Hello Cadets! Happy Easter
I’m still suffering from nostalgia for Latin America. Colombia has been open for tourists for a bit, so I’ve seen like five friends in the past month go. It has made me nostalgic. It’s no secret that Colombia was one of my favourite countries that I’ve been to. I’ve strongly been considering going back this spring since it is open.
Many travellers debate among the top 2 cities in Colombia: Bogota and Medellin. While Bogota is the most populated by far, many people claim Medellin is far better, while many others say neither of them. Many prefer the Costa Norte region along with the Caribbean. Unfortunately, I got pretty ill in Palamino and missed out on many things when I was there, such as Guajira and spending more than one day in Tayrona Park. Cartegena did not do as much for me. There are also many other splendid regions and cities in Colombia.
However, I’m going to stick with these two in this article. I’m going to give my two cents on both Bogota and Medellin. Which one do I like better?
Admittedly my time in both cities was spent differently as well. I used Medellin to regain that ex-pat/ foreigner feeling that I was missing after a couple of months. A couple of my friends that I know from various Couchsurfing and friendship circles also happened in Colombia that winter as well. I mostly worked in the day and went out to hang out with them in the evening. I did more touristy things in Bogota with my one of best friends in Bogota. I went on two excellent city tours. One of which I will write about in my next post.
Bogota is massive. Many people do not realize that there are only two cities in North America that are larger than Bogota; Mexico City and New York City. It is hard to scratch the surface in Bogota in just a couple of weeks. Many people fly to Bogota and sort of skip the experience.
Bogota has the best beer culture that I found in Colombia. I found most of the beers in the rest of Colombia to be very mediocre. I went to a few “craft beer” places in Medellin but was not really impressed. Bogota has a lot more to offer with breweries. The Bogota brewery company offers some pretty good beer. I also quite enjoyed the beer from El mono Bandito in Chaperino.
I was also under the pretence that Bogota was less livable than Medellin. I don’t find that to be true at all. I really enjoyed staying in Alto Chaperino. It is a pleasant residential area that is pedestrian-friendly as well. I quite enjoyed the local establishments around. I rented a room from a nice couple that ran a lovely coffee shop called Mesa Salvaje. I found out that Chaperino is the more progressive neighbourhood in Bogota.
The major thing lacking, though, with Bogota is a reliable transport system. Bogota has the TransMilenio . It functions as a high-speed bus. It was not great, but not terrible. It would be nice for it to have a system like Medellin, but I realize that is a lot to ask for. I’m not a city planner, but that was sort of my main qualm with it. It also is not the best for pedestrian areas compared to other huge cities. There are areas like Candeleria and Chaperino, but there some parts where there is too much traffic and navigating around on foot is not a piece of cake.
Bogota also offers some pretty cool tours as well. My friend and I went on a tour with Beyond Colombia. We meant to go on the free “War and Peace ” tour but accidentally went on the general free walking tour, which was quite good and touched on many subjects of the tour that we wanted to go on. In fact, we did not even notice we went with the wrong group until 20 minutes into the tour. We both enjoyed the tour. Usually, I’m not too fond of group tours. I have an independent streak where I kind of like to read about a place and go myself.
I also went on another tour which will be the next post, called the Breaking borders tour. It takes you to one of the formerly most dangerous barrios in Bogota. There will be more on this subject later.
My friend and I also enjoyed going up to Monserrate. You can opt to take the funicular, or you can hike up to it. Some people do a combination of both. It reminds me of Mtatsminda in Tbilisi, but without the post-soviet style tacky amusement park.
In my last post, I wrote about Medellin. It checks a lot of easier boxes than Bogota. The infrastructure is better. It has a great public transportation system. The cable car system has significantly raised the quality of life of many Medellin residents. They are less isolated from the city than they were in the past; they have much better access to more education and employment opportunities. It has also brought down crime.
The area of Communa 13 was also fascinating. It is a part of Colombia that spans several areas. It used to be the most dangerous part of the city. It was a centre for paramilitary, guerrilla, and gang activity. In 2002, The Colombian military carried out an intervention to take out all of the rebel groups. This caused 9 deaths, hundreds more injured, and many more displaced. It only increased tension and made it more difficult for people to trust the government and rebel groups. The area got a facelift in 2011, many initiatives have been made to increase the quality of life. There are now escalators in this area to help mobilize residents.
Although, I would highly recommend going at a non-peak time during the day. It can be a bit of a zoo, from what I have heard. While it is good, it has gotten a lot of awareness and receives many visitors; if I did not go on a Tuesday afternoon around 1 PM, I would have been irritated. Many people have recommended getting a guide. I didn’t, but maybe I’ll go with a local next time to learn more about it.
The surrounding area of Medellin is a strong selling point. Medellin is the jumping point for many stunning places.
Some of the types of people that move to Medellin are off-putting, as I complained about in the last post. While I know, I am generalizing. It attracts a lot of overgrown US American ( Canadian and European too) baby boys. It is reasonably easy to get around without being fluent in Spanish. You can basically find everything from the states there. You can get US American style service there. They usually are seeking some local girl because they are scorned back home.
As I said, it is almost too comfortable. There are also too many of these corporate digital nomad types, which can be a bit infuriating as well, like the types that basically live off Mommy and daddy’s trust fund and some obscure online business. They want to meet at the same three co-working spaces. I also was not really a fan of this narco tourism bullshit.
But not the case for everyone. I had a great time with my Norwegian, US, Serbian and Dutch friends. They were all there ditching the winter from Europe and North America. We had some great nights in different parts of Medellin, even the Poblado part that I trash-talked. La Octavia was probably one the most fun bars/clubs that I’ve ever been to.
I like both cities for different reasons. They both have their high points. I highly recommend going to both everything between. Don’t skimp out on what is in between. I also realized while writing this that there is too much to pack in. Each city deserves multiple posts, so consider this to be a general survey. There will be more posts to come about Colombia.
For my next post, read about an awesome guided tour that I took in Bogota that was lead by a great initiative that helps disadvantaged communities within Bogota.