20/05/2019 – Medellin, Colombia

We got up and had our own breakfast, a bowl of all bran and a banana, a welcome break from the cooked breakfasts that have been included in a lot of our hostels and casas so far! Josh spoke to Louis, I think he is moving out of our old flat soon, so a slight change of plan for us when we get back. We left the house and walked into the centre of Medellin, first to Parque Berrio, a little square outside the metro station where many people were gathering for an afternoon natter or drink. From there we walked to the plaza de las Esculturas - a plaza filled with 23 bronze Botero statues, then to the basilica de la candelaria – a church built in the 70’s, followed by browsing the centro artisanal Mi Viejo Pueblo (a touristy artisanal market, we didn’t buy anything - we are holding out for the market near Quito which apparently is one of the biggest artisanal markets in South America).

Plaza de las Esculturas.

Botero statues.

Botero statues.

Ready for a pitstop and some fuel we hopped on the metro to a neighbourhood called El Poblado. We wandered around the area, it is the gentrified backpacker part of town known as ‘gringolandia’. I think it gets lively in the evenings - there were hip bars and restaurants and expensive shops, we even came across a Doc Marten shop! We went to a little vegetarian café for a set lunch, then wandered around the corner to a lonely planet recommendation ‘Pergamino’ coffee shop. We enjoyed the change of tone and scenery of the place, and the coffee was very tasty too! We then wandered for a little longer around the area, popped into Exito (supermarket) and then got in the queue for the metro – it was like trying to get on the tube at Oxford street in rush hour, elbows out and sharpened! We got back to our hostel and spoke to Goldie and Elime who are on holiday in Cuba so on the same time zone (ish) as us whilst we made some dinner and drank a bottle of wine. One bottle in we were worried we were going to run out (it is such a tough life when this is one of your main concerns isn’t it!) so we popped to the off license where a customer and the shopkeeper were sharing a bowl of chips through the metal bars of the shop. We had a lovely chat with them and they told us Salento (where we are going tomorrow) is very beautiful, we are excited to go there! It is the little interactions with locals like this that really make our day and feel special and memorable. We fell asleep before we finished the wine!