Walking tour around Medellin

Later, when everyone else in our dorm was up, we showered and sorted our bags out before heading to El Poblado metro station, the meeting point for our pre-booked 2pm tour of Comuna 13 and other points of interest in Medellin. 

Greg and Britt had booked the same tour as us, so we met them along with our guide, Ezekial.  All of the public transport we would be using during the afternoon was included in the price of the tour, so Ezekial gave us a pass each, and we entered the metro system.   It seemed like a pretty straightforward system to use, but, tired as we were, we were glad we had booked a tour and could just follow our leader!

We changed metro once to reach San Javier, where we took a cable car up to a residential district.  Medellin has 6 MetroCable lines.  Unlike other places in the world where cable cars are used to get from point A to point B, often to access tourist attractions, here they are part of an integrated transport system.  In a city surrounded by mountains, local people use them as part of their daily commute between home and work.

We got off at the first stop to take pictures of the closely packed brick built houses.   Ezekial explained to us that there is no vehicular access above the level we were looking at.  People who live and work in the higher parts have to leave their motorbikes and cars here and proceed on foot.  Any purchases have to be carried!Read more