How to get to Comuna 13 Medellín: Electric stairs and Graffiti

To get to Comuna 13 you can do it by taxi or Uber, you simply have to ask the driver to take you to the San Javier station and then to the entrance of the escalators, usually, he leaves you a few blocks from them ( what they have to walk is very little). A ride to commune 13 from the town can cost you 17,000 Colombian pesos (it would be about 6 dollars).

How to get to the commune by metro

If you want to get there using the subway, you must first go to the San Antonio station (which is on subway line A) and then you must take line B on the third floor of that station, which goes to the station San Javier. Once there, they leave the station to take a bus with route 225i, this is not integrated with the service, it is a separate bus and its cost is 2,200 Colombian pesos, which would be less than a dollar. They ask the driver to drop them off at the corner to go to the escalator. Once they get off the road, they walk two blocks up the hill to a dead-end street and come across the escalator. Also, if you want to arrive by Taxi or Uber from the San Javier station, you can take it outside it and it has an average price of 6,000 Colombian pesos (it would be about 2 dollars).

Metrocable

At the San Javier station you can take line j of the metrocable, but it will not take you to the part of commune 13 where the escalators and the graffiti tour are located. Using this means will only serve to see commune 13 from above and go through two metrocable stops.

Doing the walkthrough of Comuna 13 of Medellín Colombia is free, there is no cost. If you simply want to know, see, walk through its streets, and take photos, you can do it, but if you want to know its history, tell them about the arts programs that made everything change and even explain the meaning of each one of them. graffiti, it is best to hire a guide among the locals.

At the entrance to the neighborhood some guides give you the tour for 30,000 Colombian pesos, which would be about $10. There are also guides outside the San Javier station, who start the tour from the station (some walking from it). We recommend that you make sure you do the tour with people from the neighborhood since they not only know the history but also lived it and contributed to its transformation. Most of the guides speak English.

The Graffitour is a tour of each of the murals that are painted throughout the commune; There are two ways to do the graffiti tour, the first is by hiring a guide for a previously stipulated fee or the other option is to take a tour with a free tour. This modality is to take a guided tour and a fixed price is not required, but at the end of the tour, you evaluate how much to tip the guide according to your experience, it is most recommended that this tip be greater than 20,000 Colombian pesos, that is, about 6 dollars.

The route that they normally give you on the Graffiti tour starts from the San Javier station. The guides first give them some recommendations to take into account (none have to do with safety) such as not throwing garbage on the street, not touching the dogs, and not giving money to children. After the station, they arrive at the entrance and visit the following points:

• Independence.
• Graffiti
• Escalators (There are six games).
• Street art shows.
• Souvenir shops
• El Mirador (It is at the top).
• Dance classes.

These murals are found in most of the houses in the neighborhoods. During the tour you will see graffiti from different artists from commune 13 and  some foreign guests from Arte callejero.

Meaning of graffiti

This type of art in the commune only has the intention, it is to make a memory. The leading artists of these murals not only painted for pleasure, but they also did so to leave reflected the difficult history that this sector has lived through. It was thanks to these magnificent drawings that the community began to promote the Grafitour because they consider them works of art. One of the murals that you should know is "Operation Mariscal" where they painted the community when they took out white rags to exclaim peace, they find it in the independence neighborhood.

In addition to Graffiti, other types of culture began to develop around urban art. It consists of starting to promote dance among young people, such as "break dance" or choreography, and also the formation of groups to sing hip-hop, rap, reggaeton, and freestyle. All this artistic practice has promoted new family businesses of the locals for the visitors.

On the tour they will also be able to see Street art shows, individual dance shows, and in groups and they will even be able to join the choreographies. You will also see the groups singing hip-hop with their songs.

It is one of the cultural centers formed within the neighborhood and was one of the first to decide to change the violent concept of the neighborhood for an artistic concept. In addition to offering tourist services to visitors, it is a meeting point for artists who are looking for another alternative in their lives so as not to fall into crime, using art as their only weapon. You can organize the tours with the recommended guides at Casa Kolacho, you can find them outside the San Javier metro station or you can communicate directly with them before going.

Regarding the values of the Graffiti Tout, in addition to those that we have already shared with you, there are tourist agencies that do this tour with prices between 50,000 Colombian pesos (it would be about 18 dollars) and up to 180,000 Colombian pesos (it would be about 60 dollars), what makes their prices vary is that some include food and transportation. Some locals offer personalized tours for 30,000 Colombian pesos, which would be about 10 dollars.

As we mentioned before, you can go on your own to visit the neighborhoods and take the tour. But if you are going to take a tour, you usually find the guides between 9 am and 5 pm every day. The tour lasts approximately two and a half hours, but you can stay longer as there are restaurants and bars open early.

One of the landmarks and one of the things that draw visitors' attention is the commune's escalators. The Mayor's Office made some free public stairs between the alleys of the hills as a replacement for the 350 concrete steps that citizens had to walk every day. You will be able to see 6 sets of escalators, completely covered with an innovative design and in each one there is a person in charge of monitoring.

Previously this commune was an epicenter of violence, its humble houses built in the middle of the hills were not in good condition and its alleys were suitable for crime and drug trafficking, it came to be named “The cradle of Pablo Escobar ”. In the 1960s, the peasants sought refuge in the city of Medellín, escaping from the violence that was experienced on the outskirts of the cities, it was when they reached the mountainous areas of the city. Later, amid extreme poverty and despair due to the lack of work and money, communes were created that were supported by Pablo Escobar and his pillars of drug trafficking. Many of its inhabitants, during the fight against poverty, saw it as the only opportunity for social advancement to be part of this criminal structure and that is when the history of violence began in commune 13. Over the years, with the death of Pablo Escobar, the commune sought to leave behind its ties to violence and with a great effort, mainly from the young artists of the new generation and supported by the government, turned its entire history into a total tourist site, to create memory and awareness that violence does not bring progress.

This is a secure tourist site, you can bring your cameras, cell phones, or drones to record your visit without any problem. Likewise, we always recommend taking one of the tours.