On a tour to El Peñol and Guatapé with LandVenture Travel, our guide Andrés took us on the scenic route leaving Medellín. We crossed by a reservoir with massive homes built next to it and made an unscheduled stop in the village of El Retiro.
A very popular thing to do in Medellín is ride the Metrocable, which is the cable car system connected to the metro. My first ever experience with the Metrocable was at Line K at Acevedo Station (Estación Acevedo).
A good place to visit while in Medellín is Pueblito Paisa. It’s a a small replica Antioquian village on top of Nutibara Hill (Cerro Nutibara), a small hill in the middle of the city.
I didn’t know much about bachata music until I met Marisol. When her favorite artist, Romeo Santos, announced a concert in Pereira, she asked me to come with her and her group of friends. In the weeks leading up to the concert, Marisol taught me how to dance bachata. She told me I can’t go to the concert unless I can dance.
My last week of school in Belén de Umbría was actually just three days long. The first day of the week at Nuestra Señora del Rosario started on a Tuesday because of a holiday on Monday.
All of the students from my high school in Taparcal walked nearly 5km to nearby Belén de Umbría to honor a student who was murdered in 2011. 16 year old Andrés Felipe Espinosa and another man, Wilder de Jesús López Valencia, 31, were killed for a cell phone and COP$10,000 pesos when their jeep was attacked by two armed men one Sunday evening.
The schools in Belén de Umbría had one of the biggest weeks of the school year with their annual parade and science fair. Students in 1st through 10th grade participated in the parade while 11th graders worked very hard on the science fair, which was actually a business fair.
I’m now two months into my teaching post in Belén de Umbría and it’s been very interesting so far. I work at Colegio Nuestra Señora del Rosario every day except Thursday. It’s got over 800 students in grades 6 through 11. The school is just one block uphill from the plaza in Belén. It’s got an amazing view of the green mountains from the second floor.
Every year for one week, Belén de Umbría celebrates a week of fiestas to commemorate the founding of the town. The fiestas usually take place in November. This year, they were moved a month earlier to October.
