Medellín, Colombia

Tuesday, 1 August 2023

When a precious BFF asks if you want to go with her to a destination wedding week in MEDELLÍN, COLOMBIA = South America checked off my international bucket list!!!

(My BFF Angie’s daughter (18, just graduated high school, never been further away than Disney) has been dating a sweet boy for about a year. His mom is originally from Medellín, and she was getting remarried there; of course he wanted his long-term girlfriend to attend, but Angie wasn’t ok sending her abroad for the first time with no familiar adult other than the bride, who would obviously be busy. Angie asked if I would come with on a girls trip, so we’d be there, if her daughter needed us. Absolutely! And they even invited us to the wedding!)

Just arrived to our 25th floor Airbnb condo - gorgeous view from the balcony at night! Can’t wait to see it tomorrow!

Wednesday, 2 August 2023

The town of Guatapé, its surrounding lakes, & its famous nearby rock: el Peñol = a requisite day trip for anyone visiting Medellín, and they did not disappoint!

We even had fun on the way there:

We danced cumbia (gracias, 8 years of Zumba that instantly came back :-D) on a boat passing in front of Pablo Escobar’s bombed out former compound & the current lavish villas of J Balvin & Maluma. Pre-dancing:

Guatapé is so vibrant & adorable:

I had the best cinnamon roll ever (it was the quality of the cinnamon + they kept it in a steamer, so the outer ring never dried out!) after sancocho (traditional chicken soup) for lunch.

Ready to climb the *750* stairs up to the top of el Peñol!!! I was surprised, because I thought we would begin the climb at lake level, but you have to drive up a mountain above the lakes just to get to the starting point!!! The altitude was no joke!

Climbing back down was way easier, (but most spots were nowhere near this wide, though!)

Collapsing now before I see this sunrise again tomorrow…

Thursday, 3 August 2023

I planned a dreamy day of polar opposite experiences: private tour of a rural chocolate farm northeast of Medellín in Barbosa followed by a “graffiti tour” (really a street food & neighborhood culture tour) of Comuna 13 - a famous district of Medellín that survived paramilitary terror to become a thriving, vibrant cultural hub!

On the chocolate tour, we hiked up a mountain (we’re in the Andes!!!) to where this family has about 200 cacao trees. We harvested 3 varieties of pods, tasted the fruity sweet raw cacao, and learned volumes about the land & local nature, before returning to the farmhouse to peel, dry, roast, shell, & then actually grind the cacao beans with sugar into the organic chocolate paste we used to make our own artisanal chocolate bars!!! 

Twisting to pick a ripe cacao pod:

The cacao pods grow all over the trees, not just on the branches, & I was surprised at how low to the ground the pods could grow:

Peeling & separating the fresh cacao beans to ferment for a week in a wooden box:

Roasting already-dried beans:

Shelling our freshly roasted beans to get the nibs:

Grinding our nibs + sugar together 6 complete rounds to make chocolate paste:

Making our own chocolate bars with our fresh paste + whatever add ins we chose - I picked vanilla paste, ginger, cinnamon, chili, & sea salt:

We ended our experience there sipping their fresh, organic hot chocolate & eating pan de queso (Colombian cheese bread) = idyllic!

(Yes, I would LOVE to share where to buy their handmade chocolates, but they really are just this one little family in the middle of nowhere. They had a bare bones FB page - feel free to reach out & try: cacaoprimaveral@gmail.com )

Our Comuna 13 tour was the exact opposite of rural chocolate farm chill = bustling, vivacious, & energetic! We learned so much about the former brutal history of the district & were left with so much hope & positivity. The street food was my fave: Colombian pastel de pollo (a chicken pastry) & crema mango (frozen fresh mango ice pop - despite the name, with no cream) and yes, there was dancing!

The violent history of this place is heartbreaking, and yet, the revitalization is inspiring! This plaza used to be an execution yard & is now a playground:

Shocker = I got picked to dance :-D

Graffiti representing freedom, human value, open minds, & equality:

With our guide, Alex:

Friday, 4 August 2023

So this happened today… 🪂 I never thought in a million years Angie would consent to paragliding - she’s afraid of heights! But it’s a quintessential Medellín (Bello) experience in the Andes; so when *she* suggested looking into it, I was all in! Anxious? Of course! (I’m not necessarily afraid of heights, but I’m afraid of edges, ledges, falling, & the idea of dropping things out of the sky - the GoPro stick, sunglasses, etc. = turns my legs into concrete jello + I get motion sickness) But we checked off another bucket list item!!!

Their quote: “What would life be, if we have no courage to attempt anything?”

Heart beating quickly on the launch track… (& I love how you can see the shadows that the clouds are casting straight down!)

With my pilot:

That’s ME after taking off:

 

Success!!!

Friday afternoon was extremely chill - Angie has Celiac, diverticulitis, + egg & dairy allergies, so we purposely found an incredible restaurant (OCI.mde) where she could actually have *choices*, before exploring El Castillo Museum & Gardens, her last must-see.

Friday night was the first (& only) time we got back to our condo before 9 or 10 PM, so I actually got to enjoy the steam room + teach a short StudioSmile yoga class (moon sals) by the pool before bed.

Saturday, 5 August 2023

The wedding - the reason we came to Medellín - was a delight! The views, the weather, the atmosphere = stunning!

(Dancing all night with the Mother of the Bride,

after we’d danced together Wed on the boat!)

Meditations on Medellín before flying back Sun, 6 Aug = so friendly, temperate, lush, mountainous, inexpensive, & hospitable!

•With such an influx of tourism there now, we were shocked at how many people *didn’t* also speak some basic/broken English. If Angie hadn’t been proficient in conversational Spanish, we would have had a challenging time. (Of course, there’s always Google Translate (which I absolutely utilized!) but it was still stunning, even with her better-than-decent Spanish, how challenging communication was at times.)

•Colombia is currently in our same Texas time zone (technically Eastern - due south of NYC - but they don’t do daylight savings, so right now they’re Central) but whereas our sunrise is currently 6:45 AM, theirs is 5:45. Our sunset now is 8:15 PM, theirs is 6 PM. The early sunrise & set made us wake up way earlier than we had to, and it made the days feel ridiculously long - it made us feel like it was always about 2-3 hours later than it actually was. Odd feeling!

•Uber is so cheap & definitely the most efficient way to get around within Medellín! (I *never* associate “so cheap” with Uber in the US! :-D)

•Medellín is called the City of Eternal Spring, because year round, it never really gets above the upper 80’s or much below 60°F. (These are my people: they’re cold under 70°F!) It’s tropical, but because it’s so high in the Andes Mountains, the dew point is like in the 40s!  It felt like October or November in Texas…and now we’re going back to more nonstop 100s. :-P

Where am I going next & when??? Stay tuned!!! ;-) (Spoiler alert: one more international adventure ASAP this year!)

After adventures: kids = college & senior year… (I choose to not think about these & just keep traveling…)