Medellin- Time for a pause

Almost three months into travelling — and a few too many night buses of late — we were in need of a rest on arriving in Medellin.

Where we stayed

Airbnb flat near El Poblado, which is the top recommended area to stay in the city. It is a lovely leafy area with a large selection of coffee shops, bars, restaurants and boutique stores.

Link https://abnb.me/81yEFcS40K

We stayed with a host which was our first time doing so. This was a great experience. There were a few options in the region for £16 per night. This is much cheaper than a hostel. Where we chose had a private bathroom and a swimming pool.

But what made it really great was our host Alicia. Meeting her counts as one of our top experiences of Medellin. With her lightning speed Spanish we probably only understood about 50-60% of what she said, and she spoke a lot! After two days of rapid firing Spanish we managed to communicate much better though whilst sharing our first attempt at making ceviche, wine and coffee to discuss politics both local and global.

The nearest metro is Poblado, from where it is a 15 min walk uphill to the bars and cafes. Our place was a further 20mins out of the cluster of bars and cafes (uphill again). All that uphill made walking with our bags from the metro not our best decision, especially since a taxi would have only cost 8000cop or £2.

There were lots of amenities nearby including a large grocery store, pharmacies, hairdressers and gyms. This would be a good area to spend a few weeks if so inclined. And a pedicure and manicure was 36000 COP or £9 in a nice salon.

Transport

Medellin is a large sprawling city with many transport options including a metro, cable car, tram, buses and taxis.

Cost:

Metro 2400cop

Bus 2100cop

Taxis also were reasonably priced

Water:

Tap water is drinkable.

Day 1&2

We spent or first couple of days just in the El Poblado region and relaxing at Casa Alicia. This is a lovely area to walk around. Also for a change we cooked almost all our meals, tempted to use the lovely fresh produce and nice kitchen. Below is our first attempt at making ceviche.

We tried a few of the local bars though. The first night we went to an excellent gin bar: Old Tom. They had some very interesting house cocktails that were presented in unique ways; we even tried one that came in a bird cage.

Burdo was another lively bar with modern decor, though they may even have taken the exposed brick a bit too far. We had some tasty fish tacos there which were excellent and the service was very good.

Many places offer a lunch time special or Menu Del Dia. We had this one day in a small Italian restaurant in El Poblado for 16000cop or £4. It included a bowl of soup, meat and pasta, a small dessert plus an iced tea.

One of our absolute favourites — and a must if you like coffee — was Velvet Cafe. We spent a few hours planning the next leg of our journey here in the relaxed environment. This is a really beautiful coffee shop with a large seating area, some outdoor, some couches and tables where people were working on laptops. The coffee was delicious as was the cheesecake.

http://cafevelvet.co/en

Day 3

We went to the centre of town to check out museums, street art and sculptures.

First up was a wander around Plaza Botero and other smaller squares with Botero sculptures. We had a brief visit to numerous churches, but as it is now lent there were services running in most of them. The small church on Plaza Botero was built in the 1600s and still has the original altar, which was brought in its entirety from Spain.

Museum Antioquia is also right on the square and is what has provided the sculptures. Almost all of their permanent collection has been donated by Botero, mostly his work but also local and international artists. This was a great place to spend a few hours, especially during the midday heat.

They also had one especially interesting temporary photography exhibition on the FARC. This was from a photographer who went to live with them in the jungle for a few months. It very much displayed the humanity of this group which we both found challenging and interesting.

Memory House Museum is a short walk from there. It was another fantastic and emotionally challenging experience. They have found some very interesting media to display the violent history of Colombia in the last century. There are many individual stories told about the murdered and disappeared. There are also interviews of survivors and activists. This is definitely a place where a better command of Spanish would have led to me spending longer so I could fully participate in all of the displays.

One story which has stayed with me is of a girl in her late teens who was displaced at the age of 6, had her father murdered, moved to a shanty town which later burned down and moved again only to experience racism in a new town. She later became a youth worker and community activist. What stood out was her lack of hope for a peaceful united Colombia in the future. Her realistic dream was for improvements in her community. I really hope it can be better than that.

Colombia appeared in an article this week of 15 places you couldn’t have visited 15 years ago. It is now a very welcoming and safe tourist destination. Poverty is still a problem despite a good economy. The social problems now seem similar to those across the rest of the continent.

What we missed

It would have been nice to stay longer but Guatapé our next stop has been highly recommended as a day or overnight trip.

Free walking tour: This is the top recommend activity on trip advisor. I tried to book with two companies. One was eternally sold out and the other did not confirm. Try to contact them in advance.

Arvi Park: This is a hilltop park that offers beautiful views of the city and surrounding region. It is meant to be very beautiful but our laziness won out on this occasion!