Colombia: Medellin

A city where we find our favorite Colombian supermarket, which is too hilly to explore on foot, where we ride cable cars as if we were skiing, and test the cinema program, along with one of the most uncomfortable hostels on our trip. All of that is Medellin.

Journey from Salento to Medellin: Due to some warnings, we take a prophylactic motion sickness pill before the journey, because the serpentine roads that the buses snake through are also sickening. Conclusion: Unnecessary. It's simply better to travel during the day, and the views from our small but fine 20-person bus (complete with a great selection of movies) are breathtaking. The bus winds higher and higher until we break through the low-hanging clouds and on the right side, we see beautiful green valleys and canyons with some colorful houses, while on our left the near cliffs rise steeply. Less pleasant are the maneuvers of two children racing down the mountain on a bicycle among all the trucks, not to mention the overtaking maneuvers that the bus/truck drivers themselves make in these tight curves.

Upon arriving in Medellin, we are initially disappointed. Fortunately, our hostel, Ivy, is not located in the tourist district of El Poblado, but it also has the charm of a retirement home. However, the characters living here prove to be interesting: from freelancers to internet nomads who have also worked for the American military, to language students, everything is included.

After a completely disoriented first day, where we get lost multiple times and a nice couple of Jehovah's Witnesses rescues us by kindly approaching us, showing us the right way, and delivering us to the metro along with a business card for Bible study, we realize the need to rely on the local metro here. Probably the only one in all of Colombia, where only buses otherwise operate.

With this wonderful mode of transportation, everything becomes easier, and with Heidelbergerin Patricia, whom we met in Salento, we visit the famous Comuna 13 (including a free walking tour), float with the cable car (yes, like on a ski vacation) over the sometimes critical neighborhoods on the mountainsides, and take a detour to the city center with its Botero figures (which looked much nicer in the ZDF report, not so incredibly shabby, well...). The metro connects everything here. The only thing we reach on foot is the aforementioned tourist, party, and hipster district of El Poblado.

From Medellin, you can take a day trip to Guatape. This small town is mainly known for its unique mountain and lake landscape and its landmark: the rock of El Penol. We head to Terminal Norte in the morning, buy two tickets, board a collectivo, and after about an hour's drive, we jump out of the minibus just before Guatape. The 200-meter-high El Penol is climbed via 650 narrow and winding rock steps, which is a short exertion in the heat, but it's worth it: once at the top, we have a fantastic 360-degree view of the entire valley with all its small lakes, surrounded by green islands and mountains.

In Medellin, we feel twice as if we were back in Europe. First, when visiting the Colombian cinema. We treated ourselves to it at a price of €5 per ticket for the back rows - no comparison to German cinema prices. Lisa chooses the remake of the horror classic IT, which is also showing here. We sit in the huge cinema hall and expect a Spanish dubbing. Far from it. The film is in English with Spanish subtitles. Probably only a few of the around 200 other people appreciate that. The second time was when we discovered CERULLO, a supermarket that is in terms of style and assortment almost on par with the new EDEKA markets in Germany. They even have delicious bread here. Muy bien.

In addition, we spend a very funny, delicious, and entertaining afternoon with Laura, an old friend of Lisa's from Düsseldorf, who is also traveling through South America and happens to be in Medellin.

After five days in Medellin, it's enough. You don't necessarily have to stay here for that long. Conclusion: If you want to experience a taste of the western world while touring South America, you can do so in the malls and supermarkets. But that's about it, because apart from the interesting history of Comuna 13, Medellin unfortunately doesn't have much else to offer. So, let's head to the old and magnificent coastal city of Cartagena.