Medellin

Medellin... What an amazing place. When one thinks of Medellin, Colombia it is impossible not to think about Pablo Escobar and the drug cartel. If you watch the HBO series Entourage you would think this place is all mafias and military. Quite the contrary. Medellin is a modern, large city and the people here will not let you down being the most genuine people you will meet...This place is nicknamed land of eternal spring, which really should be changed to "the best weather ever." I really don´t like spring at home, but the weather here is amazing.

This place is a trap. In our hostel, the Pit Stop, there are more people that have been here for over a month/people wanting to find a job and stay here than I have ever encountered in my life. Obviously says something about the draw of the city. It is so easy to fall in love with the place. We were passing through and stayed for two weeks. The Paisas (locals here) are known for being the most beautiful (the streets look like a fashion show) in all of Colombia. I agree with them. All I know is that if my son ever wants to study abroad, he will be going to Medellin...haha. The Spanish spoken here is beautiful. Paisas talk very clearly and kind of draw out the last syllable of their words. Great place for someone to learn Spanish (clear, correct, somewhat slow).

The first day arriving was a massive Futbol game, Colombia vs. Ecuador. Highly suggest going to a South American Futbol games. These things are insane! A giant group of us went from our hostel, everyone was decked out in our newly purchased Colombia shirts or flags. Great time, except for the massive amount of local kids that really enjoy glue sniffing that plagued our section. I thought this was strange the first time I saw it, but now after being here for awhile I have found out that is the norm for the local kids aging 14-18 (Cannot be good for them). The songs, chanting, stadium waves, everything was amazing...Aside from the druggie children and a failed robbery attempt leaving the stadium (ended with him in pain hahah sucka) the game was great fun and super cool. These locals bleed yellow, red and blue for their teams... the majority of them have massive tattoos supporting their team. Amazing.

While staying here, I thought it would be fun to look for some type of job to help fund my travels (big city, higher costs... and I lost my debit card... rats). Although many locals have told me that I would definitely get a job teaching English, I wasn´t planning on sticking around to get that sort of work. So I sought out to find some sort of part time work.... A friend of a friend found me a telemarketing job with a firm really close to my hostel. Never passing up an interview, I decided to go. Negative. Don't really want to sit and make phone calls all day long for US $3.12 an hour. Would be quite interesting for about a day... but didn´t quite think I needed that. Job offer number two was serving tables in a restaurant of a local I met. $5.00 a day. Who are these people??! Needless to say, I chose not to partake in this slavery.

One cannot visit the home of the first criminal billionaire without visiting his grave. I was quite surprised to find that it is nothing special, simply a tombstone. But nevertheless, we were in Medellin and he had a lot to do with the history of this city and the whole country.

The massive rock looking pictures in my blog are from a place about 2 hours ago called el Peñol de guatape. Guatape is a little lake community that actually was once home to Pablo Escobar. El Peñol is a massive rock that overlooks the area. To get to the top you have to climb 649 stairs, but the views are well worth it. Good little day trip, but the last bus passes on the road back to Medellin at 5 so we couldn't stay for the sunset...

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