They say our neighbourhood is only ever dangerous when there’s a “nacional” match at the nearby stadium.

Fans of Atletico Nacional, a Medellin football team, have unfortunately earned themselves a bit of a reputation here due to their behaviour on match days, particularly muggings. One friend of mine – who was robbed a whopping three times in the space of two weeks (hey Yannic!) – was targeted by nacional fans and now whenever I am alone and see one I cross the road or start walking in the other direction. I don’t know if this is necessary or not, but I’m a wuss and would rather not find out.

Many nacional fans can be spotted on match days selling chewing gum and sweets in order to raise a little cash to buy a ticket to the match. On the day depicted in this drawing I was walking along la 70 with Laura, Erick and Yan and it was swarming with people in green and white shirts. We had already bought a few bits and bobs from a few guys when this man approached us.

He asked us for some change and Erick handed over a couple of hundred pesos (less than 10p, I think). The dude seemed pretty pleased and in exchange offered us to choose a goody from his bag. The choice consisted of some individually-wrapped, hard-boiled sweets and a number of mini spliffs. We each took a hard-boiled sweet and thanked him very much.