The infamous neighbourhood, Comuna 13

Cerro Nutibara

After breakfast at the hotel courtyard, we booked a taxi for tomorrow morning’s early departure.  We headed out about 0945 for our only day of sightseeing in Medellin.

Our stay had been cut short by numerous flight issues.  Our first stop was Pueblita Paisa on top of Cerro Nutibara.  This is a mini old town located on top of a hill.  The old town was tiny with only a few buildings, but it was very pretty with local dressed up for events which included a marching band.

The view of the surrounding area was the main attraction for me here.  The little museum wasn’t worth the COP5000 as it had photos of Montevideo and Medellin.  With all captions in Spanish, I got very little out of it.

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Our next stop was Museo Casa de la Memoria, a museum dedicated to the city’s violent past and transformation.  We enjoyed a leisurely walk down Cerro Nutibara before ordering an Uber to take us there.

At the museum around 1100, we had to fill in our details on the computer for the free visit.  Upon completing all our details, we were told Level 2 was closed.  Level 3 only had a library and Level 1 had nothing open too!  What a joke and a waste of time.

We found a small eatery where we enjoyed some empanadas and a drink to kill time.  It was nearly lunchtime but our tummies weren’t ready.

Comuna 13

We made our move to San Javier metro station by Uber around 1215, taking about 30 mins.  We had found the Uber rates here to be far too low, despite the traffic and distance so we felt obligated to add a tip.

At San Javier, withdrew some cash as we expected to be at NIL balance upon departure tomorrow.  We didn’t want any stress in case of unexpected expenses.  We kinda had time to kill but not quite, before our 1315 meet-up for the walking tour of Comuna 13 back at San Javier metro.

Comuna 13 is the infamous neighbourhood run by druglords, guerillas, paramilitaries and gangs in the 1980s and 90s.  In the 2000s, the government initiated a cleanout of the area.  At times, their efforts were overzealous innocent people being detained, disappearing, injured or killed.

We managed to fit in a short cable car ride to the first stop before returning for the tour.  The guide took us all on the local bus to where we started in earnest.  It was a colourful street decorated with murals.

The area has become the most visited part of Medellin and it was apparent from the number of souvenir shops, galleries and bars.  We continued our walk with explanation of the area’s history and the different murals.

We arrived at a series of escalators and made our way up them all, with stops visiting some small galleries.  Continuing to various high points, the late afternoon sun illuminated the hillside homes very nicely.

The guide said that street addressing here is quite systematic and deliveries such as Amazon have no trouble here.

Some very talented breakdancers gave a performance to the numerous tourists.  Hip-hop has changed lives here, we were told.  It’s an alternative to fighting.  The other thing that really impressed me was how the guide said, when you fix the problems with the youth, you’re saving your future!

I couldn’t believe how it got busier as we got closer to the top with more and more hubbub at watering holes.

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We finished around 1600 when we walked back downhill and summoned an Uber.  If we had been close to San Javier, I would have taken the metro all the way back to Poblado and taken about the same time.

It was nearly 1700 by the time we reached the hotel.  Having skipped a proper lunch we returned to last night’s diner for a great dinner.  We both had an early night in preparation for tomorrow’s 0430 wake-up.