Anyone here living in Buenaventura ?

Hi Expat 42451.  Just Google chop houses Buenaventura. It will tell you all you need to know.  Get on the wrong side of someone, and it could be your next home.

The tourist industry is now trying to promote tourism, and new builds and hotels are going up, but its not over yet. Its got to clean up its act before even many Colombians will dare to go there.

If it wasn't for that, it would be a good place to explore the coast from, as there are few roads, and when you journey by boat along the coast, its truly beautiful.

At your own risk.

Hi El Ingles Loco

Many thanks for the  comments and the google search term. Yields some interesting results. Sounds like a place to carry an AK on the street.  I ve visited much of Colombia but never the west coast. as an ex (now a bit older) and sometimes occasionally surfer  and diver the West Coast of Colombia looks like it could be a pretty amazing place.

I am pretty much sick of Ecuador, having been here 4 years plus I want to find a place comparatively inexpensive to get close to the coast again. Having visited the Caribbean side of Colombia  I didnt find any place that was love at first site. Any ideas please share them. I looked on OLX and found nothing but tourist rentals for  Colombia's Caribbean side. A couple of years ago after having looked at Numbeo.com I posted here asking about rent prices in Sta Marta and surrounding area and was basically told the figures on Numbeo were way too low.

Regards and thanks again.

Buenaventura is where one of my brothers-in-law and his family live.  It is a poor city even by Colombian standards but with millions of dollars going through it all the time because it's a major port city.  And thus lots of corruption and crime.

It's also hot and humid.   If you aren't a drug dealer you will have to look out only for ordinary street crime.  The casas de pique or chop houses are notorious for how a drug deal gone bad can end up - they literally chop people up in pieces to dispose of them, after torture which the urban legend has it, their screams can be heard in certain neighborhoods but no one says anything or does anything, because they don't want to endure a similar fate...

https://www.kienyke.com/krimen/confesio … enaventura

Nevertheless it's an interesting place to visit - but unless you have a high tolerance for heat and humidity, and petty crime, and things and services not working even more than usual in Colombia, it's not a place for most people especially expats to put down roots.