A night full of alcohol, May, Colombia

We arrived with Jake to our apartment in Medellin on Tuesday 8th of May at about 2am. The first thing we did was going for a short walk with our host to get to know the neighbourhood and to find a place with food which was 5 min walk away. During that short walk we were stopped suddenly by two patrols of Police – two men were on the motorbike and the other 2 came by car. They searched us thoroughly first and started to ask questions later. I can say we had a proper welcome. In total we had about 500 dollars in cash on us, so on the way back the patrol in a car decided to stop us and search for something again (illegal substances..?)

On Tuesday evening I met with a girl and took Jake with me to have some food together. Later I invited her to our apartment. 3 of us talked and danced salsa, but later when I wanted to stay with her alone Jake got upset. He went to the bar downstairs for a couple of drinks and met a nice waitress there while waiting for me. To cheer him up a little 3 of us went to a salsa club. On the way back home 2 of us met 3 girls which were ‘for sale’ and I negotiated price 120 000 COP (about $40) for 3 of them to make Jake happy, but he said he is too drunk and wants to go to sleep.  OK.

Next day, on Wednesday, I arranged a dinner for us at 4pm with two Colombian women. One was a food quality controller & the other a teacher at the university. I wanted to meet local people to get to know more about the place which we were visiting and this time I managed to invite two girls, so Jake didn’t feel lonely. Unfortunately after a dinner and some good time together one needed to leave back to work, so just the teacher stayed. Jake was ‘lonely’ again, but still 3 of us went to play bowling which was really cool.  In the end 2 of us came back home and the teacher went to prepare herself for the next day at the university. Then Jake told me that he wants to go out, get drunk, meet a girl in the club and that he doesn’t want to go for dinners any more. He seemed frustrated, so OK. Let’s get drunk and go to the club and drink more there. We had already in our apartment one big bottle of Aguardiente and another big bottle of rum ‘Medellin 8’ which were local specials. We drank a lot of rum while listening to the music and talking. We left our apartment about 1:30am and by the time we managed to finish one drink in a local bar it was already closing and as we were already drunk random things begun to happen.

I told Jake the name of the place which we should go to, but he started to talk to 2 Israeli boys at the table next to us. They said they go to Palmaia, so he wanted to go together. They needed though to go back to the apartment before going there, so I asked a girl which was working in the bar if it’s a good place and she said we can go with her there, she has got her taxi driver which is coming and she left only for a moment upstairs to get her stuff. In the same moment the bouncer approached us telling we need to leave as they are closed. We went out and it was raining, so we stood next to the door under the little roof like the most of people who were left there. Jake suggested going home to pick up more money for the night. I told him we have absolutely enough and we shouldn’t walk in that rain. In that moment 3 other girls approached us offering us a drink, they had 3 glasses and a bottle of rum. I hesitantly took a small sip and asked Jake to take care about me as I wasn’t sure what was inside the drink. They were going to the same club as Jake wanted, so we went together as their taxi driver was coming. As soon as we entered the club they ordered a bottle of rum to our table and they waiter came to me asking to pay for it. I didn’t pay as they even didn’t ask me what I want to drink. I told Jake what happened and that I was leaving the table, because I don’t like it. When I came back to him he was still with them by the other table and a bottle of alcohol was there ready for them. I looked at him, he just said – it’s ok. He looked happy, so I told him again to don’t drink with them and left to dance and meet other people. At some point while dancing with a girl I left her to buy a drink for myself and while walking some English girl told me – mate, are you doing that on purpose? You know that ‘the girl’ is a man?. At this point I realized that it’s about time to go home. I told Jake that we go and he took 3 girls with whom we came with. I told him I am super drunk. He said to the taxi driver the exact address of our apartment (normally we say only the neighbourhood), so he stopped almost directly in front of our place of course taking the small round trip to get there. When we get of the taxi I asked Jake again if he’s ok, because I knew I may fall asleep soon. He just looked at me, but didn’t answer, so I slapped his face to hear an answer ‘yeah’. He looked like a zombie a bit, but he was walking straight, so I was just thinking we’re drunk. Before we entered the building I told them to open their bags to check if they don’t have any arms. They did as asked. I went upstairs to clean an apartment a bit and mainly to hide my friend’s laptop which cost $1500. One of them wanted to help me, but I pushed her outside and did it alone. I couldn’t leave my travel buddy outside, so I let them come in after a short moment. When we sat down one started to open our cupboard. I didn’t know if Jake told her to do that, but something was wrong. I was very drunk, so I asked Jake for his mobile and WhatsApp of our host and wrote him to take care about our apartment as we have guests. Actually I don’t know to who I’ve sent a message, because I didn’t have his number in my phone, so needed to trust Jake that he gave me the correct phone number. Jake was sitting in the bed, later went to the kitchen, then came back, so I was thinking that he is ok as I was fucked, so was difficult for me to control the situation. They offered me our orange juice to drink, but I still didn’t trust drinks they made. I refused. Two of them lied down in my bed with the purpose to sleep, so I lied down too. As I expected it just took a few moments for me to fall asleep. I remember that one of them stood up and was trying to pour an orange juice from her mouth to mine. I closed my mouth as I didn’t want it, but after she tried to do that twice I fell asleep instantly. I woke up in the morning. Jake was sleeping in the other bed and of course all our electronic equipment, cash from the pockets and cards were gone, they took even a big bottle of Aguardiente and rum Medellin 8. I wasn’t surprised, because of that so many times I told Jake to don’t drink with them. He fully woke up after about 35 hours, so the next day in the evening. He didn’t remember anything…

Moral of the story: if you want to feel safe you need to take care about yourself. You can’t count on others to think for you.