Hygge destinations: Medellin

Medellin: the renaissance of the most Hygge city of South America.

Thanks to the efforts of its citizens and institutions, the City of Eternal Spring is today one of the most innovative niches in Colombia and Latin America.

It is estimated that Medellin receives approximately 30,000 new inhabitants each year. That is to say, a complete annual village. Due to the accelerated growth of the population and the social dynamics brought about by the migratory flow, ideas arose to return the city to the citizenry. And although the processes of urban change in Latin America and Europe are not comparable because of the history and diversity of their dynamics, there is a factor that unites them: the search for leadership and innovation, especially from niches that are not part of the “main stream” – the line of action guided by globalization.

The innovative metro system has five different lines that connect the Aburrà Valley’s four cardinal points. It is possible, therefore, to go from one part of the city to another, visiting every corner of it and enjoying a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere as if you were at home. A walk through the Book Festival, in the Botanical Gardens. The laboratory of thought on the art of the MDE11, in the Museum of Antioquia. The bright colours of the houses in the old part of the city, the works of Fernando Botero including paintings and the famous bronze statues.

Back down the hill, Medellín’s nucleus is an airy grid of streets where buildings from the city’s 17th-century beginnings rub shoulders with sleek, confidently contemporary architecture and plenty of green spaces. You can easily explore it all by bicycle (Medellín is a city of cyclists), along a good network of paths. The city has its more eccentric sides, too. You might witness exuberantly painted chiva buses (essentially mobile discos) carousing around the streets on Friday and Saturday nights.

Cable car (teleferico) lines spider out from Medellín’s central districts on the valley floor to the barrios (slums) clinging to the mountain slopes. It’s the most eye-catching aspect of a very joined-up public transport system that has proved vital to reversing the city’s fortunes. Connecting these poverty-stricken areas with the more prosperous central business district has given barrio residents a better quality of life and job prospects, and broken the grip of the drug cartels. Now, if you choose to visit Comuna 13 — formerly one of the most dangerous barrios — you’ll find libraries, hubs for the arts, literacy projects, and young people taking part in music and dance workshops.

The city of Medellin rises on a hill, needless to say the nature that surrounds it is fantastic, pristine and breathtaking. Many excursions are organized in the so-called lungs of the city. The eucalyptus and pine forest of the Parque Arví (a public park) tempts visitors with a host of mossy walking trails alongside fern gullies and burbling, pebbly streams. You can choose a small corner of it to explore: its gargantuan size makes places like Central or Hyde Park look like mere lawns.