Tale of Two Cities

After spending six days at sea, we were both excited to get our land legs back and start exploring Colombia. As you know, Colombia has had a bad reputation in the past for violence and drug cartels. We had heard from many travelers coming from the south into Central America that Colombia was amazing and one of their favorite places; we were excited to see if we felt the same way. We have been surprised during our time here to see how many travelers are actually visiting Colombia. There are new hostels everywhere, many of them packed every evening. News is out that Colombia is no longer a super dangerous country, off limits to foreigners. This is good for all those at home who were worried about us, and bad for our budget as their tourist industry has adjusted nicely to the influx of dollars and euros.

We first arrived in Cartagena and then after almost a week we moved to Medellin. We enjoyed both of these cities even though they are completely different. Cartagena was a Spanish controlled port city, with the old city completely surrounded by a stone wall. The original architecture is still intact in the old city, and is now even more beautiful as almost every building is painted in a different color. Owners go the extra mile by planting flowering vines to hang from the balcony. During our time here we wandered these beautiful streets and eventually made it over to see a large fort. We filled the rest of our time tasting the wide variety of deep fried street food, cheap set lunches in restaurants, and sweet sliced fruit.

As traditionally lovely as Cartagena was, we found Medellin to be a proper, modern, and clean city. The relatively new metro system puts Chicago to shame with their quiet, spacious train cars; additionally, they have free transfers to their cable cars, giving great views of the city from the hillside barrios. The center of the city is filled with parks, fountains, and sculptures and connected by bustling walking streets. Between the public sculptures and art museum, we saw a large collection of Fernando Botero's work. Kendra dragged Rich to a free tango performance, and in retaliation, he dragged her to a local soccer match. We also partook of a Pablo Escobar tour, learning more about the city's turbulent past.
So far we have enjoyed the Columbian cities, but are looking forward to getting into some more rural areas in the next week as we head into coffee country. (And yes, Rich is very very happy about the prospect of good coffee).