Warning! There are literally thousands of posts and articles in English found on the Internet with out-of-date Colombia and Medellín information. In addition, even some new posts and articles in English published about Colombia and Medellín have inaccurate information in my experience.

We previously looked at why the foreign retirement publications get Colombia and Medellín wrong. Also, we looked at Lonely Planet’s Colombia Guidebook, which is out-of-date and missing many of the best places in Colombia. In addition, we have looked at why TripAdvisor can’t be trusted for Medellín and Colombia.

In this article, we look at a major problem with out-of-date information about Colombia and Medellín found on the Internet.

When I first moved to Colombia over eight years ago it was challenging to find much information on the Internet about Colombia and Medellín. Now the problem is there is a lot of content available. But much of this content about Colombia and Medellín is out-of-date or inaccurate.

This is a pet peeve of mine and one of the primary reasons I launched the Medellin Guru website over two years ago. One of the main goals of this Medellin Guru website is to offer content about Medellín and Colombia that is up-to-date and is kept updated as things change.

In this article we look at several examples of out-of-date Colombia and Medellín information found on the Internet and provide tips to identify out-of-date information.

Getting a Colombian Visa

Colombian Visa Posts – Be Careful of Out-of-Date Information

Be especially careful of Colombian visa posts found on the Internet. Colombia completely changed its visa rules in December 2017 but there are still literally hundreds of posts and articles found on the Internet that still have old Colombian visa information.

Even some of the Colombian visa agencies have outdated information on their websites that cover the old TP visas. If a post or article talks about TP visas it is out-of-date information.

Be especially careful of Medellin Living blog, which is chock full of completely out-of-date and inaccurate information with a series of over 20 old visa articles that are completely out-of-date.

For example, the Colombia Marriage visa article on Medellín Living was published in June 2015 and covers the old TP-10 marriage visa. But this is outdated as Colombia changed all its visas in December 2017 and the Colombia marriage visa is now a Migrant visa.

In addition, there are many other websites with out-of-date information about Colombian visas, here are a several examples:

• International Living – has a post about retiring to Colombia with information about the old TP-7 Colombian retirement visa.
• Forbes – has an article about three best retiree residency options and includes information about the old TP-7 Colombian retirement visa.
• Visa Y Tramites Internacionales (a visa agency) – has a post about the old TP-7 Colombian retirement visa that was only good for a year.
• Just Landed – has a post about the old TP-7 Colombian retirement visa that was only good for a year.
• Just Landed – has a post about the old NE1, NE2, NE3, NE4 business visas.
• Universidad EAFIT – has a post about the old TP-3 student visa.
• Bogotastic – has a post about the old TP-10 partner (marriage) visa.
• Angloinfo – has a post about the old TP-4 work visa.

Be careful as there are many more Colombian visa posts found on the Internet that cover these old Colombian visas.

The Medellin Guru website has Visa articles that were all updated in 2019

In comparison, on this Medellin Guru website, we have an entire series of Colombian visa articles that are being kept up-to-date and were all updated in 2019 with the latest Colombian visa information. And all our visa articles will be updated annually and as things change.

Restaurant Reviews – Many Have Out-of-Date Information

Another major problem area is restaurant reviews. Restaurants open and close on a regular basis in Medellín and other cities in Colombia. Also, menus and prices change on a regular basis. So, restaurants change on a regular basis and are not static.

For example, many restaurants covered on the Medellin Living blog over the past 10 years are no longer in business. And most posts covering restaurants on Medellin Living that are still in business have completely out-of-date information.

The bar and foosball table at Randy’s Beach Sports Bar & Grill – this place closed in late 2018

On the Medellin Guru website, we update restaurant articles on a regular basis. And if a place closes we will update the article to show it has closed. For example, Randy’s Beach Sports Bar & Grill was a popular sports bar in Medellín that opened in February 2018 in Parque Lleras but it closed in late 2018.

But Google still shows Randy’s Sports Bar & Grill as open if you search for “Medellín sports bars” and TripAdvisor has a review but this place has been closed for a while.

Over the past eight years living in Medellín I have found that TripAdvisor has many restaurants listed in Medellín that are no longer open.

Chef Burger in El Tesoro, we updated our article about Chef Burger when this opened

In addition, on the Medellin Guru website we update restaurant articles when menus change and new restaurants in a chain are opened. For example, our article about Chef Burger has been updated five times since originally published with new menu prices and as new locations opened.

The Worst Offender: Medellin Living

Medellin Living is the Granddaddy of the Colombia blogs by foreigners since it has been around the longest. It was launched in 2009 by backpacker David Lee

David discovered Medellín and was enamored with the city and wanted to help get the word out about the misunderstood city. The Medellin Living site grew over the years to hundreds of posts covering restaurants and nightlife and much more.

But since most of the posts on this site are now very old beware that they are completely outdated.

There are over 1,000 posts on the Medellin Living website but less than 70 new posts were published in the past two years. So, we estimate that over 90 percent of the posts on this website are out-of-date. Only the newest posts on the site may be up-to-date.

David was a victim of cyber-stalking in late 2015 and he left Medellín and sold the Medellin Living site. David is no longer involved with Medellin Living and the new owners have chosen to remain hidden from the public. But the owners still use David’s name to solicit donations from readers, even though David is long gone.

In addition, Medellin Living has been republishing a few posts “claiming they are updated” but in some cases were not updated from years ago. And some new posts have inaccurate information.

Full Disclosure

I used to be the main writer for Medellin Living for three years and the editor of that site for six months.

But I quit working for that site and decided to launch the Medellin Guru website in July 2017, as I felt that Medellin Living was quickly becoming out-of-date with literally hundreds of posts from years ago that are never being updated.

In addition, the owners of the Medellin Living site weren’t interested in updating all the old content.

Other Colombia Blogs Don’t Update Content

Every Colombia blog except one that we looked at in our Top Colombia Blogs article do not have policies to keep posts up-to-date. Posts are published and become outdated as things change constantly in Colombia.

So, be careful of Colombian content found on Colombian blogs. If published over a year or two ago, the content in many cases is out-of-date.

The Exception: Medellin Guru Does Things Differently

The only exception is the Medellin Guru blog. All the content on the Medellin Guru website is being kept up-to-date. Already, 184 of the 471 articles (39 percent) published on the site have been updated at least once since originally published due to things that have changed or to address reader comments.

The Medellin Guru website has a policy of reviewing every article on a regular basis and we update content if we find things have changed. We now typically publish updates of three to 20+ articles every week of the year.

Also, many articles have been updated multiple times. As of November 18, 2019, in the previous 45 weeks we updated a total of 355 articles.

Many things in Medellín and Colombia change rapidly. Visa processes change fairly frequently in Colombia. And the minimum wage changes annually, which impacts many things in Colombia. Also, prices change at restaurants, hotels, museums and many other places. In addition, restaurants open and close and menus change.

But some content won’t change. For example, we have a series of articles about the churches in Medellín – and we looked at the 14 top churches in Medellín. A church normally won’t change but possibly some new churches might open.

Tips How to Identify Out-of-Date Information About Colombia

Here are five tips to identify out-of-date information about Colombia and Medellín on the Internet.

1. Look at the publish date. If a post or article is older than a year-old it may be out-of-date. But unfortunately, not all posts or articles found on the Internet include a publish date.
2. If a website has visa articles about Colombian TP visas which are completely out-of-date or there is other outdated content then there is likely other out-of-date on the site.
3. If the copyright at the bottom of the page is older than 2020, the website likely has out-of-date information.
4. If a website looks ugly on a smartphone, it’s likely an out-of-date site. Almost all new websites are optimized for mobile.
5. If the website is Medellin Living. Keep in mind this blog was launched in 2009 and most of the content on the site was published before 2017. We estimate that over 90 percent of the content on this website is now out-of-date.

We update our popular Medellin Guru guide to Feria de las Flores each year

In comparison, on the Medellin Guru website if we make major changes to an article, we will republish it so it will have a new publish date. An example is our popular Feria de las Flores 2019 Schedule of Events and Expat Tips, which we updated from 2018 for 2019. And if changes are minor, we note the changes at the end of the article with the dates of the last changes.

So, on the Medellin Guru website you can look at the publish date and also at the end of an article to see the last time it was updated.

Unfortunately, no other blogs in Colombia have a policy of keeping posts up-to-date. So, after a year or two most of the content on other blogs in Colombia becomes outdated.

We Need Readers Help to Identify Out-of-Date Information

We depend on readers to inform us when things change. About 40 percent of the updates we have made to articles have been due to reader’s comments.

If you see something that has changed in any of our articles, please leave a comment on the article or contact us via our contact form. When readers inform us about changes we confirm the changes and update articles in a timely fashion.

We want to thank all the readers that have informed us about things that have changed. This helps to keep the Medellin Guru website up-to-date.

The Bottom Line: The Internet is Full of Out-of-Date Information about Colombia

The bottom line is the Internet is full of much out-of-date information in English about Colombia and Medellín. And unfortunately, much of this out-of-date information is found on websites that have been around for a long time. So, this out-of-date information sometimes shows up well in Google searches.

Be careful of older posts about Colombia and Medellín. Most posts from before 2017 in my experience tend to have outdated information.

Also, there are many common topics with out-of-date information about Colombia. Some of most common out-of-date information about Colombian found on the Internet are posts and articles about visas, safety, Colombian taxes, restaurants, real estate prices and cost of living.

Keep in mind that things change quickly in Medellín and Colombia. But you can come to this Medellin Guru website to find up-to-date information about hundreds of topics and places – and we try to keep all the content up-to-date with the help of many readers.

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Editors note: updated on November 18, 2019 with up-to-date information about how many posts on the Medellin Guru blog have been updated.