Travel to Medellin Colombia – Episode 346

Learn about travel to Medellin Colombia as Amateur Traveler talks to David Lee about his part-time home, the “City of the Eternal Spring”.

If you just Medellin as a dangerous city and the home of drug lords, then your information is about 20 years out of date. Find out why a world traveler would spend 6 months of every year in the city of Medellin. David describes a beautiful city at nearly a mile in altitude in the tropics, with a pleasant climate year-round. It is nestled in green mountains with accessible via cable car from downtown.

We learn what is really in the heart of the people of Medellin, salsa dancing. It took moving to Colombia for David to discover his he had rhythm.

It also took moving to a Spanish-speaking city to give him the incentive to learn Spanish. Now he enjoys the bustling city and weekends away from the city in some of the historic pueblos that surround the city.

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Show Notes

Map of Medellin
Medellin Tours
Pablo Escobar Tour
Learning Salsa in Colombia
Parque Explora Aquarium
El Cielo Restaurant, Medellín
Go Backpacking
Medellin Living
Travel Blog Success

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Stu sent in some corrections to Travel to Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Western North Carolina – Episode 345

Your expert seemed to be lacking on some issues about western North Carolina and the great smokey mountains. First off the Craggy range & Black Mountain range are not between the smokies and Asheville. They are northeast and east of Asheville respectively. Mt Mitchell was named after the mountain Mitchell discovered and died on. Clingman’s Dome was named after Clingman because he thought it was the highest east of the Rockies. The Mountain to the Sea Trail is a long trail that runs from Clingman’s Dome to Kill Devil hills but does not parallel the Blueridge Parkway until you get to Mt Pisgah. At that point your approximately 110 miles on the trail from Clingman’s Dome and its another 60+ miles from there to Mt Mitchell.

Downtown Asheville would take considerably longer than 5 or 10 minutes to walk across. Although Mayfels isn’t a bad restaurant I suspect it’s probably one of the few he’s eaten at in the area. It’s true there are a lot of excellent non chain places to eat in Asheville. I’ve lived in the Asheville area and worked downtown now for over 20 years. The key thing about Asheville to know is we are a great jumping off place for outdoor adventure. From hiking, trail running, mountain biking, rafting, bird watching, kayaking, and even ski resorts near by.

Western North Carolina is especially known for it’s fast women. By that I mean running and hiking. Ann Lundblad is the record holder of the JFK 50 mile ultra marathon as well as many other races. Jennifer Pharr Davis hiked the Appalachian Trail in 46 days! That’s faster than anyone has completed the 2,100+ mile trail. One last thing the leaf season doesn’t last two month here due to the elevation. The higher elevations are fir trees. At most it would take 2 weeks for the change to descend from 6,000 feet down to the valleys around 2,200 feet.

Stu

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