Despite what some of you believe, I haven’t been to Medellin before or know anyone there or have ever had any contact with any of the cartels from there. Okay. Now we’ve sorted that out. I’ve come to Medellin in search of a motorbike. The double L in spanish (think tortilla) is common and changes from place to place and country to country just to mess with my spanish. In Medellin it sounds more like the j in jeans but with a z in front of it. Mede-zj-een. It’s actually a really nice city despite it’s spelling. It’s had a rough history during my lifetime. For a few years in the 1980’s and 1990’s it was the most violent city in the world. But now down from the thousands killed in the days of Pablo Escobar, there was only 375 people murdered last year. Which sounds quite safe to me. Although there were a few tourists amongst them. Apparently, Tinder and nightclub based. Fortunately, I’m safe there.

So based on logic from an accredited source, my daughter, I decided to get a cheap flight from Cartagena to Medellin. If that’s where the motorbikes are then I needed to go there. Finding the cheap flights at short notice was easy but paying them by credit card (the only option) was difficult. My main card still does not work. And I also don’t have a local phone number which is proving an inconvenience. I’m not going to pay Telstra $10 a day for roaming for a whole year. I can get a local sim but I’ll talk about that another time. After a few hours of trying I managed to link my wonderful UP card with my mates telephone number in Mexico and pay for the flights. No luggage. $210 return for the one hour flights.

Medellin is in a valley which is a bit unnerving as you descend through the clouds and see mountains either side of you. The airport is in an adjacent valley which now has a long tunnel through the mountain and cuts the shuttle time down to 40 minutes. I can’t imagine what it was before. I had to laugh. I caught the cheap locals dodgy shuttle bus ($6.50) and was seated alongside an old guy (probably no older than me) who had a moment in prayer and blessed himself at the start of the journey. I decided to put my seatbelt on instead and we both survived the trip.

In what will probably be a recurring theme over the year, I hadn’t pre googled anything (but I had booked my accommodation). I thought I could walk from wherever the shuttle dropped me off to my accommodation. Google Maps said it was an hour and twelve minutes which was fine as it was only 10:00am, I had a small bag and Medellin has a pleasant climate. I walked 50m to the first corner and straight across the road was a big Honda shop.

I went in and walked through to the back corner where all the adventure type bikes were and there was a 190cc and the 300cc sitting side by side to welcome me. I think that was the moment I decided I would be getting the 300cc. I sat on them both and chatted to the guy for a while. In Cartagena the 190cc looked quite big but it’s actually quite small and the 300cc didn’t seem too big. I probably could have got back on the bus and gone home. The decision was made. Sadly I forgot to take a photo of the momentous occasion.

I had booked my accommodation for the two nights in Poblado which is a trendy area for tourists and also has a lot of motorbike shops. As I was walking towards the end of my hour and twelve minute walk I was beginning to think that the area was becoming a bit dodgy and not anything like the great location described in the reviews. I did a quick regoogle and found I was one letter out with my address and had overshot my apartment by 36 minutes. So I headed back and added another several thousand steps to my daily step count. Sadly I had walked within 20m of the place on my way past. It was called the Poblado Guest House and was quite nice for $45 a night with breakfast.

I had an afternoon nap, a bit of an explore and a couple of beers and an early night. The next day I had booked onto the Free Medellin City Tour. The name is a bit of a misnomer because you pay for it at the end by tipping the guide (I thought he was really good and tipped $20). There were 16 people on our 4 hour tour. Julio was in his early 40’s, his english was great and he had a passion for Medellin. He knew and had lived though all of the bad history and the changes in the city. Although we only walked a couple of kms, the tour was more about his stories. And we got to see some great places as well.

Medellin doesn’t have the rich exciting ancient history of Cartagena. It’s not even that old. But still about 300 years. It was discovered that the valley in which the city lies is perfect for growing coffee and apparently good coffee. Not that I do the stuff. It turns out in more recent times it was also a perfect climate for growing cocaine. Which until 5 minutes ago, I thought was from poppies like opium. But no. It’s from cocoa leaves. It’s all making sense now. Similar name. I knew that coca cola once contained cocaine and I also knew that the other horrible addiction, chocolate was also from the coca plant. But that belief has also been shattered as well. Just to clarify, even if it was only ever just me who didn’t know. Cocoa refers to the powder made from the nuts of the cacao beans from the cacao tree/plant (notice the unwarranted swapping of the vowels) which we use for chocolate. And coca refers to different plants whose leaves are used to make cocaine. And coca cola was originally made with the leaves of the latter. I’m glad I won’t die without knowing that. And just as a side note to the side note. The coca leaves are harvested and then soaked in petrol. It then becomes a paste which is dried and then dissolved with solvents and the impurities removed and then dried into bricks of pure cocaine. Chat GPT warned me that it was illegal for me to manufacture cocaine.

Back to the tour. In terms of architecture, a highlight for me was two of the buildings built by Belgian architect Agustin Goovaerts a hundred years ago. We stood outside one of them and it didn’t appear special (I need to go back for a look), but I was quite shocked by the inside. It was totally unexpected.

The second one looked like a black and white stone church but it was never a church. It was actually only half built when he was sacked and the city finished the building themselves. His part was the bit with the two statues out the front and the city scaled it down and did the part with the trees and the section to the right. It would have been amazing if he’d got to finish it.

There’s also lots of big brass statues around the city by local artist Fernando Botero. Twenty three in fact. They were pretty cool. At the end of the tour we sat by the two fat bird statues known as the birds of peace. One of them looks like it was blown up and apparently it was. Back in the bad days (1995) there was a political rally in the square and someone placed 10kgs of dynamite at the base of the statue which exploded and killed 30 people and injured 200. The artist requested the damaged bird statue stay there as is and he made a new one to go alongside it.

Julio our guide, also mentioned that in one election 3 out of the 4 candidates was assassinated. From my own memory bank, I remember a 27 year old soccer player (about my age) from Medellin who accidently scored an own goal in the 1994 FIFA World Cup. In that game America ended up beating Colombia 2-1 and they were eliminated. When he returned to Medellin he was assassinated. Shot in the head 6 times. Murder was pretty commonplace back then. Once Pablo Escobar was caught and the other cartels started killing each other things slowly started to turn around.

Julio explained the transformation as a social movement led by a few crucial government people who wanted to put the bad days behind them and give everyone access to the city again. They stared making places safe, area by area, and built public facilities like libraries and schools. They started putting in public art and making the place more attractive. They built an amazing metro which is all above ground and connects to cable cars which stretch out into the hills so that everyone, no matter how poor or far away people lived they could get into the city safely to work or enjoy the safe spaces. It was interesting that he said that there were no problems with rubbish or graffiti on the metro as everyone was so proud of it and it was a symbol of how they had come through all of those bad years and prospered.

And in the afternoon, I went motorbike shop shopping. Or browsing. I found a huge part of town full of motorbike stuff. Parts, accessories, tyres and repair shops. I was like I’d entered a Moto Disneyland. I’m already decided on the bike but I’ll probably need a few bits and pieces though. And also I’m not sure where to buy the bike. Here. Or Barranquilla. Or even in Cartagena. I might buy it in Cartagena and then by the time I get to passing through Medellin on my way south I can pick up any bits and pieces I might have discovered that I need. Sounds like a plan.

Comuna 13 is well known by travellers to this part of the world. Medellin is divided into numbered comunas and back in the days of the cartels, Comuna 13 was the worst of the worst. Its now a bit of a tourist mecca although it’s also home to a lot of locals. I went early in the morning, without a guide but I think if I do go back I’ll do a guided tour. It creates employment and I’m sure there would be great stories. I seem to be able to just sneak by as being local. I’m a bit tall but I’m quite tanned, skinny, and there’s a lot of similar older colombian gentlemen walking around and so normally I go unnoticed. Which is great. I don’t carry a bag which also helps I think.

One of the icons of Comuna 13 is the outside escalators. Like most of the outskirts of Medellin the houses are built on the sides of step hills. Wherever the poor people could find a plot of ground that they wouldn’t fall off. There are six covered escalators that ferry people up and down the 384 metre hillside. All free. The houses and steps and alleyways of the rabbit warren are covered with graffiti art.

The Metro is very efficient and cheap. I took one of the six different cable cars that connects to the metro system. It went up and over a steep hill and then down into and up out of another valley. It’s not a tourist thing. It’s how the locals get around. On the way up I met a hospital worker on his way to work and we chatted a bit. In spanish. And on the way back my gondola was full and there was a young kid who was leaning how to count as the gondolas passed by. It was a great 15 minute spanish lesson for me. I had a proud moment as I found that I could count a bit better than him.

I had to check out by midday so I had a late lunch and then made the leisurely trip back to the airport to catch my evening flight. Probably one of my better decisions. I thought I’d get to the airport early and catch up on my blog as there was lots to write about here in Medellin. I went to go through security and they asked me for my passport. I didn’t have it. I was going on a domestic flight and didn’t bring it. I wasn’t asked for it when I left Cartagena. I said that I had my drivers licence and a copy of my passport on my phone. Not good enough. They found someone who spoke English who was amazed I that didn’t carry my passport with me. We got a supervisor involved who was even more amazed that I was travelling without my passport and said that I wasn’t getting past security. They suggested I go and sort it out with the airline. Surprisingly Latam Airlines were astounded that I was travelling without my passport. Their suggestion was to go to the state library next to the Toto shop and file a complaint. Why didn’t I think of that?

I searched the airport and found the Toto shop which sold bags and accessories and there was an unmarked door next to it. It was locked and security came over while I was trying to open it and asked me what I was doing and told me it was a cleaners cupboard. Next to that was a bookshop selling novels and random crap. I asked there and the girl didn’t understand or knew nothing. I wandered around a bit more and returned to the shop wondering if it was the state library but a translation error? The second girl was more helpful. In spanish. And said it would cost me 30,000 pesos to file a complaint. 12 bucks. It was too hard to ask any further questions, so I just handed over the money and she asked if I knew my passport details. Which I did. She asked a few random questions and typed the info into a laptop, whilst also serving customers. And then asked me to wait. Lucky I’d arrived early but time was ticking by. It was six o’clock on a Saturday night and to be honest I didn’t hold much hope. So, I found myself sitting on a seat opposite the Toto shop googling overnight buses from Medellin to Cartagena. An 18 hour trip once I find the bus depot doesn’t seem appealing. And the sun was setting.  And surely you don’t need a passport to catch a bus?