Doug's Travel Blog

Today I will most likely visit the Modern Museum that I didn't visit yesterday. I will be taking the Metro train to get there. I seem to be resisting using my free bike registration that I spent a few hours getting. Even though there are bike lanes, the traffic scares me a bit. Today is Sunday. A couple things. They close streets to be exclusively used by bikes and it is Sunday. Maybe the streets won't be as busy. Stay tuned. I left the hostel this morning fully intending on going to the Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellin, the Modern Art Museum. Along the way I started seeing pride flags here and there. It is Pride Month. I decided to check the internet for when the Pride Parade would be in Medellin. It's today! The internet said it was starting at 11 am. I asked a few people where the parade route was and I was directed to Parque de Luz. I had been there, so I knew where it was. At Parque de Luz I found that this was the staging point for the parade, so I just walked around...

 I still haven't set any date to leave Medellin. It is so nice to have the time to be flexible. I am thinking this will be the museum day that I didn't do yesterday. Biking will have to be put off another day.                     I left the hostel after 9 am. There was no reason to leave earlier because museums and the like open at 10 am. The walk along the road to Berrio and the Plaza Botero is lined with people with carts selling all kinds of fruits, fruit drinks, coffee and cloths. I stopped at a street side shop that sells Buñuelos. I tried one once before.  In Hawaii we called them fat cakes. Round donuts without a hole. This shop sold buñeulos with optional fillings. They had 4 diffent fillings that could be injected into the buñuelos. Chocolate, a burnt milk type filling and 2 others. I will fill in the names as soon as I can find them. I had the burnt milk filling, almost a caramel. It was nice. Nice enough that I...

I wish I could tell you I was upbeat this morning, but I am still trying to process last nights debate in the US. I still need to have a plan today. At this point, I am thinking museums, gallerys and biking. I will start with a biking, if I can get myself motivated early enough and in between rain showers. More to come later in the day..  Well as it happens, I didn't do any of that. After finding at ATM to refresh my cash, I caught a Metro train to the North Bus Terminal. I then took a bus to Guatapé. The ride out was an adventure. Shortly after turning off the main highway, we came to a complete halt on the road. We made little progess over the 10 to 15 minutes. I thought maybe it was road work because there was occational traffic coming down in the opposite direction. The driver talked talked to a couple of the trucks coming down as they passed us. Eventually, the bus I was on, found a spot and turned around. I am looking on my google maps and don't see many options to gettin...

A change up for breakfast this morning, pancakes. nice. After breakfast and blog updates this morning, I headed out for the day. I was planning on trying out the Encicla bikes today, but my energy level was down. Maybe from going out for drinks last night. My legs weren't feeling that great either. Maybe tomorrow. What  I did do was catch the Metro train to the Poblado neighborhood. From my reading, it has been mentioned as a neighborhood to visit. I also  wanted to check out hostels there in case I wanted to try out a different place. I arrived at the Poblado station and started walking and walking. The walk to the neighborhood was mostly uphill from the station. One check mark against finding a hostel here. Arriving in the central neighborhood area, it seems to have a more residential feeling. I stopped at one place for a break to have a not so great brownie or what I assumed was a brownie and a coffee. The streets  in this area are even more tree lined than where I am ...

Today eggs were back on menu. Nice. The mornings I typically spend updating this blog. The plan for today:  Go to the Encicla office to get a card so I can use the public bikes. Possibly take the cable car up to Andulucia neighborhood  Revisit the Centro Palacio Comercial Nacional After breakfast I headed out to go to the Encicla office to register for the bike system. I took the Metro to the same station that I went to to meet the walking tour yesterday. I had to walk another 4 blocks to the Encicla office. But once there, I was assisted in completing my registration. I couldn't have done it by myself. After about 15 minutes, I walked out, registration complete. It is not in my plan to ride today, but I will tomorrow. Today, I want to ride more on the Metro system which includes busses, the train and also cable cars that carry residents up the mountain sides. Once you board, you can transfer as many times as you want, as long as you don't exit, for one price.  I should b...

On the street near my hostel Today I have booked a spot on a walking tour in Medellin. The planned meeting time is 10 am so I will have a relaxed  m6orning before heading out to join the tour. Depending on my energy at the end of the tour, I need to go  to the Cyclista office to complete my registration to be able to use the free public bike system. Breakfast was not as complete as yesterday. No eggs and no cereal, but cheese was added to the offerings. I left early enough to add money to my Civica metro card.  Passing by fruit vendors on alm6ost every corner. I saw this wagon of pears that looked very tempting. I will have to buy some later. Arriving at the Metro station, I charged my Civica card and then  took a short ride on the rail system to the meeting point for the tour. I met up with the Real City Tours walking group at 10 am. The group I was assigned to was lead by Milo. I think we were about 16 people. This tour company provides the leaders with small porta...