In which Roz and Layla soar above the mountains and play in a maze

By Roz

Next morning I woke up late (at 9). Layla alas had been awake since 6.30, which seems to be her favourite time for waking up on this holiday. But it meant we had a slow start to the morning and were only on our way downtown mid-morning. We were heading to a place called Park Arvi to do some hiking. But the journey itself felt like an adventure in its own right, since the Medellin metro system is integrated with two cable-cars. This delightful innovation was a mechanism to connect the poorer bits of the city - in the hills - with the downtown. The first cable car was pretty full (just like any metro) but the second was much more empty which meant Layla and I had a cable car carriage to ourselves. I'd anticipated the ride being fairly brief, but it turned out to be the longest cable car ride I have been on - covering about 5k we later learned. There were really lovely views - of the city and of forests and mountains, and we felt amazed at how unexpectedly lovely it had turned out to be.

Arriving at the end of the cable car line, we found ourselves at an information center in the middle of a forest with delightful paths leading off in various directions. A brief discussion with a guide established that there would be a three hour free hike setting off at two and a vegetarian restaurant nearby. So feeling very cheerful we headed to the restaurant which turned out to be a somewhat random shack but which provided a very nice lunch for not very much money. After lunch, with about 45 minutes before the hike, Layla had an enthusiasm to take advantage of the free bikes for hire. This proved to be a fairly brief enthusiasm after she found how hilly the park actually was. Shamefacedly we returned the bikes and went to read our books until 2.

Our fellow hikers were all Colombians, and we got chatting with a very nice young couple from Bogota who'd come to Medellin for a happiness conference. We compared notes on Medellin (it was their first visit too) and I was immensely amused that the only thing they didn't like was the heat - in contrast I have loved the weather in Medellin which is a consistently nice temperature without humidity. They would not enjoy a Washington summer... It proved to be quite a slow walk (with the occasional complicated explanation of something in a Spanish that was too complicated for me) but very pretty. It seemed hard to believe that Medellin was so close.

After the walk we got the first cable car and then hopped out before the second one for a short meander round the area and to see the much praised library (which brought regeneration to the area). It was quite fun to see another area, even if it did feel a bit sketchy. We then got our second cable car and the metro back to Poblano and contemplated our dinner choices. I was lobbying hard for a return to Carmen, the amazing restaurant we had been to the night before last. Layla pointed out that there was a huge number of other options we should try but eventually my greed won through. Our booking wasn't till 8.30 so we headed to the chocolate shop opposite our hotel for some chocolate and a read. Layla went for the maximum option, going for a cold chocolate drink in addition to a couple of handmade chocolates (whilst I looked smug with one chocolate and some sparkling water - though I am afraid that this is less about my virtue and more about the fact that I don't really like chocolate). We then decided to move to a nearby nice bar for me to finish off my book. The nice bar proved even nicer when they gave us popcorn to go along with our drinks... Layla was looking decidedly full by the time we got to Carmen, but I was made of sterner stuff. We had a lovely meal - just as good as the first time - and I was only disappointed that Layla couldn't be persuaded into dessert. We headed to La Bicicletta for a nightcap drink and some people-watching and congratulated ourselves on having decided to stay in Medellin instead of returning to the riots of Bogota. 

Next day, I persuaded Layla that we should try out Medellin's Ciclovia (where a main road is closed to traffic). It's possible to get onto the Ciclovia road relatively close to our hotel, and it wasn't long before we had hired bikes and were heading away from town. Like the Bogota Ciclovia, it proved to be a very jolly and communal experience involving pretty much half the city so far as we could see.  People were out on bikes, skateboards, skates. There were runners (including some people who had just done the colour run) and walkers. And there was the odd aerobics class taking place on the street. It was really fun - despite the odd hill - and I was disappointed when we found ourselves at its end after about 40 minutes of cycling. Even the square (at PablomEscobar's old home) where the Ciclovia route ended was jolly with a festival atmosphere and small children learning to ride bikes. We were enjoying the cycle back so much that we overshot the place we rented bikes, and were only alerted to it when we heard the bike owner calling after us...

We then walked down to the metro and headed over to the Botanic Gardens. We found a beautiful place for a late lunch in the middle of the gardens overlooking water and had really delicious soup (one served in a squash). The gardens themselves were unexpectedly good, with a quasi-rainforest area, a labyrinth, a butterfly house and so forth. They were just the right amount of busy - it is clearly a place where loads of locals go on a Sunday - but there didn't seem to be any other tourists kicking around. After this, I had an urge to go to the "barefoot park" where you a encouraged to walk barefoot through seven different areas to experience a variety of textures. Alas this aspiration was foiled after a fairly long walk in the centre of town by a huge concert taking place in the area and so we headed back to Poblano and to the chocolate shop. Not deterred by her experience the day before, Layla bought a chocolate cake... Conscious that a number of restaurants would be closed on a Sunday and also that Layla needed to pack, I sent her back to the hotel after her cake whilst I went on a recce to scope out our options. We ended up in a Mexican place which wasn't the best of food but was quite jolly. From there we went for dessert (yes, Layla's second of the evening!) in a nice nearby place (which focuses on seafood), drank wine and tried to cheer ourselves up despite our impending departure. 

And that's it! Next morning we got up at an ungodly hour for a plane to Bogota, and I am typing this from our plane from Bogota to the US. It wasn't absolutely the holiday I expected with all the riots and so forth...but it is currently my favourite place that we have visited in the Americas. 

Books read whilst on holiday:

Layla: Maggie and Me(Damien Barr), Reality Reality (Jackie Kay), Almost English (Charlotte Mendelson), The Last Runaway (Tracy Chevalier), The Marrying of Chani Kaufman (Eve Harris), A Tale for the Time Being (Ruth Ozeki), Instructions for a Heatwave (Maggie O'Farrell) and midway through Glasshopper (Isabel Ashdown).

Roz: Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers (Alexander McCall Smith), Almost English (Charlotte Mendelson), Transatlantic (Colum McCann), Five Star Billionaire (Tash Aw), The Marrying of Chani Kaufman (Eve Harris), Let the Great World Spin (Colum McCann), The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood), Reality Reality (Jackie Kay), Flesh and Blood (Michael Cunningham), and midway through Americanah by Chimamanda Adichie.