We left Cartagena on Tuesday, June 19, and started our journey towards Medellín. Since the fastest route is around 12 hours, we stopped along the way in Sincelejo, Caucasia, and Santa Rosa de Osos before reaching our destination on Friday.
Medellín is Colombia’s second largest city and a rather beautiful one at that. It is located amidst mountains and is often referred to as the “city of eternal spring” due to its mild temperatures. I’m not sure if I agree with the nickname because temperatures hovered close to 30°C while we were there and that ain’t spring where I come from 😐
Stopping on the way to enjoy some stunning views
Now let’s get to the elephant in the room, shall we? Most people who kept up with world events in the 80s and 90s are well aware of the city’s turbulent past. For those who lived underground during that era or those who are too young to know who MC Hammer is, an urban war ignited by drug cartels in the late 1980s had rendered Medellín as the most dangerous city in the world. After the death of the notorious leader of the Medellín Cartel, Pablo Escobar, the city’s crime rate dropped dramatically; the murder rate went from 266 per 100,000 inhabitants in 1991 to 23 in 2017. To put it into perspective for our fellow Vancouverites, Medellín’s crime rate index today is lower than that of Surrey, BC.
A shrine and a waterfall by the road
The Medellín we experienced was a far cry from what was in the media two decades ago. Today, the city feels safe and happens to be a haven for digital nomads (we saw a number of beautiful co-working spaces). Best of all, the locals (or Paisas, as they are called) seem to be happy people who are proud of their city. I loved seeing the way their faces lit up every time we expressed how amazing we thought their country was. We got numerous recommendations from the locals we met for things to do, see, and eat and, thankfully, the Pablo Escobar tour was not one of them (not that we expected locals to recommend something made by tour companies for easy tourist money anyway).
Cheering on Colombia during the World Cup
We spent our first few days getting acquainted with the city and exploring the El Poblado neighbourhood with plans to do a day trip to the colourful town of Guatapé on our first Monday and climb a giant rock. Our plans got cancelled due to the spare keys for the bike and cases getting misplaced (that we later found) and us running around the city in a futile attempt at getting another set of keys cut. Lesson learnt: never store all your keys (or anything important) together where they could all go missing at once.
Personally, I like to learn lessons from other people’s mistakes, but I guess this one had to fall on my head 😐
