Medellín: Colombia’s City of Eternal Spring

Six Months in South America: Part 17

After a solid six weeks in Cusco, Perú, I headed to Colombia to visit my friend and former coworker Juan in Santa Marta. However, first, I stopped in the city of Medellín to work and meet up with Juan’s friends Claudia and Luisa in Sabaneta, one of the best moments of my trip. 

Medellín is a fascinating case study of what happens when the former hub of a notorious drug kingpin becomes overrun by digital workers. There are positive and negative aspects to this reality; I recommend reading the Rest of the World’s reporting on digital nomads for better context.

While in Medellín, I did common tourist activities: I went on a day trip to the nearby town of Guatapé, toured the infamous barrio of Comuna 13, and danced salsa with other locals and visitors from around the world. I also got to hike to a national reserve with new friends, try heaps of national dishes, and befriend a group of breakdancers at a city park.

Hiking in Sabaneta

Claudia, Juan’s friend, invited me over to her apartment in the nearby town of Sabaneta, about 45 minutes from Medellín. Her friend Luisa joined us, and we spent the day hiking up to a nature preserve, Parque Ecológico La Romera. Later, we ate sancocho and patacones at Restaurante el viejo John, went swimming at Claudia’s pool, and Claudia made hot chocolate and arepas while we chatted. It was honestly one of my favorite days of the trip, proving that eating good food and walking in nature with friends can be better than visiting the most popular tourist sites or going on fancy tours. 

Trying Colombian dishes

In Medellín, I tasted a few quintessential Colombian dishes including the legendary bandeja paisa. 

La bandeja paisa: A famous Colombian dish that combines beans, rice, an arepa, chorizo, a plantain, chicharrón, avocado and beef.

Sancocho: A hearty stew from the Antioquia region of Colombia that combines potatoes, yucca, corn, plantains, and a meat, either chicken, beef, or pork. I tried a combination of all three. 

Patacón: Fried plantains

Pollo asado al carbón: Roasted charcoal chicken 

Arepas y omelette rancheros: Arepa is a type of flatbread made of ground maize dough stuffed with a filling.

Day tripping in Guatapé

Guatapé, Colombia bills itself as the most colorful town in the Americas due to a law that says every building should be decorated with a zócalo, a colorful tile with raised, carved dimensions.

The town is about three hours from Medellín, and it’s a popular day trip to visit the lake and climb the giant stone El Peñón which has over 700 steps. During my trip, we took a bus from the city; they provided a hearty Colombian breakfast, and I made a new Swiss friend and hung out with a sweet Peruvian family. 

During the trip, we visited the lake, which was created by a massive hydroelectric dam that supplies energy for 30% of the country. We also took a boat trip and drove past 1980s mansions including La Manuela Hacienda, the abandoned, former residence of Pablo Escobar which floats on its own island. Escobar had multiple residences in the region, including a zoo of exotic animals about three hours away from Guatapé, where he smuggled rhinos, giraffes, and even hippos.

Today, La Manuela Hacienda has fallen into disrepair and is owned by the government. The whole complex looked pretty ghostly, with its decrepit soccer field and bombed out buildings rising above the lake.

The City of Eternal Spring

Medellín stands out as one of the Latin American cities I would most like to live and work in, mainly due to the kind Colombians I met, the perfect weather, and stunning green spaces within and around the city. I loved hiking around the “City of Eternal Spring,”  and it was a fantastic first stop in Colombia.