Visiting the (1990s') Most Dangerous City in the World

Medellín still has a fairly bad reputation internationally, having been the most dangerous city in the world during the 1990s. It was home to the infamous Medellín Cartel, headed by Pablo Escobar. Daily life was plagued by violence, drugs, shootings and bombs. Since then, though, the city has cleaned up its act and in 2013 was even named as the 'most innovative city in the world'. Walking around the central neighbourhoods of El Poblado and Laureles today feels safer than many other cities that we've visited.

Past and future:
A bird sculpture by Fernando Botero, Medellín's
and Colombia's most famous artist, was badly damaged by a bomb, so
the artist made a new one to go alongside it as a symbol of regeneration

The city, a bit higher than we've been recently at an altitude of around 1500m, spreads along a valley floor and up its sides. It is connected by an excellent metro network of trains and cable cars linking the areas further up the valley slopes. One of these cable cars takes you to Arví Park, where we enjoyed strolling through tree lined paths and an artisan's market serving craft beer while taking in spectacular views over the city. On the way back, our train was delayed by an hour with no explanation - it seems that some things aren't too different from home!

Medellín from near Parque Arví

One morning, we set off to the Minorista market to join a tour of exotic fruits. Our guide explained that, a few years ago, this market used to be a pretty sketchy place. It has now changed dramatically and is completely safe - tourism is a way to help the locals  and improve its image. We were each handed a spoon and taken around various stalls trying out different obscure fruits. Our favourites, mangosteen and dragonfruit, recalled our travels in Asia.

Trying guava in Minorista market

A couple of hours outside of Medellín, near the town of Guatapé, is a reservoir towered over by the impressive Piedra del Peñol - a giant granite monolith. We walked up the 740 steps to the top for some magnificent views of the surroundings. Guatapé itself is a really pretty town - almost all of the buildings are brightly coloured and decorated around the base of their walls with tiles showing images of the Piedra, geometric designs and products on sale amongst other things.

The Piedra del Peñol

Colourful houses in Guatapé

The Guatapé reservoir from the top of the Piedra del Peñol

From Guatapé, we were heading to Honda but wanted to stop at Río Claro (Clear River) natural reserve on the way. This made the journey a bit of an effort. We took a bus out of Guatapé down to the main road, then hailed down a second bus to the reserve. When we left, we took a third bus along the road to Dorradal, where we were lucky to find a direct bus to the final destination of Honda. Río Claro proved a worthwhile diversion - we spent a couple of hours walking alongside the river lined with cliffs and jungle. The valley is made out of marble, which made interesting rock formations along the river banks and there was plenty of wildlife around. Lots of butterflies (Jo's favourite), a jumping stick insect, a troop of monkeys and, our highlight, a coati climbing a tree.

Río Claro

We've booked flights out of Colombia in March, so don't feel like we have that much time left here now. This meant that we had to leave both Medellín and Guatapé a bit earlier than we'd have liked to. Next, we're now moving on towards the coffee growing region of Colombia.