A Basic Guide to Meeting Women in Medellin Colombia

Meeting women in Medellin could be easier than you think. They are beautiful but they’re humans too.

The secret is out – Medellin is jam-packed with beautiful women! Most guys who have been lucky enough to visit Medellin will probably rave about how many good-looking women  are in the city. Some guys go to Medellin and end up dating girls way hotter than they would ever be with back home.  Others come and leave unsuccessfully, claiming that Medellin girls are gorgeous but too hard to approach relative to other parts of Central and South America. So what’s the truth?

Different is Interesting

So you’re an average looking single guy traveling and looking to hook up with a local Paisa girl or two. Let’s face it, your best chances of scoring with local women are in places where you are more of a geographical oddity.  Basically wherever you’re the most different you’re the least average, which in turn increases the level of attention (interest) you will get from the ladies. You know the old adage  ”don’t take sand to a beach“? Well let’s frame it differently, if you are just another grain of sand on the beach, you just blend right in and go unnoticed. Get my drift? Go where there is little sand.

NOTE: I DO NOT Support Buying Girls! Personally, paying for girls just isn’t my thing, I don’t support it for many reasons but the option definitely exists in Medellín.

Do you need to know spanish to meet girls?

Obviously the more spanish you speak, the easier it will be to communicate with the Paisa women but I know guys who can barely construct a proper sentence in Spanish and they still consistently hook up with local girls. I recommend at least learning the basics, since it shows that you respect the people enough to try to communicate in their native tongue. With that being said, I have seen bad Spanish work to the advantage of some guys. For some reason the girls think it’s cute when a foreign guy botches up a cheesy pickup line. I have even met guys who have spent the night with a girl they met and when asked what they talked about they say – nothing really. They still manage to find romance even when everything else is lost in translation.

Approaching Women

In general, women prefer to be approached by men – that’s the way it is all over the world, Medellín’s no different. Sure there have been situations where women have approached me and asked me to take a photo with them – a subtle invite to get to know them, but all other times I do the approaching.

Luckily in Medellín, girls make it blatantly obvious if they find you attractive. From across the room they will lock eyes with you just long enough to make you feel moderately uncomfortable. This is your cue to approach them. They will continue making eye contact to get your attention in hopes that you will grow the huevos (eggs) to walk up to them and say something clever. Regardless of the country or situation, you need to exude confident (not arrogance) when you approach women because they can smell fear from a mile away and it ain’t sexy!

Approach with a smile and start speaking, the rest is easy peasy since Paisas are generally really warm and receptive once you are on speaking terms. Before long they will be calling you affectionate names like mi amor (my love) and mi corozon (my heart).

Where is the best place to meet local girls in Medellín

If you’re lucky enough you may not even have to leave your hostel, thanks to those we’ve dubbed ‘gringo hunters‘. Gringo Hunters are local girls who spend a considerable amount of time at hostel bars and clubs where foreigners are most likely to be found. They usually travel in pairs or small groups and tend to speak enough English to carry a basic conversation. They are the easiest to approach since they actually want to be approached. Unless you lack basic social and conversational skills, these girls are the easiest to meet.

Social scene at the Tiger Paw Hostel happy hour

Outside The Hostel – Playing the Gringo Card

El Poblado is Medellín’s wealthiest area. What this means is that Poblado is where Medellín’s richest people go to play when the weekend comes around. It also happens to be where some of the city’s most stunning woman go to strut their stuff. Rich beautiful women, perfect right? Maybe, but carefully consider your audience. They have probably vacationed in North America and Europe and may have even lived outside of Colombia at some point in their lives.

What I am saying is that to Poblado girls your gringo-ness is not as much of a novelty as it would be in other areas of Medellín. Don’t get me wrong, by no means are they unattainable, it just takes a bit more work and money. They can easily afford their own drinks but usually the guys tend to pay for everything when they go out (part of the culture). Remember this when you ask a girl out on a date – the guy fronts the bill almost always. Also, don’t be surprised if you ask a girl out and she shows up with a cousin or a friend. Weird yes, but it happens all the time. And yep – you may have to pay for her guest too.

If you aren’t a natural looker or a confident approacher, I recommend trying another neighborhood where you can play your gringo card more effectively. The further away you go from Medellín’s wealthy nucleus (Poblado and Lleras Park) the easier it will be to pickup.

Other areas with bars and clubs where you can meet girls are Barrio Colombia, Envigado, La Strada, Rio Sur, Calle 70, and Centro which all receive less gringo traffic.

Managing Your Relationship – Messaging, Calling and Unreliability

So you managed to get her talking and laughing, but now you probably want to get her phone number so you can arrange a date. Or you can just scribble down her email and add her on Facebook (seems like the way of the future).

Which brings me to another key suggestion – unlock your cell phone, buy a SIM card, and get a local Colombian number – even if you are only going to be there for a week or two. You won’t regret it. If you don’t have a phone, getting in contact and arranging a meeting with the beauty you just met will be almost impossible.

Phone Frustration

Like many other guys, I have been in the situation where I hit it off really well with a girl, got her number and even gave her a parting kiss, then absolutely nothing became of it. When you text message a Paisa girl, she may get back to you the next second, but at other times it could take her a day, a week and in some extreme cases up to a month to respond. It is very frustrating, but there is absolutely nothing you will do to change this situation.

Don’t expect her to call you

Because calling from a cell phone is so expensive, girls will actually call you and hang up before you pick up, so that you can call them back and pay for the call – I’m dead serious.

Many guys who have been living in Medellin for a while actually set up multiple dates on the same day knowing that most of the girls will flake out. If you are stood up or you have to wait an extra hour or two for your date to show up, don’t take it personally, you aren’t the first or the last. Just the other day I had a Paisa girl say she would meet me at 10pm and she showed up at 12:30am.

Have you had a good or bad experience with meeting women in Medellín? Leave a comment and tell us about it.

***NEW: Still interested, READ PART II of this post written on year later for a different perspective!