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Published: September 25th 2010
We approached Medellin in our 'ol bone shaker' of an aircraft in late afternoon. There are actually two airports in Medellin. The old one is up in the hills around 40 minutes drive from Medellin. The new one is in the Northern part of the City. Avianca flies into the old one and that's where we headed.
My main regret of the journey was not having my camera close to hand. It was a spectacular approach to the airport flying low over the hills with the mountains in the background. It could have been Switzerland with the lakes, green hills and the farm houses dotted around. Really pretty and with the setting sun over the Andes it would have made for a few good photos. Damn.
Recovering our bags and transferring out of the airport was painless, we just had to hunt for a taxi driver since only some taxi drivers will take you into Medellin because of the distance. So we were driven by a huge guy who had his seat so far back, in sitting behind him,my knees were almost compressed against my chest.
But this was compensated for by the view as we drove over
Medellin: Cablecar view-2
With the fancy Library above the Chinese bridgethe hills and then dropped down towards Medellin, with the evening lights on. Medellin is in a bowl of hills all around and the city and suburbs stretches as far as the eye can see and into the hills. It was a very impressive introduction to a place that used to be one of the most violent cities in the world. Fifteen years ago, when Felicity last visited Colombia, Medellin was too dangerous for tourists to visit. These days its calmed down a bit, but as we discovered later its still a little bit of an issue.
We'd chosen a small Boutique Hostel on the outskirts of the City called 61Prado Guest house, on account of it being on Calle (Street) 61, near the Prado metro station. Clearly we hadn't a clue where it was, other than the address we had but neither had the taxi driver. After asking directions a couple of times, we arrived at a gated building, looking like all the other gated buildings on the other steep-hilled streets we passed. There was no indication that this was a guest house. But it was.
Inside the place was very nice, with our bedroom having a
huge double bed and two queen size beds, plus a very large bathroom and flat screen TV. The night we arrived, they were doing an evening meal and we joined the other guests around the dinner table for a very nice meal and a couple of bottles of wine.
One attraction in travelling is meeting new people with different perspectives and ideas. The first people we met were a young Dutch couple who just 3 years out of University had given up their jobs and were looking to start their own company. Their area of business was to be Lingerie, for men as well as women, exporting it from Colombia to Holland and the rest of Europe. Underwear is hardly the first or even the fifth product you'd likely associate with Colombia. However, we noticed that surprisingly there are lots of upmarket quality Lingerie shops in the malls in Medellin and as they showed us the catalog pictures and explained more, it became clear that Colombia is an innovative centre for upmarket underwear and lingerie. Jan and Ana are currently putting the business together, having already secured exclusive deals with some suppliers. They will sell their goods via the
Internet initially, but intend to branch out into shops as soon as they can. If these sorts of products tickle your fancy, take a look at
giaunderwear.com and
liounderwear.com . Ana and Jan's own site will be available later on in the year.
Another of the guests was an American, who'd left the US many years ago to do business in Colombia. Most recently, amongst other things, he had a farm up in the hills above Medellin. He recounted tales of his experiences dealing with the mafia gangs in hills. His farm was 'protected' by one gang and he paid them in either money or goods to keep him safe. Envy and greed play a large part of Colombian gangland life and a second gang was wanting in on the spoils and were looking for protection money too. But it isn't the done thing to pay both gangs and he told us he had witnessed shootings of people that had tried. He is also running other importation businesses and presumably the second gang discovered this - he told us that in Medellin most private phones (mobile and landline) are tapped. He believed he was a target for the second gang,
especially having seen a large armed group from the „good gang“ on his porch, protecting him from something unknown. He therefore left his Farm house and moved in for a longish stay at the 61Prado.
Contrary to what the Bogotá Police had told us at their museum, drug mafia warfare would appear to be alive and well in the hills around Medellin. Whilst it may not be the case across the whole of Colombia, it seems that the Medellin economy is still supported by narcotics income directly or indirectly. The police, however, are doing their best to make Medellin a safe place to live and their presence is very noticeable around the City. This is a big difference from 15 years ago and we felt safe during the few days we spent there, despite being told of various areas near our hotel to avoid entering.
The first full day we walked to the Prado Metro and took the train to the 'Metrocable' a french-built cablecar extension to the Metro train nextwork, that goes up a hillside of Medellin. This is a great and inexpensive way to get a panoramic view of the City, as the cablecar takes you
over a shanty town that sticks to the slopes, some of whose buildings have animals, including pigs, on the roofs. There are two stops to the top and the somewhat incongruous elegant and futuristic Public library buildings, set amongst the decaying housing. There is, however, a connection to another cablecar that takes you up further into the Parque Arvi, a public park and nature reserve spanning more than one thousand square hectares of woodland. You only pay for the cable car fee, entrance to the park is free. There is a guide to explain things, who will attempt English if required. You also have to sign a declaration confirming you won't harm the ecosystem of the park in anyway, before you enter.
We just went for a quick wander in the park. Unfortunately, despite the huge map they give you, its not totally clear which forest trails you can take to get from A to B. So since we had other plans for the rest of the day we just stuck to the road, went past the road works and got overtaken by cement mixers and reached the rather unimpressive water falls that were full of Colombian students, some
of whom practicised their limited English skills on us, At the water falls and around the park there are very nice Picnic areas made of wood and having recycling points for picnic waste: Altogether, the park is an excellent example of ecological conservation - something that Colombia as a whole seems very keen on.
We spent just 2 hours in the park, but could have spent a lot longer had we had time. But we had a date to make before sundown. That was to go and visit the grave of Medellin's famous son, Pablo Escobar. To some he was a hero, to others an embarrassment, to many others someone to fear and to the Police he and his drug gang members were a challenge. Now he is something of a tourist attraction, with taxi drivers instinctively knowing that if you are a tourist getting off the Metro at the southern end of the main line, you must be wanting to go to "Pablo's grave“. At least that's what we were asked. It is a 10 minute drive from the Itagüi Metro to the cemetery and the taxi driver stops near to Pablo's plot and points the way to
go. As the photo shows, there is no impressive monument to see - probably not surprising, since at the time of his death he was a most wanted man that got shot by the Police. It is a simple stone with a lot of history behind it.
If the gravestone isn't a big enough shot of the Escobar drug, it is possible to take a guided Pablo Escobar tour, which includes visiting his house and talking to his family. We just said no to this.
We instead went on quite a different search, but one that has plagued us throughout our Colombian travels. Finding Citibank. As I mentioned in the Bucaramanga blog, this is the only bank that (sometimes) will give you more than USD500 per day. For many other banks it is nearer USD200. But Citibank is not that easy to find, despite assistance from the Lonely Planet guide & Citi's own web-based ATM locator. Often both are wrong or at best misleading.
The ATM Locator told us there was one in Poblado, where we had planned to do dinner and it was in the Edificio La Compania. We climbed hill after hill and asked a
couple of people before reaching this shiny metal highrise of that name. There the security guard told us there was no Citibank, just offices. Maybe there was a Citi ATM for the employees, but not for we mere tourists. We compromised with an HSBC ATM that we ran into as, frustrated, we continued down the road and the dark of night rapidly approached. HSBC gives around USD400, so not such a bad solution.
Afterwards, we looked around Poblado for a place to eat. There are a whole variety of Restaurants to try out in Medellin, some upmarket, some a bit seedy and some seedily upmarket. We decided we'd pass on Colombia's love affair with pasta and pizza and ended up in a Columbian-Spanish mix of Paradilla and Paella. A Steak grill for me and Valencian Paella for Felicity. How's that for adventurous ? It was nice, but not spectacular, although the waiter was very attentive and wanted to know whether we were celebrating a special occasion when we ordered an inexpensive bottle of wine. Colombians are not regular bottle-of-wine-in-restaurant drinkers.
After dark, the rule is take a taxi everywhere. This we did from just up the road from
the restaurant and again the taxi driver could not find the address printed on the hotel's card. We got close and ended up reversing down a steep hill over a crossing and onto the next block, where we found what we were looking for.
The next day, after a good pancake and fruit breakfast, we headed out to discover a little more of Medellin and its culture. We did think of going to either Santa Fe de Antioquia or Guatape, both around 2 hours bus drive away, but we were a little late in getting ready and with a 6 hour drive to Manizales on the cards for the next day, we decided to stick with Medellin. We also wanted to get a Medellin T-Shirt if possible too. This proved a difficult task. Given its rather violent recent past, Medellin is not much of a tourist destination - indeed some people had advised us against going. But we were here and wanted to prove it. No tourists means no tourist tat, so no "I love Medellin“ T-Shirts existed where we were looking. Then Pablo, together with a T-shirt printing company, came to the rescue. Felicity got one T-Shirt with
a smiling Escobar subtitled with "El Patron“ (the Boss), and I got one likening Pablo Escobar with Al Capone, complete with smiling Pablo and a mention of Medellin. We were advised not to wear them in Colombia though, something we intend to follow through on.
We also went to the Art Museum in Parque Berrío, the next metro station on from Prado. This has some great art in it, featuring our old friend Fernando Botero amongst others. Just as with Bogotá, I have included a mini art gallery of photos of some of the works. The beauty of the art was somewhat affected by the loud heavy beat concert going on in the square outside that lightly vibrated the gallery building at times and whose music and announcements were a constant feature.
The rest of the day proved to be another damp one as it started raining early afternoon. Just like Bucaramanga, we opted for a cinema to escape the rain and ended up watching Resident Evil 4 in 3D - basically because there wasn't much else. It turned out to be slightly better than imagined and we stayed dry.
The Colombians love to eat at the
cinema and there are plenty of "Combo“ options available at all cinemas, which consist of, for example, two large 26oz fizzy drinks, two very large buckets of popcorn, a hamburger and a hot dog all for about USD18. They seem very popular and we saw lots of people struggling into the cinema with large trays piled high with junk. We kept our junk to a minimum and shared a medium popcorn and 2 small drinks. Its amazing that obesity here seems a much smaller problem in Colombia than either Mexico or the US.
We went back to Poblano for dinner - the same area that we'd tried out the previous night. It was still raining and our chosen restaurant seemed to be hiding from us, since we couldn't match the Lonely planet address with where we were. In the end, we ended up eating at a Lebanese restaurant - definitely a change from our regular purely meat-based Colombian fare. It was actually quite good, with large portions.
Again we got a taxi back afterwards and again we got lost. The taxi driver went a similar route as the previous night and the end result was similar too -
reversing down and busy one-way street to get to our front door.
We were really happy to have been able to visit Medellin and witness first hand how its been able to improve its security situation and image. Its still got quite a way to go before it becomes a real foreign tourist destination, but as long as you are careful, it is not a place to fear or avoid. We enjoyed it and certainly wouldn't be afraid of revisiting.
After breakfast, we checked out of our Hotel and got a taxi to the South Transport Terminal, right next door to the City airport, to catch a bus onwards on our Southerly trek through Colombia.
Places we have visited and can recommend Hotels
61Prado Guesthouse (if you can find it - large rooms, good prices & breakfasts and friendly staff)
Calle 61 #50A-60 Prado Centro, Medellin
Park & View of the City
Parque Arvi - take the metrocable car up
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sandman0011
non-member comment
A day does not make an expert-
I always love the first impressions of visitors to Medellin, often clouded by the historical perspectives of the city in the media and Hollywood. I was accosted on a recent Blog with, "why would you want to live in the jungle"? You 36 hour backpacking wonders who tell the world of your adventures to Medellin and sum up a local situation from your perspective in a $20 per night hostel amuse me. You have no clue and unless you are being paid to submit reports, are no better source of local information than the "on the spot reporter" of a national news agency paid to report on an event then hop on your plane and return to the soltice of your apartment in whatever city in which you live. Readers, believe what you wish from the knee length shorts/sandals wearing, scraggy bearded sensalistist blog reporters on this site. The locals make fun of them and consider them "Cheap Charlie's" to be avoided. Their perspectives on their visits are often times clouded by drug induced re-encantations of an all night binge at some local watering hole where they met a beautiful local Paisa girl who rocked their world. Try living here for 4 years then report your perspectives to your following clan of ragged, canvas backed "world travelers". Simply amazing what some people will profess as the gospel after being in a city for a whopping 36 hours!