I went to Columbia… Part 2: Medellin
Against my Dad’s wishes, I went to Colombia. This post, part 2 of a 3 part series, is about my second stop, and debatably one of my favorite cities, Medellin.
I f-ing loved Medellin…
After an hour flight from Bogota, I got to Medellin. And as I just said, I fucking loved it, like to the point that I would live there if possible. So yeah, this one is going to very biased about going there, but I think a good biased.
I’m not sure if it was the weather (mid 70s, sunny), or the fact that I was coming from Bogota (which in my last post you can see I was not a big fan of), but for some reason Medellin just felt right. There was an hour long shuttle ride from the airport to town, then from there a 10 minute ride on the public train to the area my hostel was in, El Poblado.
El Poblado is a hipstery, more “upscale” region of the city. It was much nicer, and has a much safer feel then the area of Bogota I was in. The hostel I stayed at was the “Purple Monkey”. It was a real cool hostel, nice rooms, comfy beds, rooftop bar, and free breakfast. There was a good social vibe there and enough people there to have a social/party type environment.
My first full day in Medellin, I did the District 13 graffiti walking tour. The hostel works with a local tour company to run the tour. The tour was super cool, with a real knowledgeable guide (shout out JP, go follow jp__tours on instagram).
The tour started by taking the group up the cable cars over one of the favelas. We got a good history of the favela including the dark times of the government vs paramilitary vs cartel battles that ravaged the community in the early 2000s, along with a great view of Medellin. The tour then proceeded to the area of District 13 that contains the graffiti. The graffiti was insane, and the guide knew about every piece and knew most of the artists that contributed to the pieces. From pictures that we were shown of the district just 15 years ago, the revitalization project has done wonders for the area and includes some of the only open air escalators in the world. This is a highly recommended tour, y’all should check it out.
Day 2 was something I was looking forward to for a while. I went on a day long tour of a coffee farm. The tour was like $60, but it involved a full day tour along with food and transportation. The tour took the group 2 hours by shuttle outside of the city into the mountains to a local family run coffee farm named Luna Llena. The area was beautiful and a Jeep was needed to complete the rough journey. To start the tour, we had a cup of coffee from the farm, and God damned, I didn’t hate it, which is big for me. I think most coffee tastes like burnt piss. We then proceeded to get the history of the farm, learned about the families struggles, and learned about why the coffee most people drink is crap.
The tour of the farm was spectacular, and being out in the Colombian mountains was an added benefit. There was a short hike down to a stream where we had the opportunity to see a bunch of local plants and flowers, I even got to plant my own coffee plant! We had lunch when we got back, which was fantastic, and finished off by seeing the coffee making process and learning how to compare good coffee and shit coffee.
Here are a couple hints to identifying good coffee:
- If there is anything floating when you put the coffee in water, imagine stuff floating on the top of a French press, that’s crap, either bad beans, shells, dead bugs, or some other contamination.
- Medium roast is the best way to go, dark roast is over cooked.
- Buy Café de Origen (Coffee of origin), this is the “stamp of approval” stating it is directly from the farm. Which ensures the best quality, not a blend of shit beans and good beans.
On day 3, I went to Guatape. A must-do day trip from Medellin, and recommended not only by tourists, but by any Colombian that learns you are going to Medellin. It was about a 2 hour bus ride from the city. I did this trip independently, but you can also book a tour for it. I don’t think the tour is necessary, but you can if you want. The hostel I was staying at partnered with a tour group, but other people staying there recommended doing it independently which saves money and time. It was a really hungover bus ride, which I will touch in later in this post, but I sat next to a Colombian that was traveling with his Dutch friends and asked if I could tag along with them for the day. They said sure, and will be mentioning them more when I write something about the North Coast.
So anyhow, Guatapé…. it’s this town/area that got flooded by the government to build a hydroelectric damn in the 1960s. The area now serves as a vacation spot for the wealthy, but the tourist appeal is a giant “rock” in the middle with some stairs. (El Penon de Guatapé.) So yeah, you go to climb the rock, and damn it’s cool. The view is worth it, and you can see the flooded plains all around.
From the rock, we caught a couple rickshaws into the town of Guatapé. We bought our bus tickets for a return trip right when we got to town ~11:30 am (leaving ~4:30 pm). It’s recommended to get your tickets a few hours before you leave, otherwise there might not be any seats and you’ll be stuck standing for the two hour ride home. We got some Colombian lunch, walked around the town for a few hours then caught the bus home.
The town itself is bright and really colorful. Every house is painted in a unique, bright style that catches the eye and is decorated with colorful panels along the street called “zocalos”. Zocalos could represent a location of a business or any family’s personal flair. Imagine images of animals for a butcher, or images of bikes for a bike shop. (The Dutch people I was with that day really liked the bike Zocalos). Overall, I’d say 5 hours is enough time for the city of Guatapé, then 4 total hours of travel, so 9 hours for the trip. Good for a nice day away from Medellin and highly recommended.
Shit this is long already, and I haven’t even touched on the Medellin nightlife…
When I got to Medellin, someone mentioned it was some of the best nightlife in South America, and they didn’t lie. There are bars and restaurants literally everywhere. The first night, after some hostel pregaming, I went out with some Brits and some Dutch people.
We went to a little park called Parque Lleras which was a quick 5 min walk from the hostel. The appealing thing about this park is that it is surrounded by bars and clubs. Literally all four sides there are bars, and at each one there is a promoter trying to get the Gringos inside with promises of great deals or free drinks. When you can speak a little Spanish, the promotions can go a long way… The first place we went: free tequila shots. The second place: two beers for real cheap. The third place, I cant even recall anything.
The second night out, the hostel hosted a bar tour for all the local hostels. This was the reason I was hungover going to Guatapé. The bar tour had a pregame at my hostel, then went out to a collective of four bars with different themes, and free shots at each one. I can’t remember what the bar types were for the life of me, but they were good. I think there was a salsa bar to start, that’s where I learned I really have no rhythm when it comes to dancing. Then I think we went to some Reggaeton themed ones, and maybe ended at a club? At the last stop, myself and a couple people from the hostel decided to go to another bar and closed that down, I think was on a rooftop? Everything in the city closes down around 2 am which sucks, but there’s always an after party somewhere. This night we went to a techno club. I don’t know what it is, Europeans love techno….fuck techno. I think from there we went home…not sure…it was one of those nights that everything towards the end blends together…
The final night in Medellin, I went out again with some kids from the hostel. This time we were able to drag along a British guy that had been living at the hostel for a month. He decided to live there, take two Spanish lessons a day, and took salsa lessons too. Honestly, I want to be him. But anyway, we followed him. Started at a ball pit bar, real cool, and real strong drinks. I’m convinced my rum and coke was 80% rum. From there I think we made a second stop somewhere, idk. But after we went to a shitty Reggaeton club. And by shitty, I mean heavy, grinding, dancing to Reggaeton club. Like highschool seniors at a homecoming type grinding. That was an experience, I was drunk and had a good time, but could not do that every week.
That was my last night in Medellin, and from there I reluctantly had to go up to the northern coast. The next post will cover Tayrona National Park and Cartagena. To summarize this one: GO TO MEDELLIN!!
Recent Comments