To be honest, the time in Bogota was not the best time during my journey. You might have noticed… The post was… well… Without content. No doubt the reason was clear. After I spent pretty much every spare second with Natalia for almost a month we split off. Knowing she was gone made my heart cry. I thought I lost her. Forever. I knew she was special, I knew she would always have a place in my heart. For making my time in Cusco so special, for making me feel special, for being such a beautiful soul. Without me realizing she did not just get a place in my heart… She got my heart. I fell in love with her.
There is the saying: ”You first notice how much you like a person once the person is gone”. This is so accurate as almost no other quote. I thought I lost her entirely. Getting her message saying:”I miss you.”, brought back the hope that was already gone. My soul was pulling me towards her. Apparently her soul was crying to reunite with mine as well. The next day I took a night bus to Medellin what cost me less than 20€. The ride usually takes about 10 hours. It had only been 3 days without her. 3 very painful, empty days, without meaning.
Anyway, this post is supposed to describe my time in Medellin. I don’t wanna annoy any of you with negativity or sadness.
One more little step back into the past, about a month before I went to Medellin. A Colombian friend I met in Cusco, asked me after I told her I was gonna travel to Medellin and was planning to stay there for at least one month:” Why do you want to go to Medellin? What makes this city so special for you?” My answer actually made her a little bit angry. On one hand I said, obviously I wanted to see if it’s really true, that you can find the most beautiful girls worldwide (I didn’t know Natalia at that moment yet), on the other side (no hate please)… I’m one of those guys that became curious to see Medellin because of the series “Narcos”. Embarrasing, I know. I wanted to see the difference between the city Pablo Escobar influenced most and the rest of Colombia. She didn’t comment her reaction to my answer. The reason was clear though. People go to see this city (or even Colombia in general) because all they know about it is that there are good looking girls and well…Escobar used to live and traffic with cocaine there. Most of the people don’t really care about what really makes Colombia special. The actual culture, history, atmosphere or the beautiful, sometimes so unique landscape.
Back to present though. I arrived early in the morning after an almost sleepless night in an actually very comfortable bus.
The moment I saw Natalia who came to pick me up to the bus terminal was the most beautiful one in Colombia so far. I’ve tried to play it cool. From inside I was crying tears of happiness. Surely she felt the same…The first kiss was so different to the ones we had before we separated. Full of feelings, intensity, love.
We took the train which was bringing us into the area she was living in, called “El Poblado”. The train had a very European flair. In general I noticed right away how green this city is compared to any other city I’ve ever been. Also what’s very remarkable is how fancy this city is, compared to any other one in South America. The people, the buildings, the infrastructure… Unusual fancy. I even felt secure. Being in Bogota before made me value the security we have in Europe so much. The district El Poblado actually partly reminded me of my home city Düsseldorf. Especially because of the expensive party area that’s alike. I’m gonna come back to the topic nightlife later though. Surely, I had to look for another district if I wanted to find an affordable hostel.
Being in Medellin made me wonder more and more:”Where are all the beautiful girls that are supposed to live here?”, well, I only saw one beautiful girl. Natalia. None of the good- looking girls there nearly is my type. I like natural beauty and girls that express intelligence. I don’t think any other country has such a huge amount of operated girls. No wonder. Apparently, women are “worth less” if they don’t have a nice ass and big tits. There is supposed to be a lot of pressure on a woman to look good. At least plastic surgery is very cheap in Colombia.
Anyway, after checking me into my Hostel we went to the city centre. We both got crazy looking for bracelets. We ended up both buying the same 3 bracelets until we decided to stop that shopping ecstasy. The busy city centre has a nice atmosphere and is full of little street shops. Especially when it’s about food or bracelets and self- made jewelry you can have some nice, cheap shopping. Back in El Poblado we met a guy that also sells self- made bracelets in the street. He saw us walking hand in hand, so he gave us bracelets as presents. The moment he put on the bracelets we were supposed to make a wish. Both of our wishes came true by the way. As sign of our gratitude we bought another bracelet each. In general Natalia made me a bracelet addict haha. I’m not a materialist, not at all. But those bracelets they mean so much to me, you couldn’t imagine. I would always prefer any of those bracelets to a fancy watch. At least 10 times a day I actually count if I still got all of them.
While walking along the main street of El Poblado driven by hunger we found an Empanada- store. For the price of only 1200 Pesos (about 0.30€) they offer you a very good tasting, freshly fried Empanada. We ended up going there pretty much every day. The days we didn’t go there definitely were less successful days. In case we didn’t feel filled up enough, there always was an option only two doors further. An option we took almost every time. We just couldn’t say No to 2-3 Churros (Donuts :D) for only 500 Pesos per piece. (less than 0.15€) Well, it actually didn’t matter if we were filled up or not. Of course, there is always some space for sweet stuff. (I personally think human have a second stomach for sweets)
As every traveler in South America should know, Empanadas are the cheapest kind of street food you can get in most of the countries there. So it’s kind of obvious I was trying to safe as much money as I could. That’s why I also chose a Hostel that’s outside El Poblado. First it seemed like the cheapest option. I regret going there after I noticed that the Hostel is 7km away from Natalia‘s. As the bus on this line does not drive after 10pm I had to pay about 12.000 Pesos (3.50€) for a Taxi at least once a day. Even though it’s still cheap for a Taxi drive that takes about 15minutes, compared to Europe, I was actually not able to afford that. Also, what I didn’t know before, this hostel was not offering breakfast. I knew I would have to find a better solution soon. The solution didn’t take long to appear. It came with a huge surprise.
The second night, Natalia was gonna introduce me into Medellin’s night life. After we spent most of the day together I wanted to exchange my smelly, dirty clothes against less smelly, almost not dirty, warmer clothes. It was still early enough to take a bus (what costs 3400 Pesos (like 1€) by the way). On the way to the bus station something happened that hit me like a train. I was seriously shocked. I passed two guys, a guy and a girl, looking to the ground being inside my thoughts , not paying attention for them…Suddenly I hear the girl’s voice saying:”Dennis?!?!” Looking at each other seriously got us speechless. I was not even able to smile. “How is that possible?”, I thought. I remember us hugging each other still both being shocked. I barely managed to find any word the first minute. How often does it happen that you randomly meet a friend you got to know about 1,5 years ago on your very first journey… in a city with about 3 million citizens, on the other side of the world? The friend I’m talking about is called Sophia. Her family is friends with my first travelmates’ family. Back in New Zealand we recommended Sophia and her cousins she was traveling with, a place to get work in the town called Blenheim we were also working. Once they arrived we had some drinks together and eventually Sophia ended up being the only girl that ever slept inside our car with us. She was the only one who ever resisted this insane smell of two halfway- through puberty guys that lived in this car for already more than 1,5 months, with work- shoes and disgustingly stinky socks and so on included. I really respect her for being so brave. Especially for even being able to pretend it didn’t smell bad and actually made us believe it was true. By the way, nothing intimate happened at all.
So yeah, after realizing what just happened she told me about her hostel what is called “The Sugar Cane”. It’s owned by a German and his Colombian wife. Both are super kind and help you with everything. The view from the hostels’ rooftop, the outdoor kitchen, the relaxed TV room, the cheap price (like 8,50€ per night), living with Sophia and the fact that I was so much closer to Natalia didn’t let me think twice to decide to change there, the next day.
After I got dressed me and Natalia went out together. It was a kind of disappointing night. Being together was beautiful, no question. The disappointing part was realizing that Medellin’s nightlife is not as awesome as we were expecting at all. I mean, if you like Salsa, if you like a loooot of Salsa, if you like Salsa in 99% of the clubs… Medellin might be the perfect city for you to make party, worldwide. Well, as we are both not the biggest fans of this kind of music we were desperately looking for sth better. After about 2 hours we gave it up. It seemed like more fun sitting and talking on a playground while licking lolly pops eventually.
The next morning I moved to “The Sugar Cane”. At night later I made a very strange experience. I was walking along a street in El Poblado. It was actually pretty busy on the street. The temperature in Medellin was good as always, so I was still able to wear shorts. Medellin actually was the place in whole South America with the nicest weather conditions in my opinion. Always warm, never too hot or too much humidity. Suddenly, a tall woman in a very bitchy red, short dress appeared and came walking towards me and started talking to me in spanish. The moment I realized that person actually was not a woman I already felt the transexual’s hand grabbing my dick and balls. I pushed him/her away, immediately. As I felt very uncomfortable I just wanted to leave this weirdo, forget about what just happened and turned around. Fortunately, my mind didn’t leave me right away… The moment I turned around I was reflecting the situation. I was thinking like:” Wait? Why would he/she do that? Better check your pock…)”. The moment I realized my phone was gone I moved back towards the robber and started screaming at her so aggressively (I never saw my self raging out so impulsively) she didn’t have any other option than giving back my phone, straightaway… So yeah, my first own experience with getting robbed was a transexual trying to steal my phone. I have to admit, the technique of distracting a man that way is pretty smart. I guess she usually is very successful with it. The robber definitely did that the first time.
The next day Natalia moved into my hostel. Finally, we were able to get some privacy. I booked an own room for us. From that day on I started to slowly wake up. I started to open my eyes. They way she looked at me… The way I caught myself looking at her… I was asking myself “Could it be? Are we both in love with each other?” I never caught myself looking like this at any girl before. Neither did I ever see a girl looking at me that way. I started to consider it actually might be possible to have a future with her. After the travels. But I was desperate knowing she lives on the other side of the world and it would just stay an imagination, a dream. Still, I was not sure if I was actually guessing right with her being in love with me. So I needed to tell her before it was too late. Somehow I couldn’t. I never told any girl that I love her… I was scared… of rejection, disappointment and what was gonna happen after I told her. My decicion was to give it more time and wait for “the right moment”.
While waiting for this “moment” we did some kind of sightseeing I would call “Must- Do’s”.
The “parque Arvi” was my favorite tour we did in Medellin. You have to take the cable car to get there. The view from the cable car is beautiful! You should definitely check it out, even though you wouldn’t go into the park!
That trip actually was the first time me and Natalia were completely alone, with no people anywhere around. Especially in those moments of only being with the person you love and yourself you feel so connected… The love is endless. There was a guy selling self- made bracelets and jewelry who saw us walking while holding hands. Of course he assumed we were a couple and told us stuff like he was feeling our strong love. So he made a ring for Natalia as a present. Again a present. I still wonder if we got them because we are a strange- looking couple, because they eventually just wanted is to buy something in return or because they could really see the love and just wanted to be nice to us. The way I got to know Colombians let me believe it was a bit of everything. Still, I think Colombians are super nice people.
At some point we started getting company. The sort of company we accepted most while having this kind of privacy. First we found a very cute cat we were already planning to take back home. We named her “Chango” (like the club we met each other). A few minutes later we got even more company through a dog who was following us all the rest of the time until we almost left the park. We also named him. “Wildrover”, like the hostel/ bar we used to go to together with our squad (Vivi, Charmender) if we wanted to get tipsy while dancing on top of the bar, seeing me getting half- naked or getting free shots through tinder (tinder- night… Find a match inside the bar and get a free drink. Even get a Jäger- Bomb for kissing the match on the bar… Damn, I miss this bar.)
Anyway, if you like going to lookouts, there is two very nice ones in Medellin you really need to check out! (Names?). Being on top actually made us realize how huge Medellin is. Like it’s impossible to see the whole city at once.
The most beautiful trip everybody should pay for is to Guatapé. This place does not just have a landscape like in a dream, it also has the world’s biggest known rock. It needs about 750 stairs along the rock to get on top. The view is unforgettable! It’s located at a huge lake with plenty of little, mostly connected islands. That definitely would be a place I could imagine living. The price for the bus is about 15.000 Pesos, each way. The entry also definitely is affordable with 12.000 Pesos.
Of course, we also had to go out at least once in Medellin without getting disappointed. We decided to gave it another try after Sophia told us about a club called ”9+1” that usually plays electronic music. So us and some other hostel- buddies went there together. To be honest, it was good! It was not shockingly awesome as the music was pretty pretty much the same all the time. But it was bearable for some hours. Very sadly though, I lost my favorite hoodie, my favorite material valuable in the club.
Then, at some point we decided to change into an AirBnb as it was so much cheaper than having a private room in our hostel. We paid less than 5€ each per night. The host was a super nice, kindly lady who even made breakfast for us every day. The 3 nights we were living there we spent most of the time walking through parts of the city we didn’t see yet.
One day we watched a show of an entertainer/ magician while eating Mamones (there’s no fruit I enjoy more eating while being with Natalia. Thanks so much for the recommendation!). The show ended in an awkward but funny situation… Of course, I was the only white person watching the show so this guy started talking to me and asked me stuff during the show. Why me? Haha. Me and my shitty Spanish… I felt so embarrassed haha. We left right away.
At that point it actually was still clear that Natalia would leave me soon, going to volunteer in a Hostel at the “Tayrona Park”. One evening we sat on a bench both getting tears thinking about leaving each other. My plan was to come after and visit her there, at first… That was not enough for me though. So I asked her to figure out if there would still be space for another volunteer… Fortunately there was. What a relief! For us both. I can still see the pure happiness I saw in her face when I was asking to join her.
The hostel- owner told us to arrive 5 days later than planned. What was good! Because like this we had the opportunity to have a trip to Cartagena before.
The time in Medellin was wonderful, with a lot of beautiful memories. A lot of magic towards me and Natalia being in the situation we are today happened there…
To be continued. In Cartagena.
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