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Published: June 18th 2010
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Now that we have explored many places in Colombia and have moved south to Ecuador, we can easily agree that Medellin was the best overall city in Colombia. I'm now so far behind in writing the blogs that I'm going to try to be brief about Medellin, even though we spent nearly a week there. So, a quick list of all the things we loved about the city...
1. The Metro- Medellin is the only city in Colombia with a metro (subway) system. It's great, it's clean, it's fast, it's effective, it's cheap, and it's going to take the city 60 years to pay off.
2. Cleanliness- Not all cities in Colombia are clean, but Medellin is. One of the factors that makes it appear drastically cleaner is the absence of street dogs. We didn't see a single stray pup the whole time we were there. At some point in time, the people in charge of Medellin must have done a massive sweep of the city, scooping up all the dogs and then requiring that all pet dogs remain on leashes at all times. That's right, dogs are actually PETS in Medellin.
3. It's safe- Although Medellin used to be the
drug and murder capital of the world just a few years ago, it is now much safer and as long as you don't wander into the wrong area of town at the wrong time, you'll be just fine exploring this great city.
4. The weather- Known as The City of Eternal Spring, Medellin is always pleasant. Never super hot, never really cold. Although we did get rained on nearly every day, but just for a few hours.
5. It's diverse- This is one of the really cool aspects of Medellin. The people are so diverse in this city. There are, of course, the folks who look typically Latin with dark skin, dark hair, dark eyes, but there are also lots of white people, black people, blue or green-eyed people, red heads and blondes, etc. We haven't seen that much racial diversity since we've been down here. Medellin has it all.
6. Style- The 'Paisas' (what people from Medellin call themselves) are very stylish. People are always dressed to the nines and looking sharp. They love their knock-off designer clothes and sunglasses. And all the girls and women have some kind of plastic surgery done. Boob jobs are the most popular,
with butt jobs and facial work close behind. Braces are also a popular way to improve one's esthetics. This sets Medellin apart from any other city we visited in Colombia.
7. Location- Medellin is settled snugly in a valley of vibrant green mountains. It may not be Colorado, but it's pretty darn gorgeous. Everywhere you look, you are surrounded by these tropical mountains.
8. Art- A few years ago, Medellin had a great mayor named Fajardo. Fajardo enacted many great new policies into the city legislature, including one that mandates that all business dedicate 5% of their space or money to art. In effect, you have a city full of sculptures, murals, drawings, paintings, etc. It's really cool.
9. Nightlife- The nightlife in Medellin is rumored to be out of this world. Crazy, fun, fabulous. Unfortunately, we did not time our visit very well because we happened to be in the city during the weekend of the Presidential elections. All of Colombia enforces a dry law prohibiting the sale of all alcoholic beverages both in restaurants and stores during the ENTIRE weekend of the Presidential elections. Which means that from Friday afternoon to the end of the day on Sunday,
nothing was going on at any bars or clubs. Actually, most of them were closed for the weekend. Boo.... We were told the law is to keep things safer and to keep people at home at night. Guess that makes sense, but still... boo....
Now a quick list of things we did in the city:
1. Visited the Museo Castillo, an old castle that has been turned into a museum. This was pretty interesting, but only because it was free. I wouldn't have paid to visit it.
2. Visited the Museo de Antioquia, a big art museum. Had some cool stuff, worth a visit.
3. Visited the Plaze de Botero. Botero is a very famous artist from Medellin and he has donated many of his giant sculptures to the city so they created a Plaza for the pieces. In the plaza, something interesting happened. A rough-around-the-edges kind of guy came up to us, speaking pretty good English but with a strong accent, and was asking us where we're from, how long we're in Medellin, how do we like it here, what are our plans for the day, etc. He introduced himself as Victor. Then he offered to be our
Plaza Botero
It's supposed to be good luck to touch this guys "piece" ¨guide¨to an ecopark just outside town. All the while, I've got my eye on a police officer who has his eye on us and is slowly walking over toward us. When he gets next to Victor he says, ¨Hola Victor.¨ And stands a few feet away watching over us. Then Victor kind of backs off and lets us leave. We've heard stories of guys coming over and offering to show you where your hostel is or offering to be a guide, and then they take you somewhere and rob you. I have a feeling our friend Victor is a common thief and, therefore, is commonly watched by the local police. Not that we would've gone anywhere with him, because we're not that naive, but it was good to know the cops were looking after us.
4. Saw the Amazing Race (South America edition) racers. This was really cool for me because I'm such a big fan of the show back home. We happened to stop for lunch at a restaurant and just outside the door was one of the Amazing Race clue boxes. Then we started seeing teams run up, followed by their camera men, grab a clue, read it
and run off. Neat!
5. Visited the EPM Museo Interactivo- This was one of the weirdest experiences we've had down here. This is a children's museum that is interactive and mostly about science. However, they have a bizarre ride where they take you on a journey from the inside of a seed to what appears to be hell. During the ride, the buggy you're sitting in stops in front of a screen so you can watch a really disturbing video about air, land, and water pollution, factory farming (complete with squealing pigs and pigs getting their skulls smashed), and other things I couldn't quite make out because the quality of the video was pretty bad. Then we went on a Gravitron-style ride where we became animals. Ryan was a bat and I was a butterfly. We made promises to save the earth through practices like recycling, not polluting, conserving energy, living sustainably, etc. The museum had a great message, but a very bizarre way of presenting it to children.
6. Visited Parque de Pies Descalzados (Barefoot Park). Small park with sandlot and waterfall that you can get into. Pretty cool.
7. Saw the bombed Botero bird. In 1995 someone bombed
a park that had a Botero sculpture of a big, fat bird. I believe 17 people died in the bombing and the bird was torn apart from the inside out. The bombed sculpture still sits in the same park with a brand new one that Botero created as a commemoration of the lives that were lost in the bombing.
8. Parque Explora- This is a SUPER AWESOME park that everyone should visit while in Medellin. It's another hands-on style park with an aquarium, planetarium, reptile center, and all kinds of really cool science experiment activities that you can do. We didn't have nearly enough time to see and do everything there. You need an entire day for this park.
Okay, there's more to say about Medellin and what we did there. I'll have to write a part 2 because I have to go now and I want to go ahead and post this. More later.
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