Medellin, Colombia
Traveling from San Jose, Costa Rica to Medellin, Colombia turned out to be a little more of an adventure than we hoped for. It started at the San Jose airport where Jenna was pulled aside at the gate waiting for our flight to Bogota to board. The gate agent and another individual took her to a separate area away from everyone else where she was informed that a small, camping gas canister was found inside her checked bag. That would be a slight violation as anyone flying agrees that no hazardous materials are inside their luggage, whether checked or carry-on…whoops! After about ten (10) minutes behind the scenes she popped back out just in time to get in line to board the plane. First mini-crisis averted.
We may have taken off a few minutes late from San Jose and arrived a few minutes later than planned in Bogota, but that shouldn’t have been a big deal as we still had a little over an hour assuming the plane unloaded normally. Well, a few minutes passed before the plane was told there was a delay in getting buses out to our plane (which was waiting to unload onto the tarmac instead of pulling up to a gate). Those minutes turned into half-an-hour which I wouldn’t doubt was caused in part by the airport staff’s interested in a Colombian futbol match occurring at the time. After finally getting inside the airport, a long, winding customs and immigration line awaited us. I had no luck in trying to explain that our connecting flight was taking off in forty (40) minutes now and combining having to wait in this line with the already-experienced delay caused by the airline would probably make us miss the connection. No one seemed to care (my lack of Spanish probably didn’t help much) so off we were to wait in the long, winding line!
By the time we both made it through customs and immigration, we had about five (5) minutes to make it all the way back to our gate for our flight. Now, in the U.S. everyone knows the airline gives away your tickets if you’re not waiting at the gate with at least 10 – 15 minutes to spare, especially if they know you’re coming from a delayed connecting flight. So, being the washed-up athletes we are, we booked it on foot through the airport, through security, up and down escalators and stairs, managing to arrive at our gate fifteen (15) minutes after the supposed departure time. It looked like there was still a partial line waiting to board another bus that would take us to our connector so we felt a slight relief that we weren’t going to have to plead with airlines reps in broken Spanish to put us on a later flight to Medellin that night or put us up somewhere for the night and get us an early next morning flight out. It turned out that we essentially cut the entire boarding line for our flight, made the first bus out to our plane, and ended up being two (2) of the first fifteen (15) people sitting in our seats. The flight took off and landed an hour late, and we arrived at our hostel around 1:30am local time, BUT second mini-crisis averted. Colombia was off to an interesting start!
Day 1 - Jardin Botanical, University, Cerro El Volador, NBA Finals Game 5
After arriving in the Poblado area in the wee morning hours of day 1, we slept in longer than normal before looking over a few potential tours and heading out to explore Medellin for the day. The city is set up similar to Chicago with a central public rail running down the middle with a few branches breaking off to different sections within Medellin. However, this rail is considered one of the prized-jewels of the city as the construction took place during the transition from troubled to rejuvenating times within the city. In comparison to Chicago's CTA railcars, these were much more spacious, beyond clean, and graffiti and vandalism-free. The no eating and drinking on the train rules are tightly followed here. Even in a city as diverse as Medellin, we still received the “look at the Gringos” stares and occasional laughs, but that’s expected in most places. Heck, we do the same to non-American looking people in the U.S. We would later be told that Colombians are just curious by nature and love to interact with those deemed as obvious tourists, Gringos, and tall – all a part of the experience!
We exited the train at the Universidad stop where we first made the short walk over to the free-entry Jardin Botanical just steps away from the station. It seemed to be a quieter place where Colombians like to relax, eat their lunch or a snack, and talk with their friends while walking around. There were different sections within the garden where turtles, iguanas, and other plants and animals could be seen just hanging out by or on the walking path. This was our first interaction with lizards longer than about four (4”) inches on the trip so seeing some of them running across the lawn at full speed was a bit startling, but we’re used to that now. After the garden, we trekked over to one of the universities within Medellin hoping to walk around the campus. As was the theme of Medellin, security and/or police was present around almost every corner. The university was surrounded by a brick and metal gate wall and ID needed to be provided in order to gain entry inside. The security guard looked at my Texas driver’s license in complete confusion so we decided to move on to checking out a lookout hill after walking around the outside of the campus. “Cerro El Velador,” or Butterfly Hill, was a short half-hour walk from the university. We climbed the few hundred winding feet to the top and got some nice views of the sprawling city that was now below us, managing to get one of the roving security guards and his dog to snap a U of I flag picture with the view in the background. After heading back to our hostel, we decided to settle down at a restaurant/bar that was showing the Warriors put a stake in the Cavs during game 5. Suck it, LeBron.
Day 2 - Free Walking Tour, San Javier Metro Cable Car, Comuna 13 Graffiti Tour
The second day turned into Medellin tour day as we embarked on a free morning walking tour, followed by another free walking graffiti tour of Comuna 13 in the afternoon. Throughout both tours, we learned of the city’s history prior to, during, and after the drug warfare times, along with the changes that occurred due to these events. In general, most of America’s perception of Colombia is dead wrong – especially with Medellin. The country’s tourism numbers are increasing rapidly year after year and you’d be hard-pressed to find an area of the city you should feel unsafe in due to their emphasis on security/police presence. Of all the tours in Colombia, I felt the free walking tour was the most informative.
In the afternoon, we managed to hop on one of the few cable cars that connect the central rail system to the hillsides before touring the “Comuna 13” area which used to be known as the second most dangerous place to live in the world. This area has received a huge face lift in recent years, including the world’s only free outdoor neighborhood escalators, transforming it into a safer neighborhood where art has thrived. Not being individuals who understand art much, even Jenna and I could appreciate the graffiti works that cover many of Comuna 13’s walls. Even though our tour guides were young (one was only eighteen) and still trying to learn English, they did their best to explain the significance of the transformation in the area. I think one of the guides managed to fall in love with Jenna after learning that she played against Alex Morgan before. Anyways, our tour focused mainly on the works of a local Comuna 13 artist named Chota13 (“Chota Trece”), whom we even managed to catch a glimpse of while riding the outdoor escalators through the steep hillside. Touring all day took a lot out of us even though we barely did anything so we called it an early night.
Day 3 - Parque Arvi Metro Cable Car, Nacional vs. Cali Finals Game 1
Following the previous day’s walks and cable ride, we decided on a lazy next morning and eventually ventured out to take the Northern-most cable car line within Medellin that would bring us up to the Parque Arvi area. Personally, I thought the San Javier cable car ride was all around better, but the views on the way up the Parque Arvi cable car were better than San Javier. We had met some people the night before playing drinking games and shooting the shit on top of our hostel so Ioanna (Zimbabwe) and Trevor (England) decided to come with Jenna and I to check it out. Shoutout to Ioanna who might be the only person we’ll ever meet from Zimbabwe unless we head there during our Africa travels! (See you at Oktoberfest???) At the top of the Parque Arvi ride was a small market area with locals selling crafts and fruits. There is very little to see at the top besides walking around a small conservation area as you pass through farmlands and then a dense forest en route to the top of the ride. We could’ve made things interesting by taking a local bus down the winding mountainside, but opted to that the cable car and rail system back down and to our hostel instead, which probably saved us over an hour.
Colombian league playoffs happened to be coming to an end while we were in Medellin. One of the Medellin teams was in the final so we decided to head out to a bar area of town and take in Game 1 of the championship which pitted Atletico Nacional versus Deportivo Cali. Jenna decided early on that it was worse than MLS soccer, but it was entertainment for the night nonetheless! Atletico Nacional was Medellin’s local team so of course we rooted for them. Unfortunately, they lost the first game which was played in Cali by a score of 0-2. We were really hoping they’d pull through so we could watch the area go nuts and take part in it, but it was a good time either way. Probably the most unfortunate thing was that the final game would be played on Sunday in Medellin, which of course was the morning we had to catch our 28-hour bus down to Quito, Ecuador. Nacional ended up winning game two 5-2 and taking the championship by aggregate so we tried to live vicariously through Ioanna and others who went to the game and posted pics and videos. (Jenna is sooo, sooo very jealous.)
Day 4 - Guatape Tour with Penon de Guatape Climb in Pouring Rain
We had scheduled a tour of the town of Guatape for the fourth full day in Medellin, but Mother Nature decided it was going to be colder than normal and rain for essentially eight (8) straight hours, taking away our potential view from the top of Penon de Guatape. We were supposed to be able to jump off a bridge into a lake, explore the town of Guatape, and then climb the 740 steps up Penon de Guatape. Rain cancelled jumping into the lake and most of a walking tour through Guatape, and made the climb up the rock quite interesting as small streams of rainwater poured down the concrete steps as we headed up. The few pictures we took were of limited views from the top, but on a clear day we would’ve been able to see waterways weaving through green landscapes for quite some distance. Again, we had to rely on friends who had made the climb on clearer days to see what the experience should’ve been. The food on the tour was quite good though.
Day 5 - Buy Bus Tickets to Quito, Pablo Escobar Tour, Out around La Florida Bars
A tour of some of Pablo Escobar's compounds and hideouts, as well as a detailed history of his time controlling parts of Medellin, took up the early afternoon of the fifth day. After heading to the bus terminal near the local Medellin airport in the morning to buy our bus tickets to head to Quito, we hopped into a shuttle and began learning how Escobar rose to prominence behind the scenes in Medellin. We were fortunate enough to get on a tour in which our driver was one of two men who used to drive Pablo around. We stopped at what appeared to be an apartment complex where he would meet (unbeknownst to the Colombian government) with other powerful foreign leaders or celebrities. Then, we wound our shuttle through the Southern outer hills up to his foggy compound which was actually a prison that the Colombian government somehow agreed to. It was more like a vacation cottage, fitted out with horse stables, soccer fields, pools, etc. It was explained that the location was ideal as even helicopters could usually not see into the area due to the dense fog. Only Escobar knew the winding trails and dirt paths that could lead he and his confidants to safety if something occurred. He and his security detail actually escaped his "imprisonment" using a walking path and tunnel (which he had secretively built) that lead to the neighborhood he grew up in within the town when he was tipped off that the DEA had had enough with the Colombian government and was taking the drug war into their own hands. The area has now been turned into a church and shelter for approximately 200 of Medellin's homeless population. Several of the compound's features are still in tact, such as the helicopter landing pad that regularly brought in Frank Sinatra and other entertainers; statues dedicated to his brother and love of cycling; the horse barn; guard quarters; and game tables where he used to smoke marijuana with his friends. A trip to the cemetery where he and several of his family members are buried ended the trip, but not before our driver handed down some advice about drugs and women, and gave us the opportunity to ask anything we wanted.
That night, we ended up heading out to the La Florida area bars with some people from our hostel. This was obviously the area that many other backpackers, travelers, and Colombians-alike came to for their weekends as bars were packed with lines out most of them. We wandered around the area hitting about ten (10) different bars before settling on one and staying late into the night. Let's just say the next morning wasn't very enjoyable.
Day 6 - More Pouring Rain
A majority of the next day involved downpours of rain which kept us from doing much. It actually made us feel not as bad about ourselves for being hungover. Jenna ended up heading out for a run later that afternoon while I tried sweating it out from the hammock on the roof, but nothing materialized that night - probably for the best as we were off to Quito the next morning!
Day 7 - ~28 Hour Trip to Quito through Cali, Ipiales, Tulcan
There's only so much you can do prepare yourself physically and mentally for an approx. 28-hour bus ride and I'd say we failed at our first attempt. We didn't take enough water, forgot to try to find dramamine, didn't bring on board enough warm clothes, and I put off downloading books to read - lesson learned! Besides that, the bus accommodations weren't all that bad actually. We had more than enough legroom. Our seats reclined more than halfway back. No one was in front of us to recline their seats back into us. The biggest problem was that the drivers left their window open throughout the entire ride which allowed for the cold mountain air to circulate back to Jenna and I in the first row easily. Transfers to taxis that took us to and from the border and to the bus onward to Quito were easy, as was the border crossing itself. We arrived just as the border was opening for the day which helped. By the time we reached our hostel in Quito, we ended up at about 28 hours hostel door to hostel door and completely exhausted even though we had barely moved from our bus seats. Our flight to the Galapagos Islands and five (5) consecutive nights at the same hotel couldn't have come soon enough!
A whole photo album of Medellin is on my FaceBook for those wanting more pics.
We may have taken off a few minutes late from San Jose and arrived a few minutes later than planned in Bogota, but that shouldn’t have been a big deal as we still had a little over an hour assuming the plane unloaded normally. Well, a few minutes passed before the plane was told there was a delay in getting buses out to our plane (which was waiting to unload onto the tarmac instead of pulling up to a gate). Those minutes turned into half-an-hour which I wouldn’t doubt was caused in part by the airport staff’s interested in a Colombian futbol match occurring at the time. After finally getting inside the airport, a long, winding customs and immigration line awaited us. I had no luck in trying to explain that our connecting flight was taking off in forty (40) minutes now and combining having to wait in this line with the already-experienced delay caused by the airline would probably make us miss the connection. No one seemed to care (my lack of Spanish probably didn’t help much) so off we were to wait in the long, winding line!
By the time we both made it through customs and immigration, we had about five (5) minutes to make it all the way back to our gate for our flight. Now, in the U.S. everyone knows the airline gives away your tickets if you’re not waiting at the gate with at least 10 – 15 minutes to spare, especially if they know you’re coming from a delayed connecting flight. So, being the washed-up athletes we are, we booked it on foot through the airport, through security, up and down escalators and stairs, managing to arrive at our gate fifteen (15) minutes after the supposed departure time. It looked like there was still a partial line waiting to board another bus that would take us to our connector so we felt a slight relief that we weren’t going to have to plead with airlines reps in broken Spanish to put us on a later flight to Medellin that night or put us up somewhere for the night and get us an early next morning flight out. It turned out that we essentially cut the entire boarding line for our flight, made the first bus out to our plane, and ended up being two (2) of the first fifteen (15) people sitting in our seats. The flight took off and landed an hour late, and we arrived at our hostel around 1:30am local time, BUT second mini-crisis averted. Colombia was off to an interesting start!
Day 1 - Jardin Botanical, University, Cerro El Volador, NBA Finals Game 5
After arriving in the Poblado area in the wee morning hours of day 1, we slept in longer than normal before looking over a few potential tours and heading out to explore Medellin for the day. The city is set up similar to Chicago with a central public rail running down the middle with a few branches breaking off to different sections within Medellin. However, this rail is considered one of the prized-jewels of the city as the construction took place during the transition from troubled to rejuvenating times within the city. In comparison to Chicago's CTA railcars, these were much more spacious, beyond clean, and graffiti and vandalism-free. The no eating and drinking on the train rules are tightly followed here. Even in a city as diverse as Medellin, we still received the “look at the Gringos” stares and occasional laughs, but that’s expected in most places. Heck, we do the same to non-American looking people in the U.S. We would later be told that Colombians are just curious by nature and love to interact with those deemed as obvious tourists, Gringos, and tall – all a part of the experience!
We exited the train at the Universidad stop where we first made the short walk over to the free-entry Jardin Botanical just steps away from the station. It seemed to be a quieter place where Colombians like to relax, eat their lunch or a snack, and talk with their friends while walking around. There were different sections within the garden where turtles, iguanas, and other plants and animals could be seen just hanging out by or on the walking path. This was our first interaction with lizards longer than about four (4”) inches on the trip so seeing some of them running across the lawn at full speed was a bit startling, but we’re used to that now. After the garden, we trekked over to one of the universities within Medellin hoping to walk around the campus. As was the theme of Medellin, security and/or police was present around almost every corner. The university was surrounded by a brick and metal gate wall and ID needed to be provided in order to gain entry inside. The security guard looked at my Texas driver’s license in complete confusion so we decided to move on to checking out a lookout hill after walking around the outside of the campus. “Cerro El Velador,” or Butterfly Hill, was a short half-hour walk from the university. We climbed the few hundred winding feet to the top and got some nice views of the sprawling city that was now below us, managing to get one of the roving security guards and his dog to snap a U of I flag picture with the view in the background. After heading back to our hostel, we decided to settle down at a restaurant/bar that was showing the Warriors put a stake in the Cavs during game 5. Suck it, LeBron.
Pano View from Cerro El Velador
Turtle Area of Jardin Botanical
I-L-L from the Top of Cerro El Velador ("Butterfly Hill")
The second day turned into Medellin tour day as we embarked on a free morning walking tour, followed by another free walking graffiti tour of Comuna 13 in the afternoon. Throughout both tours, we learned of the city’s history prior to, during, and after the drug warfare times, along with the changes that occurred due to these events. In general, most of America’s perception of Colombia is dead wrong – especially with Medellin. The country’s tourism numbers are increasing rapidly year after year and you’d be hard-pressed to find an area of the city you should feel unsafe in due to their emphasis on security/police presence. Of all the tours in Colombia, I felt the free walking tour was the most informative.
In the afternoon, we managed to hop on one of the few cable cars that connect the central rail system to the hillsides before touring the “Comuna 13” area which used to be known as the second most dangerous place to live in the world. This area has received a huge face lift in recent years, including the world’s only free outdoor neighborhood escalators, transforming it into a safer neighborhood where art has thrived. Not being individuals who understand art much, even Jenna and I could appreciate the graffiti works that cover many of Comuna 13’s walls. Even though our tour guides were young (one was only eighteen) and still trying to learn English, they did their best to explain the significance of the transformation in the area. I think one of the guides managed to fall in love with Jenna after learning that she played against Alex Morgan before. Anyways, our tour focused mainly on the works of a local Comuna 13 artist named Chota13 (“Chota Trece”), whom we even managed to catch a glimpse of while riding the outdoor escalators through the steep hillside. Touring all day took a lot out of us even though we barely did anything so we called it an early night.
Pano View of Medellin from the Top of the Escalators
Try Figuring This One Out
Our Comuna 13 Graffiti Tour Group with Guides in Green
Following the previous day’s walks and cable ride, we decided on a lazy next morning and eventually ventured out to take the Northern-most cable car line within Medellin that would bring us up to the Parque Arvi area. Personally, I thought the San Javier cable car ride was all around better, but the views on the way up the Parque Arvi cable car were better than San Javier. We had met some people the night before playing drinking games and shooting the shit on top of our hostel so Ioanna (Zimbabwe) and Trevor (England) decided to come with Jenna and I to check it out. Shoutout to Ioanna who might be the only person we’ll ever meet from Zimbabwe unless we head there during our Africa travels! (See you at Oktoberfest???) At the top of the Parque Arvi ride was a small market area with locals selling crafts and fruits. There is very little to see at the top besides walking around a small conservation area as you pass through farmlands and then a dense forest en route to the top of the ride. We could’ve made things interesting by taking a local bus down the winding mountainside, but opted to that the cable car and rail system back down and to our hostel instead, which probably saved us over an hour.
Day 4 - Guatape Tour with Penon de Guatape Climb in Pouring Rain
We had scheduled a tour of the town of Guatape for the fourth full day in Medellin, but Mother Nature decided it was going to be colder than normal and rain for essentially eight (8) straight hours, taking away our potential view from the top of Penon de Guatape. We were supposed to be able to jump off a bridge into a lake, explore the town of Guatape, and then climb the 740 steps up Penon de Guatape. Rain cancelled jumping into the lake and most of a walking tour through Guatape, and made the climb up the rock quite interesting as small streams of rainwater poured down the concrete steps as we headed up. The few pictures we took were of limited views from the top, but on a clear day we would’ve been able to see waterways weaving through green landscapes for quite some distance. Again, we had to rely on friends who had made the climb on clearer days to see what the experience should’ve been. The food on the tour was quite good though.
Smaller Model Version of the Old Guatape Town
Penon de Guatape
Foggy/Rainy Views from the Top
740 Steps Later...
Day 5 - Buy Bus Tickets to Quito, Pablo Escobar Tour, Out around La Florida Bars
A tour of some of Pablo Escobar's compounds and hideouts, as well as a detailed history of his time controlling parts of Medellin, took up the early afternoon of the fifth day. After heading to the bus terminal near the local Medellin airport in the morning to buy our bus tickets to head to Quito, we hopped into a shuttle and began learning how Escobar rose to prominence behind the scenes in Medellin. We were fortunate enough to get on a tour in which our driver was one of two men who used to drive Pablo around. We stopped at what appeared to be an apartment complex where he would meet (unbeknownst to the Colombian government) with other powerful foreign leaders or celebrities. Then, we wound our shuttle through the Southern outer hills up to his foggy compound which was actually a prison that the Colombian government somehow agreed to. It was more like a vacation cottage, fitted out with horse stables, soccer fields, pools, etc. It was explained that the location was ideal as even helicopters could usually not see into the area due to the dense fog. Only Escobar knew the winding trails and dirt paths that could lead he and his confidants to safety if something occurred. He and his security detail actually escaped his "imprisonment" using a walking path and tunnel (which he had secretively built) that lead to the neighborhood he grew up in within the town when he was tipped off that the DEA had had enough with the Colombian government and was taking the drug war into their own hands. The area has now been turned into a church and shelter for approximately 200 of Medellin's homeless population. Several of the compound's features are still in tact, such as the helicopter landing pad that regularly brought in Frank Sinatra and other entertainers; statues dedicated to his brother and love of cycling; the horse barn; guard quarters; and game tables where he used to smoke marijuana with his friends. A trip to the cemetery where he and several of his family members are buried ended the trip, but not before our driver handed down some advice about drugs and women, and gave us the opportunity to ask anything we wanted.
Escobar's Horse Stable
Old House-Turned-Into-Church
Overlooking the Escobar's Guards' Quarters
Statue Along the Escape Route Placed by Pablo's Mother
Day 6 - More Pouring Rain
A majority of the next day involved downpours of rain which kept us from doing much. It actually made us feel not as bad about ourselves for being hungover. Jenna ended up heading out for a run later that afternoon while I tried sweating it out from the hammock on the roof, but nothing materialized that night - probably for the best as we were off to Quito the next morning!
Day 7 - ~28 Hour Trip to Quito through Cali, Ipiales, Tulcan
There's only so much you can do prepare yourself physically and mentally for an approx. 28-hour bus ride and I'd say we failed at our first attempt. We didn't take enough water, forgot to try to find dramamine, didn't bring on board enough warm clothes, and I put off downloading books to read - lesson learned! Besides that, the bus accommodations weren't all that bad actually. We had more than enough legroom. Our seats reclined more than halfway back. No one was in front of us to recline their seats back into us. The biggest problem was that the drivers left their window open throughout the entire ride which allowed for the cold mountain air to circulate back to Jenna and I in the first row easily. Transfers to taxis that took us to and from the border and to the bus onward to Quito were easy, as was the border crossing itself. We arrived just as the border was opening for the day which helped. By the time we reached our hostel in Quito, we ended up at about 28 hours hostel door to hostel door and completely exhausted even though we had barely moved from our bus seats. Our flight to the Galapagos Islands and five (5) consecutive nights at the same hotel couldn't have come soon enough!
A whole photo album of Medellin is on my FaceBook for those wanting more pics.
The Road Warriors live! I will forever view Pablo Escobar in a different light, although I shouldn't. Nice to hear that Medellin is so cleaned-up. Think you're going to learn that a lot of what we think is true or assume to be fact isn't so true or factual when you actually go there. Glad we have our intrepid reporters out on the road to bring us home the REAL truth! Carry On!!!
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