Sparkie's Selfies Traveling blog : Medellìn

We arrived in Medellìn at 6.30, jumped on a bus then grabbed a taxi to our hostel the black sheep, arriving just before 8. Had a beer with Steve. Alex had a friend he'd met in Bogotà so we met up with him for a few drinks and some pizza. Got up early Tuesday and headed up the road for breakfast, I had poached eggs with hollandaise sauce and a bowl of fruit, it was delicious. We'd only booked the black sheep for one night, but managed to get a second night. We still had to find somewhere to stay Wednesday and Thursday night. We booked the purple monkey and headed off up the mountain on the cable cars, at the very top was a national park, which had awesome forests, so we walked a trail.

On our way back down we stopped in Santa Domingo a poor town up in the mountains to watch the sunset and Alex wanted to check out the library. The library was shut for the next year tho. While we wandered around we saw a hairdressers so decided to get a quick haircut for less than €2. While Alex was getting his haircut the electricity went, it was already dark and the razor was a chord one. I ended up holding a torch of Alex's head while the lady finished the haircut, thankfully the power came back before she was finished so his hair turned out grand. The power stayed on for my haircut.

Wednesday we got up and decided we'd buy food and make our own breakfast and lunch, we ended up just eating a load of bacon. At 2 we headed off on the walking tour of Medellìn, it was amazing. Our guide was fantastic, he told some great stories and brought us to parts of town that gringos are usually warned against. There was a big pub crawl organised for Wednesday night so we headed out for that. Purple monkey was full for the Thursday night so we were on the hunt for a third hostel. Vick was bedless too, so she joined the hunt. Eventually after walking for ages we found bambu hostel. Watched the start of the irish game before heading out for lunch and the Colombian Peru football match. We stopped at a bar for a mojito while we decided what we'd get for lunch. The bar started to fill up with Colombians in their yellow jerseys so we decided to stay put. Alex and Vick went off in search of food, tbf they did well coming back with dominos, although their topping choice was very strange, bacon, tomatoes, corn and onion. Just before the game stated the irish result came in, and obviously I was cheering, people around me joined in a bit too it was very funny. Colombia won the game 2-0 and we were invited out to another bar with our new Colombian friends to celebrate the victory. We ended up having a great night out.

The original plan was to leave for Salento Friday, I'd accommodation booked. But I hadn't got to do the Pablo Escobar tour or see the big rock. I was about to have my first regret of the trip. The Escobar tour was the main reason I'd come to Medellìn, but the tours on Thursday had been booked out, and we'd had such a good day Thursday with the game. Anyway I bailed on Salento and rebooked for Monday. Alex was leaving Friday at 2, so we had a quick wander round the city to try find him some clothes. Alex is 6ft 7'' so finding anything that would fit him was near impossible. We managed to get a pair of jeans and a Colombian Jersey. And Alex headed for Quito. We wandered around the centre a bit more soaking in the attention of being gringos! People have come up asking for pictures and just looking for a high five. For dinner we headed to a rib restaurant that had been recommended to me by the owner of the black sheep! The restaurant is only open Thursday till Saturday from 6-11. They only serve ribs, you can chose between two sizes, we went for the smaller size and were stuffed. The ribs were unreal!

We had an early night as we had to get up at 7 the next morning to go to Guatpè. It took us 3 hours to get to Guatpè, and we headed straight out to one of Pablo Escobar's houses by boat. We got a full tour of the grounds which were amazing, Pablo imported trees from all over the world and had them planted around the grounds. It's believed he only visited this house 4 times even tho it took 6 years to build. After the tour it was down to business, paintballing war. On the way into Guatpè I didn't think much of the rock, 'it's a big rock and it's not very pretty' but once you get up close and see the stairs up you start to be more open minded and by the time you're at the top (740 steps) you love it. 360 degree views of the man made lake and mountains. The views were truly spectacular. We got to see the start of the sunset and some thunder and lightningbefore heading back down. Got a lovely churo and headed back to Medellìn, we would have stayed a night but everywhere was booked out as it was the bank holiday weekend and we didn't realise. But it was also the bank holiday weekend in Medellìn too, so we got a bottle of rum and watched a rock band play in one of the town squares. I got up early Sunday and took control of the TV to ensure the Ireland game was not missed! After the game we headed for a late breakfast, and there it was a kebab shop my dreams had been answered. Ordered myself a doner kebab and sat down a couple of irish guys walked past me and cheered for the green jersey and invited me out for the session. The kebab wasn't doner meat it was a mix of chicken and something else the actual kebab was a burger bun, it was gutting, but I guess it was true if you wanted a good kebab you had to go to Europe. Sunday was also Canadian thanksgiving so we made a chicken dinner with mashed potatoes and salad, drank a couple of bottles of red wine and headed out for more bank holiday fun. Struggled to get up at 7 this morning to get on the bus to Salento. Plan is to stay for 3 nights and head to Cali Thursday, but we all know nothing yet has gone to plan.