welcome to Colombia we finally made it to our sixth country here in South America our
first stop in this beautiful country is Medellin we've heard so many good things about it and
there's so many things to do so we're gonna be exploring it over the next couple of days
and we're taking you along with us so the first thing you have to do when you come to
Medellin is take a walking tour they are considered some of the best in the world so that's what
we're gonna do this morning we're gonna take the tour check out the whole downtown area
and start to get to know the city a little bit
gosh it's a beautiful city it's gorgeous here it's cause everything is so green I just love
how green the whole city is wow I read that the architect apparently like everyone was
super not into his design and so he left halfway through he was so insulted and I guess half
of the cathedral is finished in a very different style us cool Paisas we were like who needs
another Belgian architect to finish our buildings we're Paisa we can do it ourselves give me
those blueprints maybe we can even do something better
we built a wall you can definitely tell where like the European architect ended and then
the Colombian he called it Paisa minimalism started
so we're at the square of sculptures now which is like a square with like I think there's
25 different sculptures all by the same artist Fernando I forget I'll put his name on the
screen but anyways they're really cool they're like all these like bubbly figures and they
look disproportionate and I don't know if it's accurate but I swear these really remind
us of a bunch of sculptures we saw in Yerevan Armenia so I'm gonna see if it's the same
artist because it honestly looks the same
so we are at Palacio National which is like this really beautiful building that I think
used to be like the Justice hall or something our guide suggested we get avocado popsicles
how good does that look oh my god it's we're that it tastes like avocado oh I like it not
a bad suggestion on hot day
our guide his name is Dio has been wonderful but he's just taught us so much about like
the whole sort of space of like what this city has gone through with a bit of a focus
I'd say in the last like 30 or 40 years to really understand like what happened to Medellin
how did it come to be the most dangerous city in the world at one point and how did it lose
that title as well yeah I think that's like what I'm getting out of this tour is that
there's this stigma around Medellin and it being a dangerous city and I think for a lot
of people especially our age or younger if you go to Colombia or go to Medellin your
parents are going to be worried about you but that's only because in the like 80s 70s
and like early 90s like it did get a really bad rap and that's what people's parents remember
but nowadays Medellin is completely different and I think that's like the biggest thing
that we've learned so far and the biggest thing that we want you to take away if you're
watching this video is that do not underestimate Medellin this place is a beautiful city that
has completely transformed and it's not perfect but so far like they're making so many steps
in the right direction first impressions of Colombia and first impressions of Medellin
this place is awesome yeah a level country man yeah
so we just wrapped up our tour we are about to take the metro and we learned on the tour
that the Metro is like the pride of the city like it is kept in excellent condition their
crime rates are insanely, insanely low on the Metro and the reason everyone is so proud
of the Metro is because it was built like really in the middle of when Medellin Medellin
was really not doing so well in the 90s um yeah it kind of became this beacon of like
prosperity even if you're like the worst person Medellin you don't like do anything bad in
the Metro so like you don't graffiti it you keep the place super clean and like no littering
they say it's like a different country when you step into the Metro I get that
we've made it to our next stop of the day this is El poblado this is a very famous neighborhood
a lot of tourists stay here because of the restaurants and bars and The Nightlife and
it's just a very like let's call it a western atmosphere here in Medellin that you can find
in El poblado so we're gonna look around and see if we can find a nice place for lunch
okay so it was recommended to us to find the restaurant called Hacienda which is like kind
of like a chain of restaurants here in Colombia they serve some really great traditional Colombian
food so that's what we got here today I got the bandeja Paisa this is a very very typical
and very traditional Colombian food what we've heard from other people is that it's basically
a calorie explosion made for a very hungry person you got beans you got rice you got
an egg plantain or banana avocado pork belly and then like some sausages and a couple other
things I don't even recognize it looks amazing you guys have been watching this channel for
a while you know that I'm a huge meat lover I love this because like I said as a meat
lover I have I have options I got this thing this sausage this whole thing's delicious
I don't even know these other things are but I'll get to them later oh my god it's so pretty
okay so I got arepa I guess arepa is like a really very traditional like Colombian dish
you can get on like street corners it's a great street food I got the vegetarian option
which I think is a little atypical I think usually it's quite meat filled if you get
it on the street it's quite meat filled typically so we heard from a friend this morning that
being vegetarian in Colombia is actually really challenging but I think if you come here to
El poblado there are way more vegetarian and even vegan options than you see in the rest
of sort of Medellin
oh yeah I think this is like a fried fried potato like deep fried potato avocado I think
there's some delicious sauces in here I should probably just spread those out I think they're
supposed to be cheese in this too which would also be very good ah look on the bottom this
is my bread which I think is supposed to be uh it's Corn based yum so we know it's only
like the first day of us exploring Medellin but we're just jumping right into the Medellin
Colombian experience we got ourselves tickets to a local football game which for our Canadian
and our American audience that's a soccer but from here on out we're just gonna call
football
we got the face paint we got the jersey oh we're ready ready it is it is pouring rain
but we're not going to let that stop us.
It's fine we hear that the stadium is uncovered so we're gonna have an awesome wet night
we're gonna show our team spirit today rain or no rain
there's a company here called Medellin football club and what they do is they help tourists
find like seats to go see this football games is 100 percent the way to go to see these
games because you go with a group of people and then you could experience the game like
as if you're a local
we found another calgarian the first one in a year and a half.
It's a big deal no in a year and a half?
yeah first one in a year and a half.
So we're here and we're at this game and we're here with all these different cultures and
like nationalities like there's so many dutch people and I was like oh the dutch peopel
just want to hang out with the dutch people and then I met Calgarians and I only want
to hang out with the Calgarians!
what can we say we're all hypocrites
is awesome I love this you gotta do this if you're in Medellin
so the guys like on the first row on the bannister and literally on top of the bannister they're
like holding onto stuff behind them so they don't fall off of the second floor this is
intense
so we also met James and Megan from Ireland they want to be part of the video so here
you are megan and james
welcome to day two of exploring Medellin we have started by grabbing a cup of coffee which
seems to very commonly be provided to us in these little plastic cups with a tiny little
straw and shout out to our patrons by the way who continue to keep us caffeinated this
month thank you so so much so on today's agenda is actually to check out Communa 13 which
was once considered the most dangerous neighborhood in the most dangerous city of the entire world
but it's been completely transformed and today we are going to check it out and see what
it looks like today
if you are familiar with Comuna 13 it is likely because of its violent past this community
was created by villagers who were escaping violence in the countryside surrounding Medellin
mostly in the 1970s and 80s they built their homes themselves with very few materials and
as their families grew and more people arrived they simply built more buildings and more
houses the result was a very densely populated community with no access for cars and very
little access to utilities gangs took advantage of the community's social and economic situation
and huge amounts of illegal goods flowed through this neighborhood on their way out of Colombia
and into North America in the 80s 90s and early 2000s the struggle for control of Comuna
13 by gangs and paramilitary groups resulted in daily shootings deaths and kidnappings
that made Comuna 13 the most dangerous neighborhood in one of the most dangerous cities in the
world but that was decades ago today Comuna 13 is a symbol of social transformation the
neighborhood offers a collection of colorful graffiti murals talented artists and friendly
locals working alongside restaurants shops cafes and other modern infrastructure the
community attracts thousands of visitors a year eager to witness firsthand what internationally
renowned urban renewal looks like
so so far this tour has been absolutely incredible we've just been walking around the Comuna
13 and we're just learning about the transformation so so far we've learned a lot about the different
sort of pieces of social structure that have been put in place so that people have other
options besides joining gangs as a way to sort of fill their time so this right behind
me is a nice big school it's right next to a giant fantastic Community Center and then
on the other side of it we've got like the Justice Center that is new so people can use
social workers and the justice system instead of gangs is what I was our guide was telling
us
so what you will find when you go around Comuna 13 is a lot of street art and a lot of graffiti
and murals they have lots of different meanings some are just there because they look awesome
but some of them have like some pretty cool significance like this one behind me here
it shows like a man with a house on his back and it's to symbolize that he's like carrying
his culture and he's carrying his family with him lots of cool meaning behind some of these
murals as part of the revitalization to really transform this community they used different
forms of art so graffiti which is what we see all over the place and then also like
there's so much dancing and stuff going on like street performances and those were some
of the methods used to like give people like a new outlet a new thing to occupy their time
instead of the gang life that had taken over this community for so long
so one of the biggest landmarks here in Comuna 13 is the series of escalators that go right
up the hill they were finished I guess in like 2012 so they're actually fairly new and
they replaced like 250 stairs that people had to go up to get from like one side of
the hill to the other one sec
so the escalators have made life so much easier for the locals and they've made comuna 13
so much more accessible for everyoneand they're very cool now it's just like a couple minute
ride up a handful of escalators they're very neat I feel like every time we go up there's
like a different show happening like every level of the escalators there's like always
something cool happening like some art work or like some really cool shops or like some
big dances like that's going on right now
I think he was talking I think he was talking about us
we just finished our tour in Comuna 13 which we did with Zippy tours by the way and they
were a great walk tour company I think what I loved about going through Comuna 13 and
just exploring Medellin in general is that you get to learn that the people are just
so resilient and they've made it like part of the identity despite having a bit of a
darker past nowadays it's completely different than what I think many people think Colombia
is people are so warm so welcoming they're so just like proud and I think they have so
much to be proud of because they've come so far this country has come so far in the last
couple of decades and it is an incredible place to visit and I have to say that I feel
like this is probably one of the most underrated place in all of South America maybe all of
the world I could not agree more it is super underrated here we're loving it sadly we are
leaving medellin very soon because we've got other awesome very cool adventures coming
up so do yourself a favor and don't skip Medellin we will see you in the next one thanks for
watching
going to a hockey game going to a football game Medellin pretty cool awesome pretty cool
awesome lively and energetic things are oh you're done yeah
and today we're gonna check it out and see what it looks like today I said today about
8 times to make it more accessible for people so that
uh well actually I don't really know I don't really know why we haven't learned the why
yet