Girardota and Barbosa
Situated only 30min North of Medellin, Girardota is a village allowing to get out of the city quickly and easily. Girardota is where we live presently, where our company is based, in our typical old house. The main park is typical; you can still see elderly people riding their horses to the park. There is also a big covered market, where you can truly get a feeling of the rural and local atmosphere while being close to nature and the population in total safety.
As for activities, you can do the classic stuff like walks in the mountains, horse riding, but you can also visit an organic “finca” of coffee and cacao, where the family is highly preoccupied by the environment issue. For instance, they produce their own gas out of the faeces of their 4 pigs, but also the fertilizer for their coffee and cacao plantations… an example a lot more people around the world should follow! Girardota’s ground is very fertile and there are numerous plantations (fruits, corn, coffee, bananas, pineapples, and especially sugarcane). You can visit one of the 28 “trapiches” of the city, a farm dedicated to panela making ( blocks of sugarcane juice). Panela is a product used daily by Colombians, they sweeten everything with it. The most common drink in restaurants, workplaces, homes…is called “limonada”: water, panela and lemon, usually cooled down, but also drank hot in colder areas. You can also opt for more extreme activities like “torentismo”, which is abseiling down waterfalls overlooking the city. Or you can also go rock-climbing or abseil from a bridge over a river. Not far, there are several fish farms, especially trouts and “tilapias”. You can fish there, and eat your own fish afterwards, kids, but also some adults, tend to enjoy doing that. Girardota is also famous for its religious tourism; people come to see the cathedral called “of senor caido”, during the Semana Santa (Holy Week, Easter), processions are everywhere and people come from Medellin to Girardota on their knees on the emergency lane of the highway…
Barbosa is the next village after Girardota if we keep going North. It is very much alike Girardota, it has the same characteristics but there are plenty more spots to swim has the river network going through is more important.