Jardín on a Backpacker Budget: Lucas's Story from Brazil

Okay, I'm going to be honest right from the start: I almost skipped Jardín. I was running low on money after two months backpacking through Colombia, and my original plan was to go straight from Medellín to the coast. I had been burning through my budget faster than I expected — Bogotá nightlife, a diving course in Santa Marta, way too many empanadas (is that even possible?) — and I was starting to do that thing where you calculate how many days you have left divided by how many pesos are in your account and the number gets uncomfortably small.

But then I met this German guy at a hostel in Medellín who would not stop talking about Jardín. He said it was the most beautiful town he had seen in all of South America, that it was incredibly cheap, and that the hostel he stayed at — Isla de Pascua — was the best vibe he had experienced in six months of traveling. He showed me photos on his phone and I thought, okay, one detour. Three nights maximum.

I stayed five.

Arriving broke and happy

The bus from Medellín cost me something like 40,000 pesos — less than ten dollars. For four hours of the most insane mountain scenery I have seen outside of southern Brazil. I pressed my face against the window the entire time like a kid, watching the valleys and coffee farms scroll past. When we pulled into Jardín's tiny terminal, I could already feel it — that energy a town has when it is small enough to know itself but big enough to welcome strangers.

I grabbed a colectivo up to Isla de Pascua and checked into a dorm bed. The hostel was exactly what the German guy described — relaxed, green, surrounded by mountains, with a common area that somehow makes everyone want to hang out and talk. Within an hour of arriving, I was sitting with a cold beer talking to a couple from France, a girl from Sweden doing research on birds, and two Americans on their honeymoon. That is the magic of a good hostel — it does the social work for you.

How cheap is Jardín, really?

Let me break it down for my fellow broke travelers because this matters. If you are checking out the budget guide for Jardín, you already know it is affordable. But living it is something else.

Breakfast at the hostel was incredible and affordable. A menu del día lunch at one of the restaurants near the plaza — soup, main course with rice, beans, meat or fish, salad, and a juice — cost between 12,000 and 18,000 pesos. That is three or four dollars for a full meal. Dinner was similar. A beer at a tienda was 3,000 pesos. An aguardiente shot? Even less.

I was eating three full meals a day, having a couple of drinks at night, and spending less than I was spending on just coffee in Medellín. Jardín gave my budget room to breathe, and that changed everything about how I experienced the place. When you are not stressed about money, you slow down. You say yes to things. You extend your stay.

The nights that made Jardín unforgettable

I have to talk about the nights because they were honestly some of the best of my entire trip. Jardín's nightlife is not clubs and bottle service — it is better than that. It is real.

On my second night, a group of us from the hostel walked down to the plaza after dinner. The square was alive — families, couples, groups of friends all sitting on those painted chairs, kids running around, music playing from somewhere. We found a bar on one of the side streets, a tiny place with plastic chairs and a speaker playing vallenato and reggaeton. The aguardiente was flowing, and within twenty minutes we were dancing with locals who did not speak a word of English and we did not speak much Spanish beyond "otra ronda, por favor."

That night we closed the bar at 2 AM and walked back up to the hostel under a sky absolutely packed with stars. The mountains were black silhouettes against a sky that looked like someone had spilled glitter across it. One of the French guys said something about how you never see stars like this in Paris, and I thought about São Paulo and how I had forgotten what a real night sky looked like.

The next night we did it again. And the next. Every night was different — different people joined, different bars, different conversations — but the feeling was the same. That warmth you get when you are sharing something real with people you just met but who already feel like friends.

The things I did for free

Here is what travelers on a tight budget need to know: the best things in Jardín cost nothing.

Walking around the plaza and admiring the architecture and the Basilica — free. Sitting on those colorful chairs with a three-thousand-peso tinto watching the world go by — basically free. Hiking up to the mirador for panoramic views — free. Swimming in the river at Charco Corazón — free. Watching the sunset from the hostel terrace — priceless, and I am not even being cliché, it genuinely was.

I did spend money on a couple of things that were worth every peso. A coffee farm tour — maybe 30,000 pesos — where I learned more about coffee in three hours than in my entire life. And a horseback ride that cost almost nothing and took me through landscapes that belonged in a movie.

The people who made it home

What I want to say most about Jardín and about Isla de Pascua specifically is this: the people made it. The staff at the hostel treated me like family. When I told them I was extending my stay because I could not bring myself to leave, they seemed genuinely happy about it. They recommended restaurants, told me which trails to hike, and even joined us for drinks one evening.

The other travelers were incredible too. By my third day, our little hostel crew had its own routines — morning coffee together in the common area, afternoon walks into town, evening dinners followed by plaza nights. I exchanged numbers with at least ten people, and I have already visited two of them since — one in Berlin and one in Stockholm.

Why I almost cried on the bus out

I am not an emotional guy. I mean, I cry at dog videos, but not at leaving places. But when the bus pulled out of Jardín and I watched those green mountains disappear behind me, I felt something heavy in my chest. It was not sadness exactly — it was more like gratitude mixed with the knowledge that you have experienced something rare.

Jardín is the Colombia that most tourists miss. It is not on the gringo trail. It is not in the guidebooks — or at least, not in the ones most people read. It is a place that rewards you for showing up with an open heart and an empty schedule.

To anyone reading this who is calculating their budget and wondering if they can afford the detour: you can. And you cannot afford not to. Jardín was the cheapest and the richest week of my entire trip.

Muito obrigado, Jardín. A gente se vê de novo.

Lucas Oliveira is a gap year student from São Paulo, Brazil. He stayed at Isla de Pascua hostel in June 2025 and has since told approximately forty-seven people to go to Jardín.