Medellín, Colombia – what to visit

Hey hey! This was definitely the trip of 2018! Long waited but without any doubts one of the best countries I have visited so far! In this post I will tell you more about what to visit when in Medellin, Colombia.

As usual our plan included visiting not only one but few places in order to see as much as possible for the days we have been there. Our itinerary was Medellín, Guatapé, small beach area close to Tayrona national park and Cartagena.

There are so many things that I would like to share that’s why I decided to write separate posts in order to be able to tell you all about my trip without overloading you with tons of information all at once.

This year we were five people coming from different European countries and we had our flights at different time. I was coming alone so I was a bit worried how I am going to get from the airport to the hotel. We all have heard horrifying stories about how dangerous is Colombia and as a foreign blondish single girl I had my concerns to take a taxi alone.

The reality of course had nothing to do with my fears. The taxi transportation is really well organized and everything is legal. Private taxi from the airport to any part of Medellín costs 70 000 pesos (1 euro is approximately 3250 pesos), so a bit more than 20 euros and takes 40-45 minutes to reach the city. You can also take shared taxi, if you are alone, it costs 17 500 pesos and leaves you in a specific public spot. I unintentionally ended up in a shared one, but the driver took me directly to my hotel after that. Of course he wanted me to pay the whole amount for a private one, but I negotiated, as it was not fair and we agreed on a reasonable price.

Our hotel was located close to the old city center and as we were told was not really safe area to walk during the night. We didn’t have any issues there, but we were not going outside after midnight, so I really cannot confirm how dangerous is the place. To be honest, I would like to make it clear that Colombia is way safer than expected, I never felt threatened or in danger, but of course you need to have common sense and to avoid places that are marked as recommended to avoid. If you are smart enough, careful and you respect the rules, you can enjoy your stay without problems, people are really nice, helpful and friendly. Speaking Spanish definitely helps because in most of the places they speak super limited English. As you can imagine I was the only one Spanish speaker and my buddies used me a lot as a translator. And no, they didn’t even buy me a cocktail for my services!

It is hard to adapt to the time difference so the first night we woke up at 4.30 in the morning. Right after the breakfast we left the hotel as we have booked a free walking tour with Real City Tours. Usually we prefer to explore the city on our own but we had good recommendations for this one and we were not disappointed. You have to book it in advance as it is not available every day and the spots are limited. The duration of the tour is around 4 hours and it covers the city center. We were scared that it will be exhausting but it is a mix of sitting and walking haha. Our guide Carolina helped us learn a lot about the history of Medellín.

The city itself is stunning. Located on several hills it gives you amazing panoramic views able to take your breath away. Even when you come from the airport you can enjoy the beautiful panorama on the way down. The tour consists of visiting 10 of the most interesting monuments and places in the city center. The ones that impressed me the most were:

• The square of lights– some years ago it was an abandoned old building where a lot of crime was happening – murders, prostitution, rapes, drugs selling and using, etc. Now it is turned into a forest of lights, bamboo looking columns that are lightening at night. There is a small bamboo forest as well.
• Carabobo street – the favorite place of the locals. Shopping area that offers really good deals. On that street you can find the old palace of justice, Palacio Nacional, which is currently working as a shopping center. On the same street there is a church – Veracruz church, in front of which foreigners can find a lot of prostitutes. All the hotels in the area can be booked per hour and not per night. You know what I mean right?
• Botero square – Fernando Botero Angulo(born 19 April 1932) is a Colombian figurative artist and sculptor. Born in Medellín, his signature style, also known as “Boterismo”, depicts people and figures in large, exaggerated volume, which can represent political criticism or humor, depending on the piece.He is an artist who left a big impression on Colombian art. On the same square there is a big cathedral designed by a Belgian architect, who couldn’t survive the Colombian negativity and complaints towards his work and left the country without finishing the building.  Colombians finished the rest of the building in a traditional Colombian style. This part is honestly ridiculous. But the Belgian part is absolutely stunning.  Right in front of it there is a small place – empanadas Envigadeñas  where you can taste super delicious empanadas.
• San Antonio Park – This one was right across the street from our hotel. It is a famous square where another terrible moment of Medellín’s history happened. During a concert some years ago there was a huge bomb put inside of one of Botero’s sculptures – a bird. 23 people died that day. They were thinking about removing the exploded bird but instead of taking it out they made another one, exactly the same and put it right next to it as a sign of the progress and hope.

Colombia and Medellín in particular has terrifying history. It is marked by a lot of political battles but most of all the drugs. In the late 70s mid 80s the city was a crime scene. Everything thanks to Pablo Escobar and the cartels running the city. Local people don’t talk about him. They don’t even mention his name. Carolina told us the whole story but she never called him by name. It is such a horrible moment of their recent history that everyone wants to forget. She told us that people in Medellín are separated in their opinion about him, the young likes him because they never lived the terror and they know only the things they’ve seen on Netflix (which is super twisted by the way), as no one wants to talk about this period, and the old hate him, because they know what really happened. Caro told us that when she was a kid the most normal thing they’ve done on the way back from school was to count the dead bodies on the street. The rate of murders was 320 of every 100 000 (nowadays the highest rate in the world is 90). When you were leaving home you never knew if you would come back, if you would see your loved ones again.

Now the situation has changed and the numbers are quite low compared to the ones in the past. The cartels still exist though. One of the most famous tours is in Comuna 13 – the poorest neighborhood of Medellín, the favelas where all the drug deals are made. Nowadays it is turned into a nice area with escalators, a lot of graffiti and it is relatively safe for tourists. Of course you need to book a guided tour and not to go by yourself. Unfortunately the day before our arrival there were shootings between the gangs as the heads were cut and now they were redistributing the power. Part of our group was there during this time and they were quite scared afterwards. Some of the tourists had to hide in the houses of the locals and during the next days all the tours were cancelled. As I mentioned, it is quite safe in the touristic places but in some areas you have to be careful.

Another thing that is really impressive is the metro. It is one of Medellín’s prides. They waited for it a long time and now they keep it really clean.

The city has several cable car rides and you can reach different part of the city. We took the longest one – the North one, the view from above is absolutely mesmerizing! It goes actually really high, up to 2600m-2700m and it gets chilly! You can imagine that we went with our fancy dresses, so appropriate, right 😁 The last stop is in the woods, where you can do different mountain activities – hiking, horse riding, etc. Obviously we didn’t do that.

Another interesting part of the city is el Poblado – fancy party neighborhood. All the cool restaurants and bars are there. It is quite popular area for expats as well. It looks so European. There were so many good places to visit that if we had more time, we would have visited more for sure. Here are my recommendations for bars and restaurants in Medelliín:

• El Salón Malaga – the oldest beer bar in the city. Amazing vibe and good variety of beers to try.
• Bar Envy – rooftop bar with stunning view on top of hotel Charlee, the hotel itself is also super impressive
• Restaurant/ bar Ay Caramba  – Colombian music, delicious local food, spacious terrace and huge portions on a good price. Located in el Poblado
• Restaurant / bar 37 Park Medellin – another fancy bar/restaurant in el Poblado. Super nice atmosphere. Totally European look.

Colombia offers amazing food. When travelling outside Europe I am really scared to try street food, but this is not the case in Colombia, everything was so clean and well maintained that we didn’t even doubt tasting what the street sellers were offering. Here are the foods that I would recommend tasting:

• Bandeja paisa – the typical dish of Medellín. Consists of red beanscooked with pork, white rice, carne molida (ground meat), chicharrón,  fried egg , plantain (plátano maduro), chorizo, arepa, hogao sauce, black pudding (morcilla), avocado and lemon. It is served in a platter or a tray.
• Arepa- ot s a type of food made of ground maizedough or cooked flour prominent
• Arepa de queso – corn arepa in a shape of a ball mixed with cheese
• Hormiga culona – local ants with big butts, for some of you it might sound disgusting, but I love trying such stuff. It is crispy, fried, not really delicious, but not that bad neither.
• Sapote – local fruit that looks like pumpkin
• And another fruit which name I really don’t recall, but I really liked, you can see it on one of my pictures.

And last but not least, before finishing this post I would like to give you some tips:

• When you arrive at the airport exchange just a small amount of money because the rate is not really good
• If you have dollars it will be easier to find where to buy Colombian peso as all the banks can assist you. If you have only Euro, you will need to search a bit more for an exchange bureau where to buy peso. The banks accept American dollars only.
• You can negotiate the price. If you do it with a smile, better. Colombians usually don’t tend to lie about the price, the country doesn’t have these terrible habits that the touristic industry brings, but in some occasions you can reduce the price.
• Don’t give papaya – interesting local expression that means that you have to take care of your personal belongings if you don’t want to get robbed
• Check the change that you receive after buying something. They have new and old bills, with and without the zeros. You can be easily misled.

During our 3 day stay in Medellín we dedicated one of the days to go to Guatapé – the most stunning place I’ve seen in my life. More you can read in my next post.

See you soon when Travelista goest to …