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Published: July 24th 2010
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Medellín
Antonio Caro (2007) Colombia Cocal Cola. El Museo de Antioquia. Columbia is a more modern country than I expected. There's an awful lot of coffee in Columbia. So we'd heard, and decided to head straight to the
Zona Caferia from Medellín, our port of entry from Ecuador. Medellín is a read brick and tile city surrounded by mountains that provide a deep green backdrop. The road from the airport to the city winds through rich agricultural country with comfortable farms and and commercial nurseries. The city was once the centre for the cocaine trade. The obvious reminder of violence past is the large number of security personnel in evidence. It is now a safe place to visit and has diversified its economy, which is clearly continuing to thrive.
Civic pride is apparent everywhere, from the almost sparkling new metro system to the space given to formal artworks (including its most famous citizen Fernando Boltero) and the informal creativity evident in many small public works. A cable car route was added to the metro a few years ago to help people living in some of the poorer areas up the hillside reach the centre. A very new extension to this now offers all citizens access to a national park on the highland above the city.
Columbia has a small
Salento
A typical streetscape. amount of international tourism, mainly backpackers and independent travellers from a wide range of countries, but there is a huge amount of internal tourism. After Medellín, we visited two tourist towns, small places which have not yet had their colonial architecture destroyed by earthquakes (the fate of many other places in the highlands). These are bijou towns, with plazas, churches, small streets all belonging to a bygone era. They show the love of bright colours that we noticed on newer buildings in the citiesñar they are brightened further by the wares on display in all the souvenir shops. Santa Fé de Antioquia and Salento both buzz during weekends and fall silent when the visitors are away. We copped the equivalent of Schoolies´Week in Santa Fé and had to tolerate crowds of young people wizzing around the cobbled streets on motor bikes. The number of visitors attests to the relative comfort of the middle class in this country.
We made one escape in a tourist jeep to the Parque National de Cocora, where we enjoyed riding horses past stands of wax palms (the tallest palm on earth and national emblem) and through the cloud forest to enjoy bowls of steaming
Medellín
Dancing at the Sunday market near el Parque de Bolívar. hot chocolate with hunks of tart, white cheese to dip in them. There was also a small fiesta in the city square one evening. But we were left feeling that, while these are picturesque places for city folk to come for relaxation, there was not much to hold us there.
In fact, time to head for the capital Bogotá.
Travel Information
In Medellin we'd been recommended the Hotel Balcones de Estudio (Carrertera 69 #C2-43). At C$50,000.0 (US$26.50) per night for a single, it was a little high for our budget but probably worth the cost, being in a quiet and respectable suburb with cafés and restaurants, and only 2 or 3 metro stops from the centre.
Santa Fé was enjoying a long weekend, and all the places the guide book recommended turned out to be full as well as grubby. Eventually we were directed to the oldfashioned Hospedaje Rosío (Calle 10 #15-76, Santa Fé de Antioquia). This was an unrenovated but cleanly kept home, with rooms to let around a courtyard of fruit trees and hamocks. Sharing the cold shower and renting beds rather than rooms was worth it for the pleasure of staying with Medellín
We flew direct to Medellín. (Aerial photograph by Cabriel Carvajal. El Museo de Antioquia.) the charming Señora Rosía and her welcoming husband. My bed cost C$12,000.00 (US$6.50) a night. The town has a large amount of budget and moderate accommodation, with many upmarket haciendas which have restaurants and pools, in the surrounding countryside.
We made an overnight stop at
Manizales, another city squeezed between mountains, and stayed at the
Manizales Hostal, a clean, friendly and helpful place, where a dormitory bed cost me C$20,000.00 (US$10.50).
Salento is similarly blessed with budget and midrange accommodation (but no top end) and we simply walked into the first charming looking guest house we saw, the Posada Angel (Calle 6 #7-47). A single room with ensuite and double bed is set me back C$25,000.00 (US$13.50). We had the use of the kitchen and rooftop laundry, cottage-pretty rooms, and a view of the Andes which shifted continually as the cloud moved up and down the valley. It really was a shame that the staff didn´t have sunny dispositions to complement the scene.
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margo
non-member comment
Buena Buena
You trip is looking wonderful!I am so enjoying reading your travel tales and your fotografias tambien. At the moment Ian and I are bike riding on the Queenland coast, we had to make our escape from the winter chills of NSW. Sending you lots of good chi and continued good health on your adventure. Bueno suerte tus amiga Margo X