It was on my way to the famed village of Santa Fe de Antioquia, also known as the mother city, that a small one-armed man entered the bus and began a sob story about how he lost both his limb and his wife in a car crash sometime last May. “I miss her dearly,” he said. “She was my heart and my soul. She meant the world to me. Which is precisely why you should buy some of my pirated DVDs. Care to have a look?”

They’re always doing this, the beggar men. Using the downtrodden aspects of their life as leverage in the market of knickknacks you’ll never really need. No? How about a fake gold necklace? Or some shoelaces? I told the man I didn’t speak Spanish and he looked blankly out the window the way dogs do when they’re trying to tell you something. 

Santa Fe de Antioquia is like a baby Cartagena with its cobblestone streets and small town feel. The majority of sights and sounds revolve around the main plaza where a large church serves as a postcard landmark.

Besides the obligatory souvenir shops selling the exact same mini sandal key chains you saw last summer in Cancun, there are several artisan shops that warrant a short look. Not unlike Colombia’s other colonial towns, there’s a slow way of life about Santa Fe: people on bikes, horses, sipping coffee in the park. 

Besides several museums and cultural centers, there’s not a whole lot to do in Santa Fe de Antioquia besides chill and walk around. The shops are mainly geared towards the resident, so unless you’re looking to have keys made while on vacation, or perhaps repair a leaking faucet, the majority of the experience in Santa Fe is a windowed one: peering into life from a different culture and a different era. Tucktucks imported from China are the main mode of transportation for locals and visitors running about ½ the price of a normal taxi ride in Medellin.

For eats, choose from one of the local fonda restaurants located around the plaza, a personal favorite called something like Porton del Blahblah. Another option is La Comedia which serves higher end Colombian food mainly to foreigners or anyone else absentminded enough to pay triple for what they could probably get down the street for a few bucks.

Pastry shops and empanada stands are ubiquitous in Santa Fe de Antioquia, as are the mini-department stores no bigger than a ping-pong table selling imposture shoes and pastic toys. It was in one of these shops that I saw a lady buy a shirt that showed a sequenced Playboy bunny and the words “Sexy Bitch.” Globalization at its finest.

At only an hour and a half from Medellin, Santa Fe de Antioquia is a terrific day trip, though if you’re feeling particularly colonial, there are a small handful of hotelitos to choose from ranging from about $10-$50/night. Getting there is as easy as a bus (about four dollars) or taxi (about six dollars) ride from Terminal Norte in downtown Medellin.

The trip wiggles along tremendous mountain roads and winding cliffs, eventually settling at a low altitude that’s significantly hotter than the city. Photo: laloking97 from Flickr