Great Walking Tour of Medellin – in English!

Yes, I am tired from the day of touring the city of Medellin, but more than that, I am really impressed by this sprawling and interesting – and beauty filled – city of 2.5 million people. I am even more impressed because we did a great walking tour of Medellin in English.

This morning I woke up at 8:45am! I haven’t slept this late since sometime in July in Toronto, maybe. I don’t remember. After all the action of yesterday, I slept late today.

Real city tours

After our morning self-guided tour, we spent yesterday afternoon in a walking tour of the city with Pablo, the founder and owner of Real City Tours. The day was a mix of rain, clouds and sun, and Pablo always found a place with shelter or provided us with umbrellas and rain ponchos so we were comfortable. The tour is advertised as “free” and you provide a tip at the end based on how good you thought it was. After 4 hours of learning so much about Medellin, its people, sights and culture, we thought the tour was great!

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Touring Around Medellin

Our first day in Medellin and we saw a lot! This morning we did a self-guided tour of Medellin’s fancy metro system, including the cable cars (more cable cars!). This city is sprawling, and the cheap metro system is a great way to get around. Here’s what we learned and saw in our first day touring around Medellin.

What They Say About Medellin

Things I have heard about Medellin from Colombians: It’s the best climate; the people are very impressed with themselves; they love their subway; they like plastic surgery. Things I’ve noticed: the climate is pretty good!; the people are very nice (like everyone across the country); their subway is very nice and clean!; I have not noticed plastic surgery. It’s certainly not like Beverly Hills where you can’t avoid it.

Riding the Medellin Subway

We started the day on Medellin’s impressive and cheap subway system. Less than a dollar gets you a fare anywhere on the metro line. And most of the route is above ground so you can take some cool photos of the views!

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Manizales to Medellin, Or I Hate the Bus

I hated it. To begin with, I am not a bus person. I need gravol for my motion sickness. This bus ride was supposed to take 4 hours and it ended up as 6 1/2. Plus it was 6 1/2 hours of windy roads. This happened to me already in Colombia and now I’ve learned my lesson. Non stop windy roads through mountains. The trip from Manizales to Medellin via bus reminded me that I hate bus trips.

The Roads from Manizales to Medellin via Bus

These roads were filled with trucks. Trucks that can’t handle windy roads up and down hills, so have to stop and wait at every single turn until there is enough room for them to navigate. Some of these waits lasted 15 minutes. Some felt like they were taking 30 minutes.

Brian said it was going to be worth it for the views. Nope. This wasn’t an epic road trip like The Garden Route or the Ring of Kerry. Not worth it. Hated it. Should have flown.

Losing my Book

Plus in all the desire to leave the most hated bus ever I left my Lonely Planet Colombia behind. I packed light but that was one of my prized possessions. It served its use and I am fine without it. It was pretty thin on Medellin – really? Only 4 pages for the 2nd biggest city in the country? Fine. We’ll use our wits and we’ll see how that goes! Maybe some good stories ahead!

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