I had one full weekend in Medellín before heading home for the holidays and I was ready to make the most of it. I put my plans for Saturday out to the group: whoever was interested in brunch and seeing Parque Arví via the cable car was welcome to join me.
I couldn’t think of a better start to my only Saturday morning in Medellín than brunch! So a group of us met up at Al Alma Cafe. It had gotten great reviews, yet none of them mentioned its size. This place was tiny. A capacity of maybe 12 people inside, and a small but filled patio. KG and I were the first to arrive and questioned if a new destination was in order given we had four more people coming.
This was not the first or last time on RY when I would be reminded that not all travel can be planned and even the best reviews can lead you astray. The cafe was an Uber ride for most, so we decided to wait for everyone to arrive before considering another location.
As our luck would have it, a table of four opened inside while we waited for our Ohana to arrive. There was a table for two adjacent to ours occupied by two gentleman casually talking and possibly winding things down. KG and I eyed the gentleman with the same thought, “As soon as these guys leave, the table is ours.”
The rest of our party showed up as they were getting served, so we crammed six into our table of four. Intermittently I would look to my left and think to myself “aren’t these guys done yet?” Okay, they were both babes, so it’s not like my eyes minded checking the status of their table. Truth is I have a soft spot for Indian men, they catch my eye every time. And the one at the table for two had a British accent and longer hair to boot.
Quick side note you should know about me: I swear. A lot. I use swear words as adjectives. A habit I picked up from my dad, who casually used profanity as a second language growing up. I find its use to be more about emphasis and less about vulgarity. I didn’t realize just how much I did it until my college roommate told me she had never met someone who swore as much as me. But hey, we’re still friends 20 years later, so it couldn’t have fazed her too much.
Unsurprisingly, I let out a swear word talking to my Ohana. Uncharacteristically, I rephrased as I became suddenly conscious of our neighbors at table two. Too late. They heard me. So imagine my surprise when british accent (who will later reveal he is not Indian but Israeli) inserts himself into our conversation with “You can swear. It’s alright.” Or something of a similar vein. I don’t remember exactly as my mind was too busy registering the fact that he was talking to me. He opened the conversational door and from there we spent the rest of the weekend with Fin and Lavy.
We got to talking and came to find that both of our groups were headed to the same place. So we decided to go to Parque Arví together. Hard to tell who is more excited for two gentleman to join us: the five of us ladies, or David, the lone male in our group. Other men are an endangered species in the wilds of Ohana. We started with 6 in a group of 29 and by month ten we were down to 3 in a group of 16.
David is not an official member, but an honorary Ohana, as this was his second month citizening with us. A citizen is anyone who has completed a previous RY program. Citizens are welcome to join up with current groups along their itinerary. David had previously met up with us in Belgrade and it was great to have him back in the mix. I am pro-citizen. Citizens bring new energy to the group and equally important, they also bring the expertise and perspective of already having done the damn thing.
So with David along for the day, we had both a companion and an experienced Medellín tour guide. Navigating our way to the park was a multi-step journey. David was our human Google map: getting us from brunch to the train station, from the train to the funiculars, plural. David helped us navigate the cable car transfer you must make about halfway up the mountain to the park. Along the journey that is RY, you become accustomed to being dependent on Google maps. It was a luxury to keep my phone tucked away for the day and not worry about which way the arrow was pointing.
The cable cars were worth the transfer. They provided a magnificent view and a unique experience that proved, getting there is half the fun. We crammed all eight of us into one car: four to each side. Getting to the top, I remember sweating a lot and squeezing the life out of KG’s hand. It was a hot day to be in close quarters and my fear of heights only increased my level of perspiration.
By the second cable car I was feeling more at home suspended from a wire among the clouds. We were gliding above green, grazing the treetops. Perched above the trees, I couldn’t help but make the inevitable Twilight comparison: this is what Edward must have felt like flying among the trees. Once I was able to drop the weight of fear, it felt fantastic.
The other thing that felt pretty damn good was how easy it was to be around two perfect strangers. This was the kind of experience I expected to have more often on RY. I thought there would be more Fin and Lavy like moments of connecting with strangers on the road. The reality is RY creates a bit of a bubble. Toward the end of the journey, the bubble becomes precious real estate when you realize you won’t be with these people each day much longer. Fin and Lavy were welcome additions to the bubble.
Their bubble is a bromance of global proportions. They met on the five day Salkantay trek to Machu Picchu when they were randomly put in the same hiking group, only to find that they both live in London. Fast forward a month or two and they bump into each other in Puerto Ayora, a town on the Galápagos Islands. Adventure much?
Coincidence, fate, happenstance, whatever you want to call it, the world was bringing them together. They decided to pick up where happenstance left off and plan their next adventure, which brought them to Medellín. A happy accident found us at the same cafe with the same Saturday afternoon plans, Parque Arví.
We wandered our way through the afternoon. The park is both a nature preserve and pre-Hispanic archeaological site located in the eastern slopes of the Aburrá valley. The cable car lets you off into a market filled with local food and crafts. We bought some fresh fruit and then set off to find a stream. Our stream search was cut short when we found out that the last cable car was departing sooner than anticipated due to yet another South American holiday that flew under our radar. Although we never found the stream, it was a luxurious afternoon without a real destination and the freedom to roam.
We came down the mountain at sunset. The panorama of the cable car was the perfect setting to enjoy the last light of the day. We parted ways with Fin and Lavy at the train station but not before inviting them to join us later that evening and the following day in some Ohana group fun. From there David, Kat, and I went to dinner at a spot Fin recommended.
After dinner, it was party time. Our fellow Ohana were throwing a party at their killer apartment: boasting a large balcony with a beautiful view of the city and all it’s bright lights. Walking into the party and seeing Fin and Lavy already there felt natural, like of course they would be here. They were old friends by this point in the day. This is the beauty of travel and meeting new people. Your lack of time creates a sense of immediacy that is uncommon in real life, where you lead with your guard up. On the road there is no time to build walls, only time to knock them down.
I remember talking with Fin on the balcony and having one of those “this is right where I’m supposed to be moments.” The weather was perfect, the temperature just right - your skin doesn’t even register its touch, the dark sky littered with the tiny lights of city life, and the feeling of the world at my feet. My view was expansive, but my feeling was intimate. Intimate in its smallness, the feeling of closeness that connection brings. There I was talking to someone I met that morning yet walking the path that the common ground of travel lays.
There are three times over the course of the year that I regret not acting on my feelings with a man I met along the way. That sentence tells you everything you need to know about me. I am the type of person who regrets the things I don’t do. That Saturday night in Medellín is one of those times.
Another thing I realized that night, is that sometimes what you need is what you least expect. I zeroed in on Lavy at brunch as he is my attraction archetype: dark hair, dark features, and longer hair. Fin, the contrast of fair skin, light eyes and short, towhead hair. Yet by the end of the night, I was drawn to the light.
In the light of the next day, going home alone felt like the right call, for Sunday brought another opportunity to hang with Fin and Lavy. No awkwardness about the night before need apply. We had invited them to play Tejo with the rest of our Ohana and they accepted. KG organized a group outing at Tejo in Medellín. Tejo is the national sport of Colombia and can thank Anthony Bourdain for bringing it to the consciousness of the masses.
After decades of athletic failure, I had found my sport. Tejo has a similar set up to cornhole: throw a round object and try to land it in the center of the opposite goal. Instead of a beanbag, you are throwing a round, polished, stone and your target is not a hole in wood, but the center of a mud patch. Tejo’s detonator of differentiation is explosives!
My first explosion came after I trash talked my opponent Kiefer. I made some confident declaration about how I was going to crush him - you know the kind of statement, so cocky that it virtually guarantees the opposite will happen. Yet on this rare occasion, my action followed suit with an explosive bullseye. No one was more surprised than me and as you can see from the picture, I couldn’t contain my grin. I now know why people plays sports, it feels good to win.
The explosives are what make the Tejo experience. There’s no mistaking when you hit the target, you hear it and you smell the gunpowder. It’s oddly thrilling to hit the target. I experienced the thrill more than once. A late onset surge provided me with three explosions! (Notice the restraint I exercised in not using three exclamation points to commemorate said explosions).
It felt good to sink a few and it was great to have Fin and Lavy in the mix. It was the first time all year we had an even mix of men and women thanks to them and a few other last minute invitees. We have a killer group of women and men. We don’t need more men around, but it is nice to have that energy balance every now and then.
The last time I saw Fin and Lavy was exiting the Tejo stadium that day. A couple Ohana would spot them later that month in Cartagena around Christmas. From randomly finding themselves in the same hiking group, to celebrating the holidays together. As my one friend is fond of saying, people come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. Time will tell for the two of them.
Fin and Lavy: two unique names, two good people, our citizens for a weekend. Just as quickly as they entered our Ohana bubble, they were gone with the passing breeze. Our time in orbit together was brief, but impactful. As people they are lovely in their own right, but it is their friendship that sticks to my bones.
Their friendship taught me a thing or two. Friendship can be counted in years, but should find value in experiences. And to let distance bring you together: travel is an incredible bonding experience. Meeting them taught me another thing that I hope to carry home - and that’s to keep my guard down. When traveling, time is acutely finite, so you act differently, but real life is no different, no less finite. Start treating your everyday life like an adventure. For my location may remain the same, but my destination is unknown.
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