Medellin
Updated: 2 days ago
Getting off of a 20 hour bus journey and having to navigate yourself through a new city with backpacks on in the heat is definitely an experience, but a fun one for sure. And what better timing to navigate a new city’s metro system. We have learnt that public transport in Colombia works on payment cards that you top up so that was our first stop. We got the Metro which was remarkably clean and smooth running from the bus terminal to Poblado.
We then had to walk up hill to the hostel which was a very sweaty experience but it was lovely to get a feel for the area we were staying in. I can only describe Poblado as the Clapham of Medellin. There are artisan bakery’s, brunch places and rooftop bars on every street and most establishments we entered even sold their own merchandise range.
As soon as we entered the dormitory a man recognised us from our previous hostel and he came with us on our first 24 hours in the city.
After dinner we headed up to the rooftop and participated in our second salsa class of the trip. This hostel was an incredible place for meeting people and it was lovely to hear so many stories, it definitely would have been incredible if you had the energy to party all night too, they had a pub crawl starting at 00:30, but after so long on the bus and a delayed start to our already condensed time in Medellin that wasn’t for us.
On our only full day in the city we got the metro to Prado and walked to the Plazo Minorista José María. To partake in a fruit tour inside the market. Now I must warn you that, on this ten minute walk from the metro to the market, it was the first time since being in Colombia where I have thought to myself in the moment that this was not a sensible idea. The street we walked down were filled with people, some homeless and many asleep on the tarmac pavements, we were catcalled many times and most of all heartbroken to see the poverty in the city only 30 minutes from the gentrified area we were staying in. We were grateful at this point to have a man with us.
When we did reach the market we partook in a fascinating tour, it was interesting to see how the locals shopped in their indoor market. When booking the tour they tell you that you will try over 20 fruits and I thought that was an exaggeration but the different fruits kept coming. We walked through the different areas of the market, meat (not for the faint of heart), fruit, mangos had their whole own area. Cristian our tour guide educated us on the traditions, history and culture behind each fruit as we tasted them a family at the time. I would say in total a maximum of 3 of the fruits I had tried before and I thoroughly enjoyed a lot of them, although I can’t understand why they add salt to so many. My favourites were the passion fruit family, soursop (although the texture was like wetwipe). There was also an Amazonian fruit we got to try because it was luckily in season called Achacha “Golden Kiss” which was delicious. I also loved a traditional Colombian sweet we got to try which definitely would have been coming home with me if it could survive 3 months in my backpack.
After the fruit tour we taxied back to the metro station and headed toward the cable car. Now this fascinates me, Medellin is similarly to Bogotá surrounded by mountain but, unlike Bogotá, Medellin’s houses climb almost the whole way up the mountain sides. Because of this, the metro system also includes a few cable cars to help locals get up and down. All but one of the the cable cars are included within your standard metro fare, we did also indulge in the tourist cable car and I’m glad we did because the view of the city was beautiful and it was a great way to get a picture of how the locals live. The tourist cable car takes you to a National park but since we weren’t getting off here we only had to pay the fair once, if you did decide to get off and explore the park you would have had to pay once for the journey up and another head back down. The cable car for us felt like the perfect way to see large areas of the city in a condensed time frame and we thoroughly enjoyed the relaxing journey.
When we made it back to Poblado we met one of Fins friends from a previous adventure for coffee, it was lovely to have someone who was such easy company to chat too and although it was my first time meeting her the common ground was enjoyable.
The evening ended with home made dinner in the hostel diner (pasta with sauce that came from a powder??) and some journaling, we also spent some time chatting to other people we had bumped into around the hostel.
We took it chill on the following morning, taking our time to pack nicely (we paid a LOT of money for the hostel to do our laundry because it was so disgusting from our time in the jungle) which was easier here because our clothes were already folded neatly (thank you laundry service). We had breakfast trying Arepas For the first time with squeezey guacamole which was another new experience, they were tasty and I am looking forward to more on the rest of our travels. Following breakfast we checked out of the hostel. We hopped onto the metro and headed towards a building we wanted to investigate. It stuck out like a sore thumb and we wanted to see what it was.
The Palace of Culture Rafaél Uribe is a gothic looking building which is completely different to the surrounding city, the architecture is striking and the alternating black and white bricks where an incredible sight. Outside the building there are many “chubby” statues by artist, Bronce which were delightful to look at and inside the building you found art, creative spaces and from the top floor another entirely different view of the city. It was breathtaking to see the houses cascading down the mountainside and the lush green landscape surrounding it. We also saw and imitated a lovely piece of street art of a couple dancing above the metro line.
I was so glad we decided to venture out this morning and make the most of our remaining time rather than staying local to Poblado because it gave us the opportunity to see another version of the city, with it being a Monday we also found the buzz of the city much more thrilling than over the weekend.
The city of Medellin was another fascinating location, a city which I can see why it’s so loved. I would love to spend more time there and indulge more on what makes their city so special, maybe this is a trip for another time. But first we must venture onwards to Peru.
It was a challenge getting onto our flight to Peru for a few reasons, firstly the bus stop for the airport bus had been relocated due to roadworks and we spent a while waddling around in the heat asking for directions from people who all sent us in different directions. Eventually we found it, got through security rapidly and settled for some food. The next hiccup wasn’t until about 3 minutes before our gate closed when the flight attendant wanted to see a ticket out of Peru. Now I’m not one to hypothesise but I’m not entirely sure why after talking to her previously she didn’t bring this up until this moment. Naturally we showed her our return flight home, but since that departure is from Chile they would not accept this. We then had about 2 minutes to frantically book a bus departing out of Peru whilst they boarded the last few passengers and told us if we didn’t have tickets we couldn’t board. It was fare to say that in this moment we were both shaking and very grateful we had all our passport details and bank card details saved in one place. But after a lot of frantic tapping, we made it by the skin of our teeth. I’m writing this from the plan so now we just have to have our fingers crossed that we make it through on the other side. So this is my warning to you, they may ask you for exit from the specific country EVEN if you have proof of exit from the continent before the 90 day visa time limit is up and BEFORE you board the flight (we would have expected this at customs after we landed but not here).
Anyway that’s enough of the admin stuff for now, I’m sure I have a whole blog post in me based on the admin of backpacking. And I will see you in Peru <3
Lots of love,
Ele @theflowerandfrogQ
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