Medellin (day three)

 When I met Ray on the street back on day one, we both had plans to go on a graffiti tour at some point.  He was going to hire a guide/driver.  We decided to go together and I would show home the joys of cheap travel by using the metro to get to a free walking tour.  

 The Poblado metro station is about a 15 minute walk, straight down hill from my hotel.  The tour started at 9:30.  Ray and I met at the park nearby at 8:30. 

The tour is in Comuna 13.  There are 16 (,or 20) districts in Medellin.  It is a very big city.  Four million people.  Comuna 13 is up in the hills.  And was ground central for the guerilla conflicts from the 70s to the early 2000s.  

After things stabilized and the killings stopped, the people started using graffiti to attract tourists.  Once the tourists started arriving, the city put in some infrastructure to support the industry, namely escalators.  It is all hills and stairs so the escalators were a nice break from more steps.

This wasn't part of the tour, I just like it

But first, some break dancing!  

I won't get this right, but Comuna 13 has four pillars of street art, graffiti, break dancing, hip hop music and one more that I can't remember.  It is a busy place, visually, kinetically and aurally.  There is colour, sound and movement everywhere.  The word cacophony was used (by me). 

We walked through the neighbourhood and heard about the history.  Guides here do not say Pablo Escobar's name.  On this tour, he was Mr. Potato Head.  I guess when you saw dead bodies in the street as a regular occurrence and you have dead and missing relatives, you don't need to be blasting the name of the person responsible over a loud speaker for the population to hear all day long.  

The history goes on to the government bringing in the American army, tanks and helicopters to squash the rebels. 

This basketball court was used for executions of rebels, whether they were actually rebels or not. 

The murals all are about the conflict, the military, the killings (by rebels and government).  There are very specific animals and symbols our guide pointed out.  Once you know what they mean, you see them everywhere.  

Lots of faces, particularly women who held the community together when the men were dying or disappearing. 

The hummingbird represents the Blackhawk helicopter and the beetle, the tanks.

Birds mean freedom

Monkeys mean evolution 

Giraffes mean heart

Elephants mean memory. 
 This one is full of children's hand prints 

Big cats represent strength 

We rode up and down the escalators (no one calls them funiculars, which in my opinion takes the fun out of funicular).  We had some coffee lemonade and ice cream (I had cheese flavoured - yum!)

Coffee lemonade, better than it sounds but still not better
Tha just plain lemonade or just plain coffee 

And that was the tour.  By the end, Comuna 13 was so full of tourists you could hardly move.  I realize the tourism industry brings in the dollars but the residents must absolutely hate us.  

Ray and I went for lunch after that at a place in Comuna 13.  If we're making their lives miserable, might as well drop some money.  

It was Sunday so they had a special menu del dia, some meat soup thing only on Sundays.  Ok. It was a lot of food. 

After that, I took Ray on one of the gondolas up to the top and back down.  We just did the round trip.  

And that was basically the day.  We had coffee at some point and then took the metro back to Poblado and went out separate ways.  

I was going to add day four but this is long and it's four in the morning so I'm going back to sleep. 

Medellin (days one and two)

 I start with a lot of complaining and almost no pictures so here is an adorable little pigeon. Just to hold you over.

 

Let me start by reminding everyone that Medellin is in the mountains and that means hills.  Both up and down.  

My flight was a bit late so I didn't get in until 11:30 pm or so. Having learned my lesson about going outside for a taxi, I went outside.  Guy approaches me, taxi?  Yes, how much?  130000.  Too much!  I am running out of cash.  He takes credit cards!  Great but still too much.  And it turns out, he isn't even driving a cab, just another rando with a car.  He drops the price to 110000.  I ask an actual taxi driver.  Same price and he doesn't take credit cards.  Fine, I go with rando.  

We get in the car, he wants me to sit up front.  Not a good start.  In retrospect, I think it is because the seat belt works.  We head off and are immediately on a dark, very windy road, heading downhill.  He keeps trying to talk to me and when I don't understand (care), he tries to type his questions into his Google translate.  STOP IT! Just drive! 

It turns out there is a very long tunnel into town, which was closed that night.  So the traffic was horrendous.  But I was too busy concentrating on the car ahead of us which we were never more than 6 inches away from, even when we were doing 70 in a 30 zone.  Passing on a curve, no problem.  

Oh, and at some point, he mentions that he does not, in fact, take credit cards.

We arrive at my hotel. In one piece miraculously. I managed to scrounge up enough cash.  I hand it to him and he has the nerve to say - it's 120000.  Get out of town buddy, you get nothing more.  I was already up to here (imagine my hand well over my head) with taxis today. 

My hotel looks sketchy as hell from the outside but I ring the bell.  Buzzed in and I am literally in a little oasis of calm and peacefulness. I love the hotel.  The desk guy speaks perfect English.  He knows who I am.  He says no worries about checking in right now, go to bed, it's late.  This is already far and away better than my last place and I've only been here five minutes! 

I slept in late the next morning but not too late for my included breakfast.  Which was delicious! 

My only real goal for day one was to find a bank machine.  New person on the desk.  Excellent instructions on how to get there.  Oh and here's a metro pass for you.  Amount loaded unknown. Whatever the last guest left on there.  Did I mention this place is awesome.  And then I headed out. 

You'll be glad to hear that Medellin is on a grid and they post the numbered street names in almost every corner.  So far I have not gotten lost!  

I wandered around for a bit and found a park full of birds.  I suspect most of my pictures are going to be blurry birds.  

This is a very green city, trees and parks everywhere.  It's warm, but not brain melting hot like Cartagena. Then I hit the bank machine.  It doesn't work, not for me anyway.   There's another one four blocks thatta way.  People here are very nice. 

Another park with even more, different birds. Nothing new I don't think.  Haven't checked. I may or may not have accidentally wandered into a homeless camp.  Fortunately it was mid-day and all of the bodies were asleep. 

I found the bank machine, it worked.  And then I found this guy also wandering around.  Raymond from Montreal!

We had a little catch up on our previous week. He did not like Bogota.  I warned him about the maze that is Cartagena, where he is going next.  

(I am picking up here four days later, trying to remember what I did that first day).

I don't remember.  I didn't do too much.  Walked around.  I don't even remember if I had dinner or if I did, where? Oh ya, I went to a place called crepes and waffles and had a chicken crepe in salsa verde.  Delicious.  This weird scratchy egg sculpture is outside 

Day 2. 

I decided to go to Arvi park.  This is a huge nature park up in the hills.  But the best part is that it is technically at the end of Line L on the metro system.  Line L is gondolas!  

Did I mention that my hotel gave me a metro card?  

I plotted out my path the night before.  Walk down to Poblado station on Line A.  Go to Line K.  Take that to Line L.  Easy peasy. 

I get to Line A.  Load my card.  Take Line A to the appropriate stop.  Line K is closed.  Hmm.  I pigeon English with someone.  I need to go outside and get on bus #017.  I managed to get to the right place.  There is a lineup which is for my bus, which is actually #6017 but all's good.  

I lucked out and got a seat.  It was very busy with Line K out of service.  Line K is also a gondola.  Because, it turns out, the area crossed by Line K is a massive hill, straight up tiny twisty roads.  

I've been on some crazy bus trips in my time but this one may take the cake.  I will never be able to describe it.  Hairpin turns, narrow streets, motorcycles everywhere, buses trying to pass in the tightest places.  We scrapped against buildings.  On one corner, the lanes just reversed.  Now we are driving in the left hand lane and incoming traffic is in the right.  And then it just reversed back!  How that corner is not littered with car wrecks and mangled bodies, I have no idea. 

There were no stops.  We just kept going.  The other passengers were obviously not used to this trip either.  They were oooing and aahing just as much as me.  Up, up, up.  

These were the only pictures I took because, even though I was sitting, I was hanging on for dear life. 

Anyway, we made it.  The driver, who deserves an award for his mastery of a shift gear under those conditions, stopped the bus at the Line L station and everyone got out.  

Gondolas!!

I got my own car.  Up to the park.  It was a long ride, up over houses and farms and then a long way over forest.  Here are some crappy photos through scratched windows

Arvi park is huge.  To go on any of the real trails, you need a guide or you will get lost.  I wasn't particularly interested in any of the multi-hour hikes.  There is a short, free hike called the archaeology trail.  That's right up my alley.  

I ignored this of course! 

The trail follows a prehistoric trail that the indigenous people built walls along both sides to protect it from flooding.  The walls are still there. 

At the very end of the trail, I heard a weird bird.  I called back to it.  I could see it in the scrub.  It was big and yellow with a dark head.  We had a nice conversation until he figured out I was neither friend nor foe and he flew back out of sight.  I didn't get a picture but this was my guy!  

A few random shots from the park entrance.

I bought a couple of pendants from this guy. 

And then back down Line L gondola.  Which is when I realized, I have no idea where to catch the bus back to Line A.  When we got dropped off, he was still heading uphill.  Where's the downhill stop?  Some guy pointed me in the right direction.  Now the lineup to get on the bus was even longer.  It took forever to arrive. And then I had to stand.  I should have waited for the next one but I didn't.  I wedged myself between some poles and braced myself for the 45 minutes to the bottom. 

I couldn't see as well but I could feel every bump and brake and corner as I tried to keep to my feet.  The driver stalled at one point.  The hooting and jeering from the passengers!  I would have stalled on every turn so I was much more patient and forgiving. Plus, this guy had our lives in his hands.  Don't make him nervous!  

Of course we all survived, the bus made it back to Line A. 

I went back to the hotel and ate two slim Jim's and a mini Clif bar for dinner.  Early to bed because I had an early day on day 3.  But that will have to wait.