The Great Outdoors in Manizales

I’m here in Manizales Colombia, and today I’ve decided to awkwardly change the topic of the blog while being in this beautiful city. I start in Barrio La Francia and make my way up the hill.

Now, this place is quite a city! It feels like it is a part of the ecosystem! Of course, it is, but it is so green and an integral part of nature altogether. It is surreal, unbelievable!

Here many stores are tributes to the state of Minnesota in the United States. An interesting fact about Manizales.

Bite the Bite

First, I’m kind of sweating, since it’s hot at this small restaurant. I’ll show you in my YT video what they have to eat and what the prices are.
Right here, food that I ordered, that’s 9 000 pesos and that is, I don’t know, $2,25. Like a good kilo of rice and chicken, chicharrones, some water, some soy sauce, some salsa, cubiertos, anything you need, everything you want. Everything. We’ve got some chicken, we’ve got some chicharron some plantains, maduros. Let’s give it a try. And yes! Wow! The flavor is crazy! The chicken is so moist and juicy!

You will never find a place that offers so much organic food and beverages. On the street, people are squeezing various fruit. No additives, nothing else in it. I took an orange juice and it’s pretty ripe and sweet, me gusta.

Manizales breathing the New Normal

Being somewhere and trying not to be a tourist is not so hard. You try to catch the pace of the street life, you do what normal people do and you try to take in as much as you can. Now I feel a million times better. I got a haircut. And it costs 12,000 pesos. That was $3,50. Okay, looks good. Ready to put myself out there! Will be going to walk down to plaza Bolivar. Stay tuned, okay?

Now check this out: a whole road here in the city is turned into a pedestrian street. I suppose it happens during a specific time of the evening. This is like the main fair through Manizales and tonight they’ve completely blocked the road off for bicyclists only. How cool is that?

But this looks pretty fun, man. I guess we can just walk in the road. This part of the road is all shut down.
And it is not done so that people could get somewhere faster. The road is blocked so that life itself can come out. And it is a truth! Even with Covid-19, people of all generations are in the street. And they do nothing. They try to find a place to rest and feel like a part of a community – exactly what they are missing the most.

Small selling stands are still open, people are selling almost anything and everything. Rhythm is slow, your pace is adjusting, and you start to feel the rhythm of the music in your steps and the music is EVERYWHERE.

Now I picked up something that looked like a lemonade drink here. I thought this was a lemonade but it’s looking a little dark. After having had a sip, it felt strange. Maybe you should be more careful when trying out things from, say – the street?

Still hungry, I couldn’t resist going for cozuelas. Oh my god, look at that! This is why I freaking love cozuelas! This is the mariscos and it’s 25,000 pesos. That’s like six bucks and it’s like – this is a badass dish! You get them in Mexico, you get in here. Wow, gracias! A little bit of side some papas, some rice carrots. Let’s try some of this delicious food. It’s pretty good. Experimenting is good!

Thank you for spending this time with me! And please see my vlog at YT for a real, authentic experience: