Colombia - Medellín

The next place for us to visit was Medellín. We felt we knew it well from watching every single episode of Narcos, and the entry didn't disappoint. The houses and nature were of course exactly like in the introduction to each episode. Nowadays all the horrors from that time has been turned into a business with professional guided tours taking tourists to all the key places in the city.

But before we got that far we traveled some 13 hours with a one night stop in a small place called Buenavista. It was very busy with traffic as it is on the main road, but the streets were tidy and clean and the locals sat in their chairs outside their houses watching the world go by. We think this was now the cheapest we have stayed in, around USD20 for the night. It was clean and basic and the people were nice.

The roads were good, although for some reason we ended up driving a route through the mountains on a very winding road. It didn't take long for Karin to get motion sick. We passed through Remedios, a place with narrow streets and a lot of activity.

We did our usual taxi tour, spending about 5 hours in all the most interesting places of the city. It is a very green place with old trees lining the streets and creating parks everywhere. The high rises are built from red brick, which gives the sky line a different feel to many other cities. We really enjoyed our stay and it almost felt a little sad to leave!

All the hotels where we have had breakfast in Colombia serve basically the same things, although on the coast the food was traditional fried and quite heavy but had some vegetables, whereas in Medellín it included things like bacon but not many

greens. To please the tourists they have some oats and nuts. Fruit is prominent, with pineapple, watermelon and papaya.