Plata o plomo? For those who watch the series Narcos, this should ring a bell as it’s a sentence repeated several times by Pablo Escobar, the famous druglord from Medellin.

Everybody says Colombia is a dangerous country, and Medellin even more. It used to be true, in the 80’s it was the deadliest city in the world, during Escobar’s time there was a bounty of 1000$ on every policeman’s head (around 700 were killed during this time). In the 90’s it was still considered a dangerous city, but not as much as before and starting from the year 2000 the country and city started a process to “clean” the city and make it safer.

Today the center of Medellin is totally safe! Well, as safe as any other big South American city 🙂 The Colombians are working hard against their infamous reputation and the city is gaining popularity amongst backpackers.

Medellin’s center is a nice place to walk around, there are a few pedestrian streets full of vendors where you can buy absolutely anything! There are also quite a lot of museums, of Art and History as well as many parks. The city itself is surrounded by hills covered with trees, it almost looks like the jungle there 🙂

We spent around 3-4 days in Medellin, we went for a really interesting guided tour where we learnt quite a lot about Colombia’s and the city’s history. The Pablo Escobar episode is still a delicate matter as most of the people see him as a villain while a minority (mostly poor) people see him as a hero, as he donated more than 350 houses to poor people during his time. We also learnt quite a lot of things about Colombia’s politics, with the 4 major movements: The Paramilitares (extreme-right wing), the FARC (extreme-left), the government and the narco trafficants.

Colombia’s History is a bloody and violent one, but things seem to be getting better thankfully 🙂

After the guided tour we went to Antioquioa’s Museum, an art museum mostly dedicated to Botero, an artist from Medellin famous for his paintings and statues done in a “volumic” style! That was very interesting as well, and a lot of statues are exposed just outside the museum.

After spending a few days in Medellin, we took a flight to go to the north of Colombia, to Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast. Santa Marta is a small city, nice to walk around although it was really hot! But the major touristic “attraction” is the Tayrona national park close-by.

This park is part jungle and part beach, and just an hour away from Santa Marta. So we decided to go there and spend a night in a camping to be able to enjoy more of the park 🙂

It’s really cool because there are a few walks to do in there, within the jungle, surrounded by big trees and big boulders, listening to the jungle’s sounds, and then suddenly forest clears up and we get a view on the beach, with white sand and coconut trees, turquoise water, surrounded by hills covered with trees and big boulders on the beach! Impressive view 🙂

“Thankfully” the sky was a bit covered from time to time, because when the sun was out it was scorching hot! We spent the first day walking around in the jungle and lying on the beach, without being worried by antything else than not being knocked out by a falling coconut 🙂

In the Tayrona park it’s not allowed to swim in all beaches as some have very strong current, so the second day we went to two beaches where we could bathe, and that was really refreshing 🙂 Although there were quite a lot of people, the landscapes were still amazing 🙂

Back from Tayrona, we headed to Minca, a small moutain village an hour away from Santa Marta. It’s quite impressive to see how the landscapes and climate change as in Minca, among the forest and the trees, it was way cooler than in Santa Marta.

Minca is also famous for its coffee and cocoa plantations, as well as for surrounding rivers and waterfalls. But mostly for chilling in a hammock 🙂

On one day we went for a walk to see a waterfall, but as it was a holy day in Colombia, the place was crowded like hell! So we didn’t stay long there and headed back to our hammocks to relax after a VERY tiring day 😉

Unfortunately, the other days the weather was quite rainy so again we decided not to risk it and stayed most of the time in hammocks, enjoying the view and the sound of the jungle and the rain 🙂

Our next stop will be Cartagena where we’ll spend 1-2 days before eventually splitting, as my friend goes back to Ecuador and I’ll take a flight to Panama to continue my journey 🙂