Colombia: A country of transformation and innovation
Isn’t Colombia like, dangerous?
That’s the number one reaction and question from people when I told them we were going to Colombia. Indeed, Colombia, and especially Medellin, was torn apart by rampant drug cartel wars in the '80s and '90s. For a few years, we ignored flight deals to Colombia: What is there to see? That stigma and stereotype were further imprinted on people’s minds in the US through documentaries like Narco. Today, Colombia is a place of transformation and innovation; a place with burgeoning tourism, beautiful sceneries, and delicious food; a place full of friendly people who would come up to you to thank you for visiting their beautiful country. I was truly awed and impressed by how far they’ve come and glad that we took the chance to visit a country that wasn’t on most people’s radars.
Medellin, a city of cable cars and giant outdoor escalators
I didn’t think we’d be riding cable cars around the city; it took me a while to grasp and process the fact that we can ride them as subways, with many lines, stops and transfer options. This just blew my mind, since I’d only taken one-way gondola rides when I went skiing in the U.S.
Because Medellin is a city in the valley with many mountains surrounding it, accessing the neighborhoods higher up in the mountains was difficult back in the day. To link the poorer and isolated neighborhoods to the city center, the city built the cable car system in 2004. Taking a cable car up anywhere rendered a spectacular view. Medellin is by far the most geographically interesting city for me. Taking a cable car line from end-to-end could take more than an hour, with aerial views over different sections of the city below us. We saw swathes of ghettos giving way to highrises. We saw children playing in the playgrounds, adults walking to work and vendors going about their business. I was fascinated by the sight of the locals’ daily lives unfolding right below us.
We took a cable car to visit Santo Domingo, which is used to be the most dangerous barrio in Medellin back in the day, where people would not go for fear of getting killed. We debated whether to visit or not; I did some Googling and found that there are some walking tours offered in the area. If there are walking tours, it must be safe, right? It might've been a little careless, but we decided to venture out.
Though a bit nervous, we felt quite safe in the neighborhood. We took a small bus up the hill to visit the outdoor escalator that transports people up and down the steep hills. This escalator is another example of the city’s ingenuity in overcoming geographical limitations to provide the people with better access to good transportation options. Though a lot of people know about the famous outdoor escalators in central Hong Kong, few would expect that something similar exists in a poor, small hillside neighborhood in Colombia.
Coffee farms
Colombia is famous for its coffee, though its best coffee beans are exported rather than consumed domestically. We booked a tour to visit a coffee farm in the Concordia region, which is about a two-hour drive from Medellin.
The scenery along the way was breathtaking. We were driving along a winding mountain road and there were coffee trees growing on the steep slopes. We visited the Don Modesto farm, which is very high up in the mountains. We enjoyed some coffee, and picked and tasted some coffee berries. We learned how to sort the coffee beans into high, medium and low-quality categories. The worst beans get ground into the instant coffee powder, makes sense! And of course, the best ones get exported out, and the Colombians drink the medium tier. This visit was one of the highlights of our trip, as it boasted one of the most spectacular views I’ve ever seen and we learned about the coffee-making process.
Bogota, a city that has the world’s best bus system
As you step aboard your first TransMilenio vehicle,
it hits you pretty quickly: When it comes to buses, the United States is a Third World nation.
One of the highest capital cities in the world, Bogota sits at over 8660 feet above sea level, high up in the Andes. Luckily, we didn’t get altitude sickness, even though we flew straight to Bogota first rather than easing into it by flying to Medellin first (Medellin itself is over 4000 ft). The weather here is a lot cooler than Medellin and is often cloudy.
One thing that immediately grabbed our attention was its efficient Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system called TransMilenio. Its bus lines serve the major arteries in Bogota and move 2.4M passengers every day. The buses are long, and they come fairly frequently. The system is perfect for Bogota since it has the efficiency of the subway system, but without its astronomical expenses. Some of the major bus stations are HUGE, where the stations are long and each bus line has its own dedicated boarding zones. It’s almost like a mini-airport.
By comparison, the BRT system is not very popular in the US, though I’ve personally ridden a couple fairly frequently. I’ve taken Boston’s Silver line to work and to the airport, and I’ve taken LA’s Silver line to go to Downtown LA. The BRT system is a great alternative to subways and a huge step-up from a regular bus system, especially in underserved areas where the huge capital expenses are too big of a barrier to providing an extensive and efficient urban transit network. I think the U.S cities can learn a lot from Bogota’s TransMilenio and introduce more alternative mass transit options that are cheaper and more efficient.
Colombia is an under-rated place that is overshadowed by its violent past and its more well-known neighbor (Peru). It is one of the most intriguing places that beat our expectations in every way. It has all the right ingredients to become the next big tourist destination for the slightly more adventurous: good food, beautiful sceneries, friendly people, and cheap prices. I predict that it will become the next Iceland, the once-underrated place that has now flooded your Instagram feed. It’s a country that has figured out how to solve difficult problems using innovative solutions, especially in public transit. The world has a lot to learn from it.
