Colombia Travel Diary: Life in Medellín 🌈

My one-month summer escape to Colombia has passed in a blink, and now I'm back in 40°C Houston - how I miss Medellín already! I used to maintain a "countries to revisit" list, but now I realize Colombia belongs on a different list: "places to visit regularly." Before the trip, I reread Sanmao's 1980s travel essays about Colombia. Unlike her other mystical writings, this one was remarkably concrete. Having completed my journey, I can definitively say her accounts are outdated history. It's astounding how a nation thrives when freed from civil war and drug cartel rule - the economic development is phenomenal! With prosperity comes dignity, and people's mindsets have improved tremendously. ✨ Sanmao wrote about being overcharged by taxis and vendors immediately upon arrival. Yet during my month there: • Every taxi ride was pleasant (Didi is even slightly cheaper than Uber!) 🚖 • Countless market purchases with zero tourist scams - twice vendors ran after me to return excess payment 💰 • Like most Latin Americans, Colombians are exceptionally polite - "good morning/afternoon/evening" greetings are standard 👋 • On rural buses, courteous elders would greet every passenger, and the collective responses were heartwarming ❤️ 50% of my affection for Medellín comes from Madellin River Park near my apartment. Research shows it was designed by a local architect and is now 10 years old. As a landscape designer, I was constantly amazed by how a beautiful urban park elevates city life. My old renderings only included basic yoga and cycling scenes, but this park revealed incredible local talent: • Flexibility yoga practitioners • Strength trainers • Acrobats performing handstands • Skateboarders mastering obstacle courses • Crowds parting for aerial performers doing flips and spins 🤸 • Uniformed jump rope teams on secluded paths - their advanced moves suggested national team level! (Is jump rope even an Olympic sport?) 🏅 Of course, poverty exists in Medellín. The advantage of longer stays is exploring beyond tourist zones. The wealth gap here resembles layered pork belly - you can transition from pristine streets to roofless homes where people scavenge plastic bottles from trash. Ironically, this eased my frustration with Texas' poor recycling - here, not a single plastic bottle goes uncollected! ♻️ The famous slums have become major tourist attractions now, packed with visitors! I initially thought there weren't many tourists - turns out they were all at the slums! Wandering deeper, I found less-visited areas where houses were modest but orderly - more "working-class neighborhoods" than true slums. Clearly, developing slum tourism has been effective - residents have visibly improved livelihoods. #Colombia #OffTheBeatenPath #Medellin #GlobalTravel #UrbanDiscoveries #TravelPerspectives