Blog 6 - 03-10/11/2025
Travelling is an interesting game. With an absence of friends and family from back home, the people you meet along the way quickly become your family. I say family rather than friends, because what you go through together is often more than what you experience with your mates. The people around you become your social life, your travel advisors, your therapists, your outlet for everything and anything. They are the people that you spend all day with, going on adventures from visiting the town centre, grabbing a coffee to helicopter rides and wild swimming spots. The spontaneity and intensity of the friendship makes for some very special moments and memories that will last forever.
For those of you who don’t know, one of the reasons that I decided to pack it all up and go travelling round South America was because I wasn’t overly happy with the life I was living in the UK. My social life wasn’t where I wanted it to be and throughout my travelling career I had found a great amount of joy with people, out doing things, it didn’t really matter what. I had really hoped that this experience would provide me with that feeling again, for longer and with people outside of my career circle.
To return back to the opening line of this somewhat deeper blog post. Travelling is an interesting game; you meet the most amazing people and form a bond that at the time feels like you have everything you need in the world. A microcosm of a life that is both addicting but truly wholesome at the same time. But this game is fast. The faces you see changes on the daily. There are no two people travelling solo who will have the same travel plans. Everyone is here to do their thing for as long as they can afford to do it. That may be money driven or a need to get back to their normal life back home, wherever that may be, but the common denominator is usually not staying long in each place.
It’s this changing of the faces, that I have found hard this week. My time in Medellin has had the highest highs and some pretty bad lows, as you will have read about in Pt 1. In the aftermath of that incident, I was lucky to meet the most amazing people and form a really nice group, who in the few days that we had together, we did some pretty awesome things, one person in particular who will probably hate me for everything I am about to say. They’d probably tell me to grow up, which is probably a fair point. Even though I probably wasn’t 100% myself, dealing with the incident and the illness which followed, I always found myself laughing and enjoying every moment with this person. They helped me more than most would’ve in the times where I didn’t have the means to get by myself. This person has the most contagious laugh/snort I have ever heard, boy am I going to miss that uncontrollable snort and that friendly face. A person I found myself having, almost too much in common with, and such a positive energy. Thank you for snapping me out of my sulking, not that I was that bad…
Okay, okay, I’m getting to my point now. Settling into to life with a group, then changes so quickly, and the feeling after is a little deflating. Moving on to a new place is super and exciting and there’s so many more people out there to meet and have fun with, but until you’re there and have made those new friends, the lull in between is something I have learnt that I dislike, every few days it feels like a reset button gets pressed, and that I would say is the cost of this life. Meeting the most incredible people but then having to say goodbye so soon after. This all sounds a bit silly, because you’re probably thinking Eden, you have known these people for only a few days, which is true but there is something very intense about the environment, you do things with your friends out here that make it feel that you’ve spent far longer with them.
I had better wrap this up now, I didn’t mean for this to go on for so long. Anyway, to that person, and I am sure you know who you are, I hope our paths cross again, somewhere in the not-too-distant future.
That was a long intro, but this is my blog and while I know a fair few of you are following along with this, I really can’t be bothered to keep a written travel journal, so its all going here instead. Enjoy the insight into my mind for the next however many months. Anyway, let’s get into what I’ve been up to following my bed rest and feeling sorry for myself.
Mirador El Cielo
One night the gang and I were looking for something to do. The gang consisted of 2 French, 2 British and a Colombian. I’ve really got to start thinking of a punchline to these. I had previously met the 2 French people, Mia only briefly before she went off on a short trip. Baptiste, my bro, I’d met him while preparing the costumes for Halloween. Karen, the Colombian who works at Los Patios hostel in Cartegena, she’d give the Duracell bunny a run for its money, always so full of energy, truly loving life in her own world. And finally, Lawrence from Glasgow. Side bar. I consider my translation from Jockish to English pretty good, I’ve worked with some real harsh speaking lads and understood everything, Lawrence on the other hand, wow that was hard. In a sentence I would probably understand enough to make out what he was saying, but I defiantly didn’t catch it all. I felt for the French while trying to speak with him, as a rather confused, terrified look would grow on their faces, with a sheepish head nod or “haha yeah…” would follow his speech. Anyway, that’s the gang.
Mia had some other friends that were going to a lookout for some drinks, maybe food and asked if she wanted to join. So she asked us if we also wanted to go, upon further reflection it was 50 minutes away, so we found somewhere else. A different viewpoint, recommended to us by a staff member at the hostel. When we arrived, it was not what I was expecting. Imagine turning up to a car park with a nice view, and there’s some food stands serving local things and £1 beers. But as you approach you realise the carnival has been set up behind it. This place was like an outdoor arcade/amusement park with some pretty questionable games, and I can’t imagine they get a visit from the Health & Safety inspector all too often.
They had a zip wire, but instead you cycle on top of it, paintballing range where the target was the Venezuelan President… and the prize for hitting him directly in the chest, a sausage hahaha. They had a load of other things as well, VR headsets, trampolines, slingshots, etc.
But our favourite was a slide. You travel down this sketch looking slide on a rubber ring, which has been sprayed with soap, down the hill and looked like some serious speed, and at the end, I’m sure you imagine a runoff area or crash matts, nope. It was a shed, made from corrugated iron, probably held together by rope and 4 bolts, filled with plastic balls, from a ball pit. Having not done the bike thing because of my knee, the group decided I had to go first. Having watch a few kids do it, I was a little nervous that, me with my weight, would be flying out the other side of the shed and down the hill. I psyched myself up and climbed up the stairs, then without much of a warning the guy kicks the tube and off I go. Travelling sideways or backwards for most of it, constantly trying to spot my landing. When I hit the shed, the tube flipped me over and to be fair the plastic balls they did a good job at stopping me. Now completely upside down, I could feel the floor of the shed on my helmet. I was pretty sure my feet were sticking out the top, so I gave a little wave with my legs to my friends.
They all followed suit and had a go themselves, and we gringos, drummed up quite a crowd for the sellers of this ride. We head for home and after seeing a bus crash into a few parked motor bikes we made it.
Guatape
I was meant to go to Guatape earlier in my trip, With Mia and Aiden. But Aiden and I both off the back of losing our phones felt like it wasn’t the best idea, so we cancelled. So when I heard that Mia and Karen were keen to do it the day before I was due to leave, I was all in.
Sitting next to Mia on the bus, she asked if I wanted to play Yahtzee. A question she would live to regret, as I won’t let here forget who won… We drove up into the mountains to escape the city and were soon out in farming country or the green road as the guide referred to it as. We stopped off at a small tienda for a typical breakfast and some coffee. The bus journey was a couple hours long, and when the tour guide asked if it was anyone’s birthday, Karen raised her hand and said it was mine. I played along with the joke but quickly realised, I’m going to have to keep this up all day. Which later on I did forget, and was a bit confused at the question from a lady asking me if I’d had a nice birthday.
The tour guide said to the group that there was a helicopter ride available here and compared to Europe it was very cheap. It was ~£80. Thank you for the birthday present Mia. Myself, Karen, Mia and a lady from the states decided to do it! It was so much fun albeit short. The main attraction in Gautape is la Penol, a Granite Batholith that has, well… an amount of stairs going up it, the number changes with each person you ask, typically becoming greater and greater with each person. In the Heli I was on the right side, we swung round La Penol with the view on the left-hand side, I thought surely, he’s going to circle back, and I’ll get a view of it then. I was wrong… Although I did get a better view of the lakes, which were created for as part of a hydroelectrical plan.
We met back up with the others at the base of the rock, most of who had climbed up to the top. All expressing that it was pretty hard, to which of course we pointed out that the helicopter wasn’t.
Next stop on the trip was a boat ride on the lake, which gave us an opportunity to have a swim. I was first to jump, which was when he told me I had to keep the life jacket on, because the water is cold and I could suffer from cold water shock. Clearly unaware that the last time I was swimming was on a cloudy day in North Wales in September, the water was very pleasant. The operator of the boat seemed keen to keep moving, and so the boat kept getting further and further away from us. We eventually made it back in, dried of and sat on the edge of the boat to ride back to port.
We had some free time on our hands once we got back, myself and Mia took one look at each other, and with a shrug of the shoulders and raising of hands, said “Cerveza..?” So that’s what we did.
I forgot to mention that at this point Karen had practically taken over tour guide duties. Our actual tour guide had taken a fall earlier and sprained his ankle, he had been taken to hospital because of the swelling. The stand in tour guide, was part of the logistics team of the tour and while he did a fantastic job with us, he explained his English wasn’t so good (I though it was pretty great), either way Karen took over in her own style.
On the way home, we stopped off at the same place we stopped for breakfast. This time for lunch, Bandeja Paisa was on, this is quickly becoming my favourite South America food. We played a game I can’t remember the name of but essentially you toss small rings and depending what hole in lands in you get different amounts of points. With the largest being if you can get it into a silver frogs mouth. Back on the bus and that was that.
Football Match No.2
That night following the Guatape tour we all went to the roof top pool (bath) for a swim and some beers. They were trying to convince me to stay longer as I was due to leave the next day and they were all going to the football match. After some time I caved, as I really did have such a nice time with these people, I really wanted to stay with them.
So, I extended my accommodation, bought a ticket to the football match. Unlike my experience in Bogota this was organised by the hostel with 3 guides to take us to the game. We all got given the local team shirts, and a bus took us to a bar outside the stadium.
The game and atmosphere were better than Bogota, I do still find I baffling how little the crowd reacts to the game though. We were stood next to the singing home fans, and I wanted nothing more than you get in there with them, sing and dance, but unfortunately, I didn’t know any of the songs.
After the match we retuned to the same bar, I bought some street food which consisted of a skewered chicken, potatoes and some salad. I ended up giving my potatoes to a homeless guy, not because they we’re delicious but I was just too full. We went back to the hostel, now pretty tired, we just chilled out and watch a film.
Comuna 13
Comuna 13 offers the best example of rejuvenation in this city following the troublesome time. Local artists began painting murals across “favela” depicting life and historical moments of significance within Medellin and wider Colombia. Escalators were installed and brought with it mass tourism to the area which is now a bustling place of street performers, art and roof top bars. It really has become the trendy place to hang out in the city.
There is a famous football pitch in the centre, which has played host to music videos from famous artist, further adding to the touristic lure of the place. Here I engaged in some football with some young local boys and didn’t completely embarrass myself with my skills.
You could spend all day here, exploring the streets, taking it all in, dining and drinking your way through. Soaking up the culutre is obligatory.
Other places
In the last few days, I did a couple more bits of sight seeing around the city, including the botanical gardens, which had some trees and some flowers. As you might be able to tell I’m not fantastic or particularly interested in gardens but a couple highlights were this grand structure in the shape of honeycomb up in the sky, it offered fantastic shade from the midday sun. I wish you could climb it though.