22nd September 2018
We stayed in Hostal Ondas. We booked 4 nights, but we could only cope with 3. The photos of the place looked amazing (Update March 2019: I cannot believe how gorge it looks on the website... honestly, don't be fooled), but in reality, the rooms and bathrooms were grubby and our room had all the safes in, so guests were in and out of our room all the effing time. The staff were too, as some of the supplies (loo roll) were on top of the safes! Not cool Ondas.
We will say that the cafe downstairs was cute, but they took ages to make a coffee. Like, 40 minutes. For a coffee. And to bring over a croissant. Really.
After the previous day's travel, and a shit night's sleep (woe is me, I hate hostels (but not really)) needless to say we were feeling weak and feeble. We eventually staggered out to the metro round the corner. It's easy to use, clean, and the Paisas are damn proud of it (see blog post about our Walking Tour for more info).
We headed to Poplado (the touristy area of Medellin) from Floresta. Had we known, we would have booked accommodation in Poplado, as it took a while to get to and had all the fun places to eat. Sob. We had lunch in a vegan restaurant called Cafe Dharma which was delicious and nourishing! (Then we went to the Exito supermarket and bought avocados and Coca-Cola… needs must when you're still feeling peaky.)
We got back to the hostel just before it got dark, picking up a huge chocolate-mousse-thing from the patisserie on the corner. Honestly, Sarah says she'd like something and it just APPEARS (very handy when you're looking for Cotton-Top Tamarins in Tayrona National Park).
We went straight to the hostel’s terrace where we had 5 minutes of peace before ridiculously loud music started (and stopped and started from a dodgy Bluetooth connection. INFURIATING) and other guests graced us with the stench of marijuana. We went downstairs.
As the day had been somewhat of a write-off, we looked forward to our Walking Tour the next day, and decided to get an early night and feel rested in the morning… this SADLY did not happen, but more about the tour in the next blog post!
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