Medelllllllllin

Meh Deh Zhjeen!

You may have heard of this place if you were a fan of following Colombian drug cartels in the late 80's/early 90's or enjoyed watching HBO's Entourage.  Or maybe you've been here. Or maybe you just know about a lot of things. Either way, what you MAY not know is that nowadays, Medellin is considered the safest of the big Colombian cities. I won't get into too many details about all that (mainly because I really don't know them), but I will say that MEDELLIN is the place to be! (Get comfy, this is a long entry).

There's one thing I noticed right away about the City of Eternal Spring (temps in the 70's-80's all year round, SDeezy style): The city seems to care a lot about its people, the Paisas, having a high quality of life and enjoying their own city. It's a beautiful place, set in the middle of a huge valley, with red-brick houses (similar to Cali) built into the surrounding hills that light up all around at night. I can definitely get down here.

First day, I took a bus in from Cali and hopped in a cab to meet up with Elyssa, my CS host, at her apartment in a small area named Carlos E. Restrepo, or simply "carlos aye". Colombians have a reputation as being one of the most friendly, welcoming and helpful people in South America. I definitely felt that vibe right off in this city. Take Elyssa for example: technically American/English, born in England, raised in Cali, college in the states and now in Medellin. Based on my email thru the Couchsurfing website, she invited me to live in her apartment in Carlos E. while she plant-sitted at her boyfriend's place in Bello, a barrio right outside of Medellin. She meets me at the door, we walk around the neighborhood and I talk about who I am and what I've done while she points out the pertinent info, then she hands me the keys and goes off to work. DOES ANYONE DO THIS IN THE UNITED STATES??? If they do, they're probably considered crazy and wreckless. Best part is, I'm actually Elyssa's FIRST couchsurfer. And crazy enough as it is, I'm a normal guy who's not looking to take advantage of my situation, but just a traveler seeking friendship and hospitality from those who are willing to share it. CRAZY, HUH?

Anyway, she left me her studio apartment and an intersection to find without internet and without a map to meet her after work. I went for a long nap, then explored how to get downtown and to her office without any real clue. I hopped on the Metro to make my way through the centro (downtown). This is the view that greeted me on a Tuesday afternoon:

At first I thought there was a protest or an event, but it turns out all these folks were here just to hang out after a hard day's work. People would come out to sip coffee, play/listen to music, sit around and talk. Right outside a metro stop. I knew I would like this place.

Somehow, someway, I made it to the library to meet up with Elyssa, and we went on a crash course tour of Medellin's parks and spots. 

Pueblito Paisa - A Disneyland type rendition of an old Medellin pueblo town. Super touristy, but...

...It sits atop this big hill in the middle of the valley where you can see it all: buildings, parks, the surrounding hills/mountains. It was a CRAZY introduction to this beautiful city.

Yet again, I found something I liked during my travels. Who would've guessed?

Next up: Parque de los Pies Descalzos - Barefeet Park. A spot for Paisas to come and relax and for kids to experience a place where they can take their barefeet into sand, water and grass as they play. Very chill area, though the sand was more like pebbles.

Parque de los Luces - Park of the Lights - across from city hall, the previous mayor created this park with a bunch of lit up spires. Cool place to walk through during the evening.

Botero's Birds - Apparently the bird statue on the left was created by Botero but was destroyed by a bomb during a drug-related explosion. Instead of removing it and replacing it with a new one, he kept the busted one up and put in a new one right next to it, to send a message and remind people of the senseless violence that is taking place.

Elyssa is a journalist and works for a few blogs that report on organized crime in Colombia. She hangs out with a bunch of bloggers who are mostly Gringo's from all over the English-speaking world and beyond. This crew is definitely a fun-loving one (man, not again!) and probably one of the more articulate ones I've chilled with. I felt like I was kicking it with the Gilmore Girls or Dawson's Creek crew.

Here's Rosie (Victoria, Canada) and Elyssa choppin it up during a sushi dinner prepared by Elyssa at her boyfriend's baller pad in Bello.

This is Ariel (US) and Sara (US) talking ish about their co-workers while waiting for the sushi. Don't be fooled by their talking shop, these girls are Fun-lovers. Ugh.

Elyssa ready to roll

Homeboy Juancho, a local boy, is a graphic designer for the blogs. Please enjoy his salmon slicing technique.

More prep

Pro grade futomaki

Most days, I went for the solo exploration move during the working hours and left the house without a real plan other than to see the city and whatever I came across.

I liked that in places where you'd usually see Koi in a pond, there'd be South American Cichlids instead. Fish geek!

Definitely went for the force coffee purchase here for the novelty.

Sick sculptures are hanging out outside the city hall. This thing is HUGE and super detailed. Possibly my favorite statue I saw the entire trip.

I went back for the daytime look at some of my favorite parks

...like Parque de los Pies Descalzos

...aka Park of the Bare Feet. Notice the sand isn't of the Boracay variety.

and Parque de los Luces

A look at the huge array of downtown markets. Colombians tend to sell a lot of the same thing in the same place: The dude with the tray of drinks (Guarapo - Sugar Cane Juice) is literally one of 10 people carrying those trays within a 50 meter strip of street. The Paisas are famous for their industriousness and diligence.

Parque Botero - Botero is a famous Colombian artist who makes fat versions of famous works of art. This guy...

More Botero

y mas

y mas. This place was always poppin', day and night.

One of the highlights of this city for me was hanging out at Elyssa's homie, Jeff's, penthouse in the middle of the centro. Her boyfriend also rents an architecture office at the top of this skyscraper, and before making them all Chicken Adobo for their first taste of Filipino food, we got to hang out the window and enjoy the beauty of the Medellin at sunset.

Baller status

How can these architects get any work done when they can step outside and look at this at ANY time?

Evening view. Wow.

Check out Elyssa's Filipino fork and spoon eating technique. These guys seemed to enjoy their adobo, rice and eggs. But maybe not as much as me. Asian food in general was so difficult to find anywhere in SA.

Medellin wandering pictures:

Giant Aguacate (Avocados). The Haas variety in the back are your typical size US Avocados.

This style reminds me of Green Hills in Manila. Thousands of fake shoes (this stand was 1 of 20 on this SAME street) and people dying to sell them to you. I especially got a lot of attention from the people selling "young men's clothing". They would always try to get me with "we have your favorite brands...'ecko', 'armani xchange', etc". They know my steez.

Bandeja Paisa - This was a light snack: chicharon, chorizo, shredded beef, fried egg, avocado, arepa, rice, beans, plantain. Also includes free fresh juice for $5 USD.

Medellin seems to really want its people to GET OUT and enjoy their city. Por un ejemplo perfecto, while I was only in town for one weekend, there were 3 different city-wide festivals going on at the same time: Tango, Poetry, and Music! But unfortunately, they were ALL FREE. While we failed at our attempt to get into the tango festival one day, we just walked across the street where they were playing a German movie ouside in the square for families, teens, couples and ANYone and EVERYone was out to sit, drink wine/aguardiente/beer and enjoy LIFE.

Freakin life lovers. GET STRESSED ALREADY!

At the Observatory - another barefoot park type place. Notice the spheres in the sand...

...Are just an optical illusion! We all got tricked as we walked past them. Tons of people just OUT, not spending money, not racking up a huge bar tab, but just out having a great time in their beautiful city.

Following the movie, we headed back to Carlos E. where the weekend chill was in full swing. I've walked through this walkway a bunch of times, but it has never been so packed with young people just hanging. It was sick.

There was a "critical mass" type bike gathering, artisans/vendors, snacks and music for just a bunch of university students sitting around this neighborhood on a Friday.

The Blogging Crew starring Elyssa

and then something weird happened, these three chicks in green skirts got all excited and asked to take a picture with me. Of course, I obliged. Something like that, anyway.

Poetry Festival

Back to Pueblito Paisa to see the Kickoff of the Medellin Poetry Festival 2012.

Poets and artists from all over the world came to Medellin to read and perform their pieces in their native tongues with translators.

So many younger people out here to enjoy this festival, plus it was televised. It did end up being more entertaining than I thought it would be.

Music Festival

My new Gatorade - Aguardiente. I found it pretty funny they sold it in this juice box form - "mas economico"

Elyssa and Boots holding the shining light of Colombia - the box of aguardiente.

We made our way out to the Electronic Music Set out in the park

Every third person was holding and drinking a box of aguardiente in this manner. Just like bottle service at XS!

Learned my lesson in Cali - TAKE BREAKS so you can survive the night. I paced it right and didn't need the literal "disco nap"

Centro Comercial Santa Fe

I went on a souvenir search but wanted to see how baller I could be. So I headed to Santa Fe Mall.

Very dope center court, almost as cool as Southland's underground food court.

A popular restaurant chain in Colombia is Crepes & Waffles. They have high quality food for almost-American prices, but one of the cool things is that all of their employees are single mothers and they supposedly get good benefits from the company. This was my nutella and banana waffle.

Metrocable Medellin - Medellin's metro system has a built-in cable car system that climbs the mountains of the valley north and south to help the poorer population get back to their homes in an efficient manner, all for the affordable price of a one-way metro ticket (around $1USD). Here are some shots from the top:

Elyssa

A night at the Finca (Farmhouse). Elyssa's friend Checho owns and operates a Finca/Hostel in the surrounding mountain town of Santa Elena, near Parque Nacional Arvi north of Medellin. Best way to get here is via the metrocable, but because it was a Monday, we had to ride it back down as the extended cable to Santa Elena was closed. Instead, we hopped in a cab from the centro with 3 other strangers and made our way up the windy, windy roads to the finca. 

Elyssa's self-fulfilling prophecy of "always getting lost" on the way to Checho's came true. When we got out of the cab and the subsequent cab that dropped us off at a random place in the road, we didn't know where to go. It was a lot of wandering with backpacks on in the middle of nowherez.

We found our way to a spot where there was some strange noises. I decided to take a picture of whatever it was, and the flash revealed these freaky goats hanging out in the dark.

We made it there safely, thanks to some Colombian generosity. There we found a somewhat hyper 3 year old, Juancho's daughter, waiting for us and Juancho's nice chicken noodle soup to warm us up in the cold mountain air.

The next morning, I woke up and took a look outside to see what we were wandering around in. Here's the FINCA itself and Juancho's daughter, who was schooling me in Spanish all morning.

Sleeping area

Hostel Stairs

Caminando en el Bosque - Hiking in the Forest. Checho throws in a hiking tour of the surrounding forests for a minimal charge to his guests. He definitely knows the way around, sometimes ducking right into the plants off the path to show us something cool he found earlier. Also on the hike:  his finca neighbor, Carolina.

FInd the humans.

Arbol de Cristo - Jesus Tree.

Indigenous ruins - a popular picnic spot for the locals

Jardin Botanico - one of the few real parks in town. Most of the "parks" are paved and more like plazas/squares, so it was time to see where the Paisas got their green on.

The Lagoon

Iggy

Parque Explora - Science Museum. Surprisingly the best museum I went to in South America. Not just for the kiddies, this place has experiments and exhibits to demonstrate scientific principles in fun ways. Perfect on a sunny day.

Plus, with every ticket, you get a shot of Patron! (joke courtesy of Mark)

Los dinosaurios

Outdoor exhibits were all fun and games

Giant Pins and Needles (NICE TO KNOW YOU/NEEDLES AND PENS!)

I was a fan of the aquarium included in the museum

Nemo, et al

Neuron Connection Exhibit

On my last night, I met with Elyssa to have a casual sandwich dinner in Carlos E. and to thank her for her hospitality. Since she wasn't staying at her place and I was still waiting for my bus, she told me when I was ready to just "leave the key at the convenience store". Even after 4 months of living like this, I still have trouble getting used to the amazing trust that people outside America have in one another. It really helps to expand my mind and my perception of humanity when other people display amazing generosity and faith in their neighbors. After all, strangers are only people you haven't met yet. 

Thanks for everything Elyssa and Medellin Crew! Chevere!!!