We’re happy to report that we made it, but hitchhiking from Pereira to Medellin was truly a long journey! Here’s how it went:
Santa Rosa
After visiting the tourist town of Filandia , we stayed with our friends Lena and Oleg in the town of Santa Rosa, a nearby suburb of Pereira. Although we had a great time with them, it was time to head to Medellin. Our Couchsurfing host, Johan, had been waiting for us for three days.
To start hitchhiking, we had to walk about 3.5 km out of town. The area we walked through was pleasant, and eventually, the houses ended, and we found a suitable spot. We waited for about 20 minutes when a taxi driver named Giovanni stopped. He was heading to Manizales and agreed to take us to the junction for free.
Another person quickly picked us up and took us to another junction a few kilometers away. This happened so fast that we didn’t even have time to ask for his name.
After that, we waited for about 20 minutes again, and a family, a husband and wife, picked us up. The man, Faber, jokingly said that we had stopped an angel. His wife was named Laura, and they were very pleasant company. We had many conversations with them. They were on their way to Medellin to visit family for the weekend. We spent more than 6 hours with them in the car. The journey was only 190 km, but there were so many roadworks along the way, and at times, we were stuck in traffic for an hour.
Arrival in Medellin
We finally arrived in Medellin at 7:30 in the evening, and they dropped us off in the southern part of the city. Our host Johan lived on the north side, and it was a 20 km distance. Walking that far wasn’t an option, and it was also raining.
However, there was a metro station nearby. We asked the ticket salesgirl if we could pay with a card, but that wasn’t possible. “Cash only,” she said. Our only economical option to get cash was to go to a supermarket and ask people if we could pay for their groceries with our card in exchange for cash. We approached the supermarket and asked if we could pay by card. They said, “Yes,” so we started looking for people with just a few items to pay for. Unfortunately, most people also wanted to pay by card. But one guy, who also intended to pay by card, decided to give us 10,000 pesos and said, “It’s all good! Take it! Maybe someone will help me out someday.” We were thrilled and returned to the metro station.
We once again approached the same ticket salesgirl and tried to buy two tickets, thinking 10,000 pesos would be enough. However, she said it was 16,650 or something similar. “Oh no!” we exclaimed. What should we do now? Return to the supermarket? But that would be foolish to go back to the store, approaching employees and bothering shoppers again!
Soon, we realized that the tickets themselves cost less. The extra cost came from purchasing a metro card, which was an additional 10,000 pesos. So, we started asking people if they could pay with their card on our behalf, and we’d give them the cash. First, a kind lady agreed, but she didn’t have change for the 10,000 pesos. The security guard then offered his card, and we returned to the same window once more. The girl behind the counter smiled. This time she said 6,000 pesos. We understood that the security guard received a discount on the fare. So, we bought our tickets with the discount.
Finally, we entered the metro, and an hour later, we reached Johan’s place. Unfortunately, he wasn’t at home when we arrived. We asked his neighbors for help to call him. They were kind enough to assist us, and by 10 pm, we finally reached our destination. Our 200-kilometer journey took 12 hours. Medellin was beautifully lit at night!
From Colombia with love, Vasya and Nastya