Medellin was my third destination In Colombia having already been to Bogota and Cartagena, and I was very curious to experience the city as I feel like if you've done any research on a trip to Colombia in recent years, then you will have noticed that Medellin has become a very vogue destination. As usual, my trip was tailored around a football match experience and for that reason I chose to stay in the Laureles-Estadio area of the city. This zone is home to the Atanasio Girardot Stadium which the two major clubs of the city share and is also a bit of a sporting hub in general with other types of sporting facilities all in one big complex next to the stadium. This was a great choice in terms of a football experience but apart from that I wasn't completely enamoured by it. It was nice enough and there was a good buzz around the main streets and around the sporting complex, but if I visited the city again I would be interested to stay in another area.
The non-football highlight of my time in Medellin was the trip out to the famous nearby town of Guatapé, a resort town a few hours away from Medellin which is set amongst a reservoir. I booked the tour through AirBnb Experience and I met the coach load of fellow tourists early morning in Medellin. We then made our way to the town and hopped onto a boat which meandered its way around the man-made reservoir as the guide pointed out some of the famous mansions dotted on the shore. One of which was a beautiful modern house belonging to Colombian hero footballer James Rodríguez and another the shell of a destroyed building which was once a holiday home of the drug lord Pablo Escobar.
We then had a nice Colombia lunch in the town itself before walking around the area and admiring its pretty and colourful streets. One more stop was then made which was to the huge and iconic rock that is called the Piedra de Peñol. It has over 600 steps built into it which allow you to climb to its summit which sits at around 240 meters. The views from the top are glorious and it is definitely worth the effort. It was then time for the coach to head back and in what was a rather slow and uncomfortably hot journey back through the Medellin rush hour traffic. If I went again, I’d certainly look at travelling privately by hiring a car or paying for a driver. All in all I did find it a little strange that the reservoir that dominates the scenery is man-made, but apart from that it is without doubt a place that is worth a visit if you are in Medellin.
Most of my trip was taken up by my football experience and a tour of Guatape, but one thing I was a little surprised by during my time in the city was that it was pretty damn sticky when I was walking around in the daytime! Of course not as intense as a sea-level city with a similar proximity to the equator, but still noticeably hotter than the climates I had enjoyed in other elevated cities that I'd visited in Latin America. In fairness the city is in a valley and my location was at the foot of it. I also don't adore humidity and I had perhaps been sucked into some of the online comments I had read from heat lovers about the climate being amazing. On my final day in the city I also had the chance to enjoy a customary Sunday morning run on the publicly organised Ciclovia (cycle path), which involves the closing of major highways around the city in order for citizens to exercise, and something that I had thoroughly enjoyed previously in Guadalajara and then Bogota.
My overall feeling from my brief visit to the city is that I was a little underwhelmed. Perhaps Medellin is a victim of its own success with so much hype around it online, and I am certainly happy to be proven wrong if I make the trip there again in the future. I genuinely hope this does happen because the football scene in the Laureles area was incredible and went far past my expectations. I also have to remember that the city not so long ago was regarded as one of the most violent places on the planet due to the illegal drug trade, and with that considered it is amazing to think that I didn't feel in danger at all when I was walking around, particularly in the Laureles barrio.