The First Few Days…….

December 31 began our adventure to Colombia. We left San Miguel for Mexico City to catch our flight. Landing in Medellin at about 10:30 pm was a welcomed relief after starting the day of travel at 9 am. Our first job was to get Colombian pesos at the airport. Four ATMs didn’t work and we needed pesos to get to our apartment. Finally Mark found one that actually gave him money. But, this is a weird form of currency to us, everything is in millions! He thought he was getting like a $100 US, unfortunately all that came out was 1 bill! I tried and I got a handful, it was like a slot machine. We didn’t know if we had enough for a taxi, but we needed a taxi! It’s about 11 pm now. I walked up to a fellow having a coffee and asked in my broken Spanish, how do we get a taxi. He talked fast and I caught none of what he said. Turns out of all the people I could of asked…..he was, in fact a taxi driver. Of course, being the untrusting sort that I am, I was very leery. We asked how much and he replied 100,000.

What??? It sounded as if he was asking for a down payment on a house! By now, Mark had taken out more money from the machine and he, being the trusting sort, showed him his handful of bills! He picked (5)20 mil bills, which equaled $30 US, the going price for a taxi. Whew!….We did have enough and thank God, we did have an honest cabbie. Arriving to our cute little apartment was such a relief. It was NYE, almost midnight and there were parents with their kiddos on our street eating and listening to very loud music. This was the view from the 15th floor of the Torre Monserrate, our home for the next month.

The next day was New Years Day and it seemed nothing was open. We needed food! On the street we met a young man, we later found out lived in our building and his name was Phillipe. We asked…where can we have breakfast?? He replied, “most everything is closed.” But he motioned us to follow him and we did. The first place was only sweets. He saw we were not impressed and walked with us to another place. Then we asked….Where is the Metro?? He motioned us on, but we were hungry and wanted breakfast. We did find the metro, however a bit later. It has large windows and even though crowded we found it a great way to see the city. We headed North to Niquia. I was seated next to a woman about my age and she begin speaking to me. I did understand much of what she said. When we got closer to the Acevedo station she told me we could go on the gondolas at no extra charge and then I lost what she was saying after. A young man, overhearing our conversation asked, “did you understand?” “Mostly”, I replied. Then he told me when you get to the Santo Domingo station you can go over the mountain to Parque Arvie. Thanks so much, young man!

Medellin itself is at about 4,000 feet and btw, a very steep city. As the city expanded, informal neighborhoods—usually unauthorized, unplanned, and unserved by city government—climbed up the slopes of the Medellín River valley. The mostly poor people in neighborhoods like Santo Domingo and Popular faced horrible commutes to jobs downtown. The roads were too narrow and steep for decent bus service. In 2004 the city pioneered a new kind of mass transit, a fast-moving urban gondola system called Metrocable that carries commuters from the hills directly to the light-rail station at the valley floor. The cars, which each hold eight passengers, speed up the hills on a cable at 10 miles an hour. Stations are dropped right in busy and jam-packed city neighborhoods. Line K has 30,000 riders each day, and cuts commute times in half or more. They are very popular with tourists, since they offer amazing views of the city.

Once we got over the mountain (about a 20 minute ride up, up and more up:)) viewing fields, farmers and their horses, we arrived at Parque Arvie. It’s elevation is about 8000 ft. It is a natural oasis with over 50 miles of hiking trails. There are also guided tours. I wasn’t dressed for the colder temperatures up that high and opted not to hike. There are also tiendas where you can buy local crafts, coffee and fruits.

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It was a wonderful experience….and I imagine we would have experienced it at some point, but we got to do it that day!

The next day, we wandered…..to Botero Plaza

Senor Botero did not plan on being a sculpture, but civil unrest in the country helped him along. He was making a political statement. Sculpting these enormous figures to show that the politicians appear to be doing big things, but in reality are not. I don’t think anyone from the US can really relate to that, right? They say here, that if you touch his statues…at least a couple of them in certain areas, you will have an improved love life:)

Also in this area is one of the oldest churches in Medellin, Iglesia de la Veracruz.

And this beautiful building is the Raphael Uribe Palace of Culture in Botero Plaza.

On January 3, we decided to check out the wealthiest area of Medellin called Poblado. It had some really cool looking condos/apartments, but didn’t have the charm of the typical Colombian neighborhoods we had seen. I included a little graffiti on the way to the Museo Castillo.

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We arrived at the beautiful Museo Castillo and it was amazing. Got a tour in….Spanish, but I understood a lot of it:)

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January 4, I did the walking tour with Sebastian of iGUIDEyou. We began at the Poblado Station and then took the Metro South to Ayura station and traversed the Alpujarra administrative district. It was a very informative tour. Columbians are very proud of the progress Medellin has made after the whole Narco problem with Escobar. These are photos of the group and the tour.

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This is Plaza Libertad. Many protests have been held here because of the violence in the country. It serves as a reminder to Colombians that it must never happen again.

Below is a photo of the Old train station and our guide, Sebastian.

A Cuban engineer, Francisco Javier Cisnero, was determined to have a rail system. The State of Antioquia, which is where Medellin is located, is geographically too steep. It began in 1874 and finished in 1929, and it wasn’t too long before it began to decline. Most of the country today does not have a railway system.

We finished off the tour at the former National Palace, which is now a shopping mall!

It’s been a busy few days! January 4 we finished the night going to the famous Christmas light event at Parque Norte. It’s hard to photograph ALL of these lights, but here are a couple that will help show the event. We did the Gondola ride once more before ending the night and quietly watched city life from way up and then, with our tired “dogs”, went home:)

El Alumbrado

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So ends our first few days in Medellin!