Several guidebooks and every travel blog I've read about Medellin comments on the extreme beauty of the women who live here, largely because of the inordinate number of them who have had plastic surgery. This might explain why there were only single men staying at our hostel (besides ourselves). It would definitely explain their disgusting conversations outside our window about the "conquests" they've made while being here. "When in Rome"...as one of them so eloquently put it.
But, as Lonely Planet states: Some say all of the fake boobs are a lingering reminder of the profound influence drug lords long exerted on Medellin's culture and aesthetic. Beauty has it's price, and the drug culture that reigns in this city obviously has it's ugly side as well. We found it when passing through Santo Domingo - one of Medellin's most notorious slums. Or in the many strung out junkies that wander the streets. We were told by one Paisa (resident of Medellin) that there are over 1,000 different types of hallucinogenic plants grown in this country. So, besides the country's number one export of cocaine, there are many other ways that these people are able to poison themselves. Sad. And ugly.
However, given that during the late 80s/early 90s Medellin was considered one of the most dangerous cities in the world, it has made a remarkable turnaround. While shells of buildings still remain from bombs that ravaged them, there is a lot of beauty returning to this city in the form of tranquil parks, large sculpture displays by one of Colombia's most famous artists (Fernando Botero), and most importantly by the surprising and overwhelming friendliness of it's inhabitants. For all that they have been through, they are some of the nicest and most genuine people that we have met.
Botero sculpture
The south side of the city
We've seen cities more aesthetically pleasing than this - there are a lot of nice sights in Medellin, but it is nothing to gush about. What we will forever remember about our stop here though is the incredible people - the random strangers who came up to us in the streets to shake our hand and offer an enthusiastic "Bienvenidos a Colombia!!", or those that actually want to talk to us about the amount of petrolio in Alberta.And we will never forget our new friends Luiz and Lady - a Paisan couple who happened to share a gondola car with us on the way up to a city viewpoint. Situated in a valley surrounded by abundantly green peaks, we did one of our usual favourite city activities and went to the most popular mirador (lookout) that gives a birds eye view. As much of the city and it's surrounding neighbourhoods spread up the mountainside, the city metro also includes a couple of lines of gondola cars to transport it's residents. Crawling up a hill in one of these cars, we struck up a conversation with Luiz and Lady. What we didn't realize at the time was that the gondola keeps going far beyond the city - over a seemingly neverending forest, but stopping finally at a new eco-park being built. Probably because we looked completely lost and surprised, Luiz and Lady took us under their wing and acted as our tour guides for the afternoon. They bought us treats (a tasty dessert made of sugar cane), directed us deeper into the park, and we even shared a boat ride with them around one of the lakes.
Upon return from the park, Luiz and Lady waited for us to safely board the metro before they took theirs in the opposite direction. It was an awesome afternoon spent practicing our Spanish, and getting to know this very beautiful couple.
And so in a place where people come for the beauty of the fake boobies, we leave appreciating the inner beauty of the people. Tomorrow we are on a one way plane bound for the Caribbean coast - it's been almost a whole month since we've enjoyed some beach time. I think we are overdue.
The Life and Death of "the" Drug KingpinThanks in large part to one man - Pablo Escobar - this beautiful city used to be one of the most dangerous in the world. For several years before his death in 1993, violence gripped Medellin and it's residents as the drug cartels attacked each other. Buildings were bombed to the ground, assassinations of police officers were very common, and many innocent people were killed. Thus, one of the recent popular items on the to-do list in Medellin is to take a tour through the turbulent adult life of Escobar, starting at the home he built for his kids to his grave.
Escobar started in minor thievery - stealing cars and bikes for parts, and even allegedly stealing gravestones, sanding off the names, and reselling them. At age 25 he got into drug trafficking, and by age 29 he was the boss of the most powerful cartel in Colombia (the Medellin cartel) with vast international range. In 1989, Forbes magazine listed him as the 7th richest man in the world. With his "cover" business being construction, we were taken to many buildings throughout the city that he built for his own purposes - including his family home (which is now police offices) and the cartel headquarters (which is now a rehab center).
We pumped our guide with questions about what it was like to live in Medellin at that time, and what the public perception is of Escobar and his exploits. While most people vehemently dislike him for the innocents that died, there are still a few that regard him as a hero. Coincidently, as we sat outside of the house that Escobar was hiding out at before being killed by the Colombian police, a cab driver pulled up and engaged us in discussion about him. "¡Bueno, bueno!" the cab driver said when asked what he thought of Escobar. He went on to comment about what a good man he was for building so many good things for the community (soccer fields, etc.) He was, of course, buying the loyalty of the people who would help to protect him later.
On December 2, 1993 (1 day after his 44th birthday), he was found and killed by police with intelligence help from the US. The fragmented Medellin cartel folded.
For more information on Escobar, click here
Who knew?
There are many places in Colombia that are deemed "must stops" along the gringo route - but Manizales has not been featured on any list that we have seen. On Monday we arrived into this city of roughly half a million people not quite sure what to expect, but have come away pretty impressed.
Upon arrival at our hostel, we were handed a full two pages of what to do and see in the area - volcano hikes, botanical gardens, adventure parks, fincas (coffee plantations) and much more. With two full days dedicated, we struggled with making our choice of activities to do.
To make matters worse, two days were unfortunately quickly cut down to one! Tuesday morning we made our plans but pushed them back due to unrelenting rain. And then we were forced to push them further and further into the day, until finally they were abandoned. While there were small breaks in the downpours, they didn't last long and we ventured outside only long enough to get some groceries. Thank goodness that this hostel is a vast improvement over the last, and we easily made ourselves at home. Many card games, naps, and movies on the big screen TV kept us "busy".
The skies cleared and we set out early on Wednesday morning to visit Hacienda Venecia, a finca about a forty-five minute drive out of the city. We piled into the back of an open jeep and bounced and weaved our way through the city and into the rugged mountainside.
We had done a finca tour in Salento just days before, but it wasn't near as thorough or interesting. We were led through rows and rows of coffee plants growing up the steep hills, sympathizing the whole time for the manual labourers that tend to them during harvest time.
Notice the coffee trees growing up the hill
Our very own hand picked coffee beans
After our testing we decided to hop into the first jeep back to town, and were treated to some unexpected excitement. How do you fit 13 people into a small jeep? You don't, that's how. We started out all fitting in nicely, and then the driver kept stopping along the way to pile more people in. While 7 of us managed to cram in the back and 3 in the front, poor Pete and 2 other guys had to ride outside the vehicle - standing on the tailgate, they each held onto the metal roof rack and had to steady themselves as the jeep hurtled over bumps and swung around curves. I watched nervously from inside the jeep, focusing on the whiteness of their tightly gripped knuckles under the black tarp that covered the metal rack, while the boys somehow managed to take some self-portraits and pretend they were rockstars!
This breaks so many rules, in so many ways (at home, at least!)
The jeep dropped us off in the city center and we took our time wandering the streets after being cooped up from the rain all of the previous day. We found the streets to be spotlessly clean, relatively quiet given the number of inhabitants, and with some seriously intriguing attributes. It is full of the usual spectacular colonial architecture (including the fifth highest church steeple in the world), yet it is juxtaposed with modern art sculptures randomly scattered throughout the city, sometimes in direct contrast with each other.
The attractiveness of this city is compounded by it's setting in lush green hills.
Who knew how much we would fall in love with this city? I love these surprises!For our last few hours in town this morning, I felt the urge to get some adventuring in. After Pete's hair-raising experience "surfing" the city streets on the back of the jeep, I needed to step it up! It's been awhile since I've fought raging rivers or hurled myself off a mountain. So, while Pete sat this adventure out, our friend Kylee and I took to Manizales' ecopark (Los Yarumos) for some ziplining!
This was my third time on the zipline - hurtling over a jungle canopy with only a metal cable protecting me from a tragic fall! It was a short trip with only four lines, but it was much different from any of my other experiences. This time we were not given a leather glove to grab the cable and slow ourselves down - it was deemed unnecessary. Instead, we just flew through the air freely, and were only stopped by a giant mat on the next platform. It was rather scary to just be flying towards something at full speed, but at least it was a soft landing (unlike the tree I ran into when doing this in Costa Rica 4 years ago - yikes!)
There was an added bonus (I use the word "bonus" loosely) to this excursion. After the last zipline, we were forced to walk along a tightrope to get back to our starting point. Now this was something I've never done before, and likely won't again.
Kylee getting ready for the tightrope walkThere is very little that can go wrong when doing this walk - yes, it is possible to slip off of the rope, but there are other ropes to grab onto, plus we are attached to another cable above our head that would hold us if we slipped. So, relatively safe. But, infinitely scary.
The problem with this venture is that you are forced to look down the whole time when walking across (to ensure proper footing). And as we got towards the middle of the walk, we were at least 50ft above the ground...I kinda forgot about all the protective measures and just got plain freaked out.
That's a loooong way down
Thank goodness it wasn't too long of a walk (10 minutes or so), but it was enough to make me sure that I won't be hitting up Cirque Du Soleil for my next job.
Up and out, we have just reached our next destination of Medellin for a few days. It was a 150km drive over about 4 hours, which should give you some indication of the twisty mountain roads we were on! We are excited to be in this second biggest city of Colombia as it is one that everyone raves about. It is also the supposed home of the most beautiful women in the world - with all of the money that flowed in this city during the drug-heydays, the lords would heavily "invest" in their women with plastic surgery. Sounds like I should fit right in here, right? Yeah, right.
P.S. Think that Pete had an adventurous ride outside the jeep? Check out these guys on the highway from Manizales to Medellin...safety first people!
Check out more pictures HERE
Seven months on the road, and these travelers are beginning to grow somewhat weary. The pursuit of adventure is alive and well as we still relish in each new vista seen or new friend met... but after seven months of living out of a backpack (five of which we have been constantly moving), breaking points are beginning to be hit, for several reasons.
Sleeping on rock hard beds, with equally hard and lumpy pillows. Counting squished bugs on the wall while brushing teeth. Having only Doritos for a meal...again. Hours of research scoping out each destination. Sitting next to a another pukey kid on the bus. Killing monster sized bugs that are surely going to kill you if you don't get to them first. Cold showers. Smelling all four pairs of dirty underwear to determine which can be worn again, only because it doesn't smell quite as bad as the others.
I could go on. And once I look at that list, and think of other things that make this vocation a difficult one, I am surprised that we have any enthusiasm left after seven months.
To be clear - despite the rough going sometimes, we have zero regrets. Everything we have done, everything we have learned, and every new challenge we have conquered has made every lumpy pillow or bag of Doritos worth enduring. But, as we are in the last country of our South American journey (before making the jump into Central America), and as I find myself becoming increasingly sensitive and bitter when we do hit the rough spots, there are some things we have had to ask ourselves. Most importantly, do we think we can keep this up for four and a half more months?
Before I reveal our answer, let's look back to our few days that forced us into these tough questions!
We left Popayan early, and arrived in Colombia's third biggest city, Cali, in the early afternoon. We checked into our hostel in the cute neighborhood of San Antonio and laid down on the bed for a quick stretch after the 4 hour bus ride. Bed: harddddd and terribly sloped. Pillow: lumpy. After having virtually no sleep in Popayan our last night (bad bed and very noisy), I could have cried. It had been quite some while since we had been in a place that I could feel completely comfortable in, and I couldn't visualize getting any sleep in this room without chemical assistance to do so.
Thankfully, the hostel had another room available with a posturepedic bed (more expensive, of course), but we jumped at it. While it wasn't the cleanest thing we have stayed in for awhile, at least I wouldn't wake up with a back or neck ache. Problem solved, tears averted.
Next up - food! Having only Doritos for lunch (frequently happens on travel days), we eagerly went out and enjoyed a good meal at an Italian restaurant nearby. Back to the hostel and we caught up on some much needed sleep.
Day two in Cali and we set out on our walking tour of the downtown. Ick. I mean, it has it's marginally pretty points, to be sure, but it has to be one of the least attractive cities we have seen in all of our travels. Granted, we had not heard very great things about this city (many people skip it), but Pete was determined to give it a chance, if only because it has the cool name of Cali (insert appropriate LL Cool J lyrics here!)
No matter, so what if the downtown didn't offer much - we were really here for one main attraction - salsa, baby! Cali is the reputed home of salsa dancing in Colombia, and we were excited to see it in action. After spending the rest of our afternoon reading and doing research for the next leg of our trip, we got gussied up for dinner and a night out dancing (or, watching dancing anyways, we know our personal limits).
Unfortunately, it was not to be. Semana Santa (Easter) is taken quite seriously in this part of the world, and as it was Thursday evening, everyone was apparently at church or with their families instead of keeping their restaurants open or salsa-ing for the entertainment of these two gringos. The city was dead, we had a tough time even finding food.
Our two day stay in Cali thus ended up being a bit of a bust, and the next day we were back on a bus bound for Salento - the much anticipated beginning of coffee country in Colombia!What was supposed to be a 4 hour journey turned into 7, thanks to bad weather and irregular buses. And when we finally got into Salento, we stepped out of the bus and into a torrential downpour. Walking through the slippery and muddy streets we made our way to our hostel - The Plantation House - which thankfully was not too far out of the way. We were also thankful that we didn't arrive too much later, as another couple was waiting to take our reserved room.
If it wasn't for all the rain on top of our travel weariness, we might have let that other couple have our room. But Salento is a very small town, and we knew there were likely no other options to this relatively expensive dump (visions of La Pedrera in Uruguay came flooding back). There were bugs to be dealt with, it was dirty, and the bed was no better then sleeping on a sheet of plywood. Shortly after checking in, the power went out. We woke up to no running water for a few hours. Doritos were our meal replacement, again. This time, tears spilled over, and this is where the tough questions began to be asked. Can we really keep this up for four+ more months?
But! It wasn't all doom and gloom, at least while the sun was shining and we were able to escape the hostel. This small coffee town surprisingly had a lot to offer - quaint little artisan shops, decent restaurants, fincas (coffee plantations) and many hiking trails.
Hola little coffee beans!
We were also pleasantly surprised to run into our friend Kylee (met in Bolivia, saw her again in Uruguay and now in Colombia!), and she joined us on our hike in nearby Cocora Valley. Cocora Valley has really beautiful countryside such that we have not seen before during our travels - we hiked along a winding trail that led us over and around creeks through the rainforest. There were scores of Wax Palms (the highest palm trees in the world), peaking out from behind the cloud forest that often engulfed them.
For 5kms we walked uphill in rubber boots to reach a refugio for many types of birds - mostly hummingbirds! We were greeted warmly by the family that runs it, and they served us our choice of coffee, tea and hot chocolate with a side of cheese. Yes, cheese! The tradition here is to actually put the salty cheese inside of the sweet drink and consume it with a spoon!We sat for nearly an hour enjoying the eight different types hummingbirds as they darted around us and into the nearby water feeders.
We could have easily stayed longer but decided to get a move on and hopefully avoid the afternoon rains that seemed to happen like clockwork. Sure enough, it came as scheduled when we were nearing the bottom of our trek. We waited only slightly for a jeep to take us back into town and sought refuge in a nice restaurant for dinner before heading back to our dumpy hostel for the night.
After three long sleepless nights, we were anxious to get up and out. A short bus ride brought us to our current locale of Manizales. Ahhh...soft beds, a super clean hostel and friendly staff were waiting for us. We are back in a city but removed enough from it's core that we are enjoying some quiet but are also anxious to take advantage of the many activities that this other area of the coffee region has to offer. I couldn't be happier to finally be in a place that I can call "comfortable". It has been awhile.
And while we bask in our comforts and look forward to a good nights sleep, there will be more discussion on our next steps. The thought of another night in another dumpy hostel down the road might spell b-r-e-a-k-d-o-w-n (for me, specifically!) and thus we are changing our plans.
We need to sit still. We need to sit still where we feel comfortable. We need to sit still where we feel comfortable and get back to two of our main purposes for coming down here in the first place: to contribute to lesser advantaged communities by volunteering our time and to work on our Spanish. Once Pete made the suggestion and we spent some real time thinking about it, we are confident that it is the absolute right thing for us to do right now. Central America will have to wait for another time - we are instead going to settle down in a place we have been before where we know we will be happy to sit still.
That place? We don't know yet! We have a couple of options in mind and have a lot to think about before we make a decision (our trusty friend the Magic 8 Ball may need to weigh in on this one). All we know is that we are going to finish up Colombia in the next month or so, and then likely jump on a plane back down into the southern hemisphere where we can actually unpack our bags and set them aside for awhile. I feel better already!
¡MAS FOTOS! Click here
Botero sculpture
The south side of the city 
