Medellin, Colombia: First Few Days
It’s day 4 for me in Medellin and already it’s been action packed! My friend Delfin Toro has been showing me around and is possibly the city’s best tour guide. Our days generally consist of taking the metro somewhere interesting, checking out the sites, meeting up w/ friends, eating great food, walking many miles and then hitting up the party scene at night. I’m finding the city to be clean w/ good transportation and friendly people. Everyone is out right now for the holidays…they generally take off a good month for Christmas starting around 12/7. The city is lit up for the holiday w/ many events that the locals love to take advantage of.
I still don’t have a battery for my camera so no pics! It’s been torture since there’s good photo ops around every corner. I easily could’ve posted 100 pics by now! Del has been taking some and some video so will try to post later.
In absence of my camera, I’ll list a few things we’ve done and seen here:
Parque de leas Escultureas de Botero: Fernando Botero donated millions of dollars worth of large brass sculptures and paintings to create a park and museum. He’s the most famous artist to come out of Colombia and is still around. …wanted to go to Museo de Botera in Bogota, but didn’t have time so was glad I could go here. Admission was free for the holidays too!
Parque Biblioteca España: The current president of Colombia is Alvaro Uribe is credited with the huge transformation of Colombia from a dangerous warzone to a place that we can now safely visit. His philosophy was to increase education and public utilities, especially in the poor areas. This library is a perfect example. It’s located in what was one of the worst Pablo Escabar Era warzones!
Photos credits: Delfin Toro
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There’s a saying in Colombia that the poorest people have the best views. This is because they live up in the hills outside of the cities where work is scarce and there’s a lack of transportation. Well, the new metrocable (basically a gondola) is putting an end to this. Before they had a 1 to 2 hour commute, now it’s 15 mins or so!
The view from the metrocable showed a vast ghetto teaming with life. Kids playing, cookouts, people working, etc, etc. It reminded me a bit of Direcho Bliss in Tacloban City, but definitely much bigger!
The library itself was closed but really beautiful as were the views. The barrio was full of life with kids playing, street vendors selling food, people having cookouts, etc. You still have to be careful but we didn’t run into any trouble.
Rio de Medellin: Running north to south through the center of the valley that is Medellin is the Rio de Medellin. During the Christmas holiday it’s decoration with lights (illuminated fountains this year) and there’s all sorts of venders, street art, activities, etc along one side. It’s packed with locals! …lots of fun!
Pueblito Paisa: First off, Paisas are the locals of the Medellin area and the surrounding mountains. The name comes from the spanish word “paisano” and basically means countrymen.
So, Pueblito Paisa is a miniture replica of an old Paisas Pueblo (town). I we got dinner there an I ordered the Bandeja Paisa, which is like the hardiest meal I’ve ever had in my life. lol …sausage, pork rhine (deep fat fried of course), beans, fried plantain, beef, etc! …not for those watching their weight (like me after this trip)! 
The hill leading up to the pueble is decorated with lights that can be seen from far away. …also packed with locals.
more to come!
December 14th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
wow… you had been so many places.. sounds a lot of fun!!
bandeja paisa sounds so yummy… lol
can’t wait to see more pics from you