daylight robbery at knifepoint in Cali public park

[larrysimpson]

I was robbed a few weeks ago, delayed writing this up as was having so much fun in other parts of Colombia.
Anyway here it is...I was walking through a corner part of the public park connected to the larger section by a footbridge. I notice a guy angling towards me, smiling and talking away. A sales pitch I think, like a thousand others... then I notice another guy heading towards me at an intercept angle. I notice there is a marked absence of citizens in this part of the park, and that I really have no easy exits. Big guy shows his big knife and says "Dinero". I yell no, f... off and back away. Big guy grabs me by shirtfront and raises the knife, making a few downward thrusting motions. I can't break the hold, he is very strong and has long arms. The knife blade is shining in the sun, and I can see the notches in the back of the blade which must be about 4.5 " long, a buck-knife blade. Other buy is trying to get behind me to go for my wallet which has credit cards and $400 US which I have with me to change some money. I do a crazy dance with knife guy to keep other guy from getting behind me...all the time I am still yelling, no f... off. When I see a look in the knife-guys eyes that seems to signal an imminent knife thrust I say ok, dinero...he relaxes a bit and I pull out some money in my front pockets and throw it at him.. He gathers up the money and they run off. He had been looking around some when I was making the racket. Anyway I still have my wallet, and no cuts. I was lucky. I was stubborn about the wallet and just did not want to give it up. But I could have been cut or worse. You make your quick calculation of risk and go from there. Yeah..but you never really know what your response is gonna be. I was nervous and pissed...so I yelled and resisted. It paid off, but a slight miscalculation or whatever and things could have gone bad. Only recommendations I will make is, in any potentially dangerous place (which Cali is) always check out a place before walking into it (preferably with someone else) and look for other people around and exits, and cops. I missed these indicators that day, and when I went near the place next day on my bike, I could see at least 4 cops in the small area where I was robbed (yeah I reported it).
Hope this helps somebody. For the record many people told me Cali was dangerous and watch my butt or better still don't go there... there is a good party scene in the Granada area to the north of the river and park, couple good hostels...just watch the central area at night especially and any area including parks where there is little pedestrian traffic or cops. I must say I overall enjoyed Medellin a lot more than Cali, more relaxed and friendly for sure.

Larry