Medellin

16 nights in Medellín, which is the longest we've stayed anywhere for more than a year! It must be good.

We are intentionally trying to go slowly and have really appreciated it, though it's been up and down! Medellín is simultaneously very chilled out and also mad, because the whole city goes crazy for Christmas, especially at the start of advent. We were surprised by the impromptu firework display all over the city for the eve of advent (and Pablo Escobar's birthday, although that's a bit more of a touchy subject locally), and saw a lot of mad christmas lights.

We stayed in an airbnb in Laureles with a balcony sitting around, drinking coffee, eating pineapples and listening to the fruitsellers on the street for the first week. Then we were turfed out because of "night of the candles" (a very specific medellin Christmas tradition") meaning the whole town got booked out, and despite managing to book basically the last accommodation available in the city, when we pitched up they didn't have our booking. Cue Elli practicing her Spanish by having a big argument with the hotel owner and frantically having to find somewhere else to sleep.

In between the living and doing other things and eating a lot of pineapple we also went to Comuna 13 which is the favela which used to be the most dangerous neighbourhood in the world - once the home of the various drug cartels and full of shootings - which is now an insane tourist hotspot that is probably the noisiest place we've been all year, and Elli went for a hike up in Parque Arvi, which is the huge forest on the hill above the city. Disappointing hiking, but excellent cable cars, and Medellín is a feast for exploring houses stacked up the hillsides.Читать далее