We arrived to Medellín by route from the Coffee Region, it took us many hours because the route, especially at night, is somewhat complicated. More than anything when passing other vehicles such as trucks. For those who do not dare to travel everything by car and take these routes, perhaps it is best to leave the car in Pereira and follow the tour by bus. We had little time to explore the city so we chose the 5 most touristy places to tell you what to do in Medellín in one day.
We know that today Medellín is the most visited city in Colombia in recent years, thanks to the evolution it has had, taking off the weight of history with the FARC and Pablo Escobar. Many people decide to do more specific tours about this history but we decided not to focus so much on that but on making it more touristy. We hire a personal guide to tour the city.
The most important thing to know about this sad story is the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which were a far-left Colombian insurgent guerrilla organization. The organization was designated as terrorist. Active in the internal armed conflict in Colombia since 1964until 2016 when they demobilized due to the Peace Agreements. According to the National Center for Historical Memory, due to the armed conflict between 1958 and 2018, the FARC and other guerrilla groups are attributed 35,683 deaths.The FARC violated human rights in Colombia with countless attacks on peace. It is in 1970 when the period of drug trafficking begins with Pablo Escobar as the top leader of the Medellín Cartel.
Park of Lights or Plaza Cisneros.
The Park of Lights It was formerly a market located in front of the main train station of Medellín. Today it is a space created in tribute to the victims of the armed conflict already mentioned. The square at that time was an abandoned place, a symbol of prostitution and illegal drug sales. At night all the lights in the park turn on, symbolizing leaving the dark history of the city behind.
On the other side of the park is the EPM Library (Empresas Públicas de Medellín), inaugurated on June 2, 2005. This is an expression of the social projection of this company to contribute to the progress of the community through support for culture and the education. We continue our way along Carabobo Avenue that connects Plaza Cisneros with Plaza de Botero. It is a super commercial street with very cheap things, it is nice to explore everything on foot. On this avenue you will find music groups, sellers of fruit, crafts and hats.
Palace of Culture and Plaza Botero – what to do in Medellín in one day
The Palace of Culture It is an impressive building and very beautiful in its architecture. It was bought by a person who has had his concession for 100 years and today it is a shopping center exclusively for original sneaker stores. Unlike the Avenida which has mostly second hand things. Today the space was converted into a shopping center simply to maintain the conservation of the historic building. Inside this shopping center there are some small iced coffee stands and we obviously stopped to try one. Very delicious and recommended to try the regional products of Medellín, called Coffee with Love.
Botero Square It is a must-see point in the city, especially for those who like art. Located on Carabobo Avenue. It is a tour of sculptures of more than anything voluptuous people. The guide tells us that they are not representing fat people, but that it is Bottero’s view of the Antioquian man. He plays with volumes and exaggeration of other parts of the body. There is a small story behind the sculpture of “fat Gertrudis” that assures that if you touch it she brings you luck and ensures that you return to Medellín. There are 22 sculptures in total, which were donated in 2002 and became the largest outdoor attraction in the city.
Visit the Museum of Antioquia It is also an option when looking for what to do in Medellín in one day. In addition to the more than 100 works by Botero, the museum also has 17 permanent exhibition rooms of pre-Hispanic, republican and contemporary art. A curiosity about this part of the city is that the subway preserves its old structure, being suspended in the form of a “bridge”, instead of rebuilding it to make it underground.
Bolívar Park – Cathedral
In its beginnings, Pasaje Junín was the street that James Tyrrel Moore built to connect the old town with the so-called “Villa Nueva”, from the Santa Elena ravine to the Boliva Parkr. Clubs, cafes, clothing stores, bookstores and restaurants were located on this street. The guide told us that it was there where the first Argentine restaurant was opened in the city of Medellín, in the mid-1950s. We continue walking along this street and we arrive at the park. In the middle of the square is the Cathedral, and in the past living around it was considered the most expensive and exclusive thing to live in the city. Today it is no longer like that and it is known as “the town”, in fact it is where we stayed during our stay in the city. The square is very beautiful and its cleanliness and neatness stand out.
Cathedral It is beautiful, with a structure completely made of bricks. It took around 1 million 400 thousand bricks to build it. Inside the cathedral you can recognize a postcard from the movie “The Virgin of the Sicarios.” In a scene where it is shown that a drug sales center was run, which clearly did not happen in real life, but rather showed how society was being lost in this story. What is true is that all the Churches in Colombia are kept closed daily to preserve the heritage and for the value they have inside. They open only on Mass occasions which are held at 2pm and 6pm on Sundays.
House of Memory Museum
This is one of the most interesting points in the city, and most loaded with history. In this case it is part of the “bad history” of the city, which precisely must be remembered so as not to repeat it again. The museum depicts everything that was involved in the armed conflict in Medellín, both due to drugs and the guerrillas that devastated society. We could see on a poster the following description: «There is no truth. There is no complete story. Each one narrates, from his own point of view, the role he has played in the plot. And when they intersect, the stories transform, become enriched, and become more complex. The exhibition Medellín, memories of violence and resistanceis the weaving of versions of a story that has touched us all to a greater or lesser extent: the history of the violence in Medellín.»
Inside the museum there are many interactive displays that allow you to manually explore history as the years go by. Admission is free. We finished our day after the museum with a walk through Comuna 13, known as the Graffiti Tour, where they tell us more of the history from the town’s point of view.
Graffiti Tour in Comuna 13 – Something unmissable to do in Medellín in one day
We begin the Graffiti Tour through commune 13, a popular neighborhood that has evolved a lot since its times of violence and drugs. Today it is just another neighborhood, where you can stroll and walk quietly. In fact, it was declared by the New York Times and other European newspapers as “the best urban city in the world.” Nowadays you can come to visit both with a guide and without a guide, we spent the whole day with the same guide and we were really comfortable with everything. There is no path marked specifically for tourism but you can walk throughout the neighborhood freely.
This neighborhood was mostly built at the height of the mountain, so the most beautiful thing to highlight is the panoramic views of the city from above. As they are thinner alleys, means of transportation do not enter them, so their inhabitants always make their way walking upwards. Generally this is how the tours begin but we decided to go up the escalators to start from the top and go down. In some parts of the neighborhood there are slides instead of stairs, which makes everything more colorful and entertaining. Afterwards we stopped to eat and saw some guys freestyling and we had a lot of fun with them mentioning us in their rhymes.
History of the neighborhood
What we see most in the neighborhood is street art, graffiti that floods the streets with life and color. So they have the largest gallery of muralism, graffiti and urban art in Latin America. We did not want to do a specific tour of Pablo Escobar because we also wanted to really get to know ordinary life today in Colombia. But it is still important to know his story. In the 90s this commune was one of the most dangerous and violent places in Colombiaafter it became the perfect place for drug trafficking due to its difficult access and multiple alleys.
It was long considered ‘The birthplace of Pablo Escobar’ who declared war on the state and became the epicenter of a war between him, the paramilitaries, and the army. After his death in 1993, his structure was left orphaned and Comuna 13 was left in the hands of paramilitaries like the FARC. In 2001, the operation began to expel the guerrillas from the neighborhood. In 2002, the Colombian state decided to regain control over the commune through several military interventions. These operations had been flying over for days in helicopters that destroyed the neighborhood and took the lives of at least 500 people, including some missing. This is also part of the concept that we mentioned previously about the Casa de la Memoria Museum. Currently, it is much calmer thanks to the support of the state and above all the efforts of its community.
The artist Germán Arias created an iron sculpture of a 6-meter helicopter in commemoration of the victims of “Operation Orion”, part of the armed conflict. It was created under the concept that this helicopter no longer shoots bullets but rather color, transformation, music and art. So that the commune is seen as a resilient society, which has known how to improve its quality of life 100%.
Its development in tourism Commune 13 It is thanks to urban art and the new generations that have replaced weapons with graffiti. Each of these artistic spaces has its history inspired by the commune’s past and speaks of peace and hope. Making it the largest art gallery in Colombia. It has also grown from the construction of escalators that made it easier for the entire community to go up and down the neighborhood. All this has made it a place of example and social improvement. It is the symbol that Medellín left its violent past behind.