Despite all the hype about Colombia being a dangerous, violent place, the only time my life felt threatened was on the roads. Colombia is a very mountainous country and thus, has thousands of miles of curvy mountain roads. The drivers of big rigs, oversized buses and normal cars and trucks are equally aggressive (insane), behind the wheel. If I had a hundred Colombian pesos for every time we passed on a completely blind corner, this trip would have paid for itself.

Luckily, most of the overland travel we did was in huge buses in the middle of the night, meaning that we had mass on our side and we could sleep during the ride and weren’t forced to watch the terror unfold.

The busetta from Manizales toMedellínhowever, was a different story entirely. This glorified minivan left at 9am and the country around Manizales is gorgeous: green and mountainous. This is how I imagined Colombia and I wanted to spend the morning gazing out the window and soaking it all in, but that was difficult, as I was literally white knuckling around every turn.

Passing on blind corners is so common that there seems to be an unwritten law by which, even if you aren’t the one passing and the oncoming traffic is completely in your lane, you do them a courtesy by pulling way over towards the shoulder—sometimes off the road entirely—but no one ever slows down one bit. Our driver to Medellínwas especially ballsy. There were moments when I just wanted to go to sleep so I didn’t have to watch. Fired up from the blaring Reggaeton this guy would just slam on the gas when we were stuck behind a line of big rigs. Inevitably, we’d get half way around the turn and a huge bus would be barreling down the hill towards us. He’d then a make a quick move to get in between two of the big rigs we were trying to pass, before we hit the bus head on. Seriously some of the most nerve-racking driving I have ever encountered…and I have a higher tolerance than most.

After four hours of pure terror we rolled into Medellín. I felt like I was suffering from post-dramatic stress and all I wanted was a cold beer and some lunch.

Matt and I got a cheap hotel and headed straight out to find some grub and explore the city. The Paisas (people of Medellín) don’t mess around when it comes to food. We ordered huge steaks and each one comes with an egg, beans and two sausages (pictured). In fact it seemed as though no matter what you order, in Medellín they’ll throw in an egg and sausage for good measure. I fully support this policy.

That night we went out and rocked “la Zona Rosa” Parque Lleras in El Poblano, which is a great place to start off the night if you’re here looking to party (which most are).

The next day we tried to go paragliding, but Lonley Planet completely failed us for the third time on this trip: the paragliding place they site doesn’t exist. No one at their address, no answer on the phone numbers they give. Extremely frustrating…

So…we asked our cab driver if he was hungry and proposed that he drive us around for the afternoon and show us some views of Medellín if we bought him a steak lunch. He enthusiastically accepted our offer (pictured). After lunch we drove around some of the highways up in the mountains, to get a good look at the city.

Medellin is literally surrounded by mountains and if we had had more time I definitely would have liked to do some hiking around the city. However after talking to the cab driver about the mountain zones/pueblitos, I would not recommend just picking a mountain and going. Although Medellin felt very safe, it’s wandering off into some random mountains that could get you into trouble.

That night we boarded another long overnight bus for the Northern Coast. In our sights: virgin rainforest, beaches, and yes, cliff jumping.