Medellín- Fall in Love with the City of Eternal Spring

Our first trip to South America was in February 2019. Erica’s co-worker is Colombian and highly recommended that we go. Andrew’s coworkers recommended Medellín over Bogota, so we made the city of eternal spring our first stop in the country. We are so glad that we did! See below for all of the amazing details.

Note: We do NOT go everywhere on our maps, we just use it when we are out in different neighborhoods and need an idea of where to go next. When we are places where we might not have service, we download this as a KML file and use the Maps.Me app.

Day 1- Getting Settled

Day 2- Downtown and El Poblado

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From there we walked to Plaza San Antonio to see the Peace Birds and have some beers. Downtown was a little grungier than expected so we headed back to El Poblado, for more beer, cocktails, and snacks. We checked out Empanadas el Machetico, Medellin Beer Garden, Ajua Tacos al Pastor, and Belisario. For dinner, we went to Alambique… just find the blue door. It was great, but a little hazy after all of those cocktails.

Day 3- Jardin town tour

We booked this day through Andes Adventures and were lucky enough to have the best tour guide, Esteban. First stop, pan de queso in a little town, was helpful in fighting off the hangover from too many drinks the night before. Eventually, we arrived at a small house/convenience store/cockfighting ring to hop in a Jeep that would take us to a waterfall. The Jeep ride was bumpy but exciting as we continued heading further and further into the countryside of Colombia.

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After a while, we arrived at the end of the road, where a few friendly dogs were hanging out nearby. They joined us for our short hike to the waterfall. We climbed up some boulders to an incredible vantage point where we could see three cascades. The water was ice cold so of course Andrew jumped right in, Erica slowly followed, just long enough to take a few photographs. (Photo cred to our dude Esteban).

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After the scenic ride back we headed to Jardín for a trout lunch, some coffee, and a few more picturesque views.

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Our last stop of the day was a coffee plantation, Café del Jardín. We learned about the cycle of coffee, picked our own berries, de-shelled them, roasted and ground some beans that were already dried. The coffee was so great that we bought a big bag of the beans, as well as an Italian coffee maker and hand grinder upon returning home. Colombian coffee is roasted media (medium), only poor quality coffee should be roasted dark!

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For dinner we had a simple pizza at Café Zorba.

Day 4- Laureles, Comuna 13, Cable Car

Esteban really did become our best friend and we ended up going to his neighborhood, Laureles, for cappuccinos at Rituales Coffee. He met us for lunch at a typical Colombian restaurant. We finally tried mondongo (tripe soup) and it may have been one of the best meals we had. Then, because he is incredibly kind, Esteban drove us to Comuna 13. We took the escalators up to check out the street art. We opted to not do a tour and just experience it on our own. Safety was not a concern, as there is so much tourism traffic.

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We then took the cable car at San Javier all the way to the top and back down. The obvious level of poverty in the neighborhoods the cable car services was extremely humbling. Neither of us had ever seen poverty so pervasive, yet there was such a sense of purpose and pride. It helped us to remember how limited our scope of the world really is.

We ended up canceling our dinner reservations to drink and chat with Esteban for the rest of the night, sorry Kelly! Aguardiente (anise flavored liquor) shots for everyone! Salud.

Day 5- Last Day

Featured Paisa- 

When we signed up for a tour into the mountains through Andes Adventures, we didn’t think it would be as incredible as it was. Our tour guide, Esteban picked us up bright and early in his 4 door sedan. Andrew immediately asked who else are we picking up, but, for the day, it was only going to be the three of us! Esteban was right ,when, then and there, he told us we would be best friends by the end of the day.

During the ride through the mountains, Esteban shared a great deal history about his city, country and himself. We learned that Medellín is not an old city, which is why it doesn’t have much of the old architecture that some other colonial-era cities might. He talked about what it was like to grow up with all the changes that Colombia has gone through in its recent history, but did so without exploiting any of the Narcos type stories that fuel that type of tourism. He grew up in Pablo Escobar’s neighborhood and recalled hearing gun shots while playing on the street. He and his friends would duck inside the nearest house for a few minutes, but then go right back to playing, that was life. He was very insightful and honest about how the money from that time period has really helped Medellín become the lively city it is today.

Listening to Esteban’s stories about different tours he has done, it was so clear that he loves his job and where he is from. I remember sitting in the backseat of the car, winding around mountains and feeling jealous of his passion. His attitude toward life and work had a huge effect on us deciding to take on traveling long term.

We were thrilled when we had the opportunity to spend more time with Esteban the day after the tour and not only because Andrew grossly under tipped him (10,000 COP is not 30 USD its more like 3). Throughout the day we tried to give him, his correct tip, but he constantly refused and just offered to show us more of the city he loves, because he is just that great of a guy. After several beers at a local pub, Esteban suggested that we cancel the fancy dinner reservations we had, and spend more time drinking with him, we were giddy to accept. Throughout the night, several hawkers and beggars approached our table. There was not a person who stopped by, that Esteban did not buy something or give some change to. This included a Venezuelan boy who was asking for money for his family to be able to eat. Esteban told us that Colombian’s have been very supportive of the Venezuelan refugees just as they were supportive to Colombian’s when the tides were turned. It was nice to see that people still take care of each other in some places.

Our trip to Medellín and Colombia would not have been the same without Esteban. He taught us so much, about the country, but also helped us to reflect on what we really want in life. Esteban, when we do get married, your invited! Come hike with us in Virginia anytime!

Medellin travel tip-

Medellin has Uber, but it’s not really legal. Regardless, we ended up using it a lot to get back to our Airbnb because we weren’t on a main road. Our address made it tricky for us to explain directions to cab drivers and it was just way easier to type the address into Uber. However, whenever you can, take a cab. They are metered and are less expensive than Uber. We were able to easily flag down cabs when needed just by walking to a busy street.

When you do take an Uber, you must act as if you know the driver. Sit in the front seat and be careful what you say when you get out, we stuck to gracias, hasta luego. Because we were worried about the fare, we did use Uber to get to the airport. Through good ol’ google translate, our driver asked us to use a fake background story just in case we were stopped by anyone. So, for the trip, we were friends with his sister and he was just doing us a favor. Not too far out of Medellin, we did encounter a routine traffic stop, and it was helpful to have the story just in case. Lucky for us, after a quick check of our IDs, we were back on the road. Unfortunately, we did see a driver get a ticket at the airport presumably for being an Uber driver. His passenger, however, just got to hop on his plane back with no ramifications. Other than that, our rides in Ubers were uneventful, aside from all of the house music our drivers wanted to share with Andrew…

Medellin Mistakes-

We loved everything about Medellin. The people were great, we always felt safe and the views are constantly stunning. Our Airbnb was beautiful, huge and had an amazing view. However, it wasn’t really within walking distance to anything. In our opinion, the best thing about city life is having just about everything at your fingertips. This apartment, however, has more of a suburban feel, than a city one. When we go back to Medellin, we will definitely stay in the Laureles neighborhood. It had a comfortable, welcoming vibe and far fewer hills!

Additionally, Andrew made the mistake of taking pictures of the kiddos that were hanging out in Comuna 13. We had no problem giving them some cash to take their picture. That was until we found out that those kids skip school every day, knowing tourists will come to pay them to take their pictures. Esteban told us this after we visited the community. He also shared, that recently the boys’ parents even made a sign asking people not to give them money so they will start going back to school. Whoops…

Oh and its Colombia, not Columbia (Erica’s mistake, certainly not Andrew’s).