Las Ferias de las Flores in Medellin

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Last weekend was the last long weekend for a while, and since we hadn't been travelling for a while 5 of us decided to go to Medellin. This is one of the three big cities in Colombia, and is a popular tourist destination. Ask any Colombian what they think of the place, and despite regional loyalties almost all of them will tell you two things: 1) it is the city of La Primevera Eterna (eternal spring), and 2) the most beautiful women in Colombia - the paisas - are from Medellin. What a terribe place it sounds! The city is also most famous for being the home city of Pablo Escobar and his cartel, and having benefitted a lot from his robin-hood propaganda campaign of 'gifting' huge sums of money to his home city.

Having now seen the place for myself, both of the city's reputations are entirely justified! To be honest, despite its fantastic atmosphere Medellin doesn't have too many genuine tourist attractions. The main one, the walking tour of Escobar's life (including a visit to his old mansion complete with priavte zoo), was unfortunately not available while we were there. However, we took the cable car up to the top of the city (it is built in a valley and has slowly spread up both mountain faces) over the comunes, the favela-style shanty towns on the edge of the city, and also went for a day-trip out of the city to Guatape, a small village in an unbelievably beatuful natural setting. Also, the weekend we went was during the Ferias de las Flores, the biggest event in Medellin's calander, so there were plenty of parades and Latin-style street parties at night to keep us busy!

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Photos

Bandeja Paisa!
The most famous dish from Medellin, the Bandeja Paisa. Guaranteed to give you a heart-attack but delicious!

Party time!
The local corner shop, turned into a salsa hall for the street parties of Las Ferias!

Guatape
Guatape outside Medellin. This rock sticks out of nowhere, a good 200m tall, with a staircase up the side for some amazing views from the top.