Conquistadores

The neighbourhood I live in, and one you will not find in any guidebook.

Conquistadores is a wedge between three axes: Avenida Bolivariana to the northwest, the Medellín river with Avenida Regional to the northeast, and Avenida 33 to the south. Administratively it is barrio 1105 in comuna 11, Laureles-Estadio, the same part of the city as Laureles, only closer to the river and noticeably calmer.

Estrato 5. In practice that means maintained pavements, street lighting, a doorman in the buildings, and utility bills with a surcharge.

What it is like

A residential neighbourhood with palm trees between the buildings. Brick blocks from the sixties and seventies next to new towers, balconies overgrown with plants, and among them shops, cafés and bars used by people who live here rather than by visitors.

During the day there is bustle from the university and the avenues around it; in the evening it settles, because the nightlife is further west on Avenida 70. That is exactly the difference that moves people here after a year in El Poblado.

And dogs. I have never seen this many dogs and people walking them anywhere, and the pavements are clean.

What is within walking distance

The river and Parques del Río, the Barefoot Park and the centre across the bridge, the cycle path along the water, a shopping centre with a supermarket, a market hall, the Pontificia Bolivariana campus, and Avenida 70 with its bars to the west.

The metro is about equally far in either direction from Conquistadores: across the bridge to line A, or a walk northwest to line B. It is not around the corner, and that is the one flaw.