02 Jul 2025 13 min read

The final leg of South America: Medellín, Salento y Bogotá

Due to an ongoing battle with illness for Max, the rest of our time in Colombia was a bit disjointed and disrupted. We abandoned our plans to head to San Gill and instead ended up spending longer in Medellín, with a short visit to Salento before transiting through Bogota for a day en route to catch our flight to Mexico City.

Medellín

Our trip from Santa Marta to Medellín was our last, but longest overnight bus of our trip; 18-hours in total. Plus, the buses in Colombia are nothing like the buses we had in Peru or Bolivia. They are more akin to a traditional bus, so not much space and the seats only partially recline.

We didn't end up doing too much in Medellín, rather Max spent most of his time there at the hostel, battling ongoing gastro issues. However, after a few days on anti-parasitics, we managed to rustle up the enthusiasm to indulge in Medellín's infamous nightlife - HECK.

Mariano (L) and an Aussie couple we met at the hostel.

We also managed to get out for a few tours and outings during our time:

Ring making
Comuna 13 tour
City tour
Pride parade

Enjoying the local fruit markets in Medellín.

Ring making

One of the highlights of our time in Medellín was doing a ring making class, which was recommended to us by fellow Kiwis Jackie and Dan who we met in our first few days of our trip in Patagonia.

We started with the raw metals; 95% silver and 5% copper and then melted these down into liquid form. We then worked the silver into a flat bar of 1mm thickness. We measured our ring sizes, cut to size and then went about designing and shaping the rings.

The melted down silver and copper mix that we used to manufacture the rings.

Inscribing the rings with our own designs.

Working the ring into its final shape and form

During the process, they asked us to think of what we wanted to design or inscribe on the rings. Laura chose SE VALIENTE (Spanish for be brave) and I chose HE TANGATA (Te Reo for the people, which is from the infamous quote: He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tāngata, he tāngata, he tāngata). It took some practice, but we eventually went about inscribing the words onto the rings (they are clearly perfectly imperfect...).

Our handmade rings!! We hate this photo because it looks like we’re posing for wedding rings, but it's a great shot of the finished product.

We then shaped the rings, welded them together and then undertook the final polishing. This was such a fun experience, and one of our highlights of the trip. The whole experience cost us only NZD$70!

Comuna 13

We visited Comuna 13 on an organised tour — an eye-opening experience into Colombia’s turbulent history with drugs, organised crime, and guerrilla warfare.

Comuna 13 is one of Medellín’s 16 official districts, located on the steep hillsides west of the city centre. From the 1980s to early 2000s, it was considered the most dangerous neighbourhood in the world, controlled by criminal gangs, drug cartels, and guerrilla groups. Its location made it a key corridor for moving drugs and weapons out of Medellín toward Colombia’s west and beyond.

You would NEVER walk these alleyways at night 20 years-ago. Our guide used to live on this alley and said he came across the body of a teenager one day on these steps; shot dead.

Residents endured horrific conditions: constant gunfights, kidnappings, extortion, disappearances, and rampant violence. Services like healthcare, education, and public safety were either absent or controlled by armed groups, with homicide rates among the highest globally.

Medellín by night. The bright lights in the centre at the football stadium and to the right is the wealthy area El Poblado. You can buy an apartment in Comuna 13 for $25,000 but an apartment in El Poblado will cost you $750,000+

In October 2002, the government launched Operation Orion — a major military offensive to drive out guerrilla forces. While it regained control, the operation left deep scars, with dozens killed, hundreds disappeared, and widespread human rights abuses.

Today, Comuna 13 is a powerful symbol of resilience and transformation. Once notorious for violence, it’s now a safe, vibrant neighbourhood celebrated for its colourful street art, hip-hop performances, outdoor escalators, and community-led tours that openly share its past while showcasing its revival. Tourism has become a vital source of income and pride, making it one of Medellín’s most visited and inspiring destinations.

Break dancers in Comuna 13. Very impressive. Break dancing is a way of life for a lot of people in Medellín.

We toured Comuna 13 and got to see first-hand:

The bullet holes in the residents' houses,
The football fields where the used to play with the heads of their enemies,
Children swinging in playgrounds where a decade ago the area was a critical territorial area known for graphic and violent turf-wars.

An old fortress positioned right in amongst the houses in Comuna 13. Remnants of the atrocities of 20 years ago.

Being part of a tour was very insightful, as we got to visit some of the residents and hear their stories about growing up in Comuna 13. We met one man by the name of Alexander, who was shot through his face and arm as a teenager in Comuna 13 (he showed us his bullet wounds). Alexander's hand was forced; join a gang, the guerrillas or the para-military. He joined the para-military and served a decade in the army before returning to Comuna 13 after the 2002 operation. He now lives in the same house he grew up in, but gone is the sound of constant gun fire and fearing for your life around every corner.

Medellín pride festival

On our last day in Medellín was the city's pride parade. Coming from New Zealand, and specifically Christchurch, we had never seen a pride parade in the flesh. This was a hell of an experience and so much fun. The people watching was quite the experience and we ended up dancing our way with the parade a few kilo meters downtown.

The pride parade coincided with a public holiday weekend and the football final hosted in Medellín on the same day. It was a big weekend for Medellín and the streets were pumping with excitement.

Turns out the parade started just a few hundred meters from our hostel, so we could hear the music pumping as the floats were setting up from 8am in the morning. We headed down just after 1pm in anticipation of the 2pm start of the parade.

The experience can really only be summarised in photos. What an incredible last day in Medellín.

Everyone is dressing up for the pride festivities.

Laura's Coldplay shirt "love is love" came in handy for the festival.

These were some of the more clothed outfits we saw on the day.

Salento - the coffee region of Colombia

During our time in Medellín, we decided to escape the big city for a few days in search of the quiet mountain-side town of Salento, in the heart of Colombia's coffee region.

Our sleepy Coffee Tree hostel overlooking the coffee plantations in Salento.

We loved our time in Salento; a sleepy little mountainside town with so much to offer. While we didn't do a coffee tour (we had already done two by this point in Bolivia and Peru), Laura drank a lot of coffee.

We spent a day hiking through the Cocora Valley, which is host to huge palm trees and lovely green pastures. The palm trees take 80-years to reach full maturity and can live for up to 200-years. The trees reach up to 100m in height. We took one of the iconic jeeps from the town centre down into the valley and spent the day wandering about the palm trees. This was a lovely refresh from our time in Medellín city.

The famous Salento palm trees. These take 80-years to reach maturity and can live up to 200-years. They are about 80-100m tall.

So nice to get out of the cities and into nature. Just what the soul needed.

On another one of our days we were horse trekking. Laura and I both LOVED the horse trekking and agreed it was probably our highlight experience of our 3-months in South America. Huge call - but we just loved everything about it. We were recommended a tour company by Jo and Sophie and Laura managed to recruit 7 of us from the hostel to take part. The horses were so well cared for, very well natured and very well trained. After a quick 10-min demonstration, we were given our chosen horses (Laura; Carousel - who she kept calling Carbonara and me; Canadio), mounted and then set off on our own. We spent the next 4-hours trekking through the beautiful green valleys, through the coffee plantations and up a river bed. The guides were very hospitable and friendly - a highlight for me was talking cycling and the Tour de France with one of the guides who was a huge cycling fan. The guides let us do as we pleased - if we felt comfortable, then of course we could go for a canter along the farmland, or down a different path. We loved the experience so much we tried to rebook the next day, but it was sadly booked out.

During our time in Salento we got to experience the traditional Colombian game of Tejo. Think classic circus ring-throwing, but with rocks the size of hockey pucks, gunpowder and explosives. Yep - quite the interesting game.

The Tejo playing area. The centre is concrete and the white packets are filled with gunpowder that explode when hit. The surrounding is soft clay.

The rest of our time in Salento was spent lounging about our hostel, which was one of the nicest we've stayed at for our trip. A large, well-equipped and relaxing hostel positioned on the hillside looking out across the valley and coffee plantations. We met some lovely people and really enjoyed our time in Salento. We think it was just what we needed.

Cute wee Frenchie pup on the streets of Salento.

A shot of Aqua Caliente with one of the locals.

The sleepy residents at the Coffee Tree hostels.

An education in Tropical Disease & Colombian healthcare

Since our time in the surf town of Huanchaco, north Peru, Max has battled ongoing gastro issues. Persisting for 3-weeks, we eventually saw a doctor at our hostel in Medellín but after no improvement in health despite two injections and a course of drugs, we decided to go to hospital.

Two full days were spent in the hospital in Medellín. We had to pay $1,000 USD deposit just to get in the door and show our proof of insurance before they would even let us to reception. After about 15-cumulative hours at hospital over two separate days, 4 different tests, various medical assessments and a lot of google translate, the medical diagnosis was that Max had contracted a kind of tropical disease from an infected mosquito bite from our time in the Amazon in Bolivia.

Max was finally prescribed a course of anti-parasitics and related drugs in the hope of kicking the disease/ virus and finally starting to feel better. Max's ongoing gastro issues and illness was a bit of a dampener on our time in Colombia and changed up the game-plan a bit, but Max was a trooper and still got stuck in to the various activities and happenings during our time here.

Our hostel in Medellín; The Black Sheep, which is run by a Kiwi were very helpful and caring. They arranged the first doctor's visit and guided us in getting to the hospital. We only paid for dorm rooms, but on several occassions they upgraded us to a private room. On our last night we got upgraded to the premier room with two double beds, a couch, Netflix and ensuite.

The only photo we have to document the experience. 2-days in Colombian hospital.

A day in Bogotá

With our change in game plan, we only ended up spending one day in Bogotá. We arrived by night bus at 7am in the morning and flew out to Mexico City at 7pm the same evening.

Laura with the friendly police in Bogotá. Not pictured is the third assault rifle leaning against the wall behind Laura.

We didn't overcommit to trying to see much of Bogotá, given the amount of travel we had and with three pretty full on days in Mexico City ahead.

Beautifully curated courtyard of the Botero art museum in Bogotá.

We wandered into town and found a great cafe for breakfast. So good in fact we returned for lunch 5 hours later. after visiting an art museum which lasted all of about 45min, our grand ambitions to hike to the lookout faded pretty quickly.

He even had his own personal Stanley cup!!

Getting to the airport was pretty chaotic. We left with plenty of time up our sleeves, but due to the football game from the day before in Medellín which was against a Bogotá, the road to the airport was complete gridlock. We abandoned our uber on the motorway and ran across to the bus station. The bus only lasted one stop and then all buses were cancelled so we had to walk the last 3km. It was manic, people everywhere. We still never understood why the road closure because we never saw protesters or fans blocking the road, but we thankfully made our flight to Mexico and officially ending our time in South America.

The final pilgrimage on our backpacking leg of the trip.

Adios South America!

48hrs of travel including and overnight bus and plane that arrived at 2am.

Fresh Colombian cut. A moment of appreciation for the mullet.

Up next; 3-days eating as Mexican food as we can in Mexico City!! Mexico City is our final destination in South America (technically actually North America) before Europe.