Medellin Kids

Hello! 

For those of you avidly following our adventures, the blog is a bit behind.

We will be crossing the border to Ecuador in a couple of days' time, while you think we are only halfway down Colombia.

So keep an eye out, as I will be putting up a few posts in quick succession.

KX

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Medellin ("Med-u-jeen"), erstwhile home to everyone's favourite South American drug baron Pablo Escobar.


We did a fantastic city tour here with guide Pablo (NO relation), a young, new generation Medellinian (or Paisa, as people from the Antioquia regional department are known).

With dramatic flair and passionate, poetic words he summed up for us the pride of his country fighting back from the ravaging old days of civil unrest, drug wars and general guerrilla-fuelled madness.

He was a kid when the drug wars were going on, he knew the sound of gunfire and felt the fear in the air.



His message was simple: he wanted us to take back home the good news that Colombia is not about drugs and danger any more, but is a welcoming, beautiful country, full of friendly people desperate to shake off decades of stigma, no thanks to corruption and scum like Escobar and the corrupt politicians of his youth.

So I hope I've just done that. Now for some pictures...


The city has been reimagined, rebuilt and restored and had a shedload of money spent on it, with the fantastic new Metro system allowing the poorer quarters to connect with the better-off.

Every new building or site must have a complement of modern art, so things are looking up for Medellin as a 21st century metropolis.


Through the busy streets we saw some great buildings, hard core pornography openly on sale, the third biggest brick building in the world (the church) and were brazenly stared at by the locals, who you would think had never seen a white, blonde, tall or generally non-Colombian person before.

You looking at wor lass?

This is also Botero's home city and we were treated to a square full of his bronze sculptures

At the last stop on the tour we saw his Bird of Peace, the original of which was blown up and almost destroyed by persons unknown in 1995.

Its replacement stood adjacent to it, at Botero's suggestion. As Pablo emoted on the symbolism of this defiant act of hope for his country, Kim was welling up. It was a great performance and his closing piece was brilliant.


From our Black Sheep hostel in town, we daytripped to the magnificent Cerro Guatape, high up and overlooking a ridiculously picturesque landscape (the best view in the world, apparently...) and its quaint local town.


Next day we did another cable car trip, this time travelling high over the urban favelas and into the hills beyond to a local eco-park, then afterwards to the botanical gardens for more flora and butterflies.


I bought a little guitar to strum and we also picked up Aliz, a Spanish- and English-speaking Hungarian livewire, who we are taking along with us to Salento, our next port of call...


More naked ladies this way >>>