David –
Lets just say our time in Medellin did not get off to the smoothest of starts.
“There is a big problem” the friendly airport check in lady told us.
“Your flight, it’s for the 10th of October”.
That indeed is a big problem as we planned to fly on the 10th of January. Lucky we booked the cheapest, non-refundable, 3rd party vendor ticket from Skyscanner…(not).
Lauren gave me a stare. It was actually all my fault. While we chilled at this cool backpackers at the beach a few days before, I was responsible for sorting out the connecting flight from Cartagena to Medellin. Whoops.
So 30 minutes later, minus $400 and all my future booking duties rescinded, we now had new tickets on the next flight. I spent the following 4 hour wait kicking myself and distracting Lauren with some research on Medellin!
When most people think of Medellin they picture a city run by drug cartels with murders on every street corner and the tourists crazy enough to visit getting robbed at gun point. Perhaps at one point in its history this was certainly the case but the city we discovered totally blew away our expectations!
As we descended down upon a vast valley from the airport, the sprawling metropolis of Medellin lay before us. The city is bounded by tall mountains and our accommodation was in the trendy neighbourhood of El Poblado.
Upon checking into Hostel Rango, we instantly knew that the three nights we had planned there were not going to be enough and we extended it for two more. Medellin had a feel about it, and it felt right. We honestly could have stayed for weeks.
It turned out that Thursday evening is Ladies night and it was also the grand opening of the roof top bar. While Lauren enjoyed a few free Sangrias we chatted to Esther and Angelika from Germany. We exchanged some great tips as they were heading north to Minca and Cartagena and we were heading south to Salento, Pijao and later Cali.
After the bar ran out of free Sangrias there was a universal call for pizza (cough cough the girls). We asked the barman for the best ‘best pizza in Medellin…thats within walking distance’ and the best ‘reggaton bar’. Armed with this important information, the four of us headed out into the warm Colombian night and needless to say, we were not disappointed with the recommendations.
Medellin is known as a city with amazing walking tours which service its main sights – Lauren and I found a few we wanted to do but we decided that we first wanted to visit the most dangerous ghetto in the city – Comuna 13 …without a guide.
To get there we travelled on one of the city’s most prized and proudest assets – the metro train! I thought it must be brand new, it was extremely clean, no graffiti on any of the trains and incredibly efficient. We were impressed to find out it was actually 25 years old – talk about city pride!
Don’t worry mum, Comuna 13 is now much safer and represents an important symbol of the city’s transformation – from its tragic past to its current and potential future. Social engineering projects are connecting the outer reaches of the poorest neighborhoods with gondolas and escalators to the city’s transportation system and the walls are full of street art projects looking to empower the youth of today.
We did find out that ‘gangs’ still run the comuna and most guides are required to pay a ‘vaccine tax’ to operate, the area was full of tourists wandering up and down the escalators, between galleries, open bars and look outs across the city.
After working up an appetite walking across the city I found a real gem of a restaurant – La Causa, a Peruvian Japanese fusion cuisine called Nikkei. It combines Japanese techniques with Peruvian ingredients and it’s a sensational combination. The octopus ceviche was out of this world (tiger milk is not what it sounds like), the sushi was also incredible and their Pisco sour cocktails should not be missed (for who ever is reading this as a travel guide which I think is no one haha)!
After our successful self guided tour we were looking forward to our professionally guided tour of the city centre with Real City Tours.
This was no ordinary walking tour. We did about as much sitting as walking while our guide Julio took us through the city’s origins, how it grew and then fell into the hands of the cartel. It was the best walking tour we had ever done, without a doubt.
Julio doesn’t like to use Pablo Escobar’s name as he does not want locals to think he is glorifying a horrific drug lord. He asked – how would you feel if the only thing your country was known for was drugs, murder, and crime? He also told us about the unfortunate ‘drug tourism’ that is sweeping over the city and how it deeply offends locals.
Colombia and the city of Medellin has suffered greatly but the people have grown resilient and celebrate the good while easily forgetting the very dark moments. The tour was fantastic, insightful and delivered with a genuine passion to share the still very sad realities facing Medellin.
After our walking tour we still had some spring in our step and we were keen to learn a few more Salsa steps so we headed along to DanceFree studios just across the street from our hostel. In-fact we ended up doing two lessons during our time in Medellin and we now feel that we’re on the cusp of being able to actually dance (or maybe that’s because of the exclamation of “you guys are great” from the beginner American with two left feet).
Before we left our home away from home in El Poblado we had to have one last gelato from Amor-Acuya who won a Bronze medal in the Gelato World Tour! Omg, heart attack inducing. But without a doubt some of the best gelato we have EVER tasted in the world (yes Italy that includes you!)
Medellin has been one of if not our favourite city on our trip so far. Apart from its setting in the mountains, it isn’t a particularly beautiful city, it doesn’t have hundreds of old colonial buildings to meander through nor does it have a well established cultural or arts scene. But it has soul and lots of it. We felt at home, which is such a strange thing to feel when you’ve only been in a place for a few days. The people were some of the friendliest we met and the City felt alive. There was such a huge sense of optimism that was infectious and you wanted to be apart of its future.
Until next time Medellin! We really didn’t want to leave…
Far Away From Home 