When I got to Medellin the taxi driver who picked me up at the bus station told me that he had just been robbed of all his money and his car-radio. That kind of set up the mood a bit.

The b&b I stayed at was in the neighbourhood of Poblado, which is the hip and touristy area of the city and were everyone would tell you that’s the safest to roam around.

I found it very loud at night and very ‘bastard’ too, it wasn’t clear to me what had always been there, what was the result of the newly discovered tourism waves…some of the shops and cafes were excessively pricey and trying to hard to be a ‘san francisco’ hangout for hipsters…

But not all was a disappointment. Here’s my top 2

• Comuna13 , once the most dangerous place in South America and maybe the world, is a hilltop colourful area covered in graffiti. It’s still one of the poorest neighbourhood of the city and you definitely wanna to be low-profile and respectful but a good way to visit is joining a free tour set up by the locals (and then tip generously).
• Botero’s Park in the city center. I loved it, 23 very big statues of my beloved Fernando Botero. It was very difficult to find food in that area, especially vegetarian, but I did find a supermarket and got myself bread and avocados.