Leaving sunny Florida for Latin America in February, I was not sure what to expect.  This ten day trip was to be an exploratory trip for me.  I had never been to Colombia, Panama or Costa Rica and I was curious to see as much as possible.  If time would allow I would have loved to visit Chile, Peru, Argentina, and Uruguay as well…next time I tell myself.  My first stop was Colombia and I was really was nervous about this country and the safety of visitors.  After a little rusty Spanish we managed to get through customs at the airport and realized we really should have spent more time practicing before we came down.  Those 2 years in Spanish class 10 years ago and the audio book I had on repeat in my car the last 5 months did little to help me keep up with the rapid pace of the speaking.  Luckily Garrett is much better at Spanish than I.  Our driver was waiting for us and we were pleasantly surprised to hear some English.  Kevin was a very good driver and guide, and after a 45 minute ride we were in Medellin.  Driving down into the valley of the city was quite a view.  I am not sure what I expected but it was certainly not this massive city reaching all the way from the valley floor to the tops of every surrounding mountain.  The view was impressive and the town larger than I had imagined.  One fun fact about Colombia, nearly everyone rides a motorbike or moped, like almost everyone…certainly at least 80% of the locals.  Driving through the streets is crazy, there are a lot of crazy drivers but not too many accidents that I could see.  During the four days we spent in Medellin we were pulled over one time and nothing happened.  We were told to expect  a chance of bribery but that did not happen.  On our first full excursion the day we arrived we took a Pablo Escobar tour.  Our tour was guided by our awesome driver Kevin, who was a local but spoke excellent English.  The tour consisted of driving around the city and visiting all the famous locations of Pablo fame.  We visited his compound, his name-sake neighborhood and his grave.  The tour was very educational and I got to see a lot of the city.

We climbed up a block of steps in one of the barrios and got ice cream from a local girl about 6 years old.  We were invited into several homes in this poor neighborhood and got to go up on a rooftop deck to see an amazing view of the city as well.  Everyone in the barrios was friendly and excited to see tourists.  In Colombia the neighborhoods are classed in strata’s 1-6 with 1 being the poorest areas.  Our friendly tour was in a strata 2-3 neighborhood.

For dinner we ate at  a nice restaurant in Parque Lleras.  The steak was amazing and the prices were beyond belief…currently I believe 1 US dollar is worth about $2,900 Colombian pesos.  Staying with our friend Bill in his apartment was convenient and comfortable, we had an amazing view of the city and the unit was very large.  There was no AC in the home, and that is very common for Colombia, the average temperatures measure at about 72 degrees Fahrenheit year round.  The hot water heater had to be turned on with a pilot light before showers but that again is pretty common here as well.  Waking up after our first day in Medellin, we were served an amazing authentic Colombian breakfast by our host Bill’s girlfriend Luisa.  The food was to die for and we were stuffed.  After breakfast we went to a local salon for a manicure…Colombian time is a little bit different than US time and the nail treatment took almost 5 hours!  But it cost only about $10 US dollars for a full set of acrylic nails!  Our plan for the rest of the night was to go out on the town and enjoy the local culture.  We invited our driver Kevin and some of his friends to come out and show us how to party in Medellin.  Bottle service is only about $40-$50 US dollars here and we promised to buy all the drinks if our local friends would come out and show us how dancing is really done.  Three bottles of Ron Medellin Rum later we had a full on dance party happening in the club district.  I can tell you the Colombians really know how to dance, especially the men, they are just naturally great dancers, with rhythm and all the moves!

The night turned into morning very quickly after all that rum and our group ended up at an Empanada stand in the park at 3 am, with prostitutes circling the men non stop.  It was pretty funny.  A friend of Bills whom we had met early was passing by in a taxi and saw us on the corner and invited us to check out his place, which turned out to be what was once the Pablo Escobar henchmen flat where he had built a secure compound for all of his security guards to live in the same building with him.  The flat was amazing with massive bullet proof doors and a balcony pool, sauna and other fancy improvements only a drug lords compound would have.  The party went until 6 am, and a great time was had by all!

The next day was a slow start, obviously.  But we managed to get up and head out to the train line for some more sight seeing.  We took the incline lift up to the top of one of the mountains surrounding the city, a couple mile ride up to a park with beautiful flowers and craft booths and views.  Back down to the city we later made our way to a fitness expo that was one of the main events in the city while we were visiting.  The expo is claimed to be the “Arnold” of the Latin community.  This expo had pole dancing as an event, fitness competitions, all the protein samples you could handle, and the highest population of butt implants I have ever seen.  One of the coolest things about the expo for me was the outdoor spin class with about 1000 people in the audience and the teachers on a stage with music and lights like a concert.  It was truly an awesome event and the expo as a whole was a great experience.

After our tours around Medellin we were very excited about the city and the potential as a vacation destination for us again in the future.  Before we leaving the City we made plans to come back again soon!  Medellin was a beautiful, warm, friendly city and the people and sights and food were all so much better than my expectations!