Medellin was the most dangerous city in the world not too long ago. The thought of tourists coming to visit would have been unthinkable in the 90’s. Now it is a popular place on the South American tourist route for European and American travelers. It is also becoming a favorite spot for digital nomads because of the relatively safe Expat neighborhoods with really affordable housing and food. We took a walking tour to understand what it was like 30 years ago and see how the city has overcome the cartel violence. Our tour guide told harrowing stories of he and his family witnessed growing up and it is understandable the hate that most residents have for Pablo Escobar and his violence. But there is also conflicted emotions, as Escobar funneled money into housing in poor areas, so many are appreciative. And some enamored of his reputation as a “powerful badass”. The world’s cocaine is still grown in Colombia (70%) but the transportation and delivery is now handled by Mexican cartels so Medellin is not in the gang turf wars that create a lot of the violence. The city has recovered and are proud of some pretty significant projects including: a long highway tunnel to the airport, an elevated rail metro through the length of the town, and a series of cable car routes that connected to the metro that I will talk about later. Our tour guide explained how that long time residents try to forget the bad times of the cities past and instead focus on their achievements and also just having fun. This town is filled with a lot of music, food, and arts and residents are determined to live life to the fullest.
After seeing the colonial architecture beauty of Bogota and Cartagena, Columbia, and Antigua, Guatemala, it was disappointing to find the drab buildings of Medellin. The country had destroyed most of their old structures in favor of the modern brutalist style in the 1900’s as they tried to create their modern city. A river runs through the length of the town but it is contained in cement banks and it filled with trash. The city of over 4 million people live in a bowl surrounded by mountains. For the most part, the upper and middle class people are in the valley, (many in unremarkable tall apartment buildings) and the poor are housed in brick and sheet metal shacks on the hills. The downtown town squares did have some sculptures including over 20 bronze Fernando Botero sculptures that made it a bit more interesting. While most of the buildings didn’t wow us, Medellin had a lot of other things going for it that make it a worthwhile place to visit – loads of green space and park areas made for an overall pretty city.
We’ve ridden many tourist gondola and cable cars all over the world but this was our first cable car (gondola) that was designed for commuter use. Medellin had huge numbers of people living on the steep hillsides that didn’t have a reasonable commuting route to a job in the city. The city has built 6 different lines since 2004 with 19 stations that all connect to the cities traditional rail metro. Neighborhoods that were previously isolated can now join the cities economy. Thousands of people wait in line to commute to town each morning. It has been such a success that other places are also building more commuting cable cars. La Paz, Bolivia, Caracas, Venezuela, and Mexico City have also implemented popular cable cars to neighborhoods that are tough to reach with conventional rail metros. Cable cars are so much cheaper than rail that I hope that Europe and America will also start to use these in certain situations. In Seattle, we have struggled to pay for our next round of light rail and part of the cost is inflated because of property costs, tough topography and difficult water crossings. A gondola system to West Seattle or Ballard or even up Capital Hill would be amazing in Seattle and would cost way less money than tunnelling or building bridges over waterways.
Yes I am a gondola fan-boy for commuting, but they are amazing for tourists as well. The view over Medellin from our gondola rides were absolutely amazing. It was breathtaking to see the whole city rising up the mountains from the valley. While we were underwhelmed by Medellin’s architecture, our cable car rides were overwhelming. Medellin is a beautiful city when seen from above. At times, it reminded me of overlooking the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Our pictures don’t do it justice.
Like the rest of Colombia, there was no shortage of deep fried street food. Empanadas, bunuelos, arepas and a lot of other stuff that we tried and didn’t know what they were called. We drank a lot of fruit juice smoothies and ate many restaurant entrees that were less than $10 and many were less than $5. We are big fans of the different flavors and overall value of Colombian food. It is going to be tough to leave Colombian restaurants.
Overall, we enjoyed our weeks in Colombia. We didn’t get out for nightlife in many places including Medellin because we were still a bit worried about street crime. The country is safe from the cartels but we still have some worries about petty crime after dark. We felt comfortable at times, but at other times we just weren’t sure…. We were scheduled to head to Quito and Cuenca but have now shifted to the Caribbean after the recent uprising of the cartels in Ecuador. Our next stop is Aruba!!!