Medellín Days 1-2

Thursday

Upon arrival in Medellín I was met with lots of sun, breeze and warm weather. It is the city of eternal spring and has been so pleasant!

To take in the breeze and view I went for a dip in the pool on the hostel rooftop.

There I made some friends who invited me to the soccer game that night - Medellín vs Bogotá.

Before the game I went for dinner at an upscale yet traditional Colombian restaurant. I ordered bandeja paísa - a typical dish from Medellín with 4 different kinds of meat (blood sausage, ground pork, chorizo and fried pork rinds), plantains, beans, rice, fried egg and avocado. Needless to say I could only finish about 1/3 of the dish.

It just so happened that the whole group going to the soccer game was from the Netherlands, so I was surrounded by Dutch people my first day in Medellín! We got t-shirts and cervezas before heading into the raucous stadium. The half of the stadium where we were standing was the place to be! Filled past its capacity, people were standing on balconies waving flags with players’ faces and the team’s flag and singing, jumping and dancing along  to the band’s music. It was an exciting game that ended 1-1, to the citizens of Medellin’s disappointment.

Friday

I woke up early to get started on walking tours in Medellín. The first tour was general history about Medellín and it was a small group - myself, the guide and a very nice young couple from London. We took the metro that was built in 1995 (even cleaner and nicer than the metro in DC), walked to different sights throughout the commercial area and learned about how the city has changed. We saw more of Botero’s artwork placed throughout the city that he donated to Medellín.

It is a city filled with trees, many of which the city has planted in the early 2000s, to reduce the temperature by 10 degrees. Post Pablo Escobar’s death in 1993, the city made extreme changes - adding the metro, trees, cleaning up the city and developing more social services for citizens. The people of Colombia, especially those in Medellín, really want to change their reputation and invite people to come see and enjoy Colombia. I have felt so welcome here and more safe than I had expected (although I am always aware).

The british couple and I were having a great time together, so we decided to do another walking tour together. This one was a tour of Comuna 13 - an area of Medellín that, up until the 1990s, was enduring a lot of violence and death. The citizens of this area called for ceasefire and were able to redefine their reputation. It is now an area filled with beautiful murals, hip hop dancing and freestyle rap, street food and music.

We took the cable car to see sights and views of the city:

We saw performances including hip hop dancing:

This mural below is an interpretation of the dark times, sadness, and past of comuna 13:

These murals shows the new age of comuna 13 filled with hope, joy and harmony:

The tour of Comuna 13 ended with drinks on a rooftop bar! The tour was supposed to be about 3.5 hrs but we were having such a fun time that it lasted for 6!

After about 10 hours of walking and learning about the city, I was ready for some rest. It was an incredible start to my time in Medellín.

¡Hasta pronto!

Ellie