The Off Seasoner:

I have been to Colombia many times, but there is still so much left for me to experience in this huge and varied country. That being said, my favorite place that I have visited so far is easily Medellin. I am not alone in this attraction. Bogota is the capital of Colombia and has the largest population. Cartagena is the most popular tourist destination. Cali certainly feels like the cultural center, being so well known for salsa dancing, nightlife, and its long history of anti-government protest. But something about Medellin and the people I met during my visit really pulled me in and made me want to stay.

In Bogota locals told me there is a rivalry between the two cities. When I asked our guide, a Paisa, during our bike tour in Medellín about it he told me that this feeling is one sided, in Medellín they don’t really consider Bogota at all. Like New York and LA in the United States, Mexico City and Monterey in Mexico, or São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, there seems to always be a tension a between the two largest cities in countless countries and regions across the world. It is mostly casual, except when it comes to sports of course. Then everyone seems to be out for blood for reasons that are beyond my understanding as a person who could not care less about sports.

The pattern seems to follow that there is one city that is the economic center, and this is the one that takes itself and the rivalry more seriously. The other city, usually the one that is more of a cultural hub and basically just more fun, is the one that shrugs it off and paints the rivalry as one sided. As my tour guide in Rio said, People from São Paulo may feel there is a rivalry between our two cities, but they don’t mind to come here and spend their money.

I was only in Medellín for a few days, but it really charmed me. I really just love big, hectic, noisy, dirty cities. I love that they are filled with different kinds of people and different things to do. Given the nature of the place, I had more than a few misadventures. Mostly due to overconfidence and wanting to walk everywhere, this happens to me whenever I am in somewhere new. I think I know how to get where I am going and that I can make it on foot.

At one point, I ended up darting across a highway on-ramp and walking through a series of maze-like sketchy underpasses. Luckily for me, I was not alone and whatever street drug ravaging the local population at the time was a downer and not an upper, so people were either passed out on the street or awake and moving but completely checked out of their bodies, slack jawed and vacant eyed as they shuffled along. This allowed us to move through unharmed and unbothered, trying to not look like the clueless lost tourists that we obviously were by walking with purpose, staring intently straight ahead, and not looking at our phones. This of course meant we only got more lost.

We somehow did manage to make it through, and got a small sampling of what Medellín has to offer. We had a vacation from our vacation, trying soju bombs and bibimbap at a Korean cafe near our hotel. We went to a bar in the center of a roundabout to dance, and I tried what I am shocked to report may have been the best margarita of my life. At the end of the night, we couldn’t get an Uber to pick us up, so we headed out, once again, on foot.

We had no idea if the neighborhood was safe or not, and ended up walking through a poorly lit park parallel to a freeway. It was a quiet area which made me more nervous. We needed to find a main street in order to get picked up by a taxi, and we had no idea which way to go by just looking at the map on our phone. Finally, like a message from the gods themselves, we saw a vigil of people gathered around a shrine with lit candles across the freeway. We crossed over, and I have no idea what everyone was doing paying homage in the wee hours of the morning, but bless whichever saint that was because we managed to grab a taxi that was dropping off worshippers.

My favorite misadventure by far was the bike tour we took our first night in Medellin. We rode around, weaving through plazas, streets, and crowded traffic and bike lanes on old mountain bikes with squeaky brakes. Towards the beginning of the evening one of my pedals fell off. Our guide tried to fix it and eventually just switched bikes with me, using the one remaining pedal for the rest of the trip. Our guide was absolutely wonderful, knowledgeable, and charming, I wouldn’t change him for any other for this particular experience. He also did not seem like a professional guide at all, more like your brother’s one friend who played in a band and missed a lot of classes in high school. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the usual guide had cancelled at the last minute and someone had called their buddy and been like Hey , I know you’ve never done this before but can you give a tour in two hours? You’ll get paid tonight.

We stopped for Arepas de Choclo. Our guide patiently explained to me multiple times that Choclo is a sweet corn flour, but I still managed to misunderstand, thinking it was somehow related to chocolate, and ordered mine without cheese. Do not make this same mistake! This small cake made from sweet corn with cheese is an absolute delight.

We biked up to the top of Pueblito Paisa, a steep climb of 80 meters (260 feet) above the level of the city for a spectacular view at night. Sweaty and winded from the climb, we drank beers and laughed a lot, the group exchanging slang expressions for flirting and hooking up in the different countries everyone was from.

We cruised down the hill and back to the starting point of the tour. The night was warm and felt full of energy. We were just getting started and I was ready to take in all that the city had to offer, including any misadventures that may await me.