My decision to book a ticket to Bogota at the Havana airport turned out to be a good one. Although I almost missed the boarding (it started earlier than written on the ticket and at a different gate) everything went well. Really well.
So without a plan where to stay and how to get around I was sitting in the plane to Bogota. Colombia is fairly well-known for its crime rate but it has been steadily becoming better since the 1980s. Colombia is also well-known for the welcoming and warmhearted people.
Because I was too stupid to fill out the tax form I asked the guy next to me for help. We had a talk and he gave me a massive amount of outstanding information about Bogota. Upon arriving he let me use his wifi to book a hostel, drove me to his parents house to have dinner together. After that he drove me to the hostel and invited me for a jazz night in his bar. Awesome dude. (Thanks Ricardo!)

Bogota

The first three things that springs to one’s mind when he hears Colombia or Bogota are cocaine, crime and the FARC. The Colombian population is aware that their reputation throughout the world is not very good. This is also probably why people try their best to give travellers a nice impression despite all the problems.
But let’s be honest. The most dangerous thing for the AVERAGE traveller in Bogota is the traffic. Not the gangs. Not the addicts. The traffic. It’s insane or “loco” as the locals would say. Hordes of motorcycles rush through the narrow streets without any respect and regards of safety. The streets are congested even on Sunday evening. Nevertheless, when you keep your eyes open nothing will happen.

Getting around in Bogota is also simple. Carreras run from north to south and calles from east to west. The mountains are on the east. As a traveller you shouldn’t go past calle 6 in the south and carrera 10 in the west, especially at night – be the average traveller. (Unless you want to get robbed/killed or know how stuff works – this is the advice from every Colombian I’ve met). The north is considered a safer zone. Unfortunately the buses are always overcrowded but taxis are available everywhere and cheap as well. Uber is probably gonna be the best and cheapest option to get around. It’s better to let a hotel or hostel or even a waiter from a restaurant you haven’t eaten in call a cab for you than hail one in the street.

Bogota has a lot of Must Sees like Monserrate, the free Botero museum, Casa de la Moneda, the Mueso del Oro, Bolivar square, Colpatria Tower etc.. some of them you’ll find in the pictures below.

Also carrera 7 which has been made a zone for pedestrians a couple of years ago is something to visit. There are a lot of street artists, street food vendors and other cool stuff.

Of course the Must Sees are not the only thing why Bogota is a cool place. There’s a huge art, graffiti and nightlife scene. Fun fact: Graffitis are now semi-legal in Bogota thanks to – I wish it wasn’t him – Justin Bieber.

The thursday after arriving in Bogota I took a cab to the bar I mentioned before: El Bukowski. I almost didn’t find it because it’s an “underground” bar in a residential area. That was one of the best jam sessions I’ve ever heard…so fantastic that at first I didn’t realise it was a jam session. Jazz, Fusion Jazz.. there was something for everyone.

Later that night after the bar closed the whole crew went to a different private house to have a salsa party. The barmaid tried to give me some salsa lessons but I failed miserably.

Medellin

I guess it is true what all people say: The paisas are the nicest people ever.

How did I come to this conclusion? In Bogota I met a German girl – Jana – on a free walking tour. We decided to visit Guatape together. She went to Medellin that evening and I stayed another 2 days in Bogota. The guy sitting next to her in the bus invited her to live with his girlfriend and his gf’s child for a couple of days. The real Colombian experience.
She casually mentioned that she wanted to visit Guatape with me and they invited me as well to stay with them. How awesome is that? After a bumpy 10h overnight ride with the bus from Medellin to Bogota where I couldn’t keep an eye closed – at least I didn’t barf all the time like the girl behind me – I finally managed to get there. I was greeted like they had already known me for ages even though we have never seen each other before. After a tasty breakfast we decided to do something…
So what should I do in order to combat the fatigue? Let’s go paragliding Wohooo!

I found this note on a website: Note:- If you are paragliding for the first time do remember that there is 75% chances of vomiting while spinning. So we would like to suggest you to eat very light meal. If you are not sure, please ask more about spinning with pilots.

Luckily it didn’t apply to me but only to Jana xD. At the end of the flight I felt a little motion sick as well but it faded quickly after we landed.

In the evening Blanca, my host mom, asked me if I can ride a motorcycle. I sure do! I short call later she told us we would go to Guatape the next day. They provided full gear for Jana and me, let us stay in their house and fed us really well. The next day we went to Guatape and it was terrific. Rarely I’ve seen a view as stupendous as this.

Medellin and the area around it is fantastic. Even more than Bogota. It is much easier to get around due to the metro and the cable cars. And the views… the views in the night-time are amazing. Seeing the sun go down in the valley and the mountains are lighting up.

Medellin also has a lot to offer like Parque Arvi, Pueblito Paisa, several walking tours, the party mecca El Poblado (especially Parque Lleras on a Saturday night), The botanical garden etc…

Also the weather is super pleasant. It usually doesn’t get below 15 degrees and not above 30 degrees. After a week in Medellin I began with the spanish classes and we did dome cool stuff with the school… like a tour in the famous comuna 13.

Everything is nice then, eh?

When talking about Medellin certain things just can’t be left out. That’s why we’re going on a small historical excursion about Pablo Escobar, San Javier (a.k.a. Comuna Trece) and the ongoing conflicts.

It is well-known that Pablo Escobar became one of the most ruthless drug lords in latin america who led the most powerful drug cartel… you can read the rest on Wikipedia: Pablo Escobar

It is not entirely known how many people Pablo assassinated but it is thought to be at least 3000 people. What he would do is give 20 million Pesos to the hitman to assassinate a person. One of the most known hitmans is John Jairo Velasquez a.k.a. Popeye who killed at least 250 people + another 100 with the bombing of an airplane in which a presidency candidate was supposed to be in. In the end he confessed, got 60 years, which was reduced to 23 years and 3 months, because the Colombian justice system works so damn well. He got out in 2014. It has to be mentioned that Pablo wasn’t only a ruthless killer, he was also a family guy (Hacienda Napoles) and some sort of robin hood. A lot of poor people loved and idolised him. The city of Medellin suffered but also gained a lot because of him.

The even more interesting thing is what happened after Pablo was killed (or after he committed suicide, we don’t know for sure). At the time Pablo was killed, my Spanish Teacher was a child about eight years old and she’s been living with her grandmother at the border of San Javier -the most dangerous of all districts- to another district. After Pablo was killed everyone wanted to be the new Pablo what, obviously, led to even more “trouble” – killings, extortion, kidnappings. The whole city, which was formerly under Pablo’s control was then divided in several parts.
There’s a good documentary about the daily life in certain areas of Medellin just after “Operacion Orion” in 2002. (Graphic content)

[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LysF6QVL6So[/embedyt]

My Spanish teacher actually appeared in the documentation at 1:49 the child on the left who is running. During the daytime it was often quiet but after sunset the war continued. (Skip to 30:47) Usually the borders between comunas were the most dangerous areas during he night because that’s were the wars were staged. The police would not enter this areas, except to retrieve dead bodies. Sometimes they would just lay there for a day or two, depending on which time
the person was killed. At 33:55 you can see how it was just daily life for most people. My teacher casually just shrugged and said: Why the hell did she thing it would be a good idea to go out at night? By the age of 15 she saw 75 people dead or getting murdered. Even if someone wasn’t already dead it was impossible to help someone. No dar papaya, don’t make yourself a target. One of the most horrible moment was when she watched someone getting murdered, the person wasn’t dead yet and would knock on people’s doors… with a wheezing voice begging for help “Ayude, Ayude!” But no one would open the door because of fear of getting murdered too.
Another time four heavily armed men knocked on the door at 2 o’clock in the night. Of course they thought they would get raped or murdered but nothing happened. It turned out that her house was a strategic viewpoint over some streets so the gangsters could see when rivals or the police would come.

Let’s have a break and look at some funny stuff: funerals.

This is a clip from the movie Rosario Tijeras.
[embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYushbDO49I[/embedyt]

Well the funny thing about this is that this happened all the time – for real! Check it out yourself:
[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvlFlmF3eok[/embedyt]

Ok, back to serious things.
I mentioned “operacion orion” before, what was it? In short: In 2002 the newly elected president Alvado Uribe ordered a police/military raid of the communa 13 with around 3000 officers and soldiers in order to “liberate” the war torn neighbourhood from the paramilitaries. Oficially there were about 10 deaths that night. Something like 6 paramilitaries, 2 officers and 2 civilians.

Everybody know that was a lie: That number was later corrected to around 100 and a lot of them were civilians. During the year after operacion orion more than 300 people randomly disappeared and nobody knew where they had gone – at first. Turned out most of them were innocent civilians: children, teenagers, men and women. Where are they? Simple – they were killed by police or military, chopped up and dumped in a landfill close to comuna trece.

Today comuna trece is a safer (not a safe) place as it used to be but there is still no reason to go there unless you’re taking an organised tour. Microtrafficking, extortion and robberies happen still on a daily basis. But the drug lords at least made a truce. It’s not that they want peace because they’re nice guys, they want peace because war hurts the business. Even though they’re in a time of peace, the murder rate in Medellin is still high. Sometimes this also affects tourists.