Ten WhatsApp groups moderated by long-term Medellín residents. Whoever you are, whenever you arrive, a community is already waiting. You will never stay alone in Medellín.
Back in late 2021, a group of us sitting in a fonda paisa in El Poblado realised something simple: most of our best Medellín memories started with a stranger saying hi. So we started a WhatsApp group called "Medellín Welcome" and added anyone we met who was new in the city.
Within weeks it was 80 people. By early 2022 it had hit 250 - the WhatsApp group limit at the time - and we had to split it. Hikers wanted sunrise-summit talk. Nomads wanted co-working meetups. Parents wanted pediatrician recommendations. The one group became three, then five, then ten.
Ten WhatsApp communities, each capped around 250 members, each moderated by 2 to 4 long-term Medellín residents. When you reach out, a human reads your message, checks which group fits, and adds you. We do not use bots, we do not sell numbers, we do not run ads in the chats.
It is a labor of love, paid for by the occasional restaurant that sponsors a members-only dinner and by a small number of members who buy us coffee when they can. That is it.
A rotating team of 12 moderators across El Poblado, Envigado, Las Palmas, Sabaneta and Provenza. Half of us have been in Medellín 5+ years, half arrived in the last 18 months. We are not a business. We do not have an office. We meet for dinner every 6 weeks in different fondas paisas to keep sane.
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