Medellin - Part 1

Thursday 17th February 2011
Before we crack on to tell you about the delights of Colombia's second biggest city, there are a few loose ends to tie up from our last hours in Cartagena. We decided once more to treat ourselves to dinner at 'El Santisimo'. The food was as delicious as ever and seeing as it was our last night, we headed to Cafe Havana which was highly recommended in our guide book.

Nice bar.

This turned out to be an excellent bar packed with locals who were happy to prop up the bar or strut their salsa moves on the tiny strip of dance floor. The most enjoyable part of the evening was listening to the live Cuban band. They were truly excellent and they kept us out until 2am. The only slight improvement we would suggest would be more cow bell. We left the Colombians (who were presumably working the next day) to continue the party.

Friday 18th February 2011

More sunsets.

With a night bus to Medellin looming, we had a few leisurely hours left. After an amazing sunset, watched from the city walls with pelicans flying overhead, we headed for the bus.

The basics of our latest bus trip were to be a 13hr ride through the night, travelling around 600km. The state of the roads is the main reason that the trip takes so long. In the UK a similar trip would take around 7hrs! We really should appreciate our roads more.

The drama on the bus this time was an annoying group of travellers who thought they could get away with smoking in the toilets. The really stupid thing was to try it 3 times. We wished the bus drivers had dumped them on the highway, but being kinder than us they let them continue after each incident. With lots of locals and kids on the bus, these were the people who give tourists a bad name.

Saturday 19th February 2011
Medellin stands at 1500m above sea level and has a population of around 2.5m people (100 years ago it was only 100,000). Our first impressions were of a modern city, with an infrastructure to match its proportions. We're told that partly through drug money 20 years ago and then a desire to clean up its image and safety, Medellin is in many eyes the most progressive city in Colombia and has made an incredible turnaround. In our eyes, having seen several places in this country, we would definitely agree with this. After just 36 hours here, we would say that we could imagine living the most comfortably here out of all our Colombian destinations.

We're staying in an area called 'El Poblado', also known as 'La Zona Rosa'. It's a clean and affluent district with many restaurants and a lively nightlife. Considering this, we're absolutely amazed at our hostel. 'Geo Hostel' is the the best place we've stayed if you take into account cost, facilities and comfort. At around 1/3 of the cost of Cartagena, we can only hope that we find similar places on the rest of the trip.

Comfortable room.

We did manage to squeeze a little culture into our day, visiting 'El Palacio de la Cultura Rafael Uribe', to see some art by Carlos Martinez and learn a little more about Uribe himself.

As we were heading to bed, we once again saw our troublesome tourists from the bus. This time they were arguing and didn't look like they were enjoying themselves too much. On the bright side, they were sitting on the street so could smoke to their hearts' content.

Sunday 20th February 2011

Botero minus hawkers.

Medellin is the home of Fernando Botero (see Bogota entries for info) and so it's little surprise that his work and name is everywhere here. In Plaza Botero there are 23 bronze sculptures donated by the artist to the city. These are magnificent and remarkably void of graffiti and bird droppings. Sadly they are surrounded by hawkers looking for a quick buck so its difficult to take time to admire them, let alone a photo. Luckily next door is the 'Museo de Antioquia', which amongst other art, houses probably the biggest Botero collection anywhere. We spent a tranquil couple of hours contemplating the art and we were delighted to see many more sculptures in a more peaceful environment. We were quite suprised at how quiet the museum was and it was a pleasure to have plenty of time and space to look at the pieces.

Very green.

After our standard lunch (fish, salad, rice, plantain, hot sauce), we headed to the botanical gardens. It seemed like more of a park than a traditional botanical garden, although this was partly down to it being free and a Sunday. It was great to see lots of families and couples enjoying the green spaces. There were lots of musicians as well, some were certainly better practised than others. One highlight was, at last, seeing a monkey. A proud moment for us. Easier to spot was the now customary iguanas catching yet more rays.

No nerves here.

With the sun fading, we headed 150m above the city. The metro here (the only one in Colombia) not only includes trains but also three cable cars. For the price of a normal ticket you get taken up to the hillier parts of the city and along the way get some breathtaking views. If you don't like heights and your name's Emma, this may not be the trip for you. As we neared the top we got a real sense of how this system has made new areas accessible, but also of the contrasts in standards of living. Many homes at the top are made of wood, with corrugated iron roofs and on slits. They look precarious to say the least.

Cables, cars and houses.

Making use of our facilities we finished the night by eating a homemade salad, with pineapple and granadilla for dessert. One thing we miss is the ability to knock together a simple/healthy supper ourselves. Having not had use of a kitchen since Bogota, it was nice to have the run of a kitchen and a quiet night in.

Nice simple salad.

For further study:
Carlos Martinez
Rafael Uribe Uribe