Other than the usual challenges associated with herding a group of 10-15 people toward an event across town, the affair proceeded without incident right up to the end.

The whole thing came about when Noah, the community manager at Selina Medellín, posted a note to the WhatsApp group chat the day before. He and others on the Selina staff use that forum to let residents know about various programming offered for the day and week. Yoga sessions, Salsa night, Blues night, el menú del día at the Garden Bar (a tasty lunch special for less than US$6 including tip), and other opportunities to meet fellow travelers and partake of offered services.

Noah plans and leads less formal events, sometimes outside of the hostel and sometimes spur of the moment. On Friday afternoon, he let the community know that a few people had tickets to go see Daddy Yankee, a legendary Latin American rapper who was performing a stadium show on Saturday and that there were still a few tickets left in the general admission section where they were sitting. I love live music and also saw it as an opportunity for a travel experience so I bought a ticket.

In full disclosure, I’d never heard of Daddy Yankee although I figured out at the show that he was the original artist to perform Despacito. My ignorance of Daddy Yankee was so profound that I managed to secure a permanent spot in the memories of my Friday night dinner companions at one of those spur-of-the-moment outings organized by Noah when I asked the group whether everyone was going to see “Yankee Daddy.” Just in case it wasn’t already obvious to the group that I am at least double the age of most of them, I managed to stamp “old geezer” on my forehead with that gaffe. Whatever. It’s still bringing them joy two days later this morning after the show, having had a great time together. I’m happy to laugh at myself with them.

As I mentioned before, the afternoon and night had gone without incident right up to the end. In the late afternoon, we parked ourselves at an outdoor bar/food court area across from the stadium for drinks and snacks before the show. There was a palpable excitement in the throngs of people around. It turns out this is supposedly Daddy Yankee’s farewell tour and the second of two shows in Medellín this weekend, so the energy level was high. Street vendors were hawking the usual candy and cigarettes as well as US$1.25 white plastic rain ponchos because a downpour was a near certainty.

And the food! If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know I have a thing for street food. This was my first good look at what the Colombian version of that looks like. I’ve already figured out that vegetables and greens don’t play a big part of the Colombian diet, but the meat-a-palooza on the carts that lined the sidewalks around the stadium was a sight to behold. I had already eaten some meat from an appetizer plate the group shared at the food court so I bought an arepa de chócolo, a delicious concoction consisting of a sweet corn arepa topped with queso fresco and sweetened condensed milk. Unfortunately, I ended up giving away most of it because the group had decided it was time to go into the stadium while I was getting food. That’s ok. I’ll get another chance.

The process of getting into the venue was different from what I’m accustomed to in the U.S. in the sense that we had to go through 3 checkpoints, with 3 ticket scans and 2 security checks. Which I guess makes sense, especially the redundant security checks, given that the soldier at the first checkpoint took one look at me and waved me through. Apparently 50+ year old gringos weren’t who he was worried about. The stadium worker at the second checkpoint was taking no chances, though. I got the full pat-down, empty your pockets experience at that one. Once inside, though, I was spared the ad hoc frisking that I saw a few Colombian youths submit to.

By this time, the rain was really coming down. In the Land of Eternal Spring, however, you can’t let rain dampen spirits. Showers are a fact of life. You put your poncho on a soldier on. The group found an section of seats with plenty of room for all of us, stocked up on hard seltzers and a couple of box-bottles of aguardiente, and waited for what turned out to be three opening acts before the main event.

The rain had stopped during one of the opening acts, and the excitement in the crowd grew as the time for Daddy Yankee to do his thing grew near. He put on a terrific show, a dancer-supported and video- and animation-backed spectacle that had everyone dancing and all but (I’m guessing) two people singing along to every word. There was a guy in our group from the Netherlands who was a clueless as I was, but that didn’t stop either of us from shaking our groove thing.

Knowing that competition for taxis and rideshares would be high as the 40,000+ crowd left the event, Noah suggested that we head out before the encore started. As 9 of our 12 took his suggestion and emerged from the stadium, it felt like we were the first ones out. There were plenty of people around who hadn’t gone to the show, and the street vendors were stocked up and ready for the post-show rush. We split into smaller groups to get rides back to Selina and began summoning cars through Didi, a local Uber equivalent for half the price where you can pay with cash.

That’s when things took a turn.

Caterina and Courtney, two young, blonde-haired women from Germany and the U.S., respectively, joined me in taking the first vehicle to arrive. We were all in high spirits and heading somewhat lazily toward the awaiting vehicle without much of a care in the world. Catty, as Caterina likes to be called, was on my left, but I’d lost sight of Courtney among a small crowd around us so I kept turning around looking for her to make sure we had three. As we got nearer the car, the size of the crowd around us grew. Catty and I realized about the same time that there could be some competition for the ride, so we gave each other a knowing look and picked up the pace a bit, her going for the driver-side door and me on the other. I still didn’t know where Courtney was.

Fortunately, it turns out she was right on my heels. I knew this only after opening the door and hearing her not quite shout but say with some urgency, “Get in! Get in! Get in!” As I looked in her direction, I saw some sort of scuffle so I reached out, looped my arm around her waist, and pulled her in. As I did, the group from which I extricated her dispersed as quickly as it had formed.

We’re still not sure exactly what was going on – whether they wanted the ride or were in the process of mugging her – but there had been two hands around Courtney’s neck and two more grabbing at her phone. In the end, her losses and injuries were at a minimum. She lost a cheap necklace that broke in the scuffle and is sporting an abrasion on her neck this morning from the hands-around-her-neck and necklace combination.

Last night after we returned to Selina Medellín, I was having some difficult emotions. In the days of Pablo Escobar, this place had a well-deserved reputation for danger. Since then and especially in the past 10 years, Medellín has experienced a hard-fought transformation that has turned it into a hot tourist destination. This event, however, had me re-thinking the good vibes I’ve been feeling about the place since I arrived.

Upon waking this morning, however, I see things differently.

The takeaway for me from this experience is that when traveling, and especially when among a large crowd of people, you have to be aware of your surroundings. You have to take responsibility for your own security. You have to not do stupid things.

Because when you don’t, everything can change in a flash.

P.S. I don’t get paid for the links in this post. They are there for your convenience.