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Published: March 16th 2015
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The Feeling of Home
Have you ever been to a foreign place that felt like home? There's a feeling of familiarity. There's strangers who remind you of people you know. It just feels comfortable.....Welcome to Medellin.
Being back, over three years since we had first been there, felt like we had returned home. In July of 2010, Sarah and I had randomly (with some quick research) jumped on a plane to Colombia, to spend five days in a city called Medellin. Back then, most people thought we were crazy. "Why was this young couple going to a risky country like Colombia to stay in a dangerous place like Medellin - didn't they hear that was where Pablo Escobar was killed?!" Luckily, we like to make our own mind up about things and we had done enough research to figure out that crossing the street while on your iPhone was far riskier than visiting Colombia. So here we were, towards the end of 2011, armed with a working knowledge of Spanish and minds that had been opened even more from our travels that preceded us. Here's a part of our story, which hopefully you can glean some tips and information
from.
Living In Medellin
Medellin is known as La Ciudad Primavera or The City of Eternal Spring and for a lot of people, the climate would be considered perfect. The City is located in the tropics but at over 5,000 feet above sea level, in the AburrĂ¡ Valley of the Andes Mountains , where there are pleasant year round temperatures to enjoy. The city is made up different neighborhoods or Barrios. We stayed in the Laureles neighborhood - a chic, upscale, yet neighborly part of town.
There's not too many services that I rave about so much (maybe Uber now), but AirBnB was a brilliant find for us while we traveled. A friend recommended that we check it out, because we were going to be staying for a longer term (six weeks) in Medellin. That was in 2010, when AirBnB wasn't as well-known. If you haven't heard about it, AirBnB is is a website for people with homes, apartments, rooms (or even a treehouse!) to rent out lodging and for people like us to browse their offerings. Usually it's Sarah that plans ahead and finds places for us to stay, but this time it was me. I
found us a shared apartment in Laureles, which worked out great for us . Ryan was our host and a great one at that. A dual citizen of Canada and Colombia, his apartment was perfect for us and we thrived in the central location which was near shops, entertainment, metros, the whole nine yards. The atmosphere of the apartment was very conducive to creativity and fun. It was us, Ryan, Paul from Australia and Colin from Texas.
Salsa
I think I'm a good dancer but that really is only me. I'm better having fun to house beats that cutting specific steps, so Salsa didn't come naturally to me. In fact, I had to consciously try and shake some of my house moves to do salsa correctly. When I was a teenager, I used to play the drums and I've always been able to keep a beat so the 8-Beat of salsa was something that I got straight away. However, one thing that you should know is that in a salsa class, the teacher will count 1,2,3, 5,6,7 and while there is still 8 beats, you count the 4 and 8 inside your head. This how we would do
it, with the (pause)..."...Un-dos-tres...(4)...Cinco-ses-Seite (8)..."
Right down the street from where we lived there was a salsa school, so myself and Sarah and our Flatmates, Larry and Brinda, walked down one day and signed up. For about $5 each, we did a group class of four of us. The instructors would show us the fundamentals and take us through our paces in practice. It was fun and by the end of the few weeks, I was able to bust out a few salsa moves and even dance with strangers. But Sarah was much better, and I think that she was trying to lead sometimes!
Things Happen For A Reason
There were other places in Medellin that we could have stayed at, but we ended up here. Looking back on it as I now am, our trip around India and South America was about a few different things: Travel, fun, friends, adventure, experience, new cultures, learning and improvement. Medellin, as we mentioned, was coming towards full-circle of our trip and by this time a few ideas had started to grow inside of us - one of which we started to make reality in Medellin. This is where The
Native Source (dot com) was born and it was with thanks to our environment and the synergy of our situation that we launched our web business.
Ryan
was is a successful and inspirational guy, who got paid by a US company and lived in Colombia so he was winning already before you take into consideration his real estate ventures in Medellin and AirBnB business. Paul is an extremely talented web developer who did a lot of hand holding and tutoring as we built our website (thanks Paul!) and Colin created our logo! We launched the website on 10/21/2011 and had great support from our brilliant friends and family on our launch, even selling handmade jewelry and accessories on the day! The Native Source story shall be continued in the future, but I should mention that we are not actively managing this for the time being as other projects and jobs have taken priority.
So to cap it off, I'll leave you with a favorite latino expression that I picked up while travelling - Nada segura, pero todo es posible. And my translation of that expression with Medellin in mind would be this: When you wake up in Medellin
it might be sunny or it might be cloudy, but that day in Medellin offers a world of possibilities, where you feel anything can happen and the people that you meet are certain to put some sunshine in your life. So go to Medellin, enjoy the food, the city walks, the parks and the people. Stay at an AirBnB, dance salsa or take lessons, sip on Agua Diente at the nightclubs and remember -
The only risk in Medellin is that you may not want to leave.
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