Mixed Feelings About Medellín – Are We Just Here for the Party?

Aside from being in transit and dealing with some pretty terrible wifi, I’ve also been putting off writing about my time in Medellín because I don’t want to offend anybody. Don’t get me wrong, the city itself is fabulous and full of great bars, boutiques, parks, and restaurants (hooray, international food!). It’s just, it’s also full of travelers who are really just trying to party. Hard.

Unlike Santa Marta and Bogotá, everybody you meet on the road absolutely raves about Medellín. No really, everybody loves it. There’s nobody I’ve met that said they had a bad time in Medellín.

But I feel like nobody explained to me exactly why they loved Medellín. It only took a few nights before I got it. People come to the city to party. And for some of them, that’s it.

In the beautiful and trendy neighborhood of Pobaldo, you’ll find an area densely packed with hostels. Well, Poblado itself is pretty full of hostels. And these places will plan your evenings away for you. Power hours, pub crawls, parties, music starting at 4 PM. If you’re trying to drink, they are ready for ya! So many arranged drinking games…

And okay, let’s be honest you guys. I like to party.

It’s just that this neighborhood contained a massive amount of gringo travelers who had been in Medellín for weeks, and I’m pretty sure some of them hadn’t left their hostels (except maybe to bounce to other hostels or nearby bars), much less ventured outside a 5 block radius. During the day, hungover ghosts would just roam around with sunglasses on (but no shirt, I don’t understand) until they’d emerge in the nighttime ready to go again.

It didn’t help that it rained for quite a few days in a row, so that made lots of people even more unwilling to leave the hostel. (And it had me saying, “City of Eternal Spring” my ass.) The sun did eventually come out though.

Parque Lleras, where the magic happens…

And as much as Medellín has moved forward from its violent past, the drugs there are still very plentiful. You don’t even have to leave your hostel to be offered marijuana or cocaine from the guys on the street (they’ll literally yell up to you asking what you need). But if you happen to set foot on the sidewalk after dark, you will definitely be offered drugs. But since there’s obviously a demand, so you can’t really blame the guys. I’ll save the responsible tourism debate for another time.

So if partying is what you want to do, you will be fully accommodated. It’s just that I kinda wanted more. More Colombian-ness, more culture, more to see, more to do. And I readily admit, all this is totally my fault for choosing this highly “social” area of Pobaldo to stay in.

Needless to say, I still had a good time. I mean, you pretty much got radio silence from me while I was in Medellín.

So what did I do? Well, among my favorite things…

I partied. (Hypocritical? No, I just wanted to party AND do cultural things.) So yes, I went to a hostel party and I joined in on the pub crawl. But I also went to a bar where they played salsa music and old men played bongos, and girls from Colombia danced with gringos, graciously trying to teach them their moves. And I learned to kinda love Aguardiente.

Along with this, I experienced my first real hangover in a dorm room bed, aka the nightmare I’d been dreading and my own personal hell. As it turned out, it wasn’t so bad. I just prescribed myself a day of eating whatever I wanted and a Netflix binge, and all was right with the world again.

I took the highly-recommended Real City Medellín Free Walking Tour. During this tour, we walked for several hours, learning about Colombia and the city’s complicated history, visited some less frequented neighborhoods (as in, we learned where prostitutes hang out), saw many Botero sculptures, and our guide even gave us some food tips along the way (so yeah, we stopped for empanadas). I’m thankful to this tour for getting me out of Poblado and into the city center of Medellín.

Seriously, since I arrived in Colombia, people had been telling me about this tour, and it’s so popular you have to sign up online in advance. I’m gonna be honest though, I’d give it a four out of five. It was very good, but not incredible. This could be a case of getting my hopes up too high though, and maybe the rain had something to do with it.

I like that there’s so much going on in this photo

A cup of fresh mangos // The bikes for public use reminded me a little of DC

I took the cable car up to Parque Arví. Some new friends and I headed up above the city into the nature where we tried some tasty grilled local mushrooms, checked out the views, and had a leisurely hike along one of the trails before heading back.

Just check out a collage of some fun and tasty moments…

And on our way down, we stopped to eat fried chicken and drink beers in Santo Domingo, one of the poorer neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city. This was arguably one of my favorite experiences of my time in Medellín, and not just because the chicken (and potato and tiny arepa combo meal) was so cheap. Aside from the delicious fried chicken, good company, and cold beers, everybody was so friendly and welcoming, and it was especially interesting to have a look at authentic life in a different, not so perfect part of the city.

Afterwards we wandered the neighborhood a bit to get a glimpse at the colorful gritty nature of the area. I’d highly recommend this activity to anyone.

Making the most of space – 1st floor: chicken joint, 2nd floor: pet grooming, 3rd floor: costume shop

I ate everything around Parque Lleras. Obviously. There’s no shortage of food options here, so I made sure I ate Thai and Indian food while I had the chance, treated myself to a little eggs benedict, drank tons of coffee, and even found a slow food menú del día. For this reason alone, I could’ve stayed in Medellín a lot longer.

I actually had to excuse myself from Medellín after a week in order to head into the countryside for some relaxation. As in, I packed up my things and snuck away from the hostel so that nobody (particularly nobody drunk and Australian) would see me and yell at me to stay longer. It’s very easy to get sucked in.

But really, I’ve got nothing but love for this city. It’s incredibly fun and the progress of Colombia is tangible here, even if it doesn’t have the huge amount of cultural, natural, or historical sites of other tourist destinations in the country.

So maybe it’s just the folks traveling that I have a problem with, and the sheer magnitude of them in Poblado. Like, if you just want to get fucked up and not leave the hostel for five days in a row, couldn’t you do that at home? (Side note: I realize that the drugs likely aren’t that cheap in your home country, so maybe you couldn’t.) I just want you guys to get some culture. Maybe take a trip up the cable car next time you’re in Medellín at least?

Where I Stayed: Casa Kiwi, a big, fabulous hostel with a tiny pool, restaurant, and good views from the roof, plus hammocks and a nice porch where you can hang out. It’s quiet enough to sleep, but it’s a quick walk to Happy Buddha Hostel where the parties begin. Not a lot of head space if you’re on the top bunk.

Where I Ate: Lots of places, but for international food, Royal Thai and Naan (Indian).

More Info: Definitely check out Leah’s guide to Medellín for more on what to do, where to stay, and what to eat. She’s lived there so she’s pretty much an expert, and it helped me out immensely!

How do you guys feel about Medellín? Am I the only one who didn’t know it was the party capital of Colombia? (Probably)