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¡Hola Medellin! School, gym & Paisa life

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Time flies really. The first week at school is over and Medellin feels already somewhat familiar – at least the district I live in (Poblado). First city tour done. First Spanish test was ok-ish. Signed up for the local Muay Thai classes. First night out.

The name “Medellín” comes from Medellín, Spain, a small village in the Badajoz province of Extremadura. See here for a my travels in Extremadura.
Paisa people: Their ancestors are chiefly immigrants from Extremadura though also Andalusia, Basque region and some of jewish origin (not much of the Jewish reliegion remains, however). Their spanish is spoken fast & soft and distinct from rest of colombia (to the expert, niot me). Most importantly, they think very highly of the themselves in particular vs. other colombians (not to point only at Bogotans).

12h overnight bus to Medellin from Neiva

Arguably I arrived pretty exhausted on Tuesday morning in the 12h overnight bus from Neiva. My sunburnt back also made sure that I didn’t get much sleep. Still i made it to my 6am appointment at my new gym ‘MMA Colombia’ for a Muay thai wake up session. My first decent work out in quite a while. Felt really welcome and signed up for a month. Should also least get me a little prepared for the Muay thai camp in Thailand next year.


Thankfully the check in to my airbnb in Poblado (the location of the cities origin) was flexible so to drop off my bags before school. Great place by the way. Large flat with many separate rooms/travellers. Very different to russia it dont need to tiptoe around the place. Was a little concerned about that if i am honest.

Noteworthy in Medellin: most dangerous city globally just 20y ago

  • Most gang related activity only happens on some outskirts of town (there remain no go zones). There is a huge police presence across town and additionally private security in many places.
  • Men are prohibited from riding as passengers on motorcycles between 8 a.m. and 12 midnight, a measure that the government says has cut targeted killings by motorcycle riders (the so called ‘sicarios’)
  • Uber drivers will ask you to sit in front seat so they are not spotted as taxi’s by regular taxi guys who have in the past turned aggressive & territorial

Back to school … little español on the agenda

School was fine. We are just six people in the group (vs 10 in Russia). Uri from Israel, Jack (UK), a dutch couple (Rukhia & Lukas) & Bilal (Germany). Our teacher is a young Colombian who also studies his masters in oxford.


The first day was tough. I lacked any sort of vocabulary really. But over the week it picked up. Amazing what 20h of language lessons (+ homework) can do. But then i guess this is the equivalent of say 10 week of your typical once a week language course. By Friday we were already out in poblado park speaking to people. Gladly we had the dutch couple as icebreakers ;o) the friday test was tough though. Partly because i hadn’t revised for it (making some irregular conjugations harder) and partly due to topics covered in the previous week (eg time). But i counted well above 50% right. Motivating.

Settling into the city

Outside school activities included a few things in my first week.

  • a salsa lesson (i think i made more progress in Spanish),
  • a 4h walking tour (free tour with real city tours, i thought it was ok but not brilliant, see here tripadvisor link for the “no1 tour”

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  • Colombian sweet tasting (love the SUPER TURRON SUPERCOCO!),
  • a Friday night MMA event with plenty of fighters from my gym (on balance on the winning side),
  • a solid day & night out in Poblado (Lleras Park etc)

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