Colombia Day 3

Today we left Bogota for Medellin. We left our hotel at 8am for our 10:33am flight.  There are flights like every half hour to Medellin. Seriously, the boarding announcements got a little confusing because the gate next to ours was a 10:30 flight to Medellin on another airline. You actually had to pay attention to what they were saying.  The flight was super short.  We made it to altitude, they made an announcement that you could buy snacks, and then less than 5 minutes later they were saying to return your seats to the upright position because we would be landing shortly.  

So since we are on our own for this trip, we have nothing planned. We had no idea what we wanted to do, or where to go. We got to the hotel about 12:30 and tried to research something to do.  We gave up and asked the concierge what we should do.  He suggested the cable cars, so that is what we did.  After a quick lunch, we headed to the metro station. We walked, and then we walked some more. We walked so far that we thought we had missed it.  We asked a lady who told us it was down the street and to the left. Just follow the people she said.  So we followed people to a little shortcut through the grass.  Then we followed people through several areas that look like they should be metro stations, but they weren’t. We just kept following people. But how do you know when you are following the right people? So we asked again, and we still had a ways to go.  It was a long, hot walk to the metro station and it seemed like forever. Luckily, it was mostly downhill.   

The metro is not a subway. It is all above ground. The part we rode seemed to run the length of the city. It was about half an hour until we got to our stop. Riding the Metro is one of the top 5 attractions on Tripadvisor. Shows you that reviews cannot always be trusted. Unless it is my review of course. Anyways, you can actually see a lot of the city from the metro simply because it is above ground. That is if you aren’t blinded by the sun or jamb-packed like sardines. Anyways, we rode the metro so I am checking it off my list. We were riding the Metro to get to the Metrocable–a cable car that goes up the side of the mountain where all of the poor people with tin roofs live. It was pretty neat view, going up over the houses except we were sandwiched in between the locals who were using it for transportation and not touristic purposes. This cable car goes forever and actually has 3 different stops. The fantastic part is that it was included as a transfer with my metro ticket!!!  When you get to the end of the metro cable, all the locals disappear. And all of the tourists walk over to the adjacent station and hop onto a second cable car. We did have to pay extra for this, as it is not part of the metro system. This cable car goes forever.  We were there just happily snapping pictures of the view. First of the roofs of the houses at the top of the city, then some small farmland, then we reached the top of the mountain and it just kept going and going through the forest of super tall trees.  I thought we were just going to the top of the mountain for a nice view of the city below, but that is not where it goes.  It just keeps going until you finally make it to a national park. There are supposed to be some walking trails, but I don’t know where they were.  We weren’t going to hike anyways because it was already after 5pm.  So we just wandered there at the welcome center a bit, and bought our tickets to go back down.  This time we had a car all to ourselves, so we were able to take lots and lots of selfies. We made sure to pay attention to the time, and it was exactly 20 minutes. It’s a real good thing I got over that fear of cable cars I had when I was 8.   

Our morning taxi driver had told us her favorite Colombian restaurant chains.  One of them was a hamburger place called Corral. When we saw that at the mall food court, we decided that was ok to try since a real Colombian had recommended it.  But we got the least American burger on the menu. It was topped with dried plantain chips, a type of cream cheese called suero, and some shredded cheese.  It was delicious! I am going to have to be brave and make a trip to Trader Joe’s when I get home for some plantain chips.  Unless I have room in my suitcase…What a great plan. Seriously, you should all try some crunchy plantain chips on your next burger.  Also I upgraded the fries to yucca fries which was hands down the best yucca I have ever eaten.  Oh, and I got a Colombian brand of pop for my drink. It was apple flavored and is a new favorite.  

Don’t forget to likethetwinsontour on Facebook.  Also, you probably noticed that we changed blog sights. Try to subscribe so that you get notifications. I am still trying to figure out if I can email them myself.  

Love,

thetwinsontour