Medellin

Finally back to Medellin! Since I fell in love with this city last year I knew I had to get back there. That's why I decided to take another week of spanish lessons here to enjoy some time in El Poblado.
El Poblado is probably not the most authentic colombian part of Medellin. It's full of backpackers and expats. And the density of hip shops and restaurants is higher than in many european capitals. But after 5 months on the road I really enjoyed the vibe.
The weekend before classes started I spend with Luis who I had before on the tour to Punta Gallinas. We had a crazy party night after watching the Colombian final (see extra post).

My spanish school turned out to be the perfect base for a week in El Poblado. I met really nice people and the activities they offered were fun without being forced.
There were 3 other people in my class. Hannah, a fun girl from Australia. We spend a lot of time together. Luis, an Irish guy who had the same weird Irish accent when speaking spanish. I had trouble understanding him. And Robert, a guy from the states who was the American stereotype. He drove us mad.
I preferred the group lessons here to the 1 on 1 in Antigua. It was just more fun to have other people around. We usually got little exercises and then had to talk to each other in groups of 2. The first day Hannah was grouped up with Robert and me with Luis. Like I said I had a lot of trouble understanding his Spanish with an Irish accent and Hannah was just annoyed by everything Robert said especially as he would just fill in English words all the time. So the next morning we made sure we were sitting together so that we could work together. Like this it was a lot more fun.
The first day we had a welcome lunch after class where we got to try last cal food. Another day we got snacks and drinks to try during break. Drinks included the local beers, rum and aguardiente (a local spirit) which was kind of rough as it was only 11am. But they wanted us to taste all the typical flavors I guess.
The school also offered activities for the afternoon. Hannah and I joined the City Walking Tour and the Tour to Comuna 13. As it turned out we were the only 2 people on both tours. Elisabeth, one of the teachers who didn't speak any English, were doing both tours. She was a lot of fun and really good in explaining complex events with easy spanish and a lot of gestures and facial expressions.
Especially the tour to Comuna 13 was interesting. I had done a tour to this area last year and was already really impressed. Comuna 13 used to be the most dangerous part of the city under the influence of the drug cartel and Pablo Escobar. After his dead in 1995 a 6 year war killed a lot of innocent people. Things have changed a lot here since the end of the war in 2001. Today it's hard to imagine that this area used to be so dangerous. The open air escalators make the area a lot more accessible. Walking around you meet a lot of people in the streets and everything feels really relaxed and peaceful.
Elisabeth was born in Comuna 13 in 1995 - the year Escobar died and the war started. She has been living there ever since and could tell the story of this district from own experience. I was really impressed.
Medellin and El Poblado are pretty save but you should still take precautions and don't be stupid. To raise awareness people had started this campaign called "Don't give Papaya" which is a translation of a Colombian saying meaning “don’t let yourself be taken advantage of”. It means that as long as you're careful, you’ll be fine. Otherwise “papaya given is papaya taken” - you can’t leave papaya out. Graffitis all around town would remind you of this. Also tour guides would announce different levels of danger - papaya level 8 would mean to not take your phone out for example.
On my last night in Medellin in met Lara from my sailing trip. She had done similar things along the Caribbean Coast but at a different pace. We exchanged experiences and had some really good food in a nice restaurant in El Poblado.
After my last day of lessons I spend the day strolling around El Poblado before getting on another overnight bus to Cali.Read more