Two year ago, when we still thought our plan was to open a bed & brewery in Colombia, we researched deeply and narrowed down the top six possible places we wanted to check out as possible locations. Medellín, (the “ll” is pronounced as a j-sound here,) being a popular area for expats, easy living and a year-round perfect climate, made an obvious choice. We narrowed it down to the two southern “neighborhoods” of Envigado & Sabeneta, which are actually separate cities, but easily connected to everything by the Metro. It’s a lot like being in the suburbs, except these suburbs are compact, walkable, and bursting with charm and not strip malls and chain restaurants. 

Envigado 

Envigado is known as Medellin’s most “authentic” neighborhood and has over 200,000 people, but you wouldn’t know it by the feel of it…that is unless you accidentally stumble onto a shopping mall like we did on a Sunday. ?

It’s beginning to look a lot like…Navidad!?! Yes, that’s right, Colombians might have one-upped the Americans on their early delivery of Christmas. They evidently like Christmas so much that it’s very common to start seeing lights, trees and nativity scenes starting in October or even September. A local told us that any month with a -bre at the end is game for the holly jolly. And, when December arrives, the whole country sparkles as the Christmas season reaches its pinnacle. Unbeknownst to us, apparently, we chose a very good place to spend the holidays. Each of these light displays are individually assembled and require massive crews to prepare them. If only we could see them lit! But we’ll see where the holidays take us…

And yes, they also seem to celebrate Halloween. And although they don’t trick-or-treat in the sense that American children do, they do usually go out in disguise to order sweets from the streets of towns and cities yelling “Truco o Trato” (Trick or Treat!)

The Medellin River with densely populated Envigado in the background. It’s quite common to live in a high rise building here. However, for some reason Envigado actually felt quite a bit less cosmopolitan than Sabaneta

The main plaza of Envigado is called Marceliano Vélez Barreneche and features the Parroquia Santa Gertrudis Church. It has a magnificent wooden altar. We also loved the green colors and the little angel faces peeping in orderly rows on the ceiling.

Lots of eye-catching surfaces!

And the mall…. So we ended up at this three story mega mall because we wanted to check out the hyper market (a massive supermarket), as well as pick up our Colombian SIM card so we could have a local phone number. Colombians very famously say, “No Dar Papaya” which means “Don’t give papaya.” This is a quirky way of saying, “don’t let your guard down and give people any opportunity to f%*ck with you.” (Yes, like in any big city, but with a more amusing catchphrase.) That said, because phone theft is a pretty notorious issue around here, we wanted to be proactive and only carry a burner phone when walking around the city, and not the one attached to…our life. Getting the SIM card was a simple process at the Claro store and they gave us 10GB of data for $10 and registered it for us so we’re legit Colombian expats now. 

Other things we noticed at the mall:

-So long as they’re on a leash, dogs are allowed everywhere. We’ve never seen so many mall rats…uhhh…chihuahuas and Frenchies. 

-A nice swimsuit at a sporting goods store cost about $15. Mandy nearly bought one.

-A really fancy dessert cost about $2.

-It rivaled some of the flashy malls we’ve seen in Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur.

-It was absolutely slammed on a Sunday afternoon and felt like Black Friday. Masks are required everywhere in Colombia.

-There are very few advertisements. And interestingly, none of scantily clad women. 

-Everyone was dressed up. We felt very underdressed in our “travel” clothes. And no, we weren’t unfortunate enough to be wearing shorts which signify “tourist” from a mile away, but Mandy did get quite a few stares for her flip flops. Also, a fashion faux pas we learned. But our two shoe choices are hiking shoes or flip flops…soo…..

-If we stayed here much longer, we’d be investing in new clothes ?

Although there are few scantily clad woman advertisements, there are lots of mannequins that seem to have ummmm….enhancements.

Along the streets of Envigado you’ll find all kinds of interesting things like this Ave Maria shrine. 

We know from our first trip to Colombia that not all empanadas are created equal. So we chose carefully for our first and went to the renowned La Casa de la Empeñada which has been around since 1985. It was excellent and cost $2500 pesos or $.66. Empanadas can be filled with meat, cheeses or vegetables. So yummy, but definitely not something you wanna make a habit of eating!

We’ve mentioned inexpensive groceries but alcohol is also cheap….not to mention, interestingly packaged. After all, we’ve seen boxed wine, before but this is the first time we’ve seen boxed liquor. $13000 pesos or $3.40 for a box of rum. Hmmm. How many shots is in a box of rum? ??

We skipped the rum and settled on a four pack of craft beer, a lager from Bogota Brewery, which we enjoyed on our balcony. This cost $8000 pesos or $2. Granted, the cans were a bit diminutive. 

The street where we live in the La Magnolia neighborhood. Everything is relatively quiet, clean, organized and so very walkable. We have at least five markets within a five minute walk, an ice cream store which sells soft serve with toppings for $.50 and…

…workout equipment in the median outside our door for the aforementioned ice cream. 

One of the nearby fruit sellers.

They also have multiple mercado saludables, or healthy markets with organic, vegan/vegetarian and natural products. 

Our first grocery trip and we’re happy to report groceries are significantly cheaper than Panama, as expected! All this was $37. 

The receipt from the produce market:

• 3 passion fruits $.48
• 2 mangos $.48
• 8 baby bananas $.42
• 2 haas avocados $.70
• 10 small red potatoes $.27
• 1 head of broccoli $.39
• 3 heads of romaine $.66
• 6 green and red peppers $.53
• 4 carrots $.18
• 2 red onions $.35
• 4 tomatoes $.39
• 1 cucumber $.20
• 1 papaya $.96
• 3 limes $.09
• 1 garlic head $.18
• Cilantro $.08
• Total Produce: $6.42

If you are seeking less healthy options, you can get a gourmet box of truffles for $1. Not even kidding. $1. Pretty much paradise-found for a woman on her cycle. Yes, speaking from experience.

Also, within five minutes is the salon where Mandy got her new haircut ($4+$1 tip). She struggled to talk to her hairdresser who spoke very rapidly. Argh. Despite the fact that Spanish is a bit clearer in Colombia than Panama, it’s still proving challenging. And masks DON’T help!! And for the record, both sides of Mandy’s hair are cut to equal length!

The Los Fundadores Bridge was central to the regeneration plan for the neighborhood. This bridge was conceived as representation of the effort and persistence of the community to overcome the convulsed situation that prevailed in the country at the time of construction in 2001. (Wikipedia)

One of our favorite meals in Envigado was the Menu del Dia at Prana Colina al Natural, which was a health food restaurant offering vegetarian, vegan and alternative foods. This mouth-watering meal, which also included a lemon-mint juice and and a dessert, cost $33,000 pesos or $8.75 for two, including the tip.

La Casa de las Piedritas

La Casa de las Piedritas is an absolute one-of-kind masterpiece we found on Atlas Obscura and may have been our highlight during our time in Envigado. This spellbinding home, which looks more like a museum, restaurant or event space, has been built every evening over the course of 35 years by a skilled and visionary man named Santiago for his wife Gloria using natural materials he brought home from work and all…by HAND. He has covered nearly every surface with enchantment…using pebbles, stones, wood, glass, and other materials found in nature. Remarkably, he also does not have a car or truck to transport these materials but hauls them by cart or with the help of friends who own vehicles. Some materials have come from as far away as 8-10 hours. Although it’s a private home, Santiago and Gloria have graciously opened it for tourists to view. We feel honored because it’s truly the most endearing and extraordinary house we’ve ever seen. 

The front of the house has nearly been swallowed by wires and a giant building next door. However, if you look closely, there is a small house just behind the electric pole that has a circle window. This original house is over 150 years old and Santiago has extended it back to include three unbelievable levels, which included at least four bedrooms (maybe more?)

The master bedroom with its ornate ceiling and massive four poster stone bed, has a circle window with no glass. In fact, all windows had no glass. That works in a climate where you don’t need A/C or heat, but they did have a wood burning fireplace in the room also. 

The family dining porch for when they have visitors.

What we thought was the most beautiful room in the house. Look at that ceiling! Wow! When Mandy asked Santiago what is his favorite room he said he loved them all. He does not create any plans or blueprints. It’s all created from visions in his head.

The garden atrium is three stories tall and opens to the sky above. It looks like it belongs in a luxury hotel.

Another bedroom. Lots of room for their family of two daughters, son-in-laws and three grandchildren for when they visit.

A little sitting room where Gloria invited us for tea and cookies following our tour. We had a wonderful chat (ALL in Spanish…Whoohoo!!) with her for nearly an hour and really enjoyed getting to know her. Also, notice all the books in the back left corner. Those volumes and volumes of pages are filled with all the visitors who have come through the house over the years. Most of them were written in Spanish but some English as well. Afterwards, Mandy looks like a wired deer in headlights because she never drinks caffeine anymore and probably from the excessive Spanish-speaking ?

Gloria does all the quilt-making. Loved the texture and colors on this wall. 

Some of the exterior details. Every little surface is made with love.

The waterfall inside their bedroom also doubles as a shower. They even camouflaged the shower head. We were both a little concerned about safety in this shower as they’re both moving around a little slower these days. 

Another bedroom. Look at the floor! And the staircase!! It’s just insane. 

One of the beds for the grandchildren.

The sink in a bathroom was an actual waterfall, and here you can see a skylight on the third floor. The little details everywhere were incredibly eye catching.

Santiago on the third floor, which seemed spacious and adorable enough to open a cafe up there! It would definitely be successful!

Sabaneta

Sabaneta was the second neighborhood we stayed in during our time in Medellin. We thought we would like it the most based on initial research, so were surprised we felt a little disconnected from it. The population, compared to Envigado is significantly less at around 45,000. However, to us, it felt far bigger thanks to its dense proliferation of tall apartment buildings, loud noise, abundance of trendy restaurants, and lack of greenery in the center. It just didn’t feel like it offered the same authentic character that Envigado did.

Santa Ana is the main church at Parque Sabaneta. It’s a beautiful church and we got to check out a slice of Saturday night mass while staying there.

The green Parque Sabaneta seemed to be the only slice of real greenery in the neighborhood. It had a fun, family-friendly vibe and lots of concrete chairs unlike any we’d ever seen. They were…hard. Shocking.

You can see the charm of the center contrasted with the height of the surrounding buildings.

More photos of the center. We did love all the alfresco restaurants. So many of these in Medellin. And why not when you have year-round spring temperatures?

On the weekends, the community sets up booths selling food, artisan goods and other items, and the neighborhood turns into a hopping party where everyone is invited, including the gringos, in the street. It was definitely a fun atmosphere.

The night before we left Sabaneta, we opted to have Mexican food not knowing how long it would be until it was available again. This is the nice thing about Medellin. So many international food options. We had enchiladas and a vegetarian burrito and have to admit, it was quite good, although more similar to the US version of Tex-Mex than authentic Mexican.

However, if you’re in the market for authentic Colombian, this heart attacked on a plate is your go-to dish…Bandeja Paisa. Or, Paisa platter. Paisa is what people from this region are called and apparently they like to eat pork belly chicharonnes, ground beef, chorizo, rice, plantains, eggs, beans, a mini-arepa & a slice of “healthy fat” in the form of your avocado. Lol. For the record, we never actually ordered this. It’s only a photo of a menu, but we felt it was important to mention as its kind of a big deal around here.

Mmm…they do love their meat and fried concoctions.

We preferred to spend our calories at the “fruit shops.” In other words, fruit loaded with ice cream. This monstrous ice cream sundae was $8000 pesos, or about $2. Ugh. Sounds like a mouth-watering dose of trouble.

Our Accommodations

We were so happy to settle into our new pad in Envigado and even more happy to be back in ColOmbia!! (Not Columbia!) We were last here in 2014 for our honeymoon and since then, it’s been on a pedestal as “our favorite country,” which still kinda feels like an impossible question. As we arrived, we were excited to see if it will live up to its reputation as we stay here for an extended period. Our Trail Wallet budgeting app was certainly already appreciating all the prices and we were basking in the eternal spring temperatures (this means no A/C or heat needed year-round!), the vibrant neighborhood, and the view from our Envigado apartment. 

The view from our apartment balcony. ($24/night) When we arrived in mid-October, it was usually partly sunny in the morning and cloudy and rainy in the afternoon. October is the rainiest month in Medellin. It was strange for us to be settling into such a big city for a bit, but we knew it would be nice to have access to lots of services for things we need to take care of. Our kitchen, at right, was a bit small but did what we needed it for!  

Our apartment is Sabaneta was $19/night (Airbnb) and was right in the heart of the neighborhood. This meant it was a bit noisy. However, the bedroom, which was tucked in the back, was significantly quieter and made the apartment much more livable. Plus, we loved the fact it was loaded with lots of extra pillows. We would stay here again.