Colombia 2: Villa Leyva and Medellin

VILLA DE LEYVA

February 3 cont. We collected a rental car and drove to Villa de Leyva, an historic Spanish settlement, now a world heritage site, three hours from Bogotá. Our hotel, Hospederia Duruelo is a beautifully restored monastery on a hill above town. 

Sunset on the square with a bottle of crisp Sav Blanc and a view of the cathedral is the way to start the evening, followed by dinner of Aleppo, a local stew. 

 February 4 We spent the morning wandering around town and the afternoon driving through the farmlands and countryside. Veggies, especially tomatoes and strawberries are grown in tunnels on a pretty large scale. There are quite a few tacky or useless attractions like dinosaur or fossil parks, pottery shops, wineries. One worthwhile stop is the clay house, Casa Terracotta, designed by local architect, Octavio Mendoza. Another bottle of Sav Blanc at sunset on the square, followed by a modern Colombian dinner at Mercado Municipale, the best restaurant in town.

MEDELLIN

February 5 A morning's drive back to Bogotá and an afternoon flight to Medellin. Our hotel, The Charlee, was really cool and trendy and situated right on Parque Lleras in the posh El Poblado area of town. 

All the nightlife is centered around the square and there's a fairly robust police presence at night. A very traditional dinner at Mondongo's followed by cocktails and live Latin music at Al Rojo.

 February 6 Medellin is infamous as as the drug and crime capital of Colombia. We haven't watched Narcos and we didn't do the Pablo Escobar tour of the city. We spent the morning exploring El Poblado, with a few coffee stops and then went to the MAMM ( Modern Art Museum Medellin ) 

Next stop, Centro. The area around the cathedral is pedestrianised but felt pretty dangerous as we walked about so after a visit to another Botero museum, we found a corner cafe with a pavement table to enjoy some beer while clutching our bags and watching office workers, school kids, street vendors and prostitutes going about their daily lives. We barely made it out of there and into our Uber before dark. 

 Cafe Botanika opposite the hotel had live music and good burgers that night.

February 7 We ubered to the Botanical Gardens and enjoyed a great morning birdwatching. In Situ is a great restaurant in the gardens. 

Medellin has a modern metro system. It's a very hilly city so there are a few commuter cable car routes linking to the trains. We rode up to Arvi Park enjoying great views of the neighborhoods below as we went.

We had dinner, a food and wine pairing, at Carmen, one of Medellin's top restaurants. Well worth the splurge, as The Guardian travel writers say.