Day 7 and 8 Salento - Medellin

Yesterday we covered some distance. It took us about 8 hours for 250 km. The roads are winding, always up and down, and often in poor condition. But road construction in Colombia is surely a challenge. In any case, outside the cities, it's very green. When we arrived at our apartment in Medellin, I was quite exhausted. The feeling that everything is just too much. The long bus ride, the noisy city, and our accommodation in the middle of the party and sex scene. Farina copes better with it, after all, there are a few years between us. 😅 After eating something and shopping, today we are staying in an apartment, and my condition has normalized again.

It's raining this morning. We actually wanted to do a free walking tour in Communa 13. Instead, we decided to go shopping queens for now, at least we wouldn't get wet.

By noon, the weather improved, so we participated in the tour at 2 p.m. The guide spoke English, so I could understand a bit, and Farina translated the rest for me. Brief explanation about Communa 13: For years, Communa 13 was a war zone, where changing factions fought for control. With the terror regime of drug king Pablo Escobar, there was a civil war between security forces, right-wing paramilitaries, and the left-wing Farc guerrillas in Medellin and throughout Colombia. In an area of around 7 square kilometers, mostly on steep slopes, 160,000 people lived in 2017, mostly in poor conditions. Until the 1980s, the neighborhood suffered from the so-called Medellin Cartel and became known for bloody and lethal confrontations between rival drug gangs. Until 2010, this area was the second most dangerous area in the world. First place was occupied by the Gaza Strip. There are still 2 cartels there today, with which one has to cooperate. There is also a giant open-air escalator, which was opened in December 2011. With a length of 348m, it covers a total of 28 floors. The construction work was more dedicated to tourists than to the residents themselves. The houses and walls are extensively painted with graffiti, with the background that no taxes have to be paid for these buildings.

Overall, I really enjoyed this tour. Especially the street dance performance that we got in the middle of it. For me, it's somehow its own interesting world.

On the way back home, we had a very entertaining taxi driver. Thanks to Google Translate, he asked and told a lot. He warmly welcomed us, explained a bit about the way. In the end, he said: women are the best of creation. We couldn't disagree with him at all. 😅