Medellin

Medellin was mint. I can't say my days there were always jam-packed but they were mint. As a traveler in the city life was relaxed, the hostels I saw were great, one even had a pool, volleyball court and ping-pong table. Why, ever leave a hostel quite so well equipped? I was happy perched on the hillside in Poblado. My first day in Medellin was my last day with my friends I'd been traveling with since Bolivia, sad to leave them but excited about doing the rest of Colombia alone and wondering who I might end up traveling with next. In Medellin, we went out, we met Roberto Escobar, we took the cable car to ride out to the slums and see the city from the air, we went to the pueblo paisa, ate some really good local food, saw some Bolano sculptures, sat in some botanical gardens and generally had a pretty good time.

It was warm and huge, a city sprawling out across a bowl-like valley in the mountains, the slums even stretched over the other side of the hilltop, accessed by this impressive system of cable cars and even an outside elevator, so I'm told but I never saw it. Walking around the city, apart from in the center I was always climbing up or going down some sort of slope. Trying to take it all in, it seemed so varied, so much going on, a city you could really sink your teeth into. The never ending twists and turns of the roads and pavements always presented something different, a mixture of exotic vegetation, gushing pebble lined rivers and streams, orchids, tropical flowers and palms growing anywhere that wasn't covered in concrete, small and large buildings, traditional and monstrously modern. There was always a pleasurable juxtaposition of city architecture and nature blooming with all its force. The landscapes in Medellin were dynamic, sensory, absorbing.

And much like many of the other South American cities I visited so far (apart from La Paz and Cusco) the shopping in Medellin would have been great if I had had any money. My budget was less than shoe string at this point.

Me and my long term travel buddies finished on a high note, the Escobar tour (another tour, but not your average tour) followed by some incredibly tasty and at long last healthy sushi for dinner which we enjoyed in the comfortable hostel with the pool as the sun sank low in the sky and they prepared for their last night bus which would take them to Cartagena for their last couple of days in South America. The Escobar tour was a visit to various sites around the city where Pablo Escobar operated, the cemetery where he and his family members are buried, an empty building which the Medellin cartel used that was covered in graffiti messages such as 'Escobar is not dead,' and to Roberto (his brother's) house! Being inside Roberto Escobar's house, meeting him and his dog Chocolate was obviously the highlight of the tour and possibly my entire trip. He was a timid and extremely polite man in his 60's who welcomed us, showing family photos of his parents, his siblings and his brother, his old racing bike (he was a professional cyclist, career was blighted by his brother's reputation), some of Pablo's cars. He showed us the scars on his sofa where armed kidnappers had broken into the house and opened fire, failing in their attempt to kidnap but leaving bullet holes in the sofa and part of the wall behind. There was also a secret hiding place, a false wall behind a shelving alcove in the living room. I was quite surprised when he disappeared behind the rotating section of wall. The visit was an experience, absorbing, a living breathing museum. Roberto's sight and hearing is severely impaired from when he was sent a package bomb which exploded in his face whilst he was in prison. We had our photos taken with him and got to ask some questions and were encouraged to buy photographs and dvds, all of the proceeds going to children with AIDS in Colombia, a charity he had set up. It was fascinating to be standing in front of him, wondering all of unimaginable things he had lived through. He seemed friendly, gentle, perhaps due to his partial vision and bad hearing. He is neither proud nor apologetic for what his brother did, but one thing is for sure and that is that they were close and he knew about all of the cartel's activities. Escobar is in some senses a bit of a Robin Hood figure, detestable because he bought bloody violence and shame to the country but popular because he wanted to improve people living in poverty's lives, he wanted his country to advance, he believed that no one should be born into to or have to live through the kind of poverty he had been born into and known as a child.
 
I noticed the poverty bursting out of the cracks in the concrete of Medekkin. The taxi I took, the early morning I arrived at the bus terminal, in the bright light driving along the riverside I could see traces of people who were living in the numerous urban caves, sheltered by the lip created by the road above. My friends had arrived at night a few days before and confirmed they saw kerosene lamps and candles burning in these street side camps. One night we went out locally, got a bit drunk with a guy in my hostel, had no idea where the others had gone but hoped to find them and dance, continue the party. Instead we wandered around some bars and then sat in a square. Some young children came over to us to try and sell us cigarettes, chewing gum, sweets. The first boy was probably 8, his sister a little older. We talked to them for a while, concerned and curious as to why they were on the streets like that late at night, where were their parents? Both had died in an accident, they were trying to get enough money to get home and to pay for their night in the shelter. We asked how much and gave it to them. They stayed with us for a bit, perhaps feeling safe, comforted before they set off on thier long journey. It was an abrupt jolt back to reality for me. What had started as a fun night of drinks and salsa ended with us going back to the hostel with heavy hearts.

I need to volunteer. I also need to learn how to salsa!


I have some cool photos of Medellin BUT I just killed my laptop and until I get some cash together to get a hard drive I am surviving with a machine loaned from a friend. This experience has taught me that we can't live without computers or internet for long these days and that I should back a few important things up.