Blogs from Medellin, Colombia, South America - page 18

The last time that I posted I promised myself that I'd write something every day and keep the blog up-to-date. And here I am four days later with a mountain of things to tell you about. So I'll start with a summary of Wednesday and Thursday and then fill you in on Friday and Saturday in the next post. I confess that my mind is a bit jumbled from the last few days events so accuracy may well go out of the window in favour of a more interesting read! :) I'd arranged to meet Sergio and Marta at 2pm in Parque de los Deseos. As usual, I was early (really must shake that habit). I sat at the edge of the shallow, slate lined pool in the park and watched as school children rolled down ... read more

Saturday morning I woke as fresh as a daisy that's feeling particularly fresh. And particularly early. I was pleased to see that I could catch the tail end of F1 qualifying on the cable TV here (Fox Sports if you're interested). I think that I already mentioned that Diana from the hostel in Cartagena had given me a guidebook for Medellín? It's a couple of years out of date but I figured that not many mountains will have moved in that time and the city center is unlikely to have been razed and rebuilt. And it's actually a great guidebook - nice and small and breaks the city into the various different zones of interest. And, most importantly, each section is in both Spanish AND English. This serves two purposes - it ensures that I understand ... read more

After a 13 hour over-night bus ride from Cartagena, I arrived in the second largest city in Colombia, Medellín. Twenty years ago, the city was the drugs capital of the world with the highest murder rate on Earth. Fortunately, things have changed since then. Medellín is now a modern, bustling metropolis, and appeared to be as safe as any other large Columbian city. One advantage it has over other Columbian cities is that it has the only metro system in the country, albeit small (2 lines), but nevertheless meaning that transport around the city is relatively easy and cheap (50p for any journey). I didn’t like the actual centre that much, as it was overly congested, crowded and unremarkable. As the Plaza Bolivar is rather small, there is no real central focal point, so the city ... read more

19/05/09 The alarm went off at 5.30am but I didn’t mind. Waking up knowing you’re about to cross the Colombian border gives you the urge to jump out of bed anyway! Pete and I got a taxi from outside our hotel to the border for only $3 and during that short 15 minute taxi journey both Pete and I both admitted we had no idea to what to expect. I’ve done my fair share of hairy border crossings and I was kind of expecting this one to add to my experiences of those. We arrived and were both shocked but in a good way. There were no queues, plenty of security guards and men exchanging currencies that didn’t jump down your throat as soon as you stepped out of the taxi. We exchanged our money for ... read more

1-8-2010 Today i got up with the plan to go paragliding,,,if you dont know what that is check out my facebook photos or google. To get to the place i first had to walk 20 minutes to the metro station, take it to the bus station, and then take a bus headed for san feliz, but get off at ¨las avionetas¨. i got there fine in about an hour and a half. i got there and they explained the safety precautions and instrucitions in spanish and less than ten minutes later i was running off a cliff in the hills above medellin. its expensive by colombian standards but at 40 dollars US it was worth the 25 minutes of flying time! from above you could see all of medellin in the valley below as welll as ... read more