Day 81 1/15/2022
Medellín, Colombia
Well I didn’t get much sleep last night since I got home so late. I made plans with my gypsy friend to hang out all day today! I rolled out of bed pretty late but didn’t sleep very well. I met up with gypsy woman to get some breakfast at the place I’ve been going to lately. We had a huge breakfast and she couldn’t believe how much food I ate for breakfast. I was taking the day off from salsa lessons and the gym since I need a break from it all.
Today was going to be a sightseeing day with my new friend. After we ate breakfast we got some coffee for her and exchanged some money. She looked up a lot of things to do unlike me and found some stuff to check out in the city. One of them was taking a cable car from the center of the city up to the side of the mountains surrounding the city. You can check out the whole city on the cable car ride to the top and once you’re up there you can explore the little areas of the city up there. We ended up taking a wrong turn and getting lost looking for the cable car. An hour later we found the cable car and the cops decided to give us a hand with getting a metrocard to pay for the cable car. They spoke to us in Spanish and after they realized we couldn’t understand a word they were saying they decided to speak to us at mach 3 in Spanish. 5 Minutes later we were all just sitting there confused as all hell but they decided to keep talking to us in Spanish. Really guys? They probably held us up there for 10-15 minutes. One of them took my phone and started to type in something on google translate. He was probably typing for 5 minutes and it was some useless information. Thanks for trying to help but you burned 15 minutes of our time! hah
We got on the cable car and transferred at a few stops. We somehow ended up at this park miles from the city center in the middle of nowhere. There was a botanical garden that looked pretty boring and was not cheap so we just bought some fruit up there from some vendors and laid out on the grass in the sun for a few minutes, staying warm since it was cold up there. When we got up my shorts and her skirt were covered in mud. Yay
We got back on the cable car and headed to the first stop which was the last part of the city on the mountain side. We walked around for 20 minutes and checked it out, I got some delicious chicken on a stick and we headed back down to the middle of the city to get on my bike and head back to our area. We stopped at a grocery store to get some water and snacks and then I dropped her off to shower, I went home to shower and we met up again for dinner at the place I went to the first night. I’m learning a lot about Ukrainian life hanging out with Anastasia.
After dinner I got in touch with Spencer. He’s the Canadian I’ve been talking to the last few months since I’m right behind him the whole time. He’s actually been in Medellin for a few weeks at this point. His bike broke down recently and it’s been in the shop for a little time getting fixed. We finally made plans to meet up and no better place than a salsa bar since he’s been taking a lot of dancing lessons lately too. He’s been going to the same salsa school I’m going to in Medellin! We decided to meet up where we went dancing last night. We got to the bar at the same time he did but then realized quickly that he went to another salsa bar with the same name on the other side of town. He said he was with a tour guide who says the bar he is at will be much busier then the one we are at right now. We got on my bike and headed over to a little bar he and his friend went to while waiting for the salsa bar to get busy. Everyone goes out here at 11pm so we had some time to kill.
Spence is a really nice guy. I like him a lot. Super cool, good energy, smart, humble. He had a guy with him who he met recently. He’s a local here and lives in New York part time as well. He was telling me how he was excited to get his ass out to Fire Island to the gay bars because some wild shit goes down there! Hah We all chatted about all kinds of shit for about 30 minutes and then we headed over to the salsa bar.
We got in there and no one was dancing so we chilled out a bit waiting for Spence and Matteo to get there as well. Once they showed up there were a few people on the dance floor. Me and Anastasia got up there and warmed up. Matteo and Spence came over and started ripping too! Matteo is of course Colombian and can dance really really well. He took Anastasia and started dancing with her and immediately I thought to myself ok I’m ready to learn some more moves. I pointed out three moves I wanted to learn that he just did with her. Next thing you know the three of us are on the dance floor that’s packed and he’s trying to show up the move she was doing but we’re all confused at that point since it involves a lot of spinning and twisting with our hands interlocked. I didn’t even notice but we had a few people at the bar cheering us on to learn what Matteo was teaching us.
We walked back to the corner to work the confusion and after a few minutes we nailed it. We went out to the floor and put the new moves he taught us to use. Matteo grabbed me and danced with me for a bit and he blew my mind with this shit he was doing! We had such a great time it was an absolute blast. I’m ready to get back to class on Monday and show my instructors what I learned. I feel like such a geek. We ended up hanging out at the bar until about midnight chatting with Matteo and Spence. They are such good people and I would love to hang with them again.
Anastasia and I left since we booked a bus tour to Guatape in the morning and we had to be at the park by my hostel at 7am. What the hell were we thinking booking this thing it’s too early for me! Eh I was excited to get out of the city for a bit and not be on the bike. I get to be lazy on a bus and just relax while they drive us. It cost $30 for the day with food and a boat tour included. We went our own ways and we were gonna meet up in a few hours at the park to get on this tour!
Not many pictures today but heres a small view of Medellin
Its ok to just park your bike anywhere in Colombia.
The oreo dessert I made Anastasia try at dinner.
A little street in Santo Domingo area of Medellin. We stopped here from the cable car on the way up.
