Vamos a Medellin!

If you read my previous post, you now know how we ended up in Medellin. Let me just say that Medellin is completely different than Bogotá. It's like its own little world in the middle of a jungle. We took an Uber from the airport to our hostel, Happy Buddha. However, this wasn't your ordinary Uber trip. What we came to find out is that Uber is illegal in Colombia. So instead of just picking us up using our location, Manuela (our Uber driver) had a guy (aka "her partner") come look for us and he showed us to the Uber because again, Uber is illegal, so you have to make it look like you are friends giving each other rides. We drove out of the airport and headed towards the middle of nowhere, where we dropped off her partner at an auto shop and then we continued on our way to Medellin. Now, if you read that and thought, that's so weird and scary, you are right. It seemed a little sketchy and we thought that maybe we would get robbed or stabbed. We were on our toes the entire time. However, it turns out that Manuela was really cool. She gave us some great advice about Medellin and was super helpful. We were safe....for now.

I want to give you a general vibe of Medellin before I get into the good stuff. Medellin is a really cool place. It's so different than Bogotá and the environment here is amazing. We stayed in the Zona Rosa district which is a very touristy but very nice area. It looks as if you are in the middle of the jungle. Tons of restaurants, shops, and of course traffic fill the streets of Medellin. I can't compare it to any other place I've been because it is so different. If you have watched the tv show, Narcos, you probably have a negative perception of Medellin and think that it is a very dangerous place. Now, don't get me wrong, I thought the same thing about Medellin which is why we weren't planning on going to Medellin in the first place. My thoughts of Medellin have completely changed now that I have visited the city and I would even recommend visiting the beautiful city of Medellin if you get the chance.

Since this was a last minute thing, we didn't really have a plan or set itinerary of things to do or see, so we kind of just winged it. We made our first stop at Pueblito Paisa, which is an area atop a hill that overlooks Medellin. It was the perfect spot to see the beautiful city of Medellin. After doing some research, we found the address to the house where Pablo Escobar was killed. Now there's one thing we learned while in Medellin and that is that you DO NOT talk about Pablo Escobar, you don't even say his name in Colombia. The people here hate him and hate tourists who speak his name. But as big Narcos fans, we wanted to see the house where he was killed. So we nonchalantly asked our Uber driver to take us to the house. We could tell right away that he did not want to take us there. However, he was a cool guy and took us into the deep parts of Medellin. The house was in the ghetto and I mean ghhettttoooo. It was not a place you want to stay very long in. So we drove by the house a few times and then we parked right outside the house for a quick photo and then hopped right back in the Uber and got out of there as fast as we could. Because again, Pablo is a hated man and as tourists, the people look at us and hate us for wanting to visit the most hated man in the history of Colombia... Oh well.

Afterwards, we had our Uber driver take us up to the northern part of Medellin to do some more sightseeing. We were literally in the Uber for over an hour and I was thinking it was going to cost an arm and a leg. It ended up costing about 17,000 pesos or roughly $6 American dollars. That's right, $6 measly dollars for an hour Uber ride! It was ridiculously cheap. If you ever get the chance to visit Colombia, though highly illegal, I recommend using Uber everywhere. It is cheap, convenient, and quickest way to travel in Colombia. Just don't get caught!

We did a ton of walking on our first day in Medellin, walked almost 7 miles. Saw as much as the city as we possibly could. Now, we did walk in some parts that were not so nice and it was a little scary. We started our walk from the Los Angeles district and walked all the way down to the Colon district, it was about a 4km (2.5 miles) walk. We tried our best not to look like tourists and blend in with the locals, (It helps that Aaron and I have dark skin). It was a whole different part of Medellin that we had yet to experience. I couldn't tell you everything we walked by but there were people everywhere and when I say people, I mean locals. We were the only tourists walking in this part of town. Tourists do not go to the areas we walked through, and for good reason. We were on high alert the entire time. We were constantly flexing our muscles and tightening our fists as we walked through the sketchy streets of Medellin. That may sound funny but it's true, we were a little worried and uneasy as we were walking through the streets. We were in a place that had no police, no security, nothing. We could've got robbed, jumped or even stabbed at any time and no one would've said a thing. We were both ready to throw down, if we had to. I do not recommend doing what we did, especially if you are a gringo (white person). It was a risk walking down those streets, luckily nothing happened.

After an hour or so of walking, we made our way back to the hostel where we showered up and got ready for the night. This is when we finally met back up with the crazy boys from Ireland, Sean & Aaron. The two mates who easily convinced us to come to Medellin with them. To make a long story short, we had a great first night out and even came up with our own slogan, "Sangria for the boyyyyysssss" (it's an inside thing).

Day 2 was a little more relaxed. We actually got to sleep in and recharge the batteries. The Irish mates and us visited the castle museum and I must say, it was kind of boring. The tour was entirely in Spanish and although I understand some Spanish, I couldn't understand a word the tour guide was saying. I just nodded my head and smiled as if I knew what she was saying, but in reality, I had no clue. Once we left the museum, we all went to Mondongo's, which is a super nice Colombian restaurant. It is here were we tried traditional Colombian cuisine. I must say it was awesome. We all tried something different and shared with each other. It was amazing and just like everywhere in Colombia, it was so so so cheap! When dinner was finished, we all went back to the hostel to get ready for the long night ahead. We signed up for this pub crawl that our hostel was putting on and there were tons of people doing it as well. It was a good time, but we had some issues with the police. No, we did not do anything wrong, but it is Colombia and they are known for their cocaine, of course. So as we were walking down the street we got stopped by two policemen. They asked for our ID's and searched us. They searched everywhere and I mean EVERYWHERE! In our pockets, waistline, our butt crack, genital area and even in our socks. It was the most intensive search that I've ever seen. Some of us were searched more intensively than others. I felt bad for my American friend, Aaron. He got the worst of it and he felt completely violated afterwards. I now understood what it feels like to be "randomly" selected. But hold on folks, that's not all. A couple hours later, the four of us all took an Uber back to the hostel and like I said before, Uber is illegal in Colombia. So as we were driving we were being tailed by four policemen. We all got a bit nervous and scared as the policemen told us to pull over. We pulled over and they asked us to get out of the car. Again, we did nothing wrong (except use Uber). The Uber driver played it cool but we all were searched for drugs...AGAIN. They were out to find drugs and they thought that we were hiding it in our butts, apparently. After being violated once again, we were let off the hook and on our way, but we were still a bit shaken from the whole ordeal. It's an intense situation and even though we had nothing on us, it was a bit intimidating because we are in another country and if the police are corrupt, they could've taken all our money and got away with it. Needless to say, we went straight back to the hostel and called it a night. We said our goodbyes to our new Irish mates as we were leaving early the next morning for Lima, Peru!

We will forever be friends with Sean and Aaron (the Irishman) and we will forever remember all the shenanigans we got ourselves into. It was one heck of an experience and we are fortunate to have met such awesome mates. Safe travel boys. Till we meet again in Dublin, Ireland...

As for us, vamos a Peru!

Outside the house where Pablo Escobar was killed

#Colombia #medellin #SouthAmerica