We spent a few days in a medium sized, non-touristy town in the hart of the ‘coffee triangle’ called Armenia. This was a friendly town with a huge number of cafes and ice cream shops. We hired a guide and driver to take us to what turned out to be a very cheesy coffee plantation tour, and to a the nearby town of ‘Finlandia’ (see photos). We learned that Colombia is struggling to compete with Brazil and Vietnam for coffee production, and they barely make a profit. Don’t be surprised if Juan Valdez goes away.

Armenia was having an event commemorating the 20th anniversary of a large earthquake that killed over 1000 people. And we went to a fun Karaoke bar, where thankful no one butchered any songs we actually knew, and some of the singers were quite good.

Link to photos here.

After Medellín it was onto Bogotá to visit my good friend Karen, who is working here as a middle school counselor in a large bilingual/international school here. Karen lives in a great neighborhood on the north side of town called “Chapinero Alto”, which is near a great restaurant zone called “Zona G” (G for Gourmet). If you visit Bogota I recommend staying in this part of town, which is only a $2 taxi ride to the center of town. Its a very safe part of town, despite (or because of?) the fact that all apartment building have a 24/7 doorman to let you both in and out of the building.

Bogotá is at an elevation of 8500 ft, which took me about 1 day to adjust to after being in Medellín, which is at 5000 ft. The climate is basically a high of 65 and a low of 45F year round, so no one has or needs heat or air conditioning. For folks who don’t like the heat, you’d love it here. It was a bit chilly in the morning, but the climate is pretty ideal.

Bogotá and Medellín, the 1st and 2nd largest cities in Colombia, are definitely rivals. The best way I can think of to describe the difference between Bogotá and Medellín, is to think of San Francisco compared to Oakland back in 1990, before Oakland became hipster central and SF became dominated by tech bros.

Bogotá/San Francisco:

• More art, music, high-end restaurants
• More wealthy people
• More cosmopolitan
• More expensive

Medellín/Oakland:

• More down to earth
• A bit more friendly / accepting
• A bit more dangerous
• Warmer weather
• Have a bit of an inferiority complex about their rival city

I joined a group of American teachers from Karen’s school to go to Theatron, the largest night club in South America. Wow! A total of 13 bars/dance floors that hold up to 5000 people. It costs $17 to get in, which includes free bottom-shelf rum/whiskey/vodka mixed drinks till 2am. Certainly not my scene, but a really fun/interesting night! Check out the videos in the photo link below.

I did 2 private tours, which provided a great opportunity to talk politics and philosophy with locals who where fluent in English. One of the tours was to the Salt Cathedral about 1 hr north of Bogotá, which was pretty cool, though not in the same league as the one in Krakow.

On Sunday mornings, Bogotá has a huge Ciclovía, where around 10% of the 10 million folks that live here get on a bike and ride around the 120km of roads that are closed to cars on Sunday 7am-2pm. Bogotá is located in a huge valley, and so the roads are mostly flat. Karen and I did a great 30km ride that included a mini adventure. The rear derailleur on my rental bike imploded when we were about 8km from our starting point. Luckily one of the 100 or so bike repair booths they set up along the route was 1/2 block away, had a spare derailleur that fit, and 1 hour and $9 (parts and labor!!) later we were on our way again.

Karen borrowed a car so we could do a great hike to the La Chorrera waterfall, which is about 1.5 from town, and which you’ll see in the photos.

Selection of photos from Bogotá and surrounding area are here.

Our first stop in Colombia was Medellín, a town of 4 million at an elevation of 5000 ft, and near perfect weather (high 80, low 60 F) year round.

Many people still think Medellín is a dangerous place, because in the 1990s it had the highest murder rate in the world. But that has all changed, and in fact the crime stats for Colombia and the USA are pretty similar these days. (The US has 4 cities in the top 50, and Colombia has 2 cities, neither of which we are going to.) That being said, there are definitely neighborhoods to avoid here, just like in any large city.

We stayed in a fantastic AirBNB apartment with an amazing view, with a couple in their 30s. They own a small walking tour company, and I did 2 of their 3 walking tours, both of which were very interesting and highly recommended. One was of the city center, which is quite dense and chaotic, and other was of a poor neighborhood originally built on a trash dump. I really enjoyed discussing politics and philosophy with Pablo, our AirBNB host.

We also did an AirBNB experience to Comuna 13, and Christine of course did a Cooking Class, both of which we recommend. And we did a great day trip tour to Guatape through AirBNB experiences, one of the cutest towns anywhere, and El Peñón de Guatapé.

Our apartment was in the area called “Laureles”, which we definitely recommend over the more common tourist zone called “El Poblado”. El Poblado was far too touristy for our taste.

The metro, opened in 1994, is spotlessly clean and really nice. Rather than being covered with advertising the trains are full of signs pointing out all the great city sponsored social programs, encouraging folks to donate to charities, and generally be good people. Unfortunately I heard the most overplayed song on the planet, Hotel California, while waiting for a train on the platform.

The folks we met in Medellín are very proud of their city, and like to point out the ways they are better than Bogota (such as having a Metro, while Bogota does not). They seem quite optimistic about their future, and feel the past few mayors have taken the city in a good direction, and are hopeful that will continue.

Food in Medellín has been rather disappointing. Most everything is fried, its hard to get a typical meal that includes vegetables other than avocado and corn, and most everything has minimal spices. But food is pretty cheap, and portions are huge, so 2 people can easily share one item, making it easy to get a meal for 2 for under $10. We did find a good pizza restaurant near our place. As always we avoided tourist restaurants, so maybe they are better?

Music overall was also a bit disappointing, especially after Grenada, where music is everywhere. We did see a fantastic Cuban band at Son Havana, but beware that bands don’t start till midnight, and that ordering a rum and coke means a bottle of rum and a couple of cokes. But in general background music in restaurants and shops was pretty awful (smooth jazz versions of 70s pop), or Colombian reggaeton, most of which I found uninspiring.

But despite the disappointments, we really liked Medellín overall, and recommend checking it out. Next on to Bogota.

Full set of Medellín/Guatape photos are here.