On Friday we made our way to the west side of the city to take a tour of Communa 13. The city has numbered sectors, and at one time this one had a lot of problems. But it has undergone a transition and is attracting lots of tourists now.
The draw is the unique nature of building a neighborhood on the side of a mountain. Our guide, Laura, lives in Communa 13 and has seen the transition firsthand.
They’ve built escalators to help people up the hill, and the walls now feature the work of renowned graffiti artists. I’ll let the pictures talk — and note the two cool videos at the bottom.
At the end of the tour we took a cable-car ride up to a different neighborhood. The cable cars have been a brilliant way to connect some of the poorer hillside areas with jobs down in the city.
Wow I’m waaaay behind on the blogging. Sorry about that.
And I’m gonna make this one about the pictures. Here’s what’s in the pictures:
* Super Bowl party at a bar owned by a Bostonian was a lot of fun. Justice ran into a fellow Clevelander, and we also met Karen from NY who ordered huge mugs o beer and drank us under the table.
*I don’t seem to have any pictures, but on Tuesday we visited the Museo de Casa de Memoria, a museum dedicated to remembered those lost in the violence that wracked this area in the 80s and 90s.
*Wednesday was a full day trip by bus to a place called Guatape. This is a touristic town next to an area that was flooded for a dam. It was beautiful, and we met some interesting fellow travelers from Main, Germany, Italy, etc. I nearly killed myself though, climbing to the top of a mountain, 675 steps.
My phone tells me that on Wednesday I:
– Walked 6.6 miles.
– Took 14,085 steps.
– Climbed 55 floors.
Whew!
Watching to Super Bowl with expats in Medellin.
Lunch Monday down in Sabaneta: I ate about half of it. That’s sea bass with shrimp and cheese on the left.
The view from my work station this week. Doing regular work shifts Monday, Tuesday and Thursday only.
Dinner Tuesday night at the Peruvian place: Rice with shrimp.
Our first stop on the day tour to Guatape Wednesday was the colonial town of Marinilla. Yes, that’s Justice playing the role of one of Simon Bolivar’s soldiers, fighting for Latin American independence.
That’s our tour guide Jesus on the left, giving a Canadian Colombian moonshine. It was delish. We all had to remind ourselves to follow Jesus as the led the tour.
One of the star attractions of the tour in the distance, the Penol of Guatape, a giant monolith.
The Penol up close, with its 675 steps to the top. Which I climbed. And did not die.
A German fellow traveler was kind enough to snap this pic for me once I reached the top. It was really beautiful.
Justice helps you find the rock.
Jesus tells us about the building art in Guatape. The scenes depict the job of the person who lives inside.
Gorgeous Guatape house
The streets of Guatape.
Church on the square, Guatape.
If you look closely, that’s Mr. Hill on a boat. It’s quite a rare event.
Along the edge of the lake is the abandoned house of Pablo Escobar. Nature is reclaiming it.
Another view of the Escobar compound.
In the middle of the lake is a cross on a pedestal. It marks the location of church before the valley was flooded for the dam.
While planning this trip, I had joined a Facebook group of ex-pats in Medellin. One day i posted about how to attend a soccer match here. A Swede who lives here half the year had great info and even offered to take us there. We took him up on it.
So yesterday afternoon, we met up with him at restaurant about a 20-minute walk to the stadium. He had gotten us tickets (only $10 apiece) in advance. Johan was a font of information about living in Medellin. He spends the winters here and the summers back in Stockholm.
He got us a great location right next to — but not WITH — the craziest fans of the home team, Atletico Nacional. The seats still shook where we were though! The fans sang songs pretty much the whole time. The Verde (green) lost, but they were playing without a lot of their top players. Watch the videos below with the sound on for a feel for what it’s like to experience it.
On Sunday morning we took part in Ciclovia – when they close down major avenues to cars to make way for bikers, walkers, joggers. Justice and I got in a 6-mile walk.
A die-hard Atletico Nacional fan sings along to the songs of the home team in green. He was teaching his son too.
Cool green smoke was released into the “crazy fans section” before the start of the game.
The whole stadium wasn’t full of fans like this, but rather a good chunk of both ends of the stadium.
The view of the opposite end of the stadium and more crazy hometown fans.
They close major streets on Sunday mornings to allow for walkers, bikers, joggers. Everybody takes the opportunity to get outside.
Along the route of the Ciclovia (closed streets for exercise) there are various forms of entertainment such as this salsa band. They were fun.
Cool green smoke was released into the “crazy fans section” before the start of the game.
Thursday was moving day. I was moving to our slick and fancy new digs in Poblado, to be joined by the esteemed Justice B. Hill.
Seriously, check out this AirBnb. It’s amazing. Too bad the traffic in the neighborhood is so bad.
After checking in, we got a few groceries, did a bit of shopping at a nearby mall, and ate dinner at the Peruvian place next door, which was great.
Friday was a super busy day:
– Walking tour of El Centro in the morning.
– Another walking tour of street food in the afternoon.
– A visit to the Modern Art Museum for a Friday night opening.
– And an unexpected bit of blackjack at the nearby casino (we finished about even).
Both tours were run by Real City Tours of Medellin and that were good.
Saturday we hit the biggest and best art museum, which has a huge Bottero section, since he’s the native son. It was great.
Afterwards we ventured into “The Hole,” the chaotic shopping district where haggling is the norm. Picked up a jersey for the soccer team we’ll be watching later Saturday, Atletico Nacional. More on that in the next post.
Here are random pics from the last couple of days.
The view from Tesoro mall on Thursday night.
Great food at a Peruvian restaurant right next to where we are standing.
Julio, our guide for walking tour of El centro, tells us some history.
I made Justice pose beside one of the Fernando Bottero works in Bottero plaza.
Our group for Centro walking tour.
Josh (right), our street-food tour guide, tells us about some of the fruit trees growing in the area.
I have no idea why I have this expression. Josh tells us about working at a Cracker Barrel in Tennessee.
The view from my AirBnb, which is on the 26th floor. That’s looking north up toward Medellin Centro.
I first visited Colombia six years ago, and for some stupid reason, I never went to Medellin. Now, sure the city has a bad reputation from the Pablo Escobar days, but that was more than 25 years ago.
Since then the city has really cleaned up its act. In 2012, Medellin beat out New York and Tel Aviv to be named Most Innovative City. And with a beautiful setting in a green valley and near-perfect year-round weather due to its mile-high elevation, a lot of digital nomads have settled here. Oh and it’s cheap to live here too. So I thought I’d check it out for a couple weeks, working online for three days each week.
For the first four days, I’m staying in a barrio of the city called Sabaneta. It’s a 20-minute Metro ride to El Centro. A lot of ex-pats like this area because it feels a little safer than other parts of the city and offers great value. For instance, the AirBnb I’m staying at costs a mere $25 per night including fees. (However, I was surprised to learn there’s no hot water. I’m told that’s pretty common here.)
On Monday I had a pretty uneventful day exploring the neighborhood on foot. I had lunch at a great place just off the main town square that’s called Parque Sabaneta.
The view up the hillsides of Medellin from the Universidad Metro station at the Jardin Botanical.
Yesterday was definitely more eventful. I took the Metro (above-ground train) up north of El Centro to the Jardin Botanical. I always like to visit the botanical parks of any city I visit. They’re peaceful and educating at the same time. Unfortunately, some cool areas of the park were closed for renovation. 😦
Inside the botanical garden.
I wandered next door to the aquarium and science center. They had a huge central aquarium that recreated a flooded Amazon forest.
A piranha at the aquarium.
The aquarium’s flooded-forest exhibit.
But on the way back on the Metro, things got weird. As we stopped at the Envigado platform, a few stops before Sabaneta, there was a commotion. The doors didn’t open and police could be seen running back and forth. They were looking down into the gap, with anguished looks on their faces. The people in the car on front of us got off, but we were stuck.
Trapped passengers in my train car wait as police talk to people on the platform.
After a minute a two it began to sink in that someone had somehow fallen into the gap, right underneath our train car. They made an announcement I couldn’t understand and people gasped. Police were interviewing people who had been on the platform.
After about 5 minutes, with the power shut off to the train, the cops motioned to us to use the manual lever to open the door and disembark. I didn’t look down. I could see other train cars further back being evacuated outside the station.
People exiting the Metro train after the incident at Envigado. I have no idea why it’s in black and white.
I found a local news article about the train-station closure but it did not say that a person had died. I ended up grabbing a taxi back to Sabaneta, And then after lunch it was back online for a work shift.
As I was eating lunch, a guy across the street was getting a killer trim!
My Tuesday lunch at a place called Picnic in Sabaneta. It’s a BBQ chicken sandwich slathered in cheese. Yum.
My $3 dinner Tuesday from a sidewalk parrilla (barbecue). That’s chorizo with potatoes and bread. OK, $3.75 if you count the beer. It was great.
Welcome to the island that nobody knows about. It’s part of Colombia, but it’s right off the Nicaraguan coast. Very strange place – and I am one of only a few Americans here, I’d imagine. Moments of stunning natural beauty, but poverty and decay as well.
What a wonderful stay at a classy B&B, Posada San Andres Ultd, these past five days. The last day included another, even more close up visit to my shark friend, as well as a tasty barbecue with the B&B owner’s family: Pedro Abello, his wife Adriana and son Jean Pierre Abello Howard, and his girlfriend Laura. Also very nice to meet Pedro’s daughter Catty Lee and husband Tony!
Did someone say there’s a sand shark at this place? You bet! And because the owner of the B&B I’m staying at also owns one of the boat tour companies, he throws in a trip to these barrier island for free. And we got out there early before other tourists and the resident shark swam, oh, about 10 feet away from me when I saw him. Maybe 6 feet long, and harmless. But first one of those I’ve seen in the wild. Saw a ton of cool fish, and sting rays.
Loved seeing many works by Fernando Botero at the Botero museum here in Bogota today. i think either of these would look nice in my made over apartment, don’t you?
Had a fun night out on Sunday with Carol Pucci and her husband, Tom. We took a cab 45 minutes outside Bogota to a famous restaurant called Andrés Carne de Res. The decor is amazingly over the top and the food — and company — was great. So this is how Colombianos have a good time.
Bob Payne, Digital Journalist 