Weekly Review #163 - Counting dogs, Hostel apps, and dozens of NYEs
Feliz ano nuevo! Medellin has been rather quiet this week since everyone goes home for New Years and Christmas. But the families that are here party hard together in the street with fires and music until the wee hours. Ah, Latin America.
Medellin is dope, if you didn't know. Here's what's up:
Tejo is a local game- like cornhole with firecrackers. Throw metal at explosives embedded in clay while drinking. Why not?
We met a gringo who came down here to 'do good' and asked what he does. "I count dogs." He does the census for street dogs in the city, which determines funding. For 3$ an hour!
The government famously put in escalators in the favelas to encourage mobility, but the locals hate them because they aren't much faster and use unnecessary electric. More about tourism.
The real mobility hits are the favela gondolas, which are amazing. You've probably done gondolas in the quiet snow, but floating over a vibrant city and listening to lives going on below you is surreal.
Tourist favorite Guatape is worth a day trip - Half Dome sized rock with stairs in the middle of a gorgeous lagoon with a fun little adventure town nearby.
Real Walking Tours is recommended, but the Graffiti Tour isn't. You don't get much for your money, and you can just do the escalators yourselves.
President Alvaro "Iron Fist" Uribe cleaned up the country in the 2000s with a tough stance against narcos, but his bounties also killed many innocent civilians who soldiers dressed up as narcos to claim the reward. Half the population loves him, the other hates him.
The Medellin Digital Nomads group has been quite helpful too!
I wrote up all the best books I read this year in one place. Grab some 2017 reads if you like!
Tech
Ayahuasca retreats around the world. — www.ayamundo.com
Ancient plant based shamanic ritual that gringos love? Of course there's a website for that now!
Lifehacks
Dave Seah is a productivity guru with some nifty analog tools to check out.
Fun
FlipFlop - Free as a traveler. Connected as a local.
Uruguay based company built a meetup app for travelers that finds other people in nearby hostels and local events. Pretty well done app - I wonder why this hasn't taken off? I guess the hostel lobby beats staring at your phone.
With a private jet, apparently you could visit 35 different parties, but with 19 hours travel time. I love that someone actually calculated this.