Cable carts, Pablo Escobar, Botanical Gardens and coffee plantations. It pretty much sums up my latest week of adventures out here in Colombia.
End of Day 5
After updating my blog I hung around the hostel and went for a little walk around Medellin. The town is safe enough to walk around at night, especially when you´re in a big group. Unfortunately on sundays there isn´t much going on nearby our hostel. We sat in the park for a while and then headed back to the hostel.
Instead of going to sleep I went to sit on the balcony and grabbed my speakers. I bought a beer downstairs and chilled out with the other backpackers at the hostel. Among them was an American guy called Collin and an Australian girl called Lauren. It became a long night after all as Lauren and I talked for ages about my travels in Australia. Besides she had the same musictaste as I have, so we ended up dancing on the balcony.
Day 6
I woke up around 11. I got up and freshened myself up. I met an American girl, Vina, in the hostel who was about to check out downtown Medellin. She invited me to come along. Another Canadian woman joined us as well. The Metro happens to be walking distance from the hostel, so we grabbed the metro to one of the final stations. There we hopped onto a cablecart that brought us high up on one of the surrounding mountains. The views up there were amazing. The neighbourhood is supposedly a tad dangrous as it high up on the mountains is usually where the getto´s are at. Yet I didn´t feel unsafe walking around there.
After the cable carts we grabbed the metro back to the Universidad station. There we had a little lunch, which became really problematic as the two girls happened to be vegetarian. For some reason it was really hard to cook something up without meat. In the end it all went well and we got our food. Just when we had our food rain just started to drop down, speaking of good timing.
After lunch we headed to the botanical gardens. The gardens happened to be really nice. It contained some structures that were really interesting to say the least. The orchidgarden for example had wooden flowers that were as tall as a building. You´ll have to check out the photos to understand what I am trying to desribe.
After the gardens we went to downtown Medellin. We had a stroll around, walked into a library/office that looked really impressive and checked out the views from the roof. Afterwards we walked around the square out there. It felt a little bit dodgy here so I was a bit cautious of using my camera. Especiallly after an American guy with a dirty t’shirt and a voice of a crystalmeth user came up to us with a story about how he had lost all of his luggage and needed 20,000 pesos just to get a bus to Bogota so he could get to the embassy. His looks just didn´t match his story so we ended up telling him to get out of our way.
Afterwards we checked out a church and sat down for a little while. It started to get dark so we grabbed the metro back to our hostel. On the way home we grabbed some food from the Exito, as MASSIVE supermarket. I couldn´t believe my eyes how big this supermarket happened to be. Certainly one of the biggest I have ever been to. Extremely random as when you´re walking in there it doesn´t feel like you´re in a country like Colombia. We bought some vegetables and pasta sauce for the Bugatini we were going to make at the hostel.
After dinner I was asked whether I liked to go bowling with the hostelpeople. It happened to be the 20th birthday of one of the guys. I joined them all and it became a fun night. The Australian girls came along as well. The bowling alley was a little bit outdated as we had to count the pins ourselves, yet it was all good fun.
After bowling we returned to the hostel. The birthdayboy wanted to go to a stripclub for his birthday. We grabbed a taxi to one of the stripclubs. The Australian girl, Lauren, wanted to come along as well. She told me to wait for her, but when we left I thought she happened to be in the other taxi. Turned out to be not the case. The stripclub turned out to be a bit quiet as it happened to be a mondaynight. We stuck around for an hour or so and then went back to the hostel. Back at the hostel I had to explain Lauren why we hadn´t waited for her. She kind of understood but was still a bit sad she didn´t come along. Afterwards I sat out on the balcony of the hostel and watched a movie.
Day 7
Today I booked myself onto a Pablo Escobar tour. I went together wtih Vina and Heather, the American and Candian girls I had checked out town with the day before. On the tour we drove around Medellin and our guide told us about the life of one of the biggest drugbosses Colombia had ever known. Together with photos of Escobar as a child we drove to several locations, including the house Escobar had built for his family (a massive apartmentcomplex) and all of the massive malls that are still around in Medellin. The guide explained how the members were all religious and showed us the place where they used to come and pray. The tour was really interesting and gave us a good overview of the life of Escobar. At the end of Escobar´s life he got arrested and lost all of his properties and connections, due to police infilitrations. The last few years of his life he lived in a small house with his aunt. There he also got killed in 1993. We looked at the house while the guy showed us photos of Escobars dead body on the roof of the house we were looking at. The tour ended by a visit to the grave of Escobar.
After the tour we went to have some food at the foodcourt of the big supermarket. After dinner I got back to the hostel and watched the 3-hour Batman The dark night movie. Afterwards I went to bed as I had to get up early as I was going to my next destination: Salento. Eventhough I at first planned to skip this place as it´s in the coffee region and I am not a real coffee fan, the Australian girls had convinced me to come and check it out anyway. It did mean I was traveling 6 hours back South, which was not really pracitcal.
Day 8
Around 11 we left the hostel by taxi and drove to the Soutern busterminal of the city. The Australian girls, Lauren and Ashleigh and Collin, the American guy. We bought a busticket and got on to the bus. The travel was supposed to take about 5 hours, but it turned out to be rather longer. After we changed busses in Pereira we arrived at the busterminal of Armenia. There we grabbed a minibus to Salento. All in all it took about 8 hours to get to Salento. Thankfully Collin had sent the hostel we wanted to stay at, The Plantation House, an email to make a reservation. Once we got there it turned out they had given away our beds as that´s what their policy is after 6pm. They told us we could stay at their Plantation farm that happened to be 10 minutes away. We agreed and put down our bags and grab some food. Meanwhile we were welcomed by Oscar, a Dutch guy who went completely mental when I saw Collin, the American guy. They lead us to the big square of the town. The town was covered in mist which gave the town a mysterious effect. On the square we had one of the best hamburgers I probably ever have eaten, the secret ingredient were the crispy chips she threw on it. The burger was filling and a good deal for 5000 pesos (2 euros).
After we had some food we grabbed a beer in an openair bar. Unfortunately it started to rain, thankfully we sat under a roof. After the beer we decided to get back to the plantation house to get some sleep. Once we got there the guy at the desk was surprised we still wanted to go to the farm at this time of the day. It happened to be 10pm. He said it would be a bad idea to go there at this point. The road to the farm was muddy, especially after the rain. He said it would be really hard in the dark, especially since we had never been there before. Quite annoyed about hearing this news only now, he gave us a suggestion for another hostel 1 block away. We headed out there but the doors were already closed. We knocked on the door and an older women came out of her bed. She told us she had one room left with 3 beds. Just enough for the four of us, as 1 of the beds was a double one. We took the room and crashed down for some well deserved sleep.
Day 9
The day started with a shitload of rain. Collin was going to hike through the mountains with Oscar, the dutch guy and another guy from Uzbekistan. Me and the Ozzy girls decided to sleep in and wait for the rain to settle down. Unfortunately that never happened so we ended up spending half of the day sleeping and doing nothing. Later in the afternoon we cooked some late lunch and walked around town to check out one of the coffee tours that were on offer. Lauren and I decided to play some pool at a local poolbar. Eventhough she said she was not good at it, she beat my ass three games in a row. Once back at the hostel we decided to go and check out a local coffee factory and do a little hike in the afternoon the next day. It became an early night as we were still tired, even though we hadn´t done all that much.
Day 10
Around 5am we woke up because of an airalarm going off and fireworks being lit. The alarm happened to be on a car the drove around town. We didn´t know what to do and decided to just wait and go back to sleep. Slowly the alarm drove away again. I had set my alarm and woke up early. I got a shower and got dressed to check out the coffee factory. Around 8:30 I was at the local coffeebar where the tour was supposed to start: Lauren was supposed to join me, but couldn´t get up in time so I ended up doing it on my own. The tour had already left and the guy didn´t feel like starting a new tour just for me. He gave me directions how to get to the factory and just join in on the tour that had already started. The factory was only 3 blocks away so I got there quickly. The factory was a really small one. A guy explained about the different coffee beans and how they were being sorted. The factory was really small and only produced coffee for the local coffeebar in town, daily about 75KG´s of coffee.
After the tour I met up with the Ozzy girls. On the coffee factory tour I was told that there would be a coffee plantation tour starting at 2pm from the Plantation house hostel. Lauren decided to join me. The tour was really cool. The owner of the hostel, a British guy who came to Colombia about 6 years ago and had restored an old plantation to use it as a hostel lead us to the plantation farm, the farm we were supposed to stay at the day before. We walked the path through daylight and I could easily see why it would have been a bad idea to go there in the dark. The road was muddy and full of gaps and stones. I was wearing my hiking boots which was not a bad idea.
Once at the farm we sat down and the British guy explained us the process of farming coffee. At the farm we also met the dutch guy Oscar, the Uzbekiguy and Collin again, as they had been staying at the farm for the last 2 days.
After the tour we had a little walk through the plantation which consisted out of coffee, pineapples, blackberries.and other fruits. It happened to be dry for the first time so it turned out to be a good day. Afterwards we sat down at the rooftop of the farm and overlooked the valley.. some really stunning views.
We headed back to our hostel and we had some food. We ate some food at the mainsquare at the hamburgerstand again. The alarm that had gone off that morning was because of a celebration of the church. The square was full of stands and full of people listening to a guy saying prayers in front of the church. Meanwhile everywhere fireworks were being lit. It felt like new years. The Ozzy girls were a bit scared as they had never been so close to fireworks before. That night we had a few beers on the square and then went back to bed.
Day 11
We decided to do a hike through the National Park today. We met up with another Australian girl who was staying at the farm. We had met her the day before when we did the tour. Me and the three Australian girls grabbed a jeep from the mainsquare and headed to the National Park. Ashleigh, one of the Ozzy girls, only wanted to join us because she had heard there were magic mushrooms growing in the wild in the park. Yet we were more interested in checking out the nature and the views. We hiked for a good 4 hours. It was quite adventurous. We had to cross the river several times by walking over logs that had been thrown across the river, it was all about balance.
After about 3 hours we got to the top of the mountain. We sat down there for a while and went to ´appreciate´ the views as Lauren likes to call it. After half an hour we continued and walked down the mountain over a dirtroad. It took a tad longer than expected getting down. Ashleigh was able to stop a car who drove us down the road, which was good. Once down it was a short walk back to the place where we started.
There we met some other Australians who had been seeking for magic mushrooms. They gave Ashleigh a big bag of mushrooms they had found. Ashleigh was happy and ate half of the bag in one go. We knew we wouldn´t be able to talk much to her again for the rest of the day.
Once back at the hostel she sat down and was completely spaced out. She sat down on her bed an all she could say was.. This is so…. WEIRD! She kept on repeating herself for the next 90 minutes. Lauren and I went crazy and we decided to take her to the Plantation House hostel where the other Australians were at who had been taking mushrooms as well. Ashleigh decided to walk to the plantation farm together with the other Ozzy girl to sit around there.
Lauren and I went to have a some food in town, as all the stands for the church festival were all setup. We had some typical Colombian food with a beer. Afterwards we went to the hostel for some sleep.
Day 12
I decided it was time for me to move on again. I had spent more days in Salento than I estimated at first. I had a shower and packed my bag. Meanwhile Lauren cooked my breakfast which was really kind. Ashleigh came back in the early morning from the farm. She had been sleeping in a hammock the whole night. We had breakfast together and then I had to say bye. Lauren was finishing her trip in South America in a few days, so she was heading to Bogota. Ashleigh was moving south too, so we had to split up. They took me to the busstop and I grabbed a bus back to Pereira. There I searched for a bus to Cartagena, but it turned out I had to go to Medellin first and catch a bus from there. I decided to not stop in Medellin again, as that would only delay the rest of my trip. After 5,5 hours I got to the Southern terminal of Medellin. There I grabbed a taxi to get to the Northern terminal from where bussed that head North depart. At the terminal I bought me a busticket and sat down to write this massive blogpost.
The bus is leaving in an hour from now and it will take about 12 – 13 hours to get there. It is an overnight bus so I will get there in the early morning. Lauren and Ashleigh recommended a hostel near the beach, so that´s where I´ll probably go to once I arrive.
Stay tuned for more updates soon!!
Jul 12th 2010 – Jul 18th 2010
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