11.09.-14.09.11

Medellin

MEDELLIN is the city of Columbians proudest residents, the "paisas" and with a perfect, perpetual spring like climate all year around.

When I arrived at the bus terminal on Sunday, 11.09.11 at around 3pm I took a taxi to the apartment building of my first Couchsurfer in Columbia. As SAM wasn't living too far away from the city centre the taxi ride took only 15 Min.

Sam, who is originally from China, welcomed me at his beautiful flat with a nice smile and cold Columbian beer which I greatly appreciated. After we got to know each other and shared our travel experiences we went over to a friend's house for dinner. It was my first invitation to a Columbian family and I really enjoyed the whole night, talking Spanish and enjoying a nice dinner.

On Monday, 12.09.11 after Sam made me some "scrambled eggs" for breakfast we took the bus into the city centre. It was so nice of Sam to show me around the "centro historico" and the new and richer district "El Poblado" and after he took off I continued my sightseeing tour through this massive 2.3 Million city.

I took the metro to the "Metrocable" and went up with the fairly new cable cars to the new "Biblioteca de Espana" from where I had a brilliant view over the huge city.

On the way back to Sam's flat I stopped at the "Jardin Botanico" which was really nice and hosted a "book and traditional food fair".

For dinner Sam and I stayed at his flat and while we were enjoying a bottle of wine with our yummi dinner we shared more of our travel stories.

The next morning, 13.09.11 I took the metro to the "Terminal de Norte" from where I caught a bus directly to "El Penol"(the stone). Sam and a friend of mine where telling me how beautiful the scenery is from the top of the 220m high granite monolite. So I took a jeep to the entrance of the "monolite" and hiked up the 649 steps.

And none of them promised me too much…..the view from there over the lake was incredible. It actually looked like if there were hundreds of different lakes connecting to each other.

From here I took another Jeep to the little town of GUATAPE which was only 10 Min. away. The tiny town of Guatape is a popular weekend getaway for "paisas" who want to wander through the pretty streets with its colourful houses and the decorated "sockets" (zocalos).

The weather was just perfect and I took millions of photos when I was wondering through the village for 3 hours. After I had a typical Columbian lunch I took the bus back to Medellin.

And when I arrived back at Sam's flat I had a quick shower and off we went to the "old centre" where Sam took me to a Salsa club with a live Columbian Salsa band. Even though we had to wait until 11pm we enjoyed the first three hours chatting to some other Couchsurfers who we met in the Club.

Wednesday, 14.09.11 we both slept in, had breakfast together and just stayed in Sam's flat for the whole day. While Sam was studying Spanish and reading I uploaded all my photos from the last couple of days.

At 4pm I said Good Bye to another brilliant Couchsurfer and took the night bus CARTAGENA at 5.30pm.