I booked several tours with English-speaking guides during my visit to Medellin, Colombia and I’m so glad I did. I need to learn Spanish. Especially if I want to keep visiting Latin American cities. But, because I don’t speak Spanish, getting lost in Comuna 13 was my own stupid fault.

As often happens in congested tourist areas, large coach tour buses, mopeds, taxis, pedicabs, tourists, and cars fought for space on narrow streets that were never designed for traffic like this. My Uber driver gave up on reaching our destination. We were on the correct road (I thought), but there was a man waving traffic to turn left. The street ahead of us was at a standstill.

So, my Uber driver pointed and (I’m guessing) explained to me that I needed to get out. He pointed up the street and gave me directions to the address I’d requested? In Spanish. I didn’t understand a word, but understood that this was as far as we’d go. I thanked him and headed off in the direction on my phone.

Except the directions on my phone didn’t make sense. I have got to learn Spanish! Luckily, there were dozens of red-shirted tour guides peddling tours on the base of Comuna 13. Some spoke some English. So I showed them the address I was trying to find and each one pointed me in a direction, or walked me to a corner and pointed, or told me to go two blocks and then it would be on my right.

None of these things turned out to be true. But I followed them all and only had a few remaining minutes to find the meeting spot for my tour. There were many to choose from, but I went with Medellin Memories on Get Your Guide: Medellín: Comuna 13 Tour with Spray Painting and Street Food. I’d chosen this one because I’ve never spray-painted graffiti before. There are several Comuna 13 tours, each with its own angle. I think I made a great choice, though I’m not much of an artist. (Which I knew, but ignored when I made my choice.) Still, I made my mark on Comuna 13 for posterity:

Spray-painting was fun, but it was the rest of the tour that I found fascinating. We got glimpses into some of the tucked-away alleys that tourists probably wouldn’t find on their own. That’s the beauty of tours: being led to secret spots that only locals know about.

Comuna 13

So, what is Comuna 13? It’s a district of Medellin — a city spread throughout a valley in Antiqua, Colombia. The imposing mountains encircle the city like a prison. At least, that’s how it might have been described in the 1980’s and 90’s when Colombia was the biggest cocaine exporter in the world. Watching Narcos on Netflix gave me a great introduction to Pablo Escobar and the terror he inflicted on his country and hometown of Medellin during the 80’s and early 90’s. I was ignorant to all of this while it was happening. During Pablo Escobar’s reign of terror, I was a young new mother raising a child. My days revolved around baby food and children’s shows, not drugs and night clubs. That just wasn’t a part of my world.

I learned a lot about Medellin’s violent past and its role in the drug wars of the 1980’s. So many Colombians died. Others were pushed out of their homes by Escobar’s army and migrated to the mountainside where they patched together homes from whatever materials they could find.

The buildings stacked on the mountainside were cobbled together piecemeal. The steps are STEEP and uneven. The alleys wind at jagged angles that never reveal what might be ahead. You have to know where you’re trying to go. It’s a maze of steep, narrow paths between hidden homes, restaurants, shops, bars, and doorways that lead to mysteries beyond. I was SO GLAD I’d booked a tour with Diego.

Diego lives in Comuna 13. He greeted many of the locals we passed along precarious sidewalks that tourists rarely stumble upon.

Break Dancing

Our first stop was to watch some street performers. Break dancing is big in Medellin and especially Comuna 13. I think most tour guides take their groups to see groups perform. Different dance troupes take the makeshift “stage” along the rows of merchant stalls. Crowds gather for every performance. Our guide took us to see Power of Light. They are apparently a favorite on the Colombian stage.

They were great! It set such a festive mood as we began wandering through one of the most wild, weird, ever-changing atmospheric neighborhoods I’ve ever encountered. Break dancing was the perfect introduction to this quirky Medellin mecca.

Japanese Technology: Escalators

As mentioned, the mountainside is very steep, roughly a 28-story trek uphill for residents coming home from trying to make a living in the city. It was impossible for vehicles to access this patchwork neighborhood, leaving the community isolated and impoverished until a community organization had the genius idea to work with Japanese engineers to design an urban escalator. They installed six sets of escalators reaching partially up the hillside. Trial and error quickly taught them that escalators exposed to the elements wouldn’t work, so they constructed bright orange metal roofs to cover them. It completely transformed the community and helped turn it into the vibrant, artsy neighborhood it is today.

Touristy Fun

So, what is there to do in Comuna 13 besides watching breakdancers in hidden alleyways? Everything!

There are shops tucked away around every corner. Gigantic statues of things like a gorilla, religious symbols, and whimsical characters provide plenty of photo opportunities — for no apparent reason. There are bars, restaurants, homes, coffee-roasting shops, murals, and plenty of souvenirs. It’s like New Orleans on vertical steroids, without the drunken reputation of Bourbon Street.

Hidden Gems

Because I was with a local tour guide, I also got to see spaces dotted along the alleyways that tourists wouldn’t see. Like the inside of an educational foundation. I should mention that school education isn’t compulsory in Colombia, so not all children go to school consistently.

During the drug wars and unrest in the early days of Comuna 13’s development, it could be dangerous for children to play in the streets, so the residents built play places for the children to escape to. Some of these artsy hideaways still exist.

Food

Last, but not least — food. During our tour, Diego treated us to popsicles, freshly-brewed Colombian coffee, and finished with appetizers at his aunt’s restaurant POLLO, which is also where he lives! Talk about local!

The restaurant overlooks a gorilla statue where I watched dozens of people taking photos as we nibbled on wonderful plantains, pork sausages, and other bites of flavorful food. I recommend POLLO for good food and drinks along with a spectacular view over Comuna 13.

Oddly enough, as I wandered lost through the crowded streets looking for my tour group, I thought I’d seen enough of Comuna 13 even if I didn’t get to take a tour. But I was wrong. I found my tour group (I had to turn down a side street, which the Uber driver probably told me, but I didn’t understand) and I am SO GLAD I did! My day in Comuna 13 was my favorite experience of all in Medellin and where I’ll spend more time, if I ever go back. I, and everyone else in my tour group, commented more than once that it was a crazy, amazing place unlike anyplace else we’d ever been. We tried to think of other spots like it in the world, but couldn’t. Comuna 13 is one-of-a-kind. Unless you know differently?

Does Comuna 13 remind you of any other place in the world? Do tell!