Medellin Living

Friday turned out to be an exciting day for connecting with new people living in Medellin. First, I had an impromptu meeting with Adriaan, editor-in-chief of Colombia Reports. I learned a little more about how he arrived in Medellin, and found his story similar to my own. After getting some food and coffee, he took [...]

I ran across Medellin-based Colombia Reports yesterday, and immediately subscribed. They just celebrated their one year anniversary, and based on their objective of independently reporting what happens in the country to a foreign, English-speaking audience, I think their future looks bright. Our team is made up of journalists, photographers, locals, travelers and ex-pats from both [...]

Pablo Emilio Escobar’s grave is certainly a site of interest for those visiting Medellin, though curiously it was not listed in Lonely Planet’s 2006 Colombia guidebook. The tourism industry in Medellin, and Colombia in general, is still in it’s infancy, so it currently falls upon the intrepid traveler to track down sights of interest. The [...]

Spirit Airlines is an American ultra low cost carrier operating routes throughout the United States, Caribbean, and Latin America.  They currently offer flights from Miami/Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Bogota and Cartagena, and will begin offering direct daily service to Medellin on March 1, 2009. To get a sense of the fares, I looked up a [...]

Couchsurfing, for those who have yet to discover it, is an online social network geared toward travelers.  The network allows you to post a profile and either off to host a traveler in your home, contact someone while traveling abroad to stay in their home, or otherwise meet for coffee or a drink.  The obvious [...]

Three weeks after arriving in Medellin, I finally made it to uber club Discoteca Mango’s. I went along with Max, an American I met at the hostel, this past Friday. The taxi ride from El Poblado was about 10,000 pesos ($4), and it turned out 10:30pm was a dreadfully early hour to arrive. The cover [...]

If I am going to be living in Medellin, then I need to start changing my habits. Improving my health seems like a great place to start. My first visit to the Bodytech gym went exhaustingly well. I was almost immediately greeted by one of the many personal trainers who circulate around the floor. I [...]

Colombians celebrate their version of Valentine´s Day, called Love and Friendship Day, on the third Friday and Saturday each September. Commercialization and the American influence stills seems to have creeped down here with regard to Valentine´s Day as I´ve seen at least one club fly promoting this weekend´s events around the holiday!

On Friday afternoon, I walked up Calle 10 from Casa Kiwi Hostel and toured the Bodytech gym in Vizcaya. I learned of it’s proximity from a few other guys in the hostel who had been working out there during the week, though I saw them in Bogota as well. It was big, and all the [...]

Colombia’s ongoing conflict with the FARC continues to feature in the international news coverage of CNN.com. A week or two ago, the coverage was surrounding the continued release of hostages. Since I cannot read Spanish yet, and there are no English newspapers in Colombia (to my knowledge), I have to rely on internet news coverage [...]