This important phrase can end up saving your life. "No dar papaya."

• 🔒 Keep valuables out of sight — Phones, cameras, laptops. Don’t flash what you can’t afford to lose.

• 🚫 Don’t get too comfortable — Even in “safe” areas. Especially at night.

• 💵 Be smart about cash and cards — Use a money belt, carry less, keep a decoy wallet.

• 👀 Read the room — Watch how locals act. Match their pace and awareness.

• 🧢 Don’t flaunt wealth — No flashy clothes, chains, or $500 sneakers in Lleras.

• ❤️‍🔥 Be careful on dating apps — If something feels off, it probably is.

• 🧍‍♂️ Don’t follow clueless tourists — Just because they’re doing it doesn’t mean you should.

• 🛡️ Use your brain, not just your map app — Trust your gut. That’s your real GPS here.

If you spend any time in Colombia, you'll hear this phrase sooner or later: "No dar papaya."

Literally, it means "Don't give papaya." But it has nothing to do with fruit. It’s a street-smart rule, a warning, and a quite honestly a way of life—especially in cities like Bogotá or Medellín.

What Does It Actually Mean?

At its core, “no dar papaya” means don’t make yourself an easy target.

If you're flashing your phone in public, leaving your laptop unattended in a café, or walking around late at night distracted, you're giving papaya. If you're wearing $5k worth of clothes and chains in Lleras at night, sorry to say you're not flossing here, you're again... giving papaya.

You're making yourself vulnerable to theft, scams, or worse.

In Colombia, the responsibility is often placed on the person who wasn’t cautious. It's not about blaming victims, but about accepting the reality: If you make it easy, someone will take advantage.

Where Did This Saying Come From?

Nobody knows exactly. Some say it comes from market culture, papayas bruise easily, so if you handle one carelessly, it’s your fault when it gets ruined. Others just accept it as Colombian common sense. It’s part of the country’s built-in alert system, a phrase taught to kids and repeated to adults in everyday life.

Colombians use it in all kinds of situations:

• A friend forgets their bike unlocked? “¡Diste papaya!”

• Someone drinks too much and gets into trouble? “No des papaya.”

• A tourist pulls out a wad of cash on the street? “Ese man dio papaya.”

It’s less about being paranoid, more about being aware.

How This Applies to You

If you're new here—or even if you’ve been living in Colombia for years—this mindset matters.

Here’s how to avoid giving papaya in real life:

1. Keep valuables out of sight.
Don’t walk around texting on your iPhone or using earbuds in sketchy areas. Keep your backpack zipped and your camera stashed unless you’re using it. If you are really smart, you will buy a burner phone to carry in the streets with only the essential Colombian apps on it.

2. Don’t get too comfortable too fast.
Just because a neighborhood feels safe doesn’t mean it is. Even Laureles and El Poblado have incidents, especially late at night. I would venture a guess to say you are LESS safe in these areas than you think if you make yourself an easy target.

3. Be smart about cash and cards.
Don’t carry more than you’re willing to lose. Spread your cards and money out. Use a money belt or keep a decoy wallet in your front pocket. Not even kidding, I have a very good friend who carries a decoy wallet with a bunch of cards where they insult the robbers and their mothers in Spanish.

4. Learn to read the room.
Colombians are great at scanning situations. Pay attention to how locals act, are they alert, are they walking fast, are they watching their surroundings? Follow what they're doing. Sadly many visitors here are either not terribly street smart or they go into vacation mode and forget the reality of where they are.

5. Don’t flaunt wealth.
Luxury watches, expensive jewelry, designer brands, these stand out. Especially in a country where the minimum monthly salary is around $300. The more flashy you are here the more you stand out, and standing out here isn't good. At all. Flossing here isn't what you need to do to attract women like in Miami, doing that here will put a spotlight on you.

6. Be extra careful with dating apps.
I know this has been beaten into the ground, but every time I talk to guys visiting here, they have already done advanced scouting of women on Tinder. Stop being stupid. Robbery setups happen. I mean this so deeply, If something feels off, trust your instincts. This is the land of magical realism, but if you try living that, your journey will likely end prematurely.

7. Don’t assume safety just because others seem relaxed.
Other tourists might be reckless. That doesn’t mean you should be. You also should not assume that you're guaranteed safety here. I used to have insight to the crime reports, and there were so many that were drugged and robbed, especially of their phones - literally 95% were phone/money robberies. I'm going to tell you a hard truth here, unless you die, the police and to some extent the Fiacalia don't care. Your crypto wallet, your banking information doesn't matter to them. Also, if your friends want to go out after the bars close here 'trolling' or looking for a little something something on the streets, if you are smart you say no. That is giving wholesale papaya.

8. Pickpocketing is the most common way of getting robbed here lately.
I'll do an article about this, but there has been an exponential rise of pickpocketing over last year. We have already had the name number in 2025 reported that we had in all of 2024. And we're only in April. This is something to take very seriously. I'll give a bunch of tips on how to stay safe here in crowded areas. Pickpocketing is just another thing we all have to be vigilant about. That one is for Paisas and Foreigners alike.

Way To Victim Shame...

I've heard this being thrown around on Reddit and on the Facebook groups. This phrase is just a way to victim shame tourists. If you think this way, you are not as in-tune with Colombian society as you think. This is not victim shaming, this is a warning. They know that you are not from here, and aren't likely used to Colombian scams, and they are trying to warn you. They know when you need to hear it.

Especially in the US, we are VERY addicted to our phones, and walk around like they're surgically attached to our hands. Doing that here will get your phone snatched in a second. That's literally all it takes. You're taking a creeper shot or a picture of the architecture, in that second a moto pulls up, grabs your phone and YEET, it's gone. When you go to a Colombian to complain about it, the first thing they will say after hearing your story, no dar papaya. They're not victim shaming you, they're warning you, using this moment as a learning tool. 'But my whole life was on my phone!!!', well, I'm sorry to be so blunt, you sure weren't acting like it. Before the morons come for me and say, well Colombians use their phone in the streets. Yes, they do, but they're aware of their surroundings.

Oh and to those that were going to say to me "I should be able to walk around the streets with my phone out without being afraid of getting robbed. Tell people not to steal!" There's that Magical Realism, I talked about. Just because Medellin looks pretty and modern, and lets be honest, like paradise, doesn't mean it comes at a cost. If you get robbed in the streets and want to cry about getting your phone taken like this, go home. You aren't meant to travel.

Let me be clear about this. NOBODY deserves to get robbed. Nobody. But if you do find yourself in a situation where you got robbed, use that as a moment to learn, not cry victim. If you use street smarts here, you will likely never experience anything bad at all. But in EVERY police report I saw, I could see at least 3 instances of papaya in every one. They almost always revolve around being inattentive on the streets, dating, getting drunk and getting targeted or drugs.

When you tell a Colombian your story, and you white-wash it to make yourself not look bad, they are not stupid. They know you weren't just walking down the street minding your own business and a moto thief chose you out of a crowd to rob. They know that you weren't looking for a good hearted woman on Tinder, took her back to your hotel room to do bible study and she drugged and robbed you. So when they say "No dar papaya", that is the equivalent of learn from this and don't stand out next time. Do crimes like this really happen? I'll concede that it's a possibility, but in most cases your decisions have made you a papaya salesman. The overwhemling majority of crimes against tourists in Medellin are crimes of opportunity, and if you ignore this phrase you are giving the bad actors here this opportunity.

Is This Just Fear-Mongering?

No. It’s just the way things work here. Most Colombians you meet will be warm, helpful, and kind. But opportunity creates temptation. If you make things too easy, someone will eventually take advantage.

The phrase isn’t meant to scare you. It’s meant to empower you. They're not victim shaming you, they're trying to help you. Most Colombians here want you to come and have a good time, as long as you're being respectful. Let's face it many of the tourists coming here over the last 2 years haven't been too respectful. It's no coincidence we had 51 homocides of U.S. tourists alone last year, and we're on pace to beat that record this year.

When you understand it, you're safer. You blend in more. You gain respect, because you're GIVING respect. You stop being the guy who “gave papaya” and start becoming the gringo who gets it.

A Final Thought

Think of "no dar papaya" as your personal risk filter. Every decision you make while living or traveling here, what you wear, how you move, what you show, who you trust, goes through that filter. You don’t need to live in fear. Just don’t get careless. I've adapted my habits, wardrobe and sharpened my senses to a Colombian standard, and I've never had an issue here. Most everyone I know here has not had an issue.

I can't stress this enough, the name on the front of your passport doesn't make you special or bulletproof here. Last year the U.S. Embassy admitted that they can't keep US citizens safe here. You are not owed ANYTHING here, you are a guest. Here, respect is earned, you're not owed it. Standing out and flossing is not giving respect here, that's papaya, and people from the US are first ballot hall of fame papaya givers. In Colombia, giving papaya is like putting a sign on your back that says “rob me.” And that’s never a good look.

I'm going to write an updated guide about staying safe with alot more tips, think of this as a foundational article for that one.