Okay, let me start out by stating I am not a big soccer fan. I do know the general rules of play; but I don’t know the fine details of the game including strategies, the players and all the rules. Nevertheless, while in Colombia, I decided that we had to attend a football (soccer) game; after all, it is the number one sport of Colombia and Latin America. As with the popular sports in the United States (football, baseball, basketball,…
Cycling is Colombia’s second most popular sport, only football (soccer) is more popular. Aside from the heavy traffic and hills, Medellín is very conducive to cycling. Ciclorutas Medellín has over 60 miles of bike paths (ciclorutas). These are separate, dedicated bike paths, often along streets and parks. For many people, biking is their main method of transportation. Encicla Medellín also has a bike sharing program throughout the city. Encicla consists of 51 bicycle stations with over 1,300 bikes. Once you…
There are many places in Medellin with a panoramic view of the city. Because Medellin is in a valley surrounded by hills and mountains, it doesn’t matter which direction you go, all around there are hills and overlooks with stunning views. On an early Saturday morning, we hiked up one of the hills called “Cerro de las Tres Cruces” (Hill of Three Crosses). The trail is rated a 2.5-3.0 difficulty on a 1-5 scale. What makes this trail unique is…
For nearly five months, we have been exploring Medellin, Colombia. We have toured different parts of the city, explored neighborhoods, discovered exciting events, tasted new food and drank many cups of Colombian coffee in trendy coffee shops. Medellin has become very familiar to us and feels like home. We know many of the customs and idiosyncrasies that make Medellin a unique and popular city. We have ventured outside of the city to explore some popular pueblos including Guatapé and San…
Our New Life of Long-Term Travel Change is hard. But along with the challenge of adapting to a new life, we have realized that travel has brought a lot of good changes while on the road. We want to share with you what we learned from our travels. What is it like to live without a home and adopting a life of long-term travel? No home, no jobs, no possession except for two bags each. It’s still hard to describe…
In the heart of Medellin, there is a small, old fashioned bar called Salon Malaga. But this is not just like any other bar in Medellin; Salon Malaga is a cultural institution. It is the home to the music of Tango and Bolero. It is like a museum of an amazing collection of Latin America and Spanish music memorabilia and black-and-white photos of singers and dancers of a past era. Salon Malaga is a journey into the past with different…
Every city has quirky, odd places to explore. These places are one-of-a-kind oddities that almost makes them charming. One of these oddities called ‘La Casa de las Piedritas’ (House of The Pebbles) is located in Envigado (a suburb of Medellin). We found this place on Trip Advisor and asked several locals about it. Nobody had ever heard of it. Even our Envigado taxi driver had never heard of it. The obscurity of the home made us more interested in finding…
Festival del Global Solar On December 31 Medellin ushers out the old year with the Festival of Solar Balloons. It is a family event in which people gather to symbolically release the events of the past year and make space for the events coming in the new year. In its seventeenth year, the Festival of Solar Balloons takes place in The Cancha El Dorado Stadium located Envigado which neighbors Medellin. This year’s theme was ‘Aliens’ and the balloons took the…
When we told people that we planned to sell everything, give up our careers, retire early and leave the U.S. for a year or more of travel in South America, many people told us that they could never make such a big life change themselves. During my first two weeks in Colombia, I realized why they could never sell everything, leave their homes and take to the road. Because giving up one life to create another one is hard. [However,…
¡Feliz Año Nuevo! This Christmas was our first major holiday in a foreign country and we’re so glad to have experienced Christmas in Colombia. As did many Colombians, we headed out of the city for Christmas. We traveled to San Rafael, a small-town east of Medellin. We took a 3-hour bus ride along the winding highways up and over the mountains. San Rafael is a town with a population of just under 60,000 people. It is not a tourist town,…