Medellin - 08-10 Mar 2014

---

Saturday 8^th March (Odyssey Day 120)







We had a 0900 departure and said our goodbyes to Maddie and Lou this morning. They will be staying on in Cartagena for a bit, then doing an abbreviated trip including Machu Picchu, before heading back home to England. So now we have lost four more members of our group, and re-gained one. It feels noticeably emptier on the truck now.







Driving along some high, winding roads, we saw some random single bright yellow trees. It was a bit odd as they were the only real colour around for a long time. There were a lot of police checks on this stretch and we had to stop a few times, though never for very long.







Instead of camping, we stopped for the night at pretty much the only place we could around here – a motel with a restaurant, bar and pool. We arrived around 1700 and so had a few hours to relax by the pool and have a leisurely dinner at the restaurant where the service wasn’t great, but the food was delicious. The beds here are nice and soft for a change, though the showers are cold water again. Everyone seemed to congregate around the pool for the evening, where the wifi worked and there were beers available.











Sunday 9^th March (Odyssey Day 121)







Breakfast wasn’t ready for 0700 which is when we were told it would be, but we still managed to leave not long after 0800. Again it was a beautiful drive with the random yellow trees. Actually, there are a lot of interesting looking trees today. Although I may simply not have been looking yesterday since I had my nice comfy front seat on the truck and napped and read quite a lot. It’s nice and cool with the windows open. The fog rolled in for a while and you couldn’t see far ahead. It was interesting to drive through though.







We arrived at the Pit Stop hostel in Medellin at 1800, just as it was getting dark. The hostel is quite well set out with a communal kitchen and lounge, internet area and pool. We even managed to score an ensuite bathroom rather than having to share a communal one. The girls ended up in a dorm room but at least it was a large one and we had plenty of room.







Ellie, Hannah and I headed out down the road to the quickest and easiest place we could find for dinner – McDonalds. At least you always know what you are getting when you order a cheeseburger.











Monday 10^th March (Odyssey Day 122)







Breakfast is sort of provided at the hostel. Sort of, as in they place a pile of bread and eggs on the counter at 0800 in the morning, and if you get in quick enough, you can make yourself breakfast. I was in there at 0900 just as the crowds were thinning and managed to snag the last two slices of bread. There were quite a few eggs left though, so I managed eggs on toast.







Ellie and I caught the metro in to the city and visited the Museo de Antioquia. It houses a lot of Fernando Botero’s artwork, donated by the artist in segments over the past 30 years. I’m not really a fan of his work, but I do find it very interesting (in an ‘I’d never hang that in my house in a million years’ kind of way). In the square out front of the museum, they have a lot of sculptures by the same artist. We have seen some samples of his work in other cities in Colombia as well.







Medellin is a large city and has some amazing buildings, though they are often surrounded by concrete monstrosities that obscure the view. The metro system is a good one and so we headed out to where they have cable cars up the hill. The cable cars are part of the metro system, so we caught one up to Santo Domingo station just to have a look at the view of the city from there.







On the way back through town we stopped to visit the Parque Pies Descalzos, also known as the ‘barefoot park’. This is somewhere I had wanted to visit specifically but when we finally found the place, it was closed down.







Heading back to the hostel in the mid-afternoon we stopped at an exito shopping centre and you wouldn’t believe the size of it! These centres are a bit like Walmart in that the sell everything. Clothes, toiletries, electronics, manchester, alcohol, groceries, medications…







So after a bit of time wandering around and gawping, we simply bought some lunch and some water and headed back to the hostel – about a ten minute walk up the road.

---

Photos

Cartagena
It was a long and slow departure from Cartagena

Travel Day
Bright yellow trees

Travel Day
A little fog

Medellin
Cathedral on the square, with Botero sculpture in front

Medellin
AJ standing with Botero's 'Roman Warrior'

Travel Day
Just like us, the locals hang their clothes wherever they can to dry

Medellin
One of Botero's more famous paintings - The Death of Pablo Escobar

Medellin
This is more my kind of art

Medellin
Acrylic Art. Hmmm, too bad we didn't think of making this when working at AAS - we could have been famous!

Medellin
Metro station

Medellin
View from the cable cars

Medellin
Interesting seats at the metro stations