Medellín

The bus ride was uneventful but a little bit bumpy (when we got off the bus my fitness watch had recorded 24000 steps since midnight 😅). But the bus arrived half an hour before the expected time and then we took a taxi to our hostel. It is located in the neighborhood of El Poblado, a hip area with lots of bars and nightclubs. We just wanted to drop off our luggage but the receptionist offered an upgrade of the room and we could immediately go in. We relaxed a bit, had a shower and then went out to see the city.
To get to the metro we walked all through El Poblado and got some arepas (rather sweet) for breakfast. The metro system is very modern and convenient and even includes the cable cars going up the hills surrounding Medellín at a fixed rate (0,64$). So we crossed the city by metro and then crossed over the Western neighborhoods by cable car. It was an impressive sight of the city and the tin roofs hugging the hills closely underneath us. We didn't get off at the last stop and returned back to the base station at San Javier 🚡 From there we walked up to the Comuna 13, a famous and popular area especially for arts.
It has an interesting past that changed as a hub for Narco trafficking into the hip, artsy neighborhood. Many of the graffitis handle this topic and the victims of these times. Nowadays it's lively, loud and fun to explore despite being very crowded. We enjoyed drinks overlooking the city and immersed in the sound of street artists.

Afterwards we took the metro back to the city center, called La Candelaria. There are only a few sights and it's not as nice as the old town of Bogotá but it also has it's own charm. There are Botero figures all over the center and a park dedicated to him with his statues as it's his hometown. Besides that there wasn't much more to see in the center and we returned to the hostel as it was already pretty late in the afternoon.
In the evening we explored El Poblado and especially the party street was a highlight with little bars, international and interesting food choices and massive nightclubs. We had a beer there but were ultimately too tired to go out 🙈😅 And we had booked a tour for the next day with pick-up time at 06:40 🥱Read more