people who went from planning on Panama to deciding on Colombia. I don't think I've seen or heard of many people who moved to Colombia and then decided it wasn't for them and switched up to Panama. I also planned on moving to Panama for a while.

Even though I had a friend in Colombia and was familiar with Medellin and loved it, I decided to make things as difficult as possible for myself, as is the human's wont, and spent hundreds of hours researching and dreaming of Panama and Mexico, and to a lesser extent, Ecuador, before finally throwing in the towel and confessing that the easiest and most sensible move for me, to Colombia, was also likely the smartest. Easy decisions feel more hard-earned and wholesome if you agonize a little before making them.

I heard one too many people, in the Panama forum and through email, describe Panama City as "hellish," mostly due to the sweltering heat/crowded city combination. It wasn't hard for me to imagine that would end up being the case. Then looking at the nice beach areas, they were many times more expensive than Medellin. The cheaper beach areas looked incredibly boring and isolated. Boquete had the climate, but did not exactly seem like an exciting place for a single 30-something guy like myself, on top of being somewhat expensive, and, as Steve Sawyer pointed out, full of thousands and thousands of highly concentrated gringos. At that point it was like, "OK. I'm looking at mountain cities in Panama. Why not just move to the preferable mountain city in Colombia, with all my friends, and call this a day."

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Thanks JW. Not to beat a dead horse as they but tomatoes were a $1.25 lb a year ago ana now we are paying almost $2.00 lb. It is time to go somewhere for sure.

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I forgot to tell you JW, there were no women below age 60 in Boquete except the backpackers that came through and none of them would have stopped you in your tracks. You made a good choice if only for that reason alone.

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Steve Sawyer, I don't remember the exact price for tomatoes here (they are cheap) but I strained my back trying to get a bulto of oranges out of the car. It cost about $7 U.S. dollars (20,000 Colombian pesos).

We gave some to my SIL, some to my MIL, some to the portero, the housekeeper, and still had too many.

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So my hotel for first 2 nights in Armenia seems to be in Centro - hard to tell with no maps showing the barrio boundaries - as recommended by Kee (IIRC) and the hotel prices a few blocks north are double or more in cost. Once I get there I hope I can use local knowledge to find a room for a few more days. In the back of my mind I am hoping I will be able to touch base with Armenites on this forum. Maybe. If possible. If I don't get killed in El Centro first. :)

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I only remember Panama from 2 weeks vacation there as a kid I think at Fort Amador near Balboa, during our time in Quito, Ecuador. Oh and on the way down to Ecuador we passed thru the canal on a passenger/freighter ship, the Santa Maria. I still remember the trip, especially when we had such rough seas that the water was spilling out of the postage-stamp sized freshwater pool on board and at least one person was injured breaking their arm from a fall...

About all I remember on land in Panama is a torrential rainstorm that had the water coming up into the bottom of the car doors, the sweltering heat and humidity, the big WARNING signs not to go into the jungle, and the closets on base that had light bulbs in them that stayed on all the time - to try to prevent mold from growing on everything.

I've never ever considered Panama as a destination for entertainment or recreation since then! Sort of like Guayaquil, Ecuador only worse...

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Sure Nellie, but in all fairness the mountains towns of Panama are very pleasant compared to the Crazy Coast. And I bet the coastal areas of Colombia are not so very different from what you describe. Although I've never been (and may never be).

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Yes, I'd be hard pressed to decide which is more hellish - coastal Panama, Guayaquil, Ecuador or Buenaventura, Colombia...I will stay away from all of them!

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Sunset Steve, When you get to Armenia we can meet for coffee if you like.

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It seems to me that to live on the beach in Latin America, you've got to really, really want it. Does anyone know if there are beach areas, maybe in Mexico, that aren't molten-hot and humid? For most of my life I was just as enamored of the idea of living on a beach and being perpetually on seaside vacation as the next person. But after feeling how hot Brazil, coastal Colombia, Dominican Republic are, I began to run simulations of actually living in these places in my head, and I imagined ending up sitting in air conditioning a lot after a couple months, overeating and slowly spiraling away from beach interest. "I don't feel like trekking sand into the apartment today," etc. If you're someone who says things like "I grew up with the ocean and I can't be happy without hearing it everyday," then by all means, do what you gotta do and move beneath the tropical heat ray. But I think most Latin American beach dreams will end up clashing with reality. I also love the idea of keeping the beach in the department of Official Vacation Things

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I just remembered: Montañita, Ecuador and Olon, Ecuador have a reputation for shocking beach-seeking gringos with chilly weather in the winter season. I read that while researching Ecuador. So there's at least one area in South America with beaches that aren't molten-hot all year. But of course, then you get a bunch of gringos complaining that the beach is cold and rainy and depressing, and defeats the purpose of the beach. Lol. Personally, I'm just staying away from trying to solve the beach conundrum for now. Maybe I'll take another crack at it if I end up doing a year or two in Thailand or Vietnam, as I'm vaguely planning

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@ Kee: sounds good!

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I remember that in Puerto Vallarta we couldn't even walk the beach to visit our friend in the next hotel because of the heat of the sand. But otoh I don't recall beach vacations in the Caribbean - Jamaica, DR, St. Lucia etc. - as being anywhere near as unbearable as Mexico and Panama.

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@JW. Have you visited any of the Dutch Antilles? From roughly mid December to mid August they are square in the path of the NE trade winds. Nothing like mother nature's own air conditioning to make for a pleasant beach experience. The same applies to most of the islands off the coast of Venezuela and many of the Windward Islands to the east. The northern extremes of Colombia are also at the right laltitude to experience the trade winds but from what I gather La Guajira is pretty bleak. San Andres often gets the trade winds, as well, but often gets skunked because these winds often die out before making it that far west.

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Many days in the "season"...December through April are quite hazy in the Ec. coast...some coolish days, but not that bad. The concern now are the terremotos, which devastated crucita..which was a quaint, fishing village...that was frequented by many California surfer types in season. I believe every place has it's plusses and minuses...in terms
of amenities, shopping, dining, etc.

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I also recommend ( especially for South America ) "InsightCrime.org" e.g.
"World Security Score"

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I am very surprised to hear of Armenia having a high crime rate. I felt very safe there and having grown up in New York and lived in other cities, I feel I have a good sense of danger, but Armenia is a small town filled with great people.

The crime rate might be high on petty theft because of the number of tourists that visit the area - but I can't imagine that Armenia's violent crimes rank anywhere near the higher marks of Colombia and much less than that of any town in the US.

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where exactly is Eje del Cafe
by which towns is Eje del Cafe encompassed
some say Manizales, Armenia and Pereira
please advise what is correct

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Triffic, yes, those three larger towns and all of the surrounding pueblos:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombian_coffee_growing_axis

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Also you can do a search for
eje cafetero
and get plenty of this, some in English, about the region and what it encompasses.

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stevesawyer1895, did you ever move to Colombia? If so, where?

We're in Boquete now but moving soon to somewhere in the coffee region.

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Ironically Manizales is always quoted as being in the eje cafetero, but it is too high for coffee cultivation which stops just above the major Chinchina production centre.

Coffee only grows well in a very limited altitude range of a few hundred metres.

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Most dangerous thing you will do on Colombia is crossing the street or riding in a bus.

That being said it is Colombia, not Kansas.
Probably no different than México.

I live in Palermo Barrio in Manizales. It and the surrounding 2 Barrios ,Milán and El Cable, are arguably the safest urban áreas in Colombia.

I might be moving to northern Armenia in August, Near Portal del Quindio..similar type situation there.

I have been living in Colombia almost 5 years and visiting for 13 years.

The only incident (besides One.minor theft) I have ever come across is when my GF and I witnessed a Sicario assasination close hand in One of the best restaurants in the best barrio in Pereira. Really funny since my GF is from Calarca, which is crime ridden, and she doesnt want to go back to Pereira. LOL

Could happen anywhere in Colombia or Maxico.Anyway they werent after us.

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Most dangerous thing you will do on Colombia is crossing the street or riding in a bus.

That being said it is Colombia, not Kansas.
Probably no different than México.

I live in Palermo Barrio in Manizales. It and the surrounding 2 Barrios ,Milán and El Cable, are arguably the safest urban áreas in Colombia.

I might be moving to northern Armenia in August, Near Portal del Quindio..similar type situation there.

I have been living in Colombia almost 5 years and visiting for 13 years.

The only incident (besides One.minor theft) I have ever come across is when my GF and I witnessed a Sicario assasination close hand in One of the best restaurants in the best barrio in Pereira. Really funny since my GF is from Calarca, which is crime ridden, and she doesnt want to go back to Pereira. LOL

Could happen anywhere in Colombia or Maxico.Anyway they werent after us.

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