Aventuras de ruta de paso, paisajes robustos, culturas especiales y ciudades bulliciosas. Esto es solo una fracción de lo que Sudamérica tiene para ofrecer a los viajeros. Todo esto suena fantástico, entonces, ¿por qué nunca hubiéramos puesto un pie en este continente durante nuestros 8 años de vagar por todo el mundo? Por cualquier motivo, cuando se refería a la planificación de viajes, Sudamérica nunca estaba en las cartas.
Puede que nos haya llevado un tiempo para llegar aquí, pero finalmente hemos tocado en nuestro 5to continente. América del Sur, hemos llegado!
¡Aquí vamos! Viajando desde Granada hasta Colombia
Admito que antes de viajar a Medellín (y Colombia en su conjunto), hicimos algunas búsquedas de Google, que parecían un poco de algo así:
“¿Es seguro Medellín?”
“¿Qué vecindarios son peligrosos en Medellín?”
“¿Puedo salir por la noche en Bogotá?”
Como viajeros de Newbie a Colombia, estábamos esperando lo peor cuando se refería a las ciudades más grandes, y quería estar preparado adecuadamente.
Todo lo que tuvimos para basar nuestra información colombiana en los blogs de viaje en línea (muchos de los cuales encontramos que estuvimos desactualizados), la información que se encuentra en nuestra guía (que con frecuencia es poco confiable) y hablando con nuestros amigos colombianos (que realmente dijeron que Muchas áreas son muy incompletas en las ciudades). Sin mencionar los medios de comunicación y los programas de televisión (¡Narcos!) Que nos recuerdan regularmente que Medellín era el hogar del infame, Pablo Escobar y su cartel de la droga.
Oh, también, algunos buenos amigos de los nuestros fueron asaltados en Bogotá y miles de dólares de electrónica fueron robados de ellos.
Entonces, a Medellín, nos fuimos, listos para lo peor, pero como siempre, esperando lo mejor.
Escaleras pintadas brillantes en El Poblado, Medellin
La gente de medellín
Llegamos a las 11:00 pm en el aeropuerto y fuimos recibidos por funcionarios de aduanas muy amables que apenas hablaban inglés. Nos alejaron muy amablemente que los canadienses necesitan pagar una tarifa de “reciprocidad” de 171,000 COP ($ 53.75 USD). Esto fue un shock, ya que no leíamos sobre esto en cualquier lugar en línea, y es una tarifa que solo los Canucks de Estados Unidos tienen que pagar.
Después de cobrar la tarifa en nuestra tarjeta de puntuaciones de crédito, llevamos a cabo para intercambiar algunos dólares estadounidenses para poder pagar por nuestro viaje en taxi de 45 minutos ($ 20) en la ciudad. La mujer en el cambiador de dinero tenía una sonrisa sustancial, lápiz labial rojo brillante y ojos amables. Ella habló muy lentamente hacia nosotros y era individual con nuestra respuesta en español roto.
Luego les preguntamos a dos mujeres que Taxi Company fue mejor para tomar, blanca o amarilla. Con grandes sonrisas en sus caras, nos apuntaron al blanco.
Era tarde, estaba oscuro, y aún no tuvimos una tarjeta SIM local en nuestro teléfono, lo que indica que no teníamos forma de rastrear el taxi en nuestro GPS. El automovilista podría habernos llevado a cualquier parte. Pero, nuestro taxista condució directamente, y con seguridad a Maloka Hostel en El Poblado, y cobró la cantidad acordada de 65,000 COP ($ 20 USD).
Leer más: Cómo evitar ser arrancados por los taxistas
La mujer de la recepción de nuestro albergue nos saludó y le envió una breve introducción a las excursiones y cosas que hacer en Medellín.
Yippee! ¡Finalmente hemos llegado a Colombia!
Bueno, esta fue una increíble introducción a la gente de Medellín!
Este sentimiento de ser bienvenido como extranjero en la gran “asustadizo”, continuó durante la duración de nuestra estancia, que fue de 7 noches.
Los barrios
Medellín es la ciudad capital del Departamento de Antioquia, y se encuentra en el valle de Arburra. La ciudad está rodeada de impresionantes montañas con muchas comunas coloridas que revelan las laderas.
Elegimos permanecer en el área de moda, exclusiva, vida nocturna de El Poblado. Aquí es donde se encuentran muchos de los albergues, hoteles, restaurantes, cafés y bares. Y si / cuando regresemos a Medellín, nos quedaremos nuevamente en este vecindario.
A pocos pasos de nuestro albergue fueron restaurantes internacionales y nacionales que sirven comida muy sabrosa. Caminar 15 minutos nos llevó a la estación de metro El Poblado que nos conectó a todos alrededor de la ciudad, y en las áreas circundantes había muchos centros comerciales, lo que era mejor porque necesitábamos obtener algunas chaquetas de lluvia.
El sushi en la tienda de sushi fue realmente bueno y asequible
Esta parte de Medellín es completamente segura para caminar durante el día y la noche con cámaras, carteras y bolsos. Sentimos que El Poblado tuvimos una buena mezcla de locales, expatriados y turistas, y aunque algunos dub, esta área “Gringolandia”, muchos de los bares que frecuentábamos estaban llenos de gente colombiana, que era genial.
Tomamos placer en nuestra estancia en El Poblado, pero absolutamente pensamos que todos deben aventurarse y explorar muchos otros vecindarios en Medellín. For a list of “no-go areas” click here…but keep in mind that situations in the city are regularly changing, so always ask locals.
Plaza Botero on a sunny day in Medellin
After getting our bearings and acclimatizing to the big city, we ventured off to check out the Centro area of Medellín. We were told that this downtown area is fine to walk around in during the day, but if we were to check out at night, we shouldn’t bring any valuables with us.
Alighting at the Parque Berrio metro station brought us ideal to the extraordinary sculptures and works of popular artist, Fernando Botero, who is actually from Medellín. Botero is known for depicting people and animals in exaggerated volume – generally every figure he creates is fat! His work can also be found in new York and Paris.
Some of Fernando Botero’s statues in Plaza Botero
Right next to Plaza Botero, we found a few drunk men stumbling around (one actually hit a policeman), women propositioning themselves to passersby, children playing with toys, couples strolling hand-in-hand, and vendors selling anything you could possibly need or want (cocaine anyone?).
Oh yes, this was a very interesting part of the city! regardless of all of this, we still felt safe in this area, but were a bit a lot more mindful of our belongings.
This center is where you’ll find lots of of the sites of Medellín – the old railway station, Parque de las Luces, Veracruz church, Bolivar Park and Museo de Antioquia, to name a few. However, the city is so much a lot more than its “must-see’s”, and I highly recommend having “experiences” in Medellín, rather than ticking off all of the sites – of which, there aren’t all that many.
Pillars of light in the Parque de las Luces
Our Experiences
We had lots of terrific moments during our first week in Colombia. We sampled Medellín’s incredible nightlife scene, met up with some really amazing expats, took pleasure in the company of a Goats On The road reader, practiced our Spanish with the locals, shopped for some clothes, went on an extraordinary walking tour, watched a football match (soccer game), and did a terrific day trip outside of the city!
Our first ever football match was amazing! We’ll write about it soon ?
But, one day in particular stood out for us.
We were able to travel on the metrocable and the metro line, both of which are very crucial upgrades to the city of Medellín. You may think that riding on a cord automobile and a subway is not an experience, and certainly not a highlight, but in Medellín, it is! The people of the city are very pleased of these modes of transport, and so they must be.
Prior to the metrocable, those who were living in the less developed barrios (comunas) had to spend around 2.5 hours commuting to work every day!
Because these residents live on such a steep incline, the metro line couldn’t reach the neighbourhoods, nor could the buses. With the implementation of the metrocable in 2004, these people are now able to ride the metrocable for complimentary from their homes on the hill, and connect with the metro line at the bottom.
This has been a substantial economic improvement for these communities.
Views from the metrocable of a comuna down below
We made a decision to ride the metrocable past the main stop, and connect with another line that would take us additionally up the mountainside to Parque Arvi. We passed over interesting neighbourhoods filled with people going on about their day-to-day lives. women swept their verandas, a band marched through the street, Colombian music blared from the bars, and laundry was laid to dry on the roofs of the homes.
Getting ready to switch metrocable lines and head additionally up the mountain
Arriving at our final stop, Parque Arvi, was a breath of fresh air, literally. After enduring the vehicle pollution of the city, arriving at the forest was just what we needed.
We weren’t exactly sure what to expect from the park as our hostel just told us that there is a little market at the top. We hopped off of the metrocable, and yep, there was a market selling organic produce, but there was also a couple of restaurants, a little bar and best of all, some hiking trails!
Fresh, organic berries available for sale at the market in Parque Arvi
No habíasigns or maps suggesting hiking, but we figured that since we were in a substantial park surrounded by trees, there had to be some trails, right? So, we hiked up the cement road until we pertained to a sign that read “Flora Trail”. It was about an hour-long journey and was filled with stunning plants and trees.
We breathed in the fresh air and basked in the silence of the forest. We only came across one other person the entire time.
Once we reached the end of the hike, we arrived at a road and ended up finding a loop back to where we started. It was the best walk.
The sign said to hug the tree…so I did!
First Impressions & overall Opinion
Medellín surprised, delighted, and annoyed us during our seven night stay. We found the history of the city very interesting and the Paisa people (those who are from the Antioquia region) to be very friendly and proud. Plus, we really took pleasure in the amenities on offer for travellers.
The carry was efficient, the food was fantastic, the local people were warm and welcoming, and the value for money was very good. We felt that the investments made in the city to improve the lives of the locals, really epitomized how far Medellín has come considering that the days when drugs and gangs ruled the city. We felt safe during our entire stay, and we ventured away from El Poblado quite a bit.
Cheers to Medellin!
The only annoyances we felt were from the traffic, the air pollution and the fact that certain areas were considered dangerous. But, this is coming from two people who had just arrived in Medellín from a pristine, tiny, underpopulated country in the Caribbean ?
Our first week in Colombia was filled with positive memories and really fun times. We’ll be writing a lot more in detail about the things we saw and did in the city in the coming days. ¡Manténganse al tanto! If you’ve been to Medellín, please tell us your thoughts about the city in the comments below.
Travellers Notes:
Taxi from airport to El Poblado is a flat fee of 65,000 cop ($20)
Metro rides were 2,150 cop ($0.60)
The “L-line” metrocable was 4,600 ($1.50)
We stayed at Maloka Hostel ($41 / night with breakfast) and loved the clean, comfortable and quiet rooms. choose Verde or Dorado room. (No we aren’t paid to say that and we paid full price for our rooms)
Taxi rides are normally very low-cost around the city with lots of 15 – 20 minute rides costing less than $5 (aside from the airport, we never paid a lot more than $7 for a taxi)
Tickets to the football match were 34,000 ($11) each in the Alta Oriental section
The real City excursions complimentary walking excursion is very highly recommended (do it on your first day to get a feel for the city, people and history ideal away)
SIM card for calling and mobile data is only 5,000 cop ($1.60) and includes unrestricted Facebook & WhatsApp
Bring a rain jacket and don’t leave it in the hostel (especially in November). It can rain at any moment
You can drink the tap water in Medellin
Great local restaurants include Tres Tipicos, cord a Tierra Vegetarian restaurant (Parque Arvi), Restaurante Mongongo, Juan Valdez cafe (great coffee & snacks), El Social Bar.
Disclaimer: No portion of our stay, food or activities in Medellín, or Colombia as a whole, were sponsored.
Check out our video from our 1 week spent in Medellín!
For a lot more information, check out our Beginner’s guide to Backpacking Medellin and our utmost guide to travelling in Colombia!
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