October 5-16, 2019Fourteen hours from London to Medellín,...





















October 5-16, 2019

Fourteen hours from London to Medellín, Colombia on Air Europa ($606.46) and I was back in North America! It was a 75,000 Colombian pesos (~$22 USD) from the airport to Diez Hotel Categoría ($90/night) –where I really enjoyed the breakfast each day. 

This trip was work-focused so the accommodations were beautiful, and there were lots of fun things to do, like:

  • Eat at Mondongo’s! Named after the traditional Paisa dish, a soup made from slow-cooked diced tripe (cow stomach) with cilantro and vegetables. It’s comfort food at its best.
  • Classy dinner at Carmen, with phenomenal food and excellent service. Everything was delicious and hard to say if the wine or crafty cocktails were better.
  • Plaza Botero is home to 23 of Fernando Botero’s larger-than-life sculptures. This plaza can be reached easily from the Parque Berrio metro station. When here, make sure to step inside the Museo de Antioquia, which faces the plaza. Entrance is free, and you can see paintings by Botero as well as other Latin artists.
  • Parque Berrio is across the street from Plaza Botero. This small park is always filled with juice vendors and local street performers playing traditional Colombian music.
  • Escaping east over the mountains to one of the region’s largest
  • nature reserves at Parque Arvi is as easy as jumping on the metro system. A regular metro ticket will take you as far as Santo Domingo. Once you exit the metro, buy another ticket for the separate metro cable that runs from Santo Domingo to Parque Arvi. The cost is 4,200 pesos (~$1.80 USD).
  • We visited a coffee farm, led by Urbania, an Airbnb experience. It’s ketchy and I learned a lot about the coffee process, as well as drank a lot of coffee.
  • We took a long day trip (lots of windy roads) to Guatapé, a colorful pueblo located about two hours by bus from Medellín. It’s situated on the edge of a lake, and it’s possible to take tours of the surrounding area by boat. You’ll see the remains of one of Pablo Escobar’s former homes from the water. We also climbed El Peñol, a granite monolith with over 700 concrete stairs etched in its side. At the top were breathtaking 360-degree views of the region. 
  • Of course Pablo Escobar is part of the history, but I did not do any sightseeing or tours including his neighborhood or prison.
  • I do wish I had gone paragliding, one of the most popular tourist activities, especially among backpackers, thanks in part to dependable thermals and incredibly low prices. You’ll be hard-pressed to beat 95,000 pesos ($30.00 USD) for a 15- to 20-minute tandem flight anywhere else in South America. The action takes place in the mountains north of the city, about an hour’s bus ride from the Caribe bus terminal. Flights are weather dependent, but otherwise available every day of the week from several companies.
  • Another thing I did not get time to do was to go on a Comuna 13 graffiti tour, which includes discussing the painful past of la Comuna 13, and also visiting Independencia 2, which includes the largest mass grave.
  • I flew into Santa Marta (343,465 COP) on eDestinos and stayed in a small villa for $134/night (for three rooms) with friends. A 30-minute taxi from the airport was $10. It’s a small, sleepy, kinda dirty beach town. Lots of seafood (some of which, admittedly, made us sick). But, we did an all-day Airbnb experience to Gairaca ($44), which made the trip worth it.

About 

Hi, I'm Stacy. I'm from Portland, Oregon, USA, and am currently living in Busan, South Korea. Check me out on: Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, Lastfm, and Flickr.