Finishing Strong in Medellín: My Final Few Days!

Teneals Travels
Feb 24, 2020
5 min read

I am heading out of Medellín to attend the Carnaval in Baranquilla! I jam packed my week because truthfully, I wasn’t going to go to Carnaval but I mean, why wouldn’t I go if I’m in this country already?! Here’s a recap on what I’ve been up to this week after school each day!

Parque Arvi:

On Thursday February 20th, my friend Monta and I made our way north on the metro to the station Acevedo. From there, we hopped aboard cable cars (two separate ones to be specific) to make it to Arvi station - the area where we enter Parque Arvi.

It cost $4 to enter (& to exit) the park. Parque Arvi is about 16,000 acres so you can easily get lost. There are guides available to hike with you but there’s also guides who are simply placed along the paths to guide you if you get lost. We hiked for about an hour and a half before heading back to the cable cars to beat the rush hour back to El Poblado. The park was so wonderful to escape the noise and craziness of the city and was exactly what I needed!

This tree was named “Abrazo de Gigante” - or a giant hug! It had a sweet message that went along with it:

“To feel the earth, one must embrace it. It is felt in the trees, feeling the rain, listening to the birds, smelling the forest, touching the fog. Feel the earth come alive embracing this pine. Close your eyes and breathe deeply, both will give each other life.”

So I guess you can call me a literal tree hugger - ha! Although, I like to try to be conscious of my eco-footprint.

Antioquia Museum & Memory House Museum:

On Friday, February 21, I finished my final class in Spanish and passed with 85%! I still have lots of work to do but that’s not so terrible. I learned so much that I think my brain was a bit overloaded (especially with verbs) but it’s already helped me navigate through the city with more ease than before.

After heading back to my hostel to change and put down my book bag, I made my way to the metro station to go to a few museums in Medellín. First, I stopped at the Antioquia museum just across from Parque Botero.

You start on the third floor and then make your way down. The whole third floor was all artwork from Fernando Botero.

I couldn’t believe the detail in some of his pieces - I actually had to look twice at this one specifically because I thought a real fly had landed on the painting!

The second floor had more artwork from other artists including Francisco Antonio Cano Cardona and had some incredible exhibits.

Finally the main floor was dedicated to pottery and even had an interactive portion where you could feel the different types of soil used.

I spent a couple hours in the museum checking out the different exhibits but ended up staying longer than planned because of a crazy thunder storm. It poured rain for well over an hour before it let us enough to walk another 20 minutes to the second museum.

La Museo de La Casa de Memoria:

After walking through a few sketchy streets (thanks a lot, google maps) we made it to the next museum in the rain... and were pouring wet.

We spent just under an hour in the museum called “Memory House” where the dark history of Medellín and Colombia is reflected upon and loved ones are featured in a memorial room. To read more history on Medellín, check out THIS POST.

This was a very somber museum to visit. There were interviews of those who lost family and friends to homicide or forced disappearances.

There was an area of the museum where it was completely dark inside but the walls had screens of different sizes where a photo of a family or individual would pop up, then disappear and then reappear in black and white. However, the individual who had passed would be the only one who remained in colour. Then the next slide would say the victims name and how they died.

I think what is so important to take away from it is that the people living here are so incredibly eager to let the rest of the world know that they are not their past. They’ve worked so hard to overcome the violent history of the area and even while we walk down the street, we have many locals thanking us for visiting Colombia.

Guatapé Day Trip:

On Saturday, February 22nd I got up around 6:15 in the morning to make it to a nearby park to catch a bus to Guatape! We drove through the city and into a separate city (Rio Negro) before stopping for a traditional Colombian breakfast! I’m not entirely sure what this is (haha!) but it was good to eat. (PS: Stay tuned for a “Colombian Food” blog post to come your way in a few weeks!)

Beyond that, we stopped in Maranilla, a small village, for a quick tour around and to learn about the history of the area. I used this time to try some Colombian fruits - more on that to come!

We stopped in another little town where we visited a small museum. There was a total of 2670 crosses within the museum as the man who was in charge of the town years ago would request if anyone wanted to leave the town, they needed to give him a cross to get permission.

We made our way to the beautiful area of Guatape where we had the opportunity to climb the giant rock! There are 705 steps that bring you to the top area where you can get great photos and views of the surrounding area. While driving there, it’s sometimes on your right and sometimes on your left.

There was an old wives tail that claims : “There was once a dwarf and the rock was originally in Bogota but pushed it all the way to Guatape! The dwarf got drunk and now he’s trying to push it back to Bogota that’s why it’s sometimes on the right and sometimes on the left.”

I was able to climb it in 11 minutes which was a great pace and was nice and slow because of so many people climbing. I was definitely warm by the time we reached the top so I’m thankful it was a cooler day.

We spent 20 minutes or so on the top, enjoying the views, visiting with other climbers and I even had a beer before heading back down the 705 stairs.

The way down was built more inside of the rock and had some narrow passages but it was easy peasy to get down.

From there, we went to Guatapé, a little town that is full of color! We were given a little tour to check out some of the local bakeries and were given advice on the best places to buy Colombian coffee.

Monta and I went around the town and took some fun photos with all of the colourful buildings! Here are a few of my favourites:

I even met a huge german shepard who just wanted to give you all the love!

This little town is so full of colour and life! Some businesses have murals on the outside of their shop to indicate what type of business they are. A few locals even added some murals of their own to their homes: check out the Freddie Mercury one!