Medellin

We got the bus from Salento to Medellin and when we arrived into the bus station there was a party happening in the station. The place was packed and everyone was salsa dancing to music. We didn't know what was happening. It took us quite a while to find and reach the exit before going to the Metro to our hostel. We found out afterwards that parties like these happen regularly in random places like the bus station because it's such an easy accessible location for most people.

We were recommended to do two different walking tours while in Medellin. The first was Communal 13's graffiti tour. Communal 13 is a poor district in the hills surrounding Medellin with a lot of poverty and crime. In the last couple of years things are starting to improve in the district. There is now a cable car and escalators that connect the district to the metro line allowing locals to travel more freely into the city for work. However the district is now famous as a result of the graffiti that is painted on the walls of the streets. They are not very political but they aim to show the difference between the darker times of the district and the brighter times. Our guide brought us around to different pieces of art and discribed what the art symbolised. It was interesting seeing the graffiti however the tour lasted five hours so we were quite tired afterwards.

The following day we went on a day trip to Guatape which is a town located beside a man-made lake two hours from Medellin. We climbed the rock 'El Penol de Guatape' for a beautiful view over the islands in the lake. There was 725 steps to the top of the rock but the view was well worth the effort. Afterwards we went into the town of Guatape. The town was very colourful as all of the shop-fronts were painted in bright colours and some of the had pictures painted on them. Even though it was raining we enjoyed walking through the streets looking at the shops.

On our final day in Medellin we walked through the small Botanical Gardens before heading to the Memory House Museum. This museum is dedicated to remember all of the victims of the civil war in the last fifty years. Most of the information was in Spanish but we heard some stories about innocent children who were killed and about people who stood up to object to the civil war. Some of the stories were very sad but it was interesting to see how many people were affected. I also thought that it was nice to have a place to remember the people who the city lost during those rough times.

The second tour that we did was with Real Walking Tour. This tour was excellent. Our guide Rafael told us about the dark times of the city in the last fifty years and also about the better things that are happening now. We all obviously had questions about Pablo Escobar as he is the most famous criminal in Colombia and Rafael told us about what it was like to live in the most dangerous city in the world at the time he was around. Honestly now it is hard to imagine that Colombia had such a dark recent past because from my experience I have never felt so safe and the people are extremely welcoming. Rafael said that the Colombians are so happy to have tourists visit the country now because for them it is hope that the dark history is over. Medellin is definitely one of my favourite cities that we have visited and we wished that we had a few more days here to explore it.Read more