Most people grab their coffee to-go, fill it with sugar, then repeat the next day, but do you know where your coffee comes from? I mean the good, real kind. Not the vente latte or McCafé you line up for at the drive-thru. On my recent trip to Colombia, I went on a Medellin coffee farm […]
Medellin
Narco Tourism and Taking a Pablo Escobar Tour
Watching Narcos on Netflix seriously intensified my curiosity and intrigue about Colombia. I felt a little guilty about this. Most Colombians hate the show and feel it has given them the wrong attention. It’s understandable – life under notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar was a dark one for Colombians. They have tried hard to transform […]
4 Alternative Tours to Take in Medellin
I’ve talked before about Colombia being a far cry from its dark past. Even if narco tourism is growing, Medellin is actually full of peaceful and positive transformation, rebuilding itself through things like art, coffee, and tourism instead of drugs. As Paisa people continue to rebuild it’s important to be conscious of how far they’ve […]
Comuna 13, Medellín: How A Community Transformed the Most Dangerous Neighbourhood in the World
“Don’t go to Colombia” they said. “It’s risky and unsafe,” we were warned. Understandably so. Colombia’s images are tainted of brutal violence, deadly turf wars and constant gunfire. We watched the first season of Narcos and knew we were entering a place with a very dark story. In the media, Colombia is dangerous and unwelcoming. […]
What and Where to Eat in Medellin
When we spent one month living in Medellin we drank a lot of Colombian coffee and stuffed our bellies eating a lot of Paisa food (Paisa is what they call people from Medellin and the Antioquia region). In Colombia, the dollar goes far here. We were able to live on a pretty nominal budget, explore […]
Make Coffee. Not War. My Ultimate Guide to Coffee in Medellin
A long wall of graffiti art on the side of a brick building in upscale Provenza reminds passersby that coffee is better than war. It wasn’t always. A decade ago Medellin, Colombia was fuelled by heroin and cocaine; murder, kidnapping, and endless turf wars. Not coffee. At the height of its production, cocaine was a […]
