During my amazing year long internship in Colombia in 2010 (I still can’t believe it’s over), I met a great bunch of people and together we travelled around Colombia together. I lived in a city called Medellin, not the capital of Colombia, but mind you, one of the BEST cities in Colombia. I fell in love with Medellin more than Colombia. Medellin really became home sweet home. But this story takes place in Manizales.
Oh Manizales! How can I even describe it? A city for students and youth, a party city, a city of amazing culture and art. You’re surrounded by beautiful colorful sculptures, trees, young people, cafes and just a trippy feeling in the air. The only city during my travels in Colombia that I thought was right on top there with Medellin. Since Colombia is one of the countries that has the MOST public holidays (Yayy!) one puente or 3 day weekend we took a 5 hour bus ride to Manizales. We stayed at a great hostel called Pit Stop with a crazy Irish owner and fun international bartenders. The best part was that they had a HOT TUB in the back. Omg, I never did find any other hostel that had one since!
So after 2 days of coffee tours, exploring Manizales, doing the sky walk, which is walking on a little wobbly steel platform thing outside the top of a tower
and swinging on this giant swing like thing which is crazy fun, we went back to our hostel with its hot tub, TV lounge and bar in the basement. Sadly Monday morning arrived and while everyone was packing to leave, Nicole (A Scottish friend of mine) and I got into the hot tub and were coerced into having shots of Aguardiente, most popular alcohol in Colombia made of anise. Still recovering from the party the night before,
we, more me really, grudgingly took the shots from the above mentioned Irish owner, an Australian dude staying at the hostel too, who was surely high on something, a Colombian and American bartender who were in the hot tub with us. Now comes the crazy part.
An hour into the hot tub adventure, our friends were packed and ready to head back to Medellin. Tis a pity I think but it’s time to leave. That’s when my friend Nicole, a Scottish lass says “how about we stay another day?”. Living the life of an intern in Colombia, it should come to no surprise that at this point I was very broke and let her in on this fact too. At which point the Irish owner pipes in with “Go on, stay another day, free of charge.”
Now I’m one to slightly panic in these situations, but having cool and calm Nicole by my side, egging me on,
I decide, Oh what the heck, you gotta be reckless sometimes and so we both decide to stay at the hostel without our friends for another night with free lodging and free alcohol. What an unexpected turn of events!
We must’ve all stayed in that hot tub for atleast 6 hours. I know I did atleast. As the night wore on, the American bartender and I became quite chatty and upon realizing that night had come and we were the only ones left in the hot tub, well let’s just say romance flourished. It’s an experience I’ll never forget. No regrets, sometimes you just gotta live. And that’s why I’ll always love Manizales and hot tubs.
You can also read my Manizales experience on my guest post on lifeoutofasuitcase. com as well as lots of other stories by young women travelers.
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