Tag: Sights

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 Town and Termales

After a fantastic night’s sleep at the finca, yesterday’s plan was to explore the nearby town of Manizales and local hot springs, or termales. We had a great day and are so glad we visited Manizales town and termales.

Manizales Landscape

Manizales is part of a beautiful landscape but I could never live here. The driving up and down and around winding mountains is too much for my motion sickness! I have taken gravol before every single drive into and out of this coffee farm and I am still feeling it!

visit to the town

We took the Hacienda Venecia van to the highway and the lovely Angela from the hotel accompanied us into town. We hitched a ride with a collectivo jeep for a 15 minute journey that cost 5000 COP for the two of us (about $2.20 Canadian). Cool trip – the views along the mountains are lovely. I just would be addicted to Gravol if I lived here.

We walked around the town a bit, visited some plazas and a cathedral.

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A Bogota Bike Tour And the Food to Fuel It

Today was a beautiful day in Bogota, so we experienced the city on two wheels with a Bogota bike tour.

Biking in Bogota

Sunday is a big day for cyclists in Bogota Colombia because they close the streets to cars. You heard me right! A big chunk of main streets in Bogota are shut down for pedestrians and cyclists for Ciclovia, and we wanted to be part of it! Since we don’t travel with bikes, we participated in a bike tour with Bogota Bike Tours. For 35,000 COP (less than $16 Canadian), we got a 5 hour ride around the city with a lot of facts and fun!

Fuel for the Bike Tour

The best way to get ready for a bike tour is to eat! Since we didn’t eat dinner last night because of our massive lunch, we stopped at a street with lots of Colombian restaurants. We wanted an authentic breakfast and got it at La Puerta de La Tradicion. We consumed coffee, a milk soup called changua (which was delicious) and chorizo. The food was good, the service was too, and from there it was a quick walk to the bike shop.

Bogota Bike Tour

The English language bike tour left around 10:40am from Bogotá Bike Tours and took us approximately 8KM around the city, with a lot of stops along the way.

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