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Published: July 18th 2014
Medellin City
View from Cerro NutibaraWe arrived at terminal del norte at 8:50am on a 6:30pm night bus from Cartagena. The terminal is well signed in English as well as Spanish and has a tourist information booth where you can pick up a map. The tourist information was actually unmanned when we were there, the person left as soon as a bus pulled in so we helped ourselves to a map which was followed by some stern words by a security guard. To get to the metro from the arrivals area go down one floor and walk along the bridge over the road. The metro station is Caribe. The ticket office is on the right and is COP$1,900 per journey. Put the ticket in the barrier and it keeps it. We caught the metro at 9:10am and got to Parque Berrio station in the centre of town at 9:19am.
Where We Stayed Hotel Alcazar - COP$28,000 for a double room with bathroom, TV, internet and hot water. Calle 49 and carrera 53 (53-40) on the 2nd floor, a few mins from the metro station. Good location and price, TV had a bonus adult channel however hotel wasn't seedy and
a family were checking in where we were.
What We Did Walked around the City, there are a lot of churches, parks and interesting buildings within walking distance of our hotel.
Walked up Cerro Nutibara. A short walk up the hill brings you to a very small copy of a traditional village and nice views over the city.
Went on the cable cars. There are two routes; K which goes from Acevedo stop North of the City and J which goes from San Javier West of the City. Cable cars (apart from the one to the national park L) are included in the metro fare of COP$1,900. The metro stations are very open so you can take pictures from the stop without leaving the station. This means you can get the metro to the bottom of the cable car, take a ride up, take some pictures (inside the station), get back on the cable car and get the metro back for the one fare of COP$1,900. The J line cable car was longer and I thought it was more interesting.
Went to Pablo Escobar's grave - this is located in Cementerio Jardines Montesacro.
Medellin City
View from the cable car To get there take the metro to the Sabaneta stop in the South of the City. From the station take the left exit over the bridge and continue along the path until you get to the busy road. The graveyard is just over the road on the left. To get to the grave walk up the path up the hill and towards the church. Walk past the church entrance and turn left immediately, the grave is next to the trees adjacent to the church on the road side.
Went to El Poblado - this is supposed to be the area where most people stay when they visit Medellin however it is a metro ride from the City. Get off at the Poblado station and walk up calle 10. The area around Parque Lleras had a lot of bars and clubs although we visited during the day so not much was happening but it seemed a nice area.
Went to the Jardin Botanico - we had some time to spare before we caught a night bus and we had our bags in storage at the North bus station so we decided to walk to the Botanic Gardens. To get
Location of Pablo Escobar's grave
This is facing away from the road. The church is on the right. there from Terminal Del Norte walk over the far metro bridge which is on the first floor near ticket counters 1 and 2. Go all the way across the bridge, past the playground and follow the main road as it curves around. Turn left along that main road and the park is straight ahead. This is a really nice place to stroll around or sit and enjoy the sunshine/shade. Opposite the entrance is the Parque De Los Deseos next to the planetarium which is a good place to sit and get some food from cheap food carts.
VISITED LA PIEDRA EL PENOL
Apparently the 3rd largest monolith in the world.
We caught the metro to Caribe for COP$1,900 from Parque Berrio which took 7mins. From Caribe the left exit goes to the North bus terminal. We headed here after checking out of our hotel and catching a night bus so we put our bags in storage. This cost COP$5,000 per bag and is located downstairs and to the left as you enter from the metro. This is the same location as the ticket offices for buses to Guatape (offices number 9 and 15). Both companies
quoted COP$11,000 each way to Piedra El Peno however one company went down to COP$10,000 so we went with them (sotransanvicente).
The bus left at 10:30am and arrived at the rock at 12:15pm. When you get off the bus there are people with tuk tuks or horses to take you up to the rock entrance however it is only a 15min walk.
Entrance fee is COP$10,000 each and there are free toilets at the entrance. There are 740 steps up to the top of the observation tower on top of the rock. It is a pretty hard climb, bring water. There are nice views all the way up and 360 degree views from the top of the tower.
We waited for a return bus at the road where we were dropped off. After a few mins (at 1:50pm) a bus came. It was pretty full and we had to stand for part of the way. We paid the driver COP$10,000 each as we got off.
Where We Ate In parque Berrio people sold plates of meals, (meat, rice, potatoes, salad, beans and a cup of drink) for COP$2,000. There are also burger vans,
arepa stands and drink venders in the evenings which are cheap.
There are lots of Exito supermarkets in town and an Olimpica on carrera 42 and calle 49.
About Medellin Medellin is a really easy City to navigate. The tourist maps are really good and include the metro routes. The metro is clearly mapped and signed at each stop and is easy to use. Throughout the City centre there are tourist signs to the main landmarks in Spanish and English.
Everyone says Medellin has perfect weather and when we were there it was true. It was constantly 28 degrees with a few fluffy clouds in the blue skies which meant it wasn't too hot.
The area North of Parque Berrio was a bit dodgy. We walked around there when we were trying to find somewhere to stay and there were a lot of homeless people and prostitutes even at 9am. We didn't go out in the centre at night time.
The City had a very modern feel to it and lots of nice parks.
Where We Went Next We had our bags in storage at the North Terminal
following our trip to Piedra El Penol however we were heading South. On the 3rd floor of Terminal Del Norte, next to Exito Express, are buses which leave to the South Terminal. It cost COP$1,700. We caught it at 5:40pm and paid the driver as you got on. It arrived at the South Terminal at 6pm.
Terminal Sur is not as big as the North Terminal. At the North Terminal there were people selling cheaper food outside and inside the terminal was an Exito Express however we decided to get some food and water once we had got to the South Terminal which was a mistake as there were only expensive restaurantsin the terminal and no-one selling food outside. We ended up just having fried snacks.
We caught the night bus from Terminal Sur to Popayan. We went with Flota Magdalena who left at 9pm and cost COP$60,000 each. We were sat in the very front seats which was a big mistake. On the plus side we had a lot of leg room and no people in front to recline their seats. On the bad side it meant we had front row seats to witness the terrible driving and near misses we had on the bus. The drivers spent more time driving on the left and seemed to prefer to overtake whenever there was a head on collision warning sign. They also ran several red lights when travelling though Cali. Worse than that was that they played dance music all night. They turned the lights off so people could sleep but cranked up the dance tunes at 3am. These factors and the fact that the seats weren't very comfy meant we didn't get much sleep. We arrived in Popayan at 8:45am.
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