When we started our trip this year we had a list of places we wanted to visit. Colombia was not on that list. Neither was Mexico. However, one of the things that we had decided was that we didn’t want a completely fixed itinerary, and that we wanted to take the advice of other travelers about places we might want to see. When we started talking to other travelers the two places that were most frequently suggested to us were, you guessed it, Mexico and Colombia.
I think the reason that these countries didn’t make our list is the perception that we, and maybe most Americans, have of these two countries. A lot of the press about Mexico and Colombia in the US seems to focus on violence, drugs, and political unrest. (I can’t help but note that a lot of the press in the US, about the US, talks about those same things, so it’s a bit odd that this kind of bad press would be a deterrent now that I think about it.) Since this is a post about Colombia I have to note that I think many Americans don’t know a lot about this country, and what we tend to know is related to Pablo Escobar (killed 30 years), the Medellin Cartel (defunct for almost 30 years), and communist guerrillas (mostly integrated into mainstream politics, or eliminated). Obviously, if that was all there was to Colombia then it would be a very dangerous place to visit, and it’s quite unlikely that we’d have met anyone who had traveled here, and even fewer who would recommend the country.
I think it’s safe to say that Pablo Escobar, and the Medellin Cartel, still loom large in American minds thanks to Narcos (a very entertaining TV show), and similar shows related to drug trafficking. While I personally enjoy shows like this they tend to leave out some important context, like the fact that this all happened 30 years ago, and is not necessarily representative of Medellin today. I am less sure about why the notion of a massive war with Colombian communist guerrillas is still so omni-present in some people’s minds. I suspect part of it is the perpetual American obsession with the “communist threat”. I’m not so sure that this was ever the threat that our government has at times made it out to be, and it definitely isn’t much of a real threat in today’s world. However, for people who have been paying attention to world affairs for many years, it is fair to say that the specter of violence from communist guerrilla groups and right-wing militias in Colombia was a very real thing for nearly 70 years. In fact, there is one hold out group of communist guerrillas still active in Colombia today. (Interestingly, a six month ceasefire agreement between the Colombian government and the ELN began while we were in Medellin.) That said, the level of violence, and the risk to travelers here is very minimal. Colombia simply is not the same country it was for many years.
That’s about as much as I can say on the topic of prior violence in Colombia, and the misconception that this is still the case today without risking being incredibly inaccurate. I’m still learning about Colombia’s violent past, and I’d hate to misspeak anymore than I may already have done. So, let me tell you a bit about what we have seen and done here!
Bogotá
When we started looking at traveling to Colombia our intention was to go directly to Medellín because so many people had told us how amazing it was. Bogotá was not mentioned nearly as much by the travelers we had met. We ended up visiting Bogotá mostly because it was much less expensive to fly from Denver to Bogotá than Denver to Medellín. This turned out to be a stroke of luck because we really enjoyed our visit to Bogotá.
We stayed in La Candelaria, a fairly tourist friendly neighborhood of Bogotá, for 5 days. In that brief time, we visited several remarkable museums, including the Museo de Oro (the museum of gold) and Quinta de Bolívar, where Simón Bolívar lived (part-time) while he led the fight to liberate Panama, Peru, Colombia and Venezuela from the Spanish. Seeing the transformed plantation house was quite impressive. It was nothing like the size of Mount Vernon, or Monticello, but then again Bolivar wasn’t keeping a plantation loaded with slaves, and he spent only about 450 days in the home over a ten year period.
The streets of Bogotá are a fantastic example of street art. There is gorgeous graffiti all over the place. It reminded me a bit of the murals at home in Denver, but there was so much more of it that it made me wish the US would give up the ridiculous efforts put forth in so many cities to limit street art. Maybe if we did our streets would be more colorful and less sterile.
Probably the biggest highlight of our visit was the day that we took a cable car up to Mount Monserrate, which is home to a very old colonial style church. Apparently, people used to walk/crawl up this mountain which sits about 3000 ft above Bogotá as a form of pilgrimage. The cable car, thankfully, only takes about 10 minutes to ascend, and neither of us bruised the crap out of our knees in the process. The views of Bogotá from the top are truly spectacular. It’s a bit like seeing Denver from Lookout Mountain, but it’s so much closer to the city that the views are even more impressive. Riding the cable car was also a lot of fun since neither Farrah, nor I can remember having ridden a cable car before.
Although our time in the city was limited, we both enjoyed Bogotá quite a bit. I would definitely return to see more.
Medellín
After our brief stop in Bogotá we took a short flight to Medellín, where we stayed for three weeks. Medellín is a fantastic city. It has the most developed public transport system in Colombia, and I believe all of Latin America, but don’t quote me on that. The city uses a lot of cable cars to get people up and down the steep hills that surround the city, so our initial cable car ride in Bogotá was only the first, and frankly the least impressive in our time in Colombia.
Our first week in Medellín was pretty laid back. We were pretty tired from our time in Denver, and then our busy week in Bogotá, so we took our time settling in. The apartment we stayed in was pretty small, with a kitchen, living area and a loft over the kitchen with a very low ceiling. Neither of us loved having to walk around hunched, or crab walking, when we were upstairs, but the lovely balcony in a plant filled garden, and the rooftop terrace were pretty great additions to our limited space. Thanks to our hosts we found a great beer bar about 3 blocks away called Punta Arena, which we visited several times during our stay, and even started making friends with one of the servers there. It was a perfect place to grab dinner and a beer after our daily activities. I also spent much of the first week doing work for a consulting firm that I have been helping out on occasion this year.
During our first week, we went out in the evenings several times to check out the local area. We stayed in a neighborhood called Laureles, which is fairly popular with tourists. There is another neighborhood called El Poblado, which is probably a bit better known. El Poblado has many amazing restaurants, and a lot of nightlife, but it’s also very busy and noisy. We were glad to have landed in the quieter Laureles neighborhood, which also has a lot of great restaurants and plenty of things to do.
There’s too much to talk about from our time in Medellín, so I’ll try and hit some highlights. We ran into our life coach, Kristin Vierra, who was instrumental in helping us plan this trip, and she introduced us to AirBnB Experiences! These are effectively tours led by locals, and we went on a very filling (in more ways than one) tour of local street foods with her one night during our first week in town. After that we used AirBnB experiences to book a hike to a gorgeous waterfall outside of Envigado, a cooking class hosted by a local couple in Laureles, and we intend to keep finding awesome local events with it as we continue our travels. We also spent an unforgettable day visiting Comuna 13, which was once the most dangerous neighborhood in the world, and today is a major tourist destination for its street art, bars, and local art scene. While we have heard from some folks in Medellín that the neighborhood can still be a bit unsafe, depending on the time of day and where you wander, it is still a remarkable transformation since the time when guerrillas and narco-traffickers dominated the area.
The food scene in Medellín was interesting in that the local cuisine can be a bit bland. The street foods are great if you like fried foods, and lots of cheese, but overall it pales in comparison to places like Mexico. However, Colombians seem to love Argentine, Venezuelan and Peruvian food, so there is no shortage of amazing restaurants around town. There are even a couple of places I’d call out by name. The first is Alambique, which is a stunning culinary experience set in a beautifully decorated building that looks like a cross between a library, a garden and a fairy tale. The outside of the building looks like a hole in the wall of a warehouse, but once you are inside it’s mind blowing. The food there was some of the best we have had on this trip, and the cocktails were equally amazing. Our favorite was a dish called the Perfect Avocado, which was a peeled avocado stuffed with melted cheese, then wrapped in succulent ham, and wrapped again in bacon. It’s even better than it sounds. The other place worth mentioning is Cafe Noir, where we met Kristin for drinks the night before we left town. They served us some of the best cocktails I have ever had there. The star of the show was a black margarita, mezcal based, which came in the fanciest presentation I have ever seen for a drink, and tasted fantastic (I feel like I’m running out of words to describe the delightful things we experience in Medellín). The food at Cafe Noir was less impressive, but we did enjoy a giant charcuterie board with our drinks that certainly didn’t disappoint. It was a really nice way to spend our final evening in a city that I plan to return to again whenever the opportunity presents itself. For pictures of the drinks at Cafe Noir check out our instagram post about nightlife Medellín, the black margarita is the cover photo.
Guatapé
Okay. I have to be honest. We took a day trip to Guatapé on one of our last days in Medellín. The town itself was a total disappointment to me. It photographs well, and has lots of pretty buildings, but overall it felt like a total tourist trap. We probably spent only an hour walking around town before we sat down for a beer and waited for our bus to take us back to Medellín. But… the real reason to visit Guatapé is outside of town where there is a massive, imposing granite rock about 700 ft tall called La Piedra del Peñol. There is a giant staircase built into one side of the rock that you can climb, assuming you don’t mind the 750 steps it takes to get to the top. From there you have 360 degree views of the lakes that surround Guatapé. The scenery is really amazing, and I am very glad we went.
So far, our time in Colombia has been wonderful. The friendly people, welcoming culture, and amazing things to do make this a country that you really should put on your list of places to visit if it wasn’t already. I’m certainly glad that so many travelers suggested that we come here. We might not have known it, but we would definitely have been missing out if we had decided not to visit Colombia!
Oh yeah, our time in Colombia isn’t over. I’ll be posting an additional blog post about Santa Marta and Tayrona National Park after we’re done taking it in!