Jotvinge and I finally said goodbye to the Caribbean coast and arrived to the second largest Colombian city Medellin.  Around 2.7 million people live here, and it is  surrounded by the mountains.

Casa Kiwi, Medellin, 02-12-2013

From the airport we took the bus to the center of the city.  When we explained where we needed to go, the bus driver dropped us near the taxi. Strange?! So we finally got to El Poblado, as it was said in the guide book - one of the best parts of Medellin.  But for us, it felt just like US : a lot of tourists, very expensive restaurants, bars, stores, and hotels, and you can´t bargain there. It is a good place to party, so it was a lot of very young people. That´s not what we were looking for.

After a long search for a cheaper hostel, we decided to stay in CASA KIWI for 60,000 pesos, which had free Internet, a kitchen, and even a roof top pool. It was a very nice hostel, but we couldn´t stand the noise and the crowd. So we spent a bit more time searching for a different hostel on Internet. Finally, I found a couple of hostels, and the next day we moved to another part of the city- El Laureles.

Palm Tree Hostel, Medellin, 02-14-2013

We took two buses.  When we finally reached the address of the hostel, people said it was not a hostel, but somebody´s apartment. So we went to another hostel I found on Internet, and the house appeared to be abandoned. The neighbour said it belonged to mafia. It was crazy!! We were walking with our bags on for 4 hours and we got very tired and frustrated. It was good that didn´t reserve those rooms in advance. I believe it was some kind of scam.

Anyway, we finally found the hostel-PALM TREE HOSTEL.  The first night we paid 60,000 pesos. Then the next night they moved us to a different room with discount, so we paid 54,000 pesos afterwards.

With James from San Francisco, Medellin, 02-14-2013

After the adventures of finding accommodations, we were exhausted.  So we relaxed for couple of days. We start exploring Laureles, it was much nicer than El Poblado. The people in our hotel were much nicer and quieter. We met some interesting people there.

James and his wife are travelling from Mexico on bicycles. They are from San Francisco. It was very interesting and inspiring to us to see that people in their 50-ties can do that kind of journey! They explained us that there were bicyclist community all over the world.  You can stay in their houses, but you need to arrange this in advance and contribute by cleaning apartment or something else. The bicycles they have, weigh around 60kg (120lbs) each. They did 11,000 km so far!! It is fascinating!!

With Gustavo and Ana, Pueblito, Medellin, 02-16-2013

On Saturday we arranged the meeting with our friend Gustavo, who we met in Tayrona park. He arrived with his ex girlfriend Ana. We went to the center, where we saw beautiful buildings, famous old hotel, a lot of sculptures of fat people- that´s Medellin´s original art. It was very nice.
For lunch we went to the restaurant, we tried Medellin´s specialty - BANDEJA PAISA.  That was a big meal, which included a lot of meat (bacon, sausage, beef), rice, beans, and vegetables. By the way, the people of Medellin and whole Antiouqia call themselves Paisas.

Medellin, 02-17-2013

After a nice lunch, we went to small town of Pueblito, which was located on the mountain inside Medellin. It was nice old town, it used to be a radio station there. From Pueblito we could see the whole Medellin. There was a market in Pueblito, a lot of souvenirs, so Anna decided to buy a present for Jotvinge - earrings, it was a beautiful gesture. After a nice day, we split up and in the evening Gustavo and Anna arrived for some drinks to our hostel. We spend lovely evening talking. We stayed up pretty late that night.....

Next evening we met some more interesting people. We met an Australian couple, who have already been travelling for 1.5 YEARS!!  James and Fleur are very interesting people and travelers, they gave us a lot of advice about where to go.  And we are planning to use their advice.

Talking with local kids, Medellin, 02-17-2013

Another interesting part of Medellin is their Metro system. As Gustavo told us and we saw ourselves, it is like a different culture, it is very clean there. We saw cleaning ladies were cleaning parts of the floor with the tooth brush! People in the trains were very polite. As Gustavo told us that Colombians trying to spread Metro culture all over Colombia.  There are two Metro lines and tree cable car lines. We took both Metro lines and one of the cable car lines to the mountains. We tried walking up the mountain through the poorer neighbourhood (locals later told us it was dangerous to walk there).   We enjoyed the hike, but it was very steep, so we went half way and went back. We had a chance to see how poor people live in Colombia. Jotvinge said it was like in the movies- small houses, clipped to one another. Interesting experience!

We also went to the botanic garden.  It was beautiful there.  We saw a lot of interesting animals there: turtles, colorful birds, even huge iguanas jumping on the trees, and, of course, exotic plants and flowers, which Jotvinge liked very much. After that we met a girl, who spoke a little bit of English and she was studying in the university. She let us in the University campus (although there was a security and you could not get in if you were not a student).  We wanted to buy a textbook to learn Spanish, but coudn´t get it. Anyway, the campus was very big, a lot of buildings there, even a huge outdoor pool (we wanted to swim there badly!).
On Tuesday we left to go to Jardin, Colombia. That´s the town, recommended to visit by our new friends James and Fleur. It was very nice to stay and see Medellin, very cultural city with nice gardens, universities, museums, nice buildings (they have only intelligent building in the world), and metro system (the only one in Colombia). A little more than 10 years ago it was very dangerous city ( it was hometown of  famous narcotrafficer Pablo Escobar), but now everything has changed-  I did not expect to see such a beautiful city.

Now we are looking forward for our next part of our journey to the mountains and coffee plantations - Jardin.