The lead-up to the Christmas holiday season has been a bit of a whirlwind for Two Travel Turtles, but we have landed on our feet in Medellin Colombia, and are doing fine. Although we were a bit worried about the city being shut down during the Christmas holiday, it turns out that wasn’t the case at all! Medellin is a fun city with lots to do at all times, it seems.
So what have we been up to over the Christmas holiday? We’ll give you a blow-by-blow account.
Departure from Cusco – December 23
On December 23rd, we took a late night (10 pm) flight out of Cusco to Lima, Peru using JetSMART airlines. Thankfully, JetSMART let us cancel our original flights to Arequipa, and use the credit toward our Cusco flight due to all of the protester turmoil there. We had to pay ~$60 USD out of pocket, plus our Arequipa flight credit, which was fine considering the circumstances of the booking. So in total, our tickets ended up costing us $179.24 USD ($89.62 each).
We were just happy that our tickets to Arequipa didn’t go to waste!
The Alejandro Velasco Astete Cusco International Airport was a madhouse, due to a couple of delays causing an accumulation of bodies in a very small terminal lobby space. But our flight departed on time and we landed in Lima without issue at about 11:45 pm.
At least the security lines at the airport were super short.
Arrival – December 24th, 2022
We landed in Lima tired, but we knew our travel day was just beginning. Our next flight from Lima, Peru to Medellin Colombia wasn’t until 5 am, so we knew we’d have to gird our loins to survive the rest of our travel experience.
Exiting the domestic portion of the Jorge Chavez International Airport was easy as we only had carry-on luggage. But reentering the airport through international departures was a bit rough. Going through security was as unpleasant as one could expect, but not excessively so. It probably only took about 10 minutes.
But international departure customs was another matter.
Apparently, at midnight several flights landed in rapid succession, leading to a stampede at the customs line. It took us about 1 hour to get through, and we were thoroughly exhausted at that point.
It was about 1:15 am, way past our bedtime!
We then made our way to our terminal where we set up camp for the next several hours. It was fairly crowded and relaxation wasn’t happening, so we made the best of it by reading, blog writing (our last post!), and studying Spanish when we were coherent.
Not an ideal or fun situation, but we made it through without issue. And our flight boarded, departed, and landed without any delays. We flew on VIVA airlines for the first time, and it was fine. For some reason, my size and the size of the airplane seats were a less comfortable combination than usual, probably due to my exhausted state and accumulated butt soreness.
We landed at Medellin Jose Maria Cordova International Airport right on schedule at around 8 am. Customs went fine only involving a wait of around 20 minutes or so. We then found an ATM, withdrew some Colombian Pesos (COP), hired a taxi ($90,000 COP/$19.01 USD), and checked into our Airbnb.
Our Airbnb was a microefficiency so space was lacking, as we knew in advance. But the amenities were solid and the location was outstanding, so for $20.54 USD per night for three nights, we were quite pleased.
We then collapsed exhausted on the bed for several hours.
Christmas Eve in Medellin Colombia
After our nap, we explored the local area on foot and accumulated some basic supplies that we knew we would need. We also obtained a new Claro SIM card and internet data plan for our time in Colombia. For $14.56 USD we got a plan that provided 30 days of use with 8 GB data + free data for Whatsapp, Facebook, Waze, and other apps we don’t use.
But we had a problem. What do you do in a big city on a major holiday when most things are probably closed?
After doing some internet research, I found out that Medellin puts on some pretty spectacular Christmas light shows at different parks within the city. And one, in particular, was most recommended: a Christmas lights walk from Parques del Rio Medellin to Puente De Guayaquil (= Guayaquil bridge) along the Medellin River.
It was only a few kilometers from our Airbnb!
So we made a night of the Christmas lights walk! Apparently, MedellinColombia has a financial relationship with the Disney corporation and agreed that the theme of the Christmas lights walk for 2022 would be from the movie Encanto. They even included holographic animations of characters from the movie!
The lights were pretty spectacular, and here is a sampling of what we saw:
On our way to the event, we saw that many of the houses in our neighborhood were appropriately decorated…
But they didn’t compare to the Christmas lights walk!
Many of the lights were suspended above the Medellin River!
There were a lot of people with the same idea as us!
Not officially part of the Christmas light walk, but we liked it anyway!
To get home, we had to wade through crowds of people!
It was a lovely way to spend Christmas Eve.
Christmas Day – Riding Gondolas and Hitting the Mall?
Christmas Eve was a lot of fun, but we thought we had a similar problem with things not being open on Christmas Day and us getting bored. But that was not a problem, as the Medellin Metro System came to the rescue!
The Medellin Metro System is famous for its efficiency, safety, cleanliness, and GONDOLAS!
The gondolas were built to connect the disadvantaged populations that are in more isolated mountainous regions of the city to the Medellin infrastructure, providing economic opportunities for those living there. This was a good idea apparently, as crime rates dropped in many of these neighborhoods compared to the Pablo Escobar years.
And the Medellin Metro System doesn’t close for Christmas, so it seemed a great way to sightsee for cheap!
Here is a map for reference:
We made our way to Industrial Station, bought 8 tickets ($25,000 COP/$5.28 USD), and rode to the Line H gondola system to see what it was like!
The standard rail system was really nice!
And the gondola system was fun and scenic! And there are many like this in the system, most with a similar purpose.
Inside the gondola…
And up the mountainside! Some of these gondolas have multiple stops and are multiple kilometers long.
A nice way to spend an afternoon.
Here is a video that Rhonda shot of us ascending Line H!
After riding Line H, we continued on tram Line T and got off at Miraflores station. We walked to the local shopping center in the middle of town and saw that it was open!
So since we hadn’t had a Christmas meal yet, we invaded the food court and ordered a sumptuous meal of Japanese bento boxes (with appetizer)…
At $80,700 COP/$17.05 USD, it wasn’t exactly authentic, but it was quite good!
And split a gelato sundae.
Vanilla, chocolate, and honey gelato, with toppings ($7,500 COP/$1.58 USD). It was tasty!
After lunch, we hired a taxi ($17,000 COP/$3.59 USD with tip) to take us to Parque Lleras, a neighborhood with a hippie-party vibe. We walked around it for a while, but it was only operating at around 25% capacity. We grabbed a couple of beers to wait out a passing shower and then headed home on the Medellin Metro system again.
It was quite the full day!
December 26th – Our Last Full Day in Medellin Colombia
This was our last day to do some serious exploring!
Having increased our confidence in the Medellin Metro, we decided to go a bit further afield, and take it all the way to Parque Arvi, a huge ecological park, all the way at the end of Line L!
We heard that Line L is so long and specific to the park, that it would have its own separate ticket cost. But we were undeterred.
So we bought 8 more Medellin Metro tickets and made our way to Line L! Our route from Parque Belen station (nearest to us) went Line 1 bus to Line A train (Prado station) to Line K gondola (Acevedo station) to Line L (Santo Domingo station).
And we were correct, Line L has a separate cost involved because of its unique nature (1 one-way ticket @ $11,125 COP/$2.64 USD each), but was hardly a budget buster.
The stretch of 2 consecutive gondola rides was spectacular! It probably took close to 20 minutes for us to cruise up the mountainside above some lush, dense Andean forests! It was a lot of fun.
Line L in particular was really impressive! The gondola to Parque Arvi was quite scenic.
Heading up and out of the city proper!
Getting into the wilderness.
Deep in the wilderness now.
We arrived at Arvi Park and were impressed by the welcome center, local market, and facilities in general. If you want to explore the trails of the park extensively, you have to hire a guide.
One of the best photos of me.
We were not on that kind of timetable, so we stuck to the trails near the welcome center. The problem is, there really is no good advice on where the trails are and how to best access them!
Thankfully, my Maps.me trail app came to the rescue and gave us a good route along some nice waterfall and stream areas.
So we hiked away from the main facilities, down narrow paved roads, and past abandoned churches…
Which led to trails…
Until we reached our goal.
We even saw some interesting new birds! This one was a Lesson’s motmot.
We suspect we walked about 3 miles along the trails by the time we circled back toward the main park facility.
Before we got there we stopped at a small mom/pop local restaurant for a meal. The prices were quite reasonable considering we were a captive audience! Rhonda got a fantastic large tamale with pork and other goodies inside, and I got a traditional Andean dish called bandeja paisa.
It was delicious!
Both meals in total cost $40,000 COP/$8.40 USD including tip.
And we also got a couple of unique local beers.
They were quite good!
Total cost: $32,000 COP/$6.72 USD, which is a little expensive for Colombia. It was probably due to the unique nature of one of the ingredients! 🙂
Our bellies full, we made our way back to the gondola and called it a day. We need our rest because on December 27th we will be flying to Taganga, Columbia for one month. We’re both very excited to spend some time on the Caribbean coast!
Goodbye Medellin Colombia!
We’ve had quite a nice time in Medellin!
The city is lovely, the Medellin Metro System really is world-class, and there is so much more to do here! We honestly haven’t even touched the tip of the iceberg. But we think we did quite well over the Christmas holiday when not everything you might do is open for business.
Thanks, Medellin, for having us! We had a lot of fun. But Taganga, Colombia awaits.
Until next time…
Thanks for reading!
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2 thoughts on “Merry Christmas from Medellin Colombia!”
Interesting!! Great stop for two travel turtles!!
We agree!