View of downtown Medellín from my window
Medellín, where do I even begin???
The weather? The people? The history? Well, first I must say that it does not take long to fall in love with this city. And I'm not sure that any collection or combination of vowels and consonants, sentences, pictures or even colorful blog entries can do the once notorious "City of Eternal Spring" justice. But nevertheless, I shall try.
Last Wednesday, I opted for a comfortable yet bumpy 45-minute flight from Bogotá to Medellín over the 10+ hour winding, twisting and serpentining carreteras that snake their way up, down and around an endless see sea of mountains, valleys and tropical vegetation. I admit that the landscapes were tempting, but for an extra $50 I could avoid getting car sick and arrive before I can even finish the complementary beverage (peach juice).
Map of Colombia showing Medellín (top-left) and Bogotá.
Before I even dive into what was a wild few days, I'd like to say that I am forever grateful for the hospitality of María and Camilo, who really could not have done a better job as hosts, especially given the circumstances. I met them a few years ago in Bloomington. Thanks for everything!
The guest room
First of all, when someone flies into Medellín, they will realize that the airport is not actually in Medellín. It's in a town called Río Negro. It takes about 40 minutes to get into the city.
Map showing Río Negro, Antioquia, Colombia
The airport
The deal is when you leave the baggage claim area, you can either take a small little bus, take a private taxi or hop in a taxi with 3 complete strangers and go. I chose the latter. It worked out quite well.
Fun Facts
The goal of the blog entry is to show my friends and family who have not been to Medellín what it is like.
- Medellín is the 2nd largest city in Colombia with around 3 million people.
- Medellín has the nickname "Medallo."
- In a disrespectful way, Medellín is also referred to as "Metrallo," coming from the word "metralleta," Spanish for submachine gun.
- Medallo is known as "la ciudad de eterna primavera" (city of eternal spring) for its perpetual spring-like weather (constantly between 65 and 80 degrees)
- People from Medellín are called "Paisas." Paisas seem to be the Colombian equivalent of Bostonians as they tend (stereotypically, not all Paisas are like this) to think Medellín is the best city in the world and that people from Bogota (in a way Colombia's NYC) are pieces of crap
- Medallo is located in the Valley of Aburrá at an altitude of around 5,000 ft.
I wasn't joking when I said it was in a valley.
A restaurant called "Indiana" I wonder if they have deep-fried tenderloin...
The Museum of Antioquia
Downtown, I went to the Museum of Antioquia, which was awesome! Here are some of my favorite exhibits.
This is an real AK-47 that has been turned into a guitar. It's called the Escopetarra "Rifletar"
(rough translation from description in museum)"This gun belonged to combatants in the Colombian Armed Conflict. This guitar is a symbol of the possibility of transforming violence into art. This is one less gun being used to inflict pain and suffering on this country."
(rough translation from description in museum)"This gun belonged to combatants in the Colombian Armed Conflict. This guitar is a symbol of the possibility of transforming violence into art. This is one less gun being used to inflict pain and suffering on this country."
Jesus being crucified in New York City
I don't know but I like it.
Made from a can
Translation: In 1978 everything is very expensive.
The death of Pablo Escobar
Pablo Escobar is dead
A fat guitar
The University of Antioquia
Camilo Torres was a Catholic priest turned guerrillero (guerrilla fighter). He was later killed in combat. During is life he tried to reconcile Marxism and Catholicism. He was the co-founder of the Sociology Department at the National University in Bogotá. However, he felt obliged to help the poor and because of his radical stances he was persecuted and had to leave his university job and joined the guerrilla group ELN. He was killed in his first combat experience.
One of his famous quotes is: "If Jesus was alive today, he would be a guerrillero."
One of his famous quotes is: "If Jesus was alive today, he would be a guerrillero."
Translation of the painting: We should focus on all that unites us and disregard all that separates us.
The police were getting ready for a potential showdown with students.
Explora
Explora is a cool museum that attracts kids and adults alike. It has dinosaur exhibits, Mayan artefacts and a very cool aquarium, among other things.
Piranhas!
Electric eel
Knife fish
Nemo
Medellín: The City of Eternal Tango
Something I learn while in Medallo was that the tango is very popular and 50 or 60 years ago it was VERY, VERY popular. Actually all the way to the airport this morning the taxi driver was blasting tango. The famous tango singer, actually one of the most prominent figures in the history of tango. He also did some acting as well. Carlos Gardel died in a plane crash in Medellín and there is a museum dedicated in his honor. "Gardel sings better every day."
A song by Carlos Gardel called "El día en que me quieras"
Another song called "Volver"
Here is the inside of the museum.
A sign that says that the famous Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges sat in that exact spot listening to tangos on November 18, 1978.
A cool bar down the street from the museum. Camilo, Maria and I had a couple of beers.
The part of town that this museum is in is called Manrique. It is located about one quarter of the way up the mountain in a working class neighborhood.
Me in front of la Iglesia of Manrique.
The Free Trade Agreement (with the U.S.) only brings misery to our people.
The neighborhood.
The neighborhood and church at night.
Beer
My favorite bar name...ever
Beer from Medellín
Cool graffiti
Rural Antioquia
Here is where the trip got turned upside down. Unfortunately, Camilo had a family emergency and him and his wife had to leave Medellín in the middle of the night, leaving me to find my way around by myself for a few days.
Camilo and María told me that I had to go to see something called the Piedra de Peñol, which is a very big rock about 2.5 hours away from Medellín by bus. So, I crossed my fingers and decided that you only live once, and got on a bus by myself and headed off to the Piedra.
Antioquia is incredibly beautiful. It is so green! It is also very mountainous and there so many exotic plants. I was really taken back by its beauty.
The Medellín River and a working class community near the bus station. The river seemed to always have a very strong current and to be very high on the banking.
The colorful bus is called a Chiva. There are party buses like this Bogota, however this is just a normal mode of transport for people here.
The trip was fairly normal. I saw some interesting things. Like an advertisement for donkey rental (literally, the animal) to I guess travel from town to town. There were also farm animals and minor mudslides blocking the road at some points.
There was my route. (the point on the bottom right is Bogotá)
La Piedra de Peñol
Here is the rock I came to see. It's huge. But you really come for the view.
The view at the top is worth it. One of the most beautiful things I've ever seen in my life, if not the most beautiful.
360 degrees
A butterfly
Guatapé
Hangin' out on the Mini Chiva.
Guatapé is one of the most beautiful towns I have seen. It is full of color. I can see why it's a must-see tourist attraction.
The Pink Panther!
The main square
Local parrots were on sale for $30.
The lake
One of the big attraction of Guatapé (apart from its beauty) is taking a tour of the lake you saw from the rock. For $30 you can get on a boat and a guide will take you around. Since I was the only one on the tour, I got to drive :)
For more context: The guy had a nice speaker system and was blasting Michael Jackson
The first stop on the tour was one of the former estates of Pablo Escobar, the infamous drug trafficker.
Honestly the worst haircut I've ever seen. But I imagine no one dared to tell him.
Here is the bar and terraza. Now they grow tomatos.
Here's the main part of the estate.
The backside of the estate. The place is huge. I guess when you make $500 million a day you can buy a nice house.
You can see a hole in the roof. Someone had put a bomb there I guess in a failed attempt on Mr. Escobar's life.
If you look in the center of the picture you will see a hole. That was Pablo's escape tunnel. I was told he also had a submarine on this property but now it is on display in another town.
The sunken town
The next stop on the tour boat is a sunken town. Part of the lake was a town. However, some company wanted to come in a pour some water for a hydroelectric project. So the moved the town and flooded the old one.
As you may have noticed from my blog, every Colombian town seems to have a main square with a church. They placed this cross in the water to mark the location of the church in the old town, somewhere below the surface of the lake.
A view of the old town. Now a calm lake filled with trout.
The only building that survived the flood is now a museum.
A picture of the old town. Every once in a while people still find things from the town like trumpets and other things people left behind.
After that it was time to head back to Medallo. I got back in time to see the sun set over the valley and made a couple of friends on the bus.
Downtown Medellín
Downtown Medellín is really cool. It's hustling and bustling kind of like Bogotá. And that's what makes it so much fun!
A giant head made by Botero (who is from Medellín)
Plaza Botero
This restaurant is fantastic! It's hard to even get a table. They have excellent empanadas. I strongly recommend it!
This street is called "Junín." It's pedestrian-only. There are a lot of shops.
San Alejo Flea Market. Every Saturday people come to sell things here. It's a lot of fun. You can find anything from candy to a Spanish language biography of Mikhail Gorbachev (tempting)
Cultural Center
Busetas!
Edificio Coltejer
The Coltejer Building is the tallest building in Medellín. It is named after the textile company "Coltejer."
The top of the building was even designed to look like a sewing needle.
Parque San Antonio
San Antonio Park is a plaza located in downtown Medellín. It is place where people meet or hang out. However, sadly, it now known for a bombing in 1995 carried out by drug traffickers.
Fernando Botero had sculpted a beautiful dove for peace. Some drug traffickers placed a 15 kilo bomb of dinamite, nails and other metallic objects somewhere next to the bird. The set it off killing 20 people were killed and injuring 99.
Botero responded, by sculpting an identical dove for peace and placed right next to the bombed one.
Botanical Gardens
The Botanical Gardens are beautiful. There are a lot of interesting plants. I strongly recommend it.
These plants trap and kill bugs.
When the tops are closed, that means that a bug has entered.
Food
The famous Bandeja Paisa. No more words are necessary.
Solterito. I'm not even sure what was in it.
Fried Tilapia with plantain (patacón) and rice with coconut.
I didn't want to eat the fish head, but this cat did.
Beatriz, a fantastic woman that helps María and Camilo with cleaning and cooking, made this delicious homemade Paisa dish. I can't complain!
Pueblito Paisa
The Pueblito Paisa is a replica typical town on top of a mountain that also has spectacular views of the city.
Transportation
Metro of Medellín: Quality of Life
Medellin has many different transportation options: Metro, Metroplus (just like Transmilenio), Metrocable and Busetas. All of the stations are in excellent condition.
A metro station
Metrocable
The poorest neighborhoods are located on the steep mountains that surround the city. One has no idea how big they are until they get there. Some neighborhoods extend for more than 4,000 feet into the air. It's incredible. Even the weather changes because of the difference in altitude.
It's really good that they built the Metrocable system. It really reduces commute times to these parts of the city, making life a little bit easier for its residents. It's completely integrated into the train system. You just get off the train and walk upstairs and hop into a pod. There's even a small library at the train station where you can check out books to read while going to work. I think here pictures and video do better than words.
They've even got ads
Me from the Library España.
The King and Queen of Spain funded the construction of a library in this sector. It is amazing. They actually came to Medellín to open it. I think it's absolutely fantastic that the people in this sector have a high-quality library within walking distance. If they didn't have it they would have to descend 4000+ feet and go near downtown just to find a book. It's really a heart-warming example of excellent social investment. Hopefully things like this can continue. :)
Library España (Spain), it also has some beautiful architecture.
Translations: "Displaced people under the rain," "Tribute to the victims of the armed conflict in Comuna 1 (this sector of the city)," "Exchange mines for hope," "I was born free," "No more sexual violence," "War will take away our happiness."
A boy riding a donkey.
Parque Arví
If you take the Metrocable all the way to the end you reach Arví Park, which is a HUGE forest (more than 1,000 acres). There are many things to do there. Hiking, camping, etc.
It really feels like you are entering Jurassic Park.
If you would like some music to provide appropriate ambience, go to the link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVCnfQBupts&feature=related
A cool bird.
The park is beautiful.
Camilo, his mother (on her birthday) and I went to the park. But we had a minor problem and one of the paths were closed and we got stuck there at night. We spent a couple of hours finding our way to the bus stop. Being there at night is a little intimidating. But we made it. It's one of those things that isn't funny when it's happening but afterwards you have a couple of laughs.
We had a couple of beers while waiting for the bus. I will admit that I've never seen so many drunk people on one bus.
But we made it back in time to blow out the candles.
Well, that was my Medellín adventure. I'll never forget it. Thanks again to Camilo and María!
Medellín is a gorgeous city and is worth visiting again and again. I highly recommend it.
Medellín, que te vaya bonito!
Greetings from Bogotá!
