Medellín, Colombia
THE SPECS
arrival: 10 hour bus ride from Bogota
hostel:
vegan spots:
departure: 4 hour bus ride to El Jardín
THE Story
After several days in Bogota I said good bye to my friend and hopped on an early bus heading to Medellín. I had grown quite comfortable there, especially spending time with my lovely friend, and was a little sad to move on. Yet, I heard only good things about this once notorious city, Medellín, and was excited to take the first step towards traveling through Colombia. The bus ride took over ten hours, but accompanied by many podcasts, a brownie and a zero complaints attitude I made it there just fine and dandy.
My first morning there I took my time waking up with a coffee and my laptop in the back garden of the hostel. I planned a day of museums and a visiting a couple cool spots to grab a bite. With my day planned out, I hopped into a dress because after the cool mountain air of Bogota, it was very sunny and very hot. With legs out and sunscreen on, I started walking to Poblano, a neighborhood just north of my hostel where most gringos stay.
A twenty minute walk later I reached Poblano, but many things were closed. I learned it was a holiday and that most museums would be closed. No worries, I would just spend the day exploring and eating.
Poblano is speckled with cute shops, cafes and restaurants. I walked along the edge of the neighborhood parallel to a little river. Unfortunately, the river was a little smelly and polluted, but massive bamboo and other beautiful, tropical looking plants occupy the rivers shoulders. I followed the river until I stumbled upon an awesome Organic Cade called Ceres Mercado Organico. Not only do they sell food in bulk here, but I ordered the best smoothie of my life. Perfectly sweet and tangy, the smoothie was so good I tried to take a self portrait with it.
My smoothie and I sat outside for a while enjoying the sunshine. Then before continuing my walk around the neighborhood I picked up some quinoa for dinner and peanut butter to improve my snack game. I was able to buy both in bulk, with out packaging, which made my day. In my everyday I try to be mindful of the waste I produce and avoid plastic whenever possible. This has been made a little more challenging while traveling. So, it was really lovely and hopeful to see not only bulk food items at this cafe, but also bulk soaps and they serve their smoothies in glass jars without straws! The whole experience made me so very happy. I wanted stay and live at this Cafe, but decided I would just come back tomorrow.
The next day I decided to join another free walking tour since I had enjoy the one in Bogota so much. This tour was even better. The tour guide was phenomenal, full of energy and seriously entertaining. He managed to remember everyones name in a group of around twenty people, and each time we walked from place to place he would skip around for a little individual chit chat. He was the best. The tour lasted four hours, and we only talked about Escobar for like fifteen minutes, so there is a lot more to Colombia than its cartel and Farc history.
Just like that I had one day left in Medellín. I headed out for a day on the town with a new hostel homie - an Austrian man traveling by motorcycle from Alaska to Ushuaia.
Not only is Medellín the only city in Colombia with a metro system, but their metro includes a cable car. Incorporated into their public transportation system in an attempt to unite people living out of the city, up in the surrounding hills, with the downtown city. This blew my mind. So we jumped onto a metro train and rode it to the stop that connected with the cable cars. We sat in a little cable car with four other commuters, and went for a little ride. We hopped off at the last stop to take some pictures of the view, and then jumped into another car heading back down.
It was amazing to be able to ride a train and a cable car with one ticket costing $2400 Colombia Pesos equivalent to $.80. Furthermore, because their metro is iconic not only in Colombia but to the progress and economic successes of Medellín no one would dare mark or dirty the metro trains. A huge contrast to the state of the subway trains in New York City.
After the cable cars we left the metro system and looked for a bus that would take us to Comun 13, a neighborhood that used to be pretty sketchy back in the day. I was having a confident Spanish speaking day and managed to find us the right bus. We drove up hill for a good while until reaching our destination. We had a little wander around admiring the graffiti art occupying most walls and then rode up and down some outside escalators for easy transport up the steep inclines of this hilly neighborhood. The neighborhood also offered great views of the city stretching out below.
Our last stop of the day was the botanical gardens. Pretty tired and hungry from a long day, we doodled around the gardens and then headed back to our hostel to make some dinner.
Most people at this hostel cooked dinner together in the evenings, which was really refreshing after eating out for all meals in Bogota. I also started buying papayas for breakfast. Eating a large papaya with lime is an incredible start to the day. Colorful, filling and hydrating. However, one hostel goer found it quite outrageous that I could and would eat a whole papaya each morning. Not to pass judgment, but his breakfast appeared to be coffee and several cigarettes. I'll stick with my papayas.
Medellín is a cool and I had a great three days there. However for me, it didn’t quite live up to the hype. It is a big city and felt like it might be anywhere in the world. I am ready for a little more nature and very, very happy to be heading to the countryside tomorrow.