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Hello Steemit! Thank you all for the very warm and gracious welcome in my introductory post. I enjoyed interacting with everyone and reading your various experiences and posts. I realize I have some pretty big shoes to fill after perusing the quality content being published every day by so many dedicated Steemians. So without further ado, here is my first post:
My Journey to Medellín, Colombia
Earlier this year I had the opportunity to travel to the beautiful city of Medellín, Colombia. The purpose of the trip was not tourism, but rather to meet the Colombian side of the family of my fiancée, Stephanie. Even so, I looked forward to setting foot on South American soil and continuing my exploration ever deeper into the exciting world of Latin America.
As Canadian travellers often do, I looked up Colombia on the Travel Canada Travel Advice and Advisories website to get a sense of what to expect when I landed in Medellín. Having binge-watched the popular Netflix show Narcos, I half expected to see warnings about crime and violence in Medellín. I was not disappointed:
Colombia - Exercise a high degree of caution due to high levels of crime. Avoid all travel to the following areas due to the risk of kidnapping and violent crime posed by the presence of illegal armed groups and other criminal organizations. https://travel.gc.ca/destinations/colombia
Alrighty then! I best keep my white gringo butt planted firmly beside my Mexican fiancée at all times, keep my wallet in my boxer briefs and leave my camera in the room. So much for taking pictures.
A Canadian Welcome
The plane landed at the José María Córdova International Airport shortly after midnight. Stephanie and I took different planes because she was travelling with her mother and had booked their tickets weeks earlier than me. Luckily we arrived within 20 minutes or so of each other and we met up in a sea of people lining up to go through immigration.
After what seemed like an eternity, I was called to the immigration booth and presented my Canadian passport to the very Spanish speaking officer. In broken English that consisted only of "Sorry" and a barrage of hand signals, I realized that I ended up in the wrong lane. Apparently there were two lanes: one for me and one for everyone else. That's right, my trusty Canadian passport was not good enough to allow me passage with all the other travellers. I was taken aside where I had to pay $201,000 COP (Colombian Pesos - $79 CAD/ $60 USD) in order to enter the country. This, I learned, was a reciprocity fee that was only required for Canadian tourists in response to a $85 CAD biometric surcharge for Colombians who are applying for a Canadian visa. Gee, thanks Trudeau.
As much as I disliked having to pay a fee simply to enter the country, I had to admit I was kind of impressed with the attitude of these Colombians in the face of greedy and redundant bureaucratic Canadian fees. Well done Colombia!
The taxi ride to our Airbnb in Laureles lasted a hellish 40 minutes along a windy mountainous road. The driver seemed to think he would get a bigger tip if he got us to the destination sooner. We were passing cars on a hill, cutting corners on blind curves and racing down the mountain on wet roads.
Needless to say, I didn't notice much of the scenery because for a while I was focussing on the increasingly small distance between the taxi's front bumper and the motorcycle's rear licence plate in front of us. I could see the little guy crouching over the handle bars, desperately leaning forward in an attempt to "will" his bike to go faster all the while squeezing his knees to hold on to that bike for all that was near and dear to him. My own feet were planted in the corners of the passenger floor while I white-knuckled the door handle. Does this guy not know where the bloody brake is?! Colombian drivers are nuts!
When we finally started the descent into the Medellín valley, we were greeted by a billion glittering lights, salsa beats from all directions and mouth-watering smells from the many street food vendors. This city is alive!
Our Airbnb was located on the third floor of an apartment building in the heart of the Laureles Estadio barrio (neighbourhood).
For $175,000 COP ($69 CAD/ $53 USD) per night, we got a full sized apartment with a gorgeous view of the city and the surrounding mountains. The apartment was quite homey and included a small living room and kitchen on the main level and two bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms on the second level. The only iffy situation I encountered was some weird on-demand heater contraption that was strapped directly to the top of the pipe leading to the shower head. An exposed electrical wire was sitting on top of that pipe and way too close to the water for my liking. In order to make the thing work, you had to push buttons on the contraption and close to that exposed wire. I needed a shower badly and pushed the image of my fiancée finding my dead naked body on the shower floor out of my mind. But, try as I might, it didn't work and I had my first cold shower of the week.
It didn't even matter - the weather was too hot anyway, and the cold water washed off all the grime and sweat acquired by a long day of travelling. I was gone as soon as my head hit the pillow.
The next morning we were greeted with a spectacular view of the city from the balcony:
Breakfast at El Colmado
You know what they say: breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and especially so for starving travellers. We got up bright and early, and hit the streets to get a taste of the city. The streets were are already abuzz with the hustle and bustle of Colombians going about their daily routines.
We were walking on Carrera 70 on our way to the San Javier barrio to meet the new in-laws when we got a nose full of something wonderful. It was that inviting fragrance of breakfast - bacon, eggs and I don't know what else - that pulled us by the nose and right into the little hole-in-the-wall called El Colmado.
Breakfast was absolutely divine! I never knew you could eat steak that early in the morning! But I devoured it along with an arepa (corn pattie) with cheese, scrambled eggs and rice and beans. And to top it all off: authentic, fresh, black Colombian coffee right from the source. Damn that was good. All of that (x3) for a very cool $28,000 COP ($11 CAD/ $8 USD) - tip included!
After breakfast we continued our journey on to San Javier to meet the family. Here are some of the sights we encountered along the way:
That's it for today folks! I hope you enjoyed my exploration of Medellín so far. Please join me next time when I share my experiences of San Javier, el Jardín Botánico, Sabaneta and Pueblito Paisa. I'll talk about my interactions with the local people, including what happened when my gringo self decided to take my camera to the streets afterall.
See you next time!
To read the second part of my trip, go here: https://steemit.com/travelfeed/@journeyofanomad/medellin-part-ii-san-javier-sabaneta-and-more
Journey of a Nomad
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