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Hello! Welcome to Medellin and Comuna 13. We are local guides passionate about urban art, graffitis, our community, its people and its history. As local residents of this Comuna, we lived its past of conflict, but we also lived its great transformation. Join us to show you this incredible place, and let us be your guides and tell you the stories from the experiences that we lived.
Thoroughly reccomend - our guide (Teacher) was brilliant.
We loved the tour. The history of the area is so incredibly recent and raw, and yet the energy is positive. And Cristian cares passionately about the transformation of the area and that really comes across as he shares the overall historical context alongside his personal experiences. Highly recommended!
No se cual de los dos Cristian fue nuestro tour guide, pero el fue excelente. Ir a ver la Comuna 13 por primera vez sin un tour guide no hace sentido. Ellos te explican toda la historia como ellos mismos la vivieron. Fue algo increible que te toca al fondo de tu corazon. Ademas te explican los significados de los grafittis los cuales estan directamente relacionados a la historia de la comuna. Me alegro muchisimo tomar este tour.
The comuna 13 is a must see in Medellin. That’s why we booked a walking tour but honestly, we were quite disappointed. First of all, we perceived it quite pushy how the operator made sure people understood that tip is expected at the end of the tour. It‘s explained on the website – no need for constant highlighting. Talking about the website: they should mention that cash is required for the bus ride that we did at the beginning of the tour. In general, we were not happy with the information shared during the tour. The few facts and interesting things were explained at the beginning while we sat in a small room in the back of a shop and these facts were repeated for 2,5 hours. The guide (Juan) said he grew up in this neighborhood. We got excited but unfortunately he shared no personal stories or experiences from that time… I also felt he was not really listening when someone asked a question but rather interrupted mid-sentence and answered something completely different (not related to the intended question). Since I came with quite some pre-knowledge, I was missing very relevant information: why accept gangs tourists, why does the state not intervene, where did the violence go (spoiler: it didn’t disappear due to the escalators but moved to a different area) etc. The moment we walked through the neighborhoods, the information stopped. We looked at some nice street art but it felt more like a foto stop – not really historical/contextual stops. Also: we went into two galleries. The first one was OK but the 2nd one a pure tourist shop. Nothing really artsy or unique (imagine shirts with Medellin print etc). All in all, I enjoyed the view points (away from the tourists) but I was there to learn something and left disappointed. Would not recommend if you’re actually interested in recent history and politics.
