Join the February 2020 Medellin Guru Meetup at Mercado De La Playa

The February 2020 Medellin Guru meetup event will take place on Tuesday, February 18, at 5 pm at Mercado De La Playa, which is located in El Centro near Teatro Pablo Tobón Uribe.

The Medellín Guru meetups are the largest monthly events for foreigners in Medellín. Over 175 people on average attended each of our last 13 monthly meetups. 

Many readers of the Medellin Guru website asked that we host meetups in Medellín. So, we started having meetups in Medellín nearly two years ago. And we are having our 18^th monthly meetup on February 18, 2020.

We previously held 12 meetups in El Poblado, two meetups in Envigado and three meetups in Sabaneta. Many readers asked that we don’t only host our meetups in El Poblado and asked us to also host events in Envigado, Laureles and Sabaneta.

In February 2020 we are having our first event in El Centro at Mercado De La Playa. 

Mercado De La Playa is a very large venue – at the grand opening in December 2019, photo courtesy of Mercado De La Playa

Why Mercado De La Playa in El Centro?

We have been looking for additional venues in the Medellín metro area that are large enough for our Medellin Guru events.

We have been searching for venues with space for over 200 people, a big food selection and high tables to make mingling easier. Mercado De La Playa is the best venue we have found:

• A large gastronomic market with over 25 restaurants and bars.
• Seating for over 800 people on two floors.
• Many tall tables, which makes mingling easier.
• Centrally located, making it easier to get to from many parts of the Medellín metro area.

This is a larger venue than the venues for any of our previous events and it has more food options. Unfortunately we haven’t yet found a venue large enough for our events in Laureles. But Mercado De La Playa is relatively easy to get to from Laureles or El Poblado.

February 2020 Medellin Guru Meetup Date: Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Time: 5:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Also, you can come early to avoid traffic. We will be there starting at about 4:30 pm.

Location: Mercado De La Playa, Calle 51 # 40-35, El Centro, Medellín

Free Beer!

We will have a free beer available for our February 2020 Medellin Guru meetup for our first 75 guests at Mercado De La Playa.

So, the first 75 guests to arrive will receive a free beer, courtesy of Mercado De La Playa.

Please RSVP for our February 2020 Medellin Guru Meetup

Our February 2020 Medellin Guru meetup is a good way to network and meet other expats living in Medellín or visiting Medellín. So, join the Medellin Guru staff, readers and friends for food and drinks at Mercado De La Playa.

If you plan to attend, please RSVP so we know how many will show up on February 18. There are four ways to RSVP:

1. On Facebook. To RSVP on Facebook you will need to be a member of our Medellin Guru Events & Discussion Forum. RSVP on Facebook Also, a new Facebook “feature” – to show that you are “Going” to the Medellin Guru meetup, you need to click on the “Interested” button twice for the “Going” button to show up.
2. In the comments below, you can RSVP by simply leaving a comment.
3. On Meetup.com. We have a Medellin Guru group on Meetup.com. RSVP on Meetup.com
4. Also, you can RSVP via our Medellin Guru Contact form.

Also, attending meetups is one of 13 best ways to meet friends in Medellín as an expat. Please invite your friends to our February 2020 Medellin Guru meetup and like and share the event on Facebook!

There is no entrance fee required to attend Medellin Guru meetups and no membership is required.

In addition, at this meetup you will have the opportunity to meet Jeff, the founder of Medellin Guru. So, you can recommend topics for articles you would like to see on Medellin Guru.

Get Your Visa, Legal, Health Insurance and Real Estate Questions Answered!

Some of the most frequently asked questions on the Medellin Guru website have been about visas, health insurance, healthcare, Colombian taxes, legal issues and real estate. So, for our events we invite experts who will be there to answer your questions. We had over 10 experts at each of our past 12 events to answer attendee questions.

For our meetup in February 2020, we invited several experts who can answer your questions about visas, health insurance, legal issues, investments and real estate. So far we have confirmed the following experts will attend:

1. Visa questions: the visa agency Expatgroup.co will be there to answer visa questions.
2. Health Insurance questions: Insurance agent will be at our meetup and can answer health insurance questions.
3. Real Estate questions: real estate agents from the RE/MAX Coffee Realty company will be there and can answer real estate questions.
4. Investments and Transferring Money questions: the brokerage firm Alianza can answer questions about investments and transferring money to Colombia for investments.
5. Legal questions: Joe Bovino from the Cuadro Legal law firm will be there and can answer legal questions.
6. Real Estate questions: Joseph Sexton and staff from the local real estate company Welcome to Medellin Realty will be there and can answer real estate questions.
7. U.S. Veteran questions: Veteran’s Service Officer (VSO) Danilo Bryan will be at the meetup and can help U.S. veterans with healthcare issues such as filing claims. And has the Healthcare Colombia office in Sabaneta.

Also, we invited several other experts who can answer other types of expat questions. We expect to have additional experts at our February meetup.

Medellin Guru Meetup Sponsors

• Darrell and Diana Reamer
• Anonymous

If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, see our article about Medellin Guru on Patreon with our different membership levels.

Mercado De La Playa

More About Mercado De La Playa

Mercado De La Playa is the newest gastronomic market in Medellín that opened in December 2019 in El Centro with over 25 restaurants and bars. 

This new gastronomic market is located very close to the Teatro Pablo Tobón Uribe theater in El Centro and Pequeno Teatro is also nearby. So, Mercado De La Playa is a good place to go before or after going to an event at one of the nearby theaters.

At Mercado De La Playa, food is purchased at the small format restaurants. And food is eaten at many bar-height and several lower tables, which are cleaned quickly and efficiently by the staff. 

There are over 25 food options at this food market including Arabic, burgers, Colombian, desserts, fruits, Italian, Peruvian, Portuguese, pizza, sandwiches, steaks, sushi, Tex-Mex, waffles, wings and more.

This is a large food market with capacity for about 1,000 people including over 800 seats on two floors. For our meetup, we will be primarily meeting on the first floor in a large space with high tables making it easy for mingling. But there is also a large space available on the second floor.

Inside Mercado De La Playa

Mercado De La Playa is located about a 6-minute walk from the Pabellón del Agua tram station

How to Get to Mercado De La Playa

This new food market is located in El Centro on Avenida La Playa close to Teatro Pablo Tobón Uribe. One way to get there is by using the Medellín Metro. To get there take the A Line to the San Antonio metro station and then take the TA Tranvía tram line to the Pabellón del Agua station. Mercado De La Playa is located about a 6-minute walk from the Pabellón del Agua tram-line station.

Mercado De La Playa is located less than a block from Teatro Pablo Tobón Uribe

Taxis are another options to get to this food market from your location. Just tell the driver “Teatro Pablo Tobón Uribe en El Centro“, which every driver will know. This new food market is located less than a block from Teatro Pablo Tobón Uribe. Or provide the driver the address below.

Website: https://mercadodelaplaya.com/

Address: Calle 51 # 40-35, El Centro, Medellín

Phone: +57 314 870 3366

Hours: Noon to 11 pm.

If you are driving a car or motorcycle there are several parking places nearby, which are seen on the following map from Teatro Pablo Tobón Uribe.

Nearby parking, photo courtesy of Teatro Pablo Tobón Uribe

Photos from Our Previous Medellin Guru Meetups

Also, we have averaged over 175 attendees at each of our monthly meetups in 2019, which makes them the largest monthly events for foreigners in Medellín.

In November 2019, we hit a record of over 210 attendees for our event at 20Mission Cerveza in El Poblado.  In addition, we expect another good turnout in February 2020. Here are are three photos from our November 2019 event:

Over 210 attendees were at our November 2019 event at 20Mission Cerveza

At our November 2019 event. There is a wide range of ages at our events including people in their 20s to over 60.

At the Medellin Guru November 2019 meetup at 20Mission Cerveza

The Bottom Line: February 2020 Medellin Guru Meetup at Mercado De La Playa

In response to demand from readers, Medellin Guru is hosting our 18^th Medellin Guru meetup at Mercado De La Playa in El Centro on February 18.

This meetup is a great way to meet other expats in Medellín. It’s also a good way to get your questions answered from several experts we invite to the meetup and also from experienced expats at the event who have been living in Medellín for many years.

Also, a free beer is available at our February meetup for the first 75 guests, courtesy of Mercado De La Playa.

In addition, about 18 months ago we launched the Medellin Guru Events & Discussion Forum on Facebook for readers to keep up with our events and enable discussions between readers. This group already has over 2,070 members and is very active with over 1,000 posts, comments and reactions in the past month.

Furthermore, we added a Medellin Guru group on Meetup.com to enable following our events. And we looked at 9 reasons to join this new Medellin Guru group.

Many readers of the Medellin Guru website asked that we start having Medellin Guru events and also provide a discussion forum for readers. So, we now have both.

Sign up for the Free Medellin Guru Newsletter – You can see all of the previous Medellin Guru weekly email newsletters and sign up here.