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Published: January 26th 2015
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Right out of the plane we knew we had made a good choice coming to Medellín. The air was perfect, about 72º, and the scene is hilly, but green; lush tropical vegetation, and flowers everwhere. We are at about 5000 feet, which gets you up out of the humid murk. It rains a little every afternoon, as it does in Mexico City, but it's hardly enough to need an umbrella. Besides, it's over in 20 minutes.
We are in a hotel called "In House", $70 a night, in an comfortable neighborhood of shops, restaurants, and other small hotels. There is a lot of car traffic in late afternoon, but the street is shaded like a forest by tall trees, with a little stream nearby- swift and full of waterfalls, down in a gorge below street level with many broad-leaved plants and huge bamboo that go high above street level. This part of the city sees to be thriving now, with lots of new construction
Colombian Spanish is distinctly different from Mexican, and a little hard for me to catch sometimes. English translations tend to be quite peculiar, like the name of this hotel. Probably they meant something like "At Home", but it comes out as "In House" instead. Not every cup of coffee is superb, but across the street is a little café that does indeed serve the Colombian gold standard, in many variations. We will probably come back totally spoiled.
OK, so everybody wants to know about the crime and the danger. There was a lot back in the 1980's; an almost unthinkable situation with three heavily armed organizations vying for control of the city: (1) the elected government and its death squads, (2) a national rebel army called the FARC, and (3) a very violent drug cartel headed by one Pablo Escobar. It was easy to get shot dead by any of these for little or no reason; they were all using terror as their strategy. Nearly every family lost somebody during those terrible years.
That is all in the past. Today, Medellin is a beautiful, peaceful city; the main thing I want blog about is how the Colombia managed this transition from war to peace, which is now almost complete. Maybe it has left Medellín just a bit on the Puritan side, after all they have been through. I attach my first .jpg of the Columbia trip; a little poster that you see all over, "No to sex tourists!". On Sunday night we went out into our friendly little neightborhood for a pleasant drink before bed, about 10 PM. Not a single one of our 20 favorite bars was open, and the streets were dark and deserted. It was truly a Puritan Sabbath.
Otherwise, we are having some terrific experiences with Colombian art and culture; there is plenty to blog about when I get the time. I apologize for the lack of photos so far from my own camera. It is due to a small malfunction of the mind: somehow, I failed to pack the little connector cord that downloads my camera into my computer. I have a plan to fix this, wish me luck!
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Sally
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Medellin
enjoyed Medellin blog immensely. I have opposite problems--learned my Spanish in Colombia, cannot understand the Mexicans. Colombia alleges it speaks the most "pure" Spanish (like Spain) of any Latin American country. I believe that to be true as many people have told me how well I speak (in the past, it is really rusty now). I hope you've found the outdoor Botero garden in the city center somewhere. I had fun taking photos of locals with Boteros when I was in Medellin several years ago. Also Botero museo in Bogota but it all gets to be too much Botero. There's a great Botero sculpture in Cartegena as well, in a plaza in front of a church of which I now forget the name. I first visited Medellin in 1968, it was lovely, old colonial homes, charming people, no high rises. All changed now. Have you ridden the public metro? I liked the boarding system in which riders are forced to line up. Have fun! Don't recall whether I sent notes from my last Colombia trip. I'll attach them to an email as I may not have sent them.