Medellin, Colombia has been a Total Vibe
I'm not sure what I was expecting. Prior to arriving, my opinions are largely influenced by TV, which is Drug Cartels in the streets, and personal safety threats. But I also know people who have visited and said it's great and wonderful.
My first impressions as I left the airport were that the city is cleaner than I was expecting. At least in parts of the city. There was no garbage along the sides of the road which can be common in places with less infrastructure.
The roads were in great shape, as far as the asphalt. No massive potholes, clean traffic lines and lights and flow. Just high volume.
And I immediately found the Colombian people to be more attractive. Aesthetically pleasing to the eye.
The airport in Medellin is actually quite far from the city (45 min or more).
Traffic is heavy. But as I was enjoying the ride and gasping at the beauty of the natural landscapes, we entered a tunnel. It's very mountainous, so the tunnel was not a surprise.
The surprise was how long we were in said tunnel. I later googled it and it's 8.2km long!! This tunnel also shaves about another 40 min off the drive to the airport as previously the drive was winding mountain roads around passes and such, limitations of the physical landscape.
After emerging from the tunnel, you see the massive valley with the city sprawled out below. Medellin is quite big and has a lot of sprawl up the mountain sides.
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| Medellin in view after the tunnel |
I was immediately excited to explore everywhere.
My accoms for the next bit is a 2 bedroom/ 2 bathroom apartment with an old traveling friend John. John and I met in 2003 while we were in Honduras taking our Scuba cert. We reminisced a lot and realized that we likely only spent 8 days together back then, but have been life long friends. I hadn’t seen him for YEARS until we met up in Peru last year for our 21 year reunion. Haha
Now we may meet annually to explore a new locale and catch up. This year - it was Colombia and we decided to share a flat.
(before y’all get any ideas, this is a platonic friendship, not some international romance. hahaha)
Our TWO bedroom, and TWO bathroom flat was in Envigado, which is a quaint little suburb of Medellin, out of the chaotic centre. It was perfect. Our neighborhood was very walkable and had many great restaurants to choose from.
I had a bit of a scratchy throat and just assumed it was from the smog in Mexico City ( which was quite bad some days) and would likely clear with some fresher air and water.
Welllll. Nope. I woke up with a massively sore throat, and then within no time at all I realized it was some kind of bug. A cold most likely. Sore throat, runny nose, etc etc.
So the next few days actually consisted of short walks around the hood, eating delicious meals and lots of rest and reading. And taking pictures of a bunch of flowers because I love plants sooo much. As apparent with all the images scattered through this post.
I didn't want to overdo it trying to see things and go places and prolong whatever I was fighting.
All said and done, I feel like I got off pretty easy with the bug. It was not overly terrible, but definitely made me slow down.
By Wednesday I was starting to feel much better and got up early to go for a run and sweat the last remnants out. I didn't really know where I was going, but was pleased when I found the river and was able to run along the river on a nice path with less traffic in my ears.
The next day was an exciting moment, my favorite boys from Bristol had arrived in Medellin.
These are the guys I met last year on a train in Peru.
We met for brunch and cocktails and had a brilliant time catching up. These 2 are some of my absolute favorite people I have ever met. Soulmate friends for sure.
We booked a private tour to the town of Guatepe. The 4 of us.
John, myself, Lukasz and Nicholas. Our driver Felipe was a legend. He spoke perfect English, which helps since my Spanish is atrocious.
Guatape is a town that is in a very hilly region and has a hydro electric dam, so the valley is flooded creating a lake country of sorts.
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| Panoramic View of Guatepe region |
Similar to the Ozarks if you have been there or seen the show!
It also has this massive granite rock that just stands in the middle and has resisted all erosion over the eons. There are stairs built into the crevice of it and you can climb it for a view from the top. So OF COURSE I wanted to do that. Was really the whole reason for the day trip in my opinion. It was not hard, but there are a lot of steps. About 750. The steps are very narrow in places and there are 2 sets for 1-way traffic so you are not competing with people going in the opposite direction as you.
We also stopped at some roadside attraction. It was like a petting zoo on steroids.
Goats, Baby Goats, pigs, Llamas, Alpacas, Miniature ponies, Sheep, Lambs, Horses, Ostriches, etc.
You could buy carrot sticks and as such, all the animals were VERY well fed and very eager to engage with the humans holding the carrots. Aggressive, but not in a scary way, more just like, GET DOWN AND CALM DOWN.
We also walked through the Town or Guatepe. Extremely colorful with many buildings having a 3D image on the side that indicates the profession of the resident.
Lunch at a local joint and full meals for 5 people including a couple beer each was about 110 CAD. all in. It was very inexpensive for how much food we all had in front of us!
Finally, we collectively decided that a boat tour of the lake was in order, so the amazing Felipe called a friend and made the magic happen. We loaded into a speed boat and got a sunset tour of some of the parts of the lake, saw many Colombian celebrity houses, and the cross in the water that marks the old townsite before the dam. (in the 60’s)
Lukasz and I decided a swim was in order, so we jumped in. Felipe said the lake was cold, but it was like a warm bath compared to anything at home. Lakes in Canada never get that warm.
Then we started the drive back. The whole day was an absolute blast. Hilarious laughter and excellent vibes.
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| Lukasz (L) John (C) Nicholas (R) |
Medellin also has Cable Cars that transport people over the city to combat the super steep hills, Lukasz, Nicholas and I set out to spend a day exploring the city from above. A nice meal and off we went. Welllll best laid plans… we were on the first cable car and the rain started. At first it was just a bit moody, but then crash!! The downpour started and thunder and lightning. Then they shut the cable car down and everyone had to get off at the next station and it was shut for the remainder of the afternoon.
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| Stuck in the Tram Station downpour |
So then we were stuck on a crazy hillside in a downpour waiting for an available uber to pick up the ride to come save us.
Not everything goes to plan!
Anyhow - this post is long enough! Thanks for joining me. Would love if you have any comments to leave them because it's fun to engage!
See ya next week!
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