Discovering more stuff in Medellin, Colombia

I’ve been staying in Medellin, Colombia for a few weeks so far and I wanna share with you my experience from a couple of places I visited recently. Both of them are common tourist attractions but nevertheless, they had a big impression on me.

Comuna 13 (a. k. a. San Javier district)

San Javier district of Medellin which is more commonly referred to as Comuna 13 is a densely populated distinct on the west of Medellin, high in the mountains.

At the time when Medellin was a dangerous place with uncontrollable violence, such districts on the outskirts of the city were the most dangerous areas of the city. The housing was chaotic and very dense, the areas were difficult to reach because of the steep roads and lack of public transport, and most of the population consisted of displaced people from remote areas of Colombia who came there because they simply had nowhere to live.

That was all the reason for the uncontrollable crime in such areas. Comuna 13 was one of such districts. Medellin dealt with this by improving the accessibility of such districts and working on the infrastructure. Most of them received cable car transportation that greatly improved the reachability of the areas. Suddenly people started feeling less isolated in their neighborhood and more jobs, education, and healthcare facilities became available to them.

In Communa 13 in particular, besides a subway station with an interchange to a cable line, they also built a multiple-sectioned escalator that goes all the way up to the center of the district. Once you reach the top and look back to where you came from you realize how painful it had to be to go there on foot before if you didn't have a car or a motorbike.

Also, the government encouraged the development of art and creativity among the population with various programs that resulted in lots of small art galleries, street performances, and of course beautiful graffiti around the area. These days, every tourist guide suggests you go to Comuna 13 to watch graffiti there.

And it is indeed a beautiful place to walk. I came there on Sunday that is probably the busiest day there. Besides the escalator, I saw that a long walking alley was built there that stretches from the top of the escalator across the whole distance of the neighborhood. And while you walk along the alley, you see street food and smoothie vendors everywhere, those graffiti on the walls, rappers and singers performing, and of course the amazing views of endless houses that completely cover the slopes of the mountains.

I think what had the biggest impression on me is not the graffiti but the view of those neighborhoods. I’ve been to such living areas that are built on mountain slopes before. For example, around Guanajuato in Mexico. But never have I seen in person such dense and vast housing. This looks astonishing. All those little buildings continue far behind the horizon.

And I had the same observation that is common for Latin America: those houses look like every new level of the building was added significantly later than the previous one. For example, the third floor can be made of bricks that are of a slightly different color than the second and it can be a bit wider than the second floor and has a different kind of windows.

I heard that it is common in Latin America to start building your home, then stop when you run out of money and continue in a while when you are ready again. So the roof often is very basic because your house is one continuous development and in a couple of years, you might need to remove the roof to build another floor.

It was interesting to see that once dangerous district made a U-turn and became a hip neighborhood with the right action plan from the government. This is a really interesting place and I’ll definitely go there again. Also, I found that another district called La Sierra is being developed in the same manner. They have a cable car station as well and maybe I’ll visit it as well.

Arvi Park

Arvi Park is a large natural reserve park on the east of Medellin with hiking routes and tours. It is located just behind the mountain peaks that surround Medellin.

When I was planning a visit to Colombia I really wanted to visit a few nature parks because of the unique biodiversity of Colombia. This one seems to be the perfect choice to start with because you can reach it easily and don’t have to plan the hike.

There is a cable car line that goes right to the center of the park which is really convenient. You pay 30.000 COP ($7.56) to enter if you don’t need a guide, they show you the map of the hiking route and you are free to go. The route is 3.7 km long and takes a bit over an hour if you take your time while watching the surroundings.

You shouldn’t expect too much from this particular park of course as this is not an Amazon rain forest but nevertheless it is really nice and calming experience.

What I liked the most is that it was a perfect balance of organization and closeness to the raw nature. Meaning there were no city-park style alleys but narrow trails with occasional signs and checkpoint numbers — just enough to keep you on track.

Also, I was worried that the trails in the forest could be messy because it rains in Medellin every other day and I had only one pair of sneakers that I really didn’t want to wash after that. That turned out to not be the case and it was alright. Just a couple of puddles that you could easily bypass.

Can’t say much of the forest itself. It is just a pleasure to walk there, breathe fresh air, watch the peculiar plants and butterflies everywhere. Just what you need to take a break from everyday rush.

Cable cars

When I was visiting Arvi Park, it was the first time when I used cable car transport. On my way there, I ordered an Uber to bring me right to the Arvi line, which starts already at some impressive altitude in the remote district of Medellin. It was funny to watch the taxi driver struggling to climb those ridiculously steep streets.

When I got there I noticed that there is actually an intersection between the Arvi line and another cable car line that goes all the way down to the city. We decided to use it on our way back.

Arvi line starts in the center of the park, goes above the park for a few minutes. After that, it continues moving down the hill to that intersection station. It takes about 15 minutes and this line has a separate fare, 10.600 COP ($2.67). When we reached the intersection station, I paid an additional 2700 COP or so ($0.70) for the regular line and continued going down the hill. That line had intermediate stations along the way and it is obviously used by the locals as a main way of transportation.

When it reaches the city, the lowest altitude, there is another interchange, this time with the subway line. The cable line continues to the opposite side of the city, again up in the mountains.

We dropped off at that line and noticed that there is no need to find the ticket booth and pay for the subway again, so we decided to go the downtown via subway because there are usually traffic jams everywhere in Medellin in that part of the day. The subway is modern and clean with wide and quiet cars. They call it the metro, just like in Russia.

That system of subway and cable lines is really convenient and has a few lines covering the main areas of the city. That was the first time I saw such a wide adoption of cable car transport that is used as actual public transport.

Thank you for your attention! By the way, some of the public places here in Medellin like Botanic Gardens now require a certificate confirming you know what and I recently managed to get that and the certificate about that. So more impressions are coming!