4-23
Arrived early morning into Medellin which is the biggest city and heart of the Coffee Zone, home to the Paisas who are known for their friendliness. Indeed, since we have been in the coffee zone, we have noticed that the people are extremely friendly and cheerful. If you look lost on the street, they will come up and help you without you requesting help. If you are looking lost trying to find which bus to take at a large bus station, they come right up and help you. If you look in their store or restaurant, but decide not to get anything there, they tell you it was a pleasure to meet you and good luck. You can just sense a very happy and friendly vibe from them.
After, we checked into our nice little hostel in the posh barrio of Poblano, we went out to explore the city, which is known for it´s wild parties on top of it´s friendly people. It also supposedly has the most beautiful women in the world (according to colombia, guidebooks, and other travellers), which is why perhaps my dad should come for a visit! First we checked out a small bit of the Milla de Oro (golden mile) which just has fancy upscale shopping. We weren´t too interested, so we continued on. We did stop at a mall bc I had misplaced my headlamp in our late night mosquito tactics in Tayrona, so I needed to buy a new one.
From the mall, we climbed up a little hill which had a replica of a typical Paisa village on the top as well as really great 360 degree views of Medellin. Medellin sits in a canyon/valley at the base of mountains, so it has a very scenic location and steep streets to go along with it.
After the hill visit we road the metro to near the end of the line and then continued up to the upper slum barrios of the city via gondola. It was pretty interesting to be riding a gondola as part of public transportation in the city. The gondola afforded great views of the whole city. And it was interesting to have a bird´s eye view of the poorer barrios where houses are built right on top of each other. We took the gondola all the way to the top where it continues on through forest, so that it is a bit of a canopy tour, all the way to a nature reserve. On the way down, we stopped off at one of the barrio stops to explore this are of the city and get some food.
In the early evening, we took the metro do the downtown where we walked the main pedestrian mall, which was crowded with locals and vendors.
4-24
We took a bus to El Penol in the countryside outside of Medellin. From there we took a little jeep to La Piedra (the rock). La Piedra is a ginormous rock that sits atop one of the little rolling hills in the area. They have incredulously somehow managed to build stairs (740 of them) to the top of this rock. The 360 degree views from the top were amazing as they took in the surrounding countryside as well as a many-branched lake.
After hiking back down from the rock, we took a Tuk Tuk to the town of Guatape. It was a cute and very colorful little down. All the buildings were painted with vibrant colors and all had colorful bas relief carvings cut into the lower portion of the building, depicting local scenes. In the evening, we took the bus back to Medillin
Arrived early morning into Medellin which is the biggest city and heart of the Coffee Zone, home to the Paisas who are known for their friendliness. Indeed, since we have been in the coffee zone, we have noticed that the people are extremely friendly and cheerful. If you look lost on the street, they will come up and help you without you requesting help. If you are looking lost trying to find which bus to take at a large bus station, they come right up and help you. If you look in their store or restaurant, but decide not to get anything there, they tell you it was a pleasure to meet you and good luck. You can just sense a very happy and friendly vibe from them.
After, we checked into our nice little hostel in the posh barrio of Poblano, we went out to explore the city, which is known for it´s wild parties on top of it´s friendly people. It also supposedly has the most beautiful women in the world (according to colombia, guidebooks, and other travellers), which is why perhaps my dad should come for a visit! First we checked out a small bit of the Milla de Oro (golden mile) which just has fancy upscale shopping. We weren´t too interested, so we continued on. We did stop at a mall bc I had misplaced my headlamp in our late night mosquito tactics in Tayrona, so I needed to buy a new one.
From the mall, we climbed up a little hill which had a replica of a typical Paisa village on the top as well as really great 360 degree views of Medellin. Medellin sits in a canyon/valley at the base of mountains, so it has a very scenic location and steep streets to go along with it.
After the hill visit we road the metro to near the end of the line and then continued up to the upper slum barrios of the city via gondola. It was pretty interesting to be riding a gondola as part of public transportation in the city. The gondola afforded great views of the whole city. And it was interesting to have a bird´s eye view of the poorer barrios where houses are built right on top of each other. We took the gondola all the way to the top where it continues on through forest, so that it is a bit of a canopy tour, all the way to a nature reserve. On the way down, we stopped off at one of the barrio stops to explore this are of the city and get some food.
In the early evening, we took the metro do the downtown where we walked the main pedestrian mall, which was crowded with locals and vendors.
4-24
We took a bus to El Penol in the countryside outside of Medellin. From there we took a little jeep to La Piedra (the rock). La Piedra is a ginormous rock that sits atop one of the little rolling hills in the area. They have incredulously somehow managed to build stairs (740 of them) to the top of this rock. The 360 degree views from the top were amazing as they took in the surrounding countryside as well as a many-branched lake.
After hiking back down from the rock, we took a Tuk Tuk to the town of Guatape. It was a cute and very colorful little down. All the buildings were painted with vibrant colors and all had colorful bas relief carvings cut into the lower portion of the building, depicting local scenes. In the evening, we took the bus back to Medillin
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