For our last day in Medellín, we visited the historical centre and the neighbourhood of place Botero Plaza. The square was filled with the famous sculptures, Fernando Botero, a figurative artist and sculptor. The rest of the day would be spent in a minivan from Medellín to Manizales.
Our hotel, Florencia Plaza Medellín, called a yellow taxi for us. Five minutes later we were on the way to ‘Terminal Del Sur’, the southern bus terminal in Medellín. Close to El Poblado, the ride only cost us COP 10,000.
Different tickets booths offered journeys to Manizales with a price ranging from COP 35,000 to COP 40,000. Our minivan wasn’t leaving straight away. We were hungry. The terminal was attached to a shopping mall was filled with low quality food stalls. Therefore, we ingested a sad Subway sandwich. With a full belly, we jumped into the 8 passengers minivan for a 5 hours-ride to Manizales.
The twisted road, stretching over 200 kilometres between the 2 Colombian cities, took us alongside a scenic ride. Rolling green mountains and deep valleys. Suddenly, we stopped. The traffic was snarled up in both directions because of an accident. We waited for 40 minutes before the traffic slowing started to resume its slow ride to Manizales. Unfortunately, that was just the beginning of our troubles. Frequent roadworks on the 2 lanes mountain road added considerable (and unnecessary) time to our journey. We stopped for a shorted break around the halfway point and were desperate to get some rest.
At 9 PM, delayed by over 3 hours, we arrived at Manizales from Medellín, the main centre for the production of Colombian coffee. The Manizales bus terminal was at a cable car station. Exhausted, we set off for a hotel close to the station as we were too late to check in at our Bed and Breakfast.