Once labeled as the MOST DANGEROUS city in the world, this city was a long shot from anything that I had imagined. The city was beautifully laid into the middle of a lush valley, surrounded by enormous mountains all around. Favelas (maybe that's only a Brazilian thing?) extended up into the mountains all around the city outskirts, and at night they lit-up, making the mountains look sprinkled in Christmas-tree lights...
The ACTUAL Christmas lights that are setup on a mile-long stretch of a river in the industrial area are even more spectacular! Take a look at some photos that people have taken over the past few years below:
| Medellin is a beautiful and flourishing city. 20 years ago it was heavily influenced by the cocaine industry and it's infamous leader Pablo Escobar. It has done a wonderful job rebuilding it's image. My first impression was simply that the city seemed huge. After all, it's located in a very remote geographical area, surrounded entirely by mountains, the city itself sits almost a mile high in elevation. |
I came to find out that the city was actually once much, much smaller. The vibrant economy attracted several workers from the surrounding areas, that then struck up residences in the Favelas (once again not sure here?), which were illegal until the city was eventually forced to slowly integrate them into their metropolitan area.
Almost as iconic as Pablo is the Medellin Metro, which is the pride and joy of Paisa's (locals of Medellin). More on that later, but after arriving at the bus station from Cartagena it was a pleasant, cheap, and impeccably clean form of transportation that got me to my first hostel The Wandering Paisa! I spent the next week in this area (Estadio) and enjoyed the proximity to the nightlife, restaurants, and soccer stadium!
Almost as iconic as Pablo is the Medellin Metro, which is the pride and joy of Paisa's (locals of Medellin). More on that later, but after arriving at the bus station from Cartagena it was a pleasant, cheap, and impeccably clean form of transportation that got me to my first hostel The Wandering Paisa! I spent the next week in this area (Estadio) and enjoyed the proximity to the nightlife, restaurants, and soccer stadium!