I really didn’t take too many photos in Medellin so to break it up I’m going to put in videos from the fútbol match after long blocks of text because that was one of the most fun things I did.
Getting In
After the 3 day Camino Real trek and 7 hour bus ride back from Los Santos to San Gil I was absolutely exhausted. It was a perfect time to take my first night bus because I was so tired that I was going to be able to pass out no matter what. Kirsten and I got back to Macondo Hostel around 6, I ate my leftovers and chilled for a bit, then we said our goodbyes and I headed to the bus station.
There was nothing direct from San Gil to Medellin so I had to take two buses. I slept most of the way from San Gil to Bucaramanga and nearly missed getting off at the station to change buses. I assumed that Bucaramanga was the last stop and everyone would be getting off but that was a poor assumption. When I woke up we were stopped so I asked the guy next to me where we were and he said Bucaramanga bus station. I quickly got off and this girl was saying something very quickly to me in Spanish. At that point I was half asleep and didn’t even know English. Soon after I realized my backpack was upside down because I had gotten off the bus in such a rush and when I adjusted it she smiled, and then I understood what she had been trying to communicate. The layover at the Bucaramanga station for my 1am bus to Medellin was actually quite short, only about 15 minutes, then I hopped on and was lucky enough to have no one next to me. I was able to spread my legs across both seats and slept pretty much the entire 8 bus ride.
The City
Medellin is the second largest city in Colombia and the capital of the Antioquia region. The culture from Medellin is known as Paisa and this includes food, customs, and certain phrases and words. During the 1980s when Escobar funded the Medellin cartel it was known as one of the most dangerous cities in the world and even had the highest murder rate. But at the beginning of the 21st century the city regained prosperity with the development of its metro, improved security and education, and liberal development policies. It was even named the most innovative city of the year in 2013 by the Wall Street Journal. And as a visitor to the city you can really tell that it is prospering both social and economically. The weather is warm year round with very few temperature extremes so the city had been nicknamed the “city of eternal spring”. There are beautiful flowers on balconies, countless gardens and parks, rooftop bars, and outside-seated restaurants throughout the city. There is even cable cars used as a form of mass transit to travel to the hills.
Medellin is a beautiful city with the heart of the city in the valley between the mountains and then brick houses that look the same going all the way up the hill. Somewhat similar look to Bogota. I spent most of my 2 weeks in El Poblado which is a more upscale neighborhood with lots of restaurants and hostels. The Blink school and hostel were in this area so I really got to know it well. My 12 days in Medellin was the longest time I’d spent in a single city since living in Denver. It was nice to not be constantly packing my bag and hopping on a bus somewhere. I even did laundry twice and got my first South American haircut.
All that being said, I actually explored Medellin less than I would have if I was there for 4 days because my primary focus was Spanish school and making new friends. After class I usually spent my afternoons studying and hanging with fellow Blink students, and I was too tired for tourist activities. Unfortunately I never made it to Comuna 13 which is one of the top destinations for its vibrant energy and fascinating history within the city. I really wanted to go but a lot of people had already gone, and the day I planned to go with Gal it was raining. Oh well I will just have to go back.
The Food
Since Medellin is a big city with a lot of foreign influence, it has every type of food imaginable; especially in the El Poblado neighborhood. Blink school provided lunch, which was usually a selection of typical Colombian dishes, so for dinner I had a wide variety of other food: sushi, ramen, wings, pizza, burritos, burgers, and more.
But the best meal I had was my first one when I had just arrived. I went to a place called Hacienda where the waiters all dressed in traditional Antioquia apparel. I had the chicharrón especial which was caramelized and came in a delicious sauce and then for desert the waitress recommended which was this incredibly sweet and tasty Arequipa pastry with ice cream. I wish I went back to that place again but for some reason it never worked out.
The People
The locals I met in Medellin were once again very friendly and accommodating for tourists. Medellin has a bit of a reputation for being dangerous but as long as you just go out in big groups then take a taxi home it’s completely fine. I really enjoyed all the teachers and hostel staff at Blink and some of them even went out and partied with us. My teacher Danny was incredible, more on her later.
The owner of the school Christian was an American from LA with a very strong type A personality (shocker). I respect what he has done creating a school with a strong Spanish program and a good environment to both learn and socialize all for a cheap price (~$175/week for 20 hours of group classes, 2 hours of private lessons, 5 nights at the hostel, and breakfast and lunch included). But he was actually a weird character. He made some comments about and toward woman that were uncomfortable which turned me off to him as a person. While I do recommend the school for so many reasons, he was one of the only negatives.
As for backpackers, I made so many good friends at Blink that it would be hard to list them all so I’ll just talk about my tops. As I write this now, Blink truly was the perfect jump off point for making friends as most of us were following the same route through Colombia and the rest of South America. Since we all went to school together, lived together, ate together, and explored Medellin together; it made for some really lasting relationships. Plus 2 weeks was the longest I’d spent with the same people in forever so you truly got to know everyone for more than just a few nights.
- Gal (Tel Aviv, Israel): super smart and funny guy who was really easy to get along with and have a good time. Me, him, and Tyler became the 3 amigos both in and out of class always hanging out
- Tyler (Boston, US): it’s rare to meet another backpacker from the US because our culture is kinda lame when it comes to long term travel but Tyler had already been traveling for a year with no end in sight. Good guy to crack a joke with. Our lifestyles are quite different in real life but in the backpacker community we were one and the same and it was nice to bond with another American. We were also in the same rafting group in San Gil
- Mía (Philippines/Germany): great girl who was always hanging out with the 3 amigos. Super fun to be around and easy to converse with
- Joe (England): hilarious dude who has the same sense of humor as me. We were constantly cracking each other up. His girlfriend Lorna was also super nice and friendly
- Tom (Ireland): you could always count on Tom to have a big smile on his face and be the life of the party. Sometimes he was hard to understand but when you got him it was great. His girlfriend Alana was also great crack (Irish slang for great fun. They also liked to say what’s the crack for what’s going on)
- Patricks (Latvia): my first Latvian I’ve met and he gave me a great impression of the country. Very smart and well spoken, good sense of humor, and incredible linguist. He was only 22 yet working on his 4th language with aspirations to learn 7 or 8. He was in his 12th week of school at Blink with strong intentions to become fluent
- Bente (Germany): she was at my hostel in Santa Marta so it was nice to see a familiar face on day one. Sometimes she was great and other times a bit odd but overall fun person to be around
- So many others that I’m not going to list but they will show up in stories down the road as I ended up traveling for a week with some people I didn’t talk to as much at Blink but eventually got to know quite well
- There was actually quite a few Americans at the school, the most I’d met throughout my travels, but they weren’t really backpackers. They were either there just for Spanish school or to go to school and tack on 1-2 more weeks of travel. Maybe one day America will catch up to the rest of the world and appreciate the importance of the backpacker lifestyle where you explore other countries for an extended period of time
Blink School
I wanted to do a week or two of Spanish school early in my trip to help give me some more baseline knowledge and Medellin seemed like the perfect place to do it. I could go to class in the morning and still explore the city in the afternoons/evenings. I heard about Blink school from some other backpackers saying it was a great experience. Not only is it a solid Spanish school but you also stay in a hostel with other backpackers from school so you all hang out afterwards. In an ideal world we’d be practicing our Spanish together after class, but in reality we were mostly just building friendships talking in English with the occasional Spanish thrown in.
The setup of Blink was great – the hostel was a 1/2 block from the school (some classes were actually held in the Hostel common areas during the day), the restaurant where breakfast and lunch was included with our payment was two doors down, and the laundry service was right next door. We had everything we needed all in one place. The hostel had desks and common areas for studying, although it did crowded in the afternoons, and the beds were very nice concrete bunks that had curtains for privacy and your own light for studying later in the evening. They also had private rooms if you wanted to pay more. It was a great place to perch for a bit.
I had originally planned to only do 1 week of classes but had such a good first week that I decided to add on a second; a lot of us made that same decision. We had to do a Spanish test beforehand to determine what level class we should be in. I did pretty well on the test and was placed in a higher level than I probably should have been but it was good to learn new material, and I was still able to hold my own. I just had less practice than the others so my speaking abilities weren’t quite as good at times.
Overall the experience reminded me of the days of being a freshman at Tulane: people in dorms either studying or hanging in the common area, everyone going together to get breakfast and lunch, and then exploring the city in the evenings. Except we partied a lot less during the week than freshman year at Tulane. Everyone was here to focus on their Spanish…at least a bit. We did all pay the money to be here and were taking time away from our travel; so might as well take it somewhat seriously.
The first week was shorter because of a Colombian national holidays (the 3rd Monday in a row; they have so many holidays). This meant our classes were 4.5 hours each day instead of 4 and we still had two 1 hour private lessons. The second week was back to the normal 4 hours of classes and two 1 hour privates. This was my first time going to class in 8 years so I was excited to be a student again because I did like school and really wanted to improve my Spanish, but 4.5 hour classes were tough. By the end of the first week I was so ready for the weekend. It was the first time I truly earned a weekend since quitting my job in Denver on April 15. When your a backpacker every day is a Saturday, but during Spanish school your back on the regular daily grind with weekends being a reward.
I loved my teacher Danny. She was a 22 year old Colombian who was from a small town but had lived in Medellin for the last 4 years. She was really down to earth and made class fun. She catered to us with the topics of conversation which made learning way easier and more relevant. She pretty much only spoke in Spanish, only occasionally switching to English to explain things further. This is the way to do it! I learned some new vocab but I’d say the main focus was on grammar and speaking. We would do a lot of activities that required us to speak, which was really good practice. We would either have discussions on topics or play little games that forced us to talk about things. Then every night we would have homework (which was super weird to do for the first time in years) that would either be grammar exercises or a short writing prompt. Gal, Tyler, and I were all in the same class with Danny for both weeks and became the 3 amigos spending all day together in class then hanging out all evening after our studies. Danny even took us to the Medellin Botanical Gardens on Tyler’s birthday where we did class outside in the gardens and even drank a nice 10am beer.
We also had two private one hour lessons per week where you had a 1 on 1 with a different instructor. My first week was with Esteban and my first lesson he had me talk about myself and some of the activities I’d done on my trip so far; it was a good, open discussion that focused on my speaking abilities. The second lesson, we spoke a bit but the focus was more on the grammar rules I’d been learning. My second week of private lessons was with a different instructor whose name I can no longer remember. The first lesson, she asked me a bunch of questions about my childhood which forced me to talk in the past. My second lesson, we had a bit of an open discussion (I was feeling very confident and good in my speaking this day after nearly two weeks of classes) then we did some grammar exercises.
Poker Nights
The first week we had a big group of people get together to play some cash poker. It was my first time playing in awhile and I forgot how fun it is to play poker. We didn’t have very many chips but since each one was worth 2,000 pesos people started throwing straight cash on the table and things got interesting quickly. There were some big hands where people were reaching into their wallet throwing 20,000 to 50,000 peso bets. It didn’t take long for a lot of money to be on the table. I started out poorly but crawled my way back up and ended up winning a small chunk of change. Christian was super stoked on playing and decided to host a big tournament style game at the restaurant the following week with free food included for the participants and beer for sale.
The second week’s poker game was tournament style with a 50,000 peso buy in and the ability to buy back in before a certain hour. With 16 people and a few people buying in again, there ended up being a lot of money in the pot. The first place prize was around 125 USD. I was doing really well in the beginning but right after the time for buying back in I lost 3 big hands in a row and got out in 15th place. It was a bit of a bummer but that’s just the way it goes.
Tejo
Tejo round 3 in my career was when I finally lost by undefeated streak. The rules were somewhat similar to how we played in San Gil however since there were so many people we had teams of 5 and played the highest score after 30 minutes. I did pretty well getting one mecha and a lot of rounds having the closest shot; however my team wasn’t very good. We ended up losing both our matches. Oh well you can’t win them all. It was still a fun school night of drinking beers and tossing the tejo. With 40 people playing, there was a lot of energy on the tejo field whenever someone caused an explosion.
Pueblito Paisa
Hill in the center of town with nice views of the city. There was a scheduled Blink meet up there at 9 but me, Gal, Tyler and Mia showed up before sunset to see the city while it was still light and so Gal could fly his drone. Not much of a sunset but cool to see contrast between day and night as it got darker. We had a few beers and empanadas enjoying the view.
Atlético Fútbol Match
On the Sunday in between my first and second week of classes, a huge group of us from school went to an Atlético Fútbol match (one of the two local teams in town). You can only buy tickets if you have a Colombian ID but Christian had a friend that offered to help us and Emily took it upon herself to organize buying 40+ tickets so props to her. We got to the stadium early to have beers at a nearby bar beforehand and the energy was electric. Atlético had just won the championship in their league and this was the first game of the new season so the hype was real. We had all bought cheap jerseys in El Poblado so we looked like real fans. There was also countless vendors walking around the outside of the stadium selling noise makers, hats, jerseys, whatever.
We went into the stadium 30 minutes before the game and it was exploding with noise as people were chanting the Atlético fight songs. We sat in the fan section which was absolute craziness. People were jumping up and down waving their flags and singing the fight songs from the pregame all the way through the end. Why can’t American sporting events be this rowdy?!
It actually turned out to be a very boring match and the game play was terrible, but the energy of the crowd still made it an incredible experience. It was actually a bit dangerous because sometimes fans in the back would just push people forward and everyone below them would start toppling. I ended up on the ground two times, and the first time was a decently hard fall. You have to look behind periodically to make sure you don’t get pummeled. The game ended on a 1-1 tie with both goals being scored on penalty shots. Fucking ties in soccer. So lame. Afterwards a few of us got drinks nearby and continued to soak in the scene from the fútbol crowd.
El Centro Walking Tour
During my second week of school, Julia and I did a free walking tour of El Centro after class. It was nice to get out of El Poblado and see a different part of town, and it was also my first time taking the metro. Not surprisingly, the center was much more bustling with people and activity everywhere. There were vendors trying to sell clothes, accessories, food, whatever; and also lots of beggars. This area had a much more real city Medellin feel than the fancier El Poblado area so it was nice to get this perspective. All that being said it was still a very clean and well architected downtown.
The buildings were very modern and everything felt very new; because a lot of it was. The walking tour started at Parque San Antonio where the guide gave us a rundown of Medellin’s history touching on the violence and Escobar era. It’s always interesting to hear the perspective of a local on these difficult subjects because they have lived through it and can provide more emotion and feeling into the story. Even though our guide was only a couple years old when Escobar was killed, her life was still changed by his presence and legacy based on his impact on her family and city. After the more brutal part of Medellin’s history, the story actually gets a lot more positive. The city has been working really hard toward being more progressive, modern, and safer. They are very proud of the metro system; our guide mentioned that multiple times throughout the tour. They’ve knocked down countless buildings in order to expand the metro. There has also been a lot of focus on education for children, enhanced safety in the city, and increased attraction for innovation and new businesses. Medellin has come a long way in the last 20 years and the locals are very happy with the current state of affairs. Sure there are still some rough areas but it’s nice to see how much progress the city has made.
Next we walked through Parque Berrio to Plaza Botero which contains a 23 sculptures from the famous artist Fernando Botero who is originally from Medellin (see my Bogota post for more on him). It is a 7000 square meter outside park surrounded by the Museum of Antioquia and the Rafael Uribe Uribe Palace of Culture.
Then we walked through some busy streets to Parque de Las Luces. The guide was continuing to provide us info about various aspects of the city but I really don’t remember the details at this point. The tour concluded at the square with Memorial para la no violencia en Antioquía and Monumento a la Raza. Overall it was a good tour and added some nice insight into my knowledge of Medellin both through the stories of the guide and seeing the heart of the city with my own eyes.
Nightlife
Medellin is known to be a big party city and while I did have some good nights out on the town, the main focus was Spanish school so I wasn’t going out during the week. The main area for going out in El Poblado is Parque Lleras which is filled with restaurants, bars, and clubs. The first weekend on Friday night we pregamed at the hostel then went to Sonorama which is a club in El Poblado. While there were some locals there it was definitely a very back packer heavy scene. The DJ was dropping some nice house beats and it was a fun night dancing until the 3 in the morning. Then we hung out in the common area until it was nearly sunrise. It felt well deserved after a week of Spanish school. But the next day was rough as I hadn’t had a night out like that in awhile. I slept until 1 in the afternoon and was still struggling to get out of bed and motivate myself to do anything. I went and got a haircut which felt productive. That Saturday night was more low key as a group of us got dinner then went to a billiards hall and shot some pool. I still ended up kicking back quite a few beers but nothing like the night before. The following weekend we all went out again on Friday night pregaming at Blink hostel with beer pong before hitting a more local club in El Poblado for some reggaetón. Once again it was fun to look around and watch all the Colombians singing all the words to every song.
Final Thoughts
Medellin is a very cool and progressive city that I would recommend to anyone visiting Colombia. It’s hard to say which I liked more, Medellin or Bogota, because I had 2 very different experiences. One was focused on Spanish school and the other I had a local showing me around. These days I prefer hiking and being out in nature, but I’m glad to have seen both of Colombia’s biggest cities and truly gotten to know them better. I think it’s important when traveling to see how people in the metropolitan areas live to get a better sense of the overall culture of the country.