Two Cities in Colombia

Where Peru's itinerary was packed end to end, Colombia was the opposite — a week split between Bogotá and Medellín with barely a plan beyond seeing what was there.

Bogotá meant two walking tours: one simply to get a feel for the city and its neighborhoods, the other tracing the legacy of Pablo Escobar — heavy, but an essential way into the country's recent history. The Gold Museum was a highlight in its own right, full of pre-Columbian craftsmanship I hadn't expected.

Medellín was a deliberate contrast: a few easy days of wandering through markets, shops, and small restaurants, following whatever looked interesting rather than any plan. Along the way I met a mix of people — some who'd moved to Colombia permanently and built lives there, others just passing through, all generous with recommendations and stories.

A day trip to Guatapé came together almost by accident — a stranger at a café in Medellín mentioned it in passing, and that was enough to get a tour booked for the next morning. The town itself is a postcard: every wall painted in bright zócalo reliefs, a plaza strung with a canopy of colorful umbrellas overhead. But the real draw is El Peñón, a sheer granite monolith with roughly 700 steps zigzagging up its face. Our guide offered an ice cream to anyone who made it to the top in under ten minutes — I did not make that time, taking the stairs in disciplined fifty-step bursts with a breather between each, but I bought myself one anyway, on the grounds that I'd earned it regardless. Whatever it cost in lungs and legs, the view from the top — a labyrinth of green islands scattered across a turquoise reservoir — made every step worth it.

Leaving Bogotá was its own experience. Before boarding, every passenger filed down the jet bridge past armed guards and drug-sniffing dogs — a blunt, visible sign of how seriously the country is working to shift its reputation.

I loved it more than I expected to, and Colombia is firmly on the list of places I'd go back to — even with so much of the world still left to see.