Don't Meddle with Medellin
Don't Meddle with Medellin
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| Parque Botero |
We've just had a week in Medellin, now we
arrived late at night after a long bus journey, the story of our lives. But
we're relieved to have a nice apartment in a nice part of town. Sometimes it
varies when you've booked something online. Nevertheless it was a lovely
large apartment.
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| Metropolitan Cathedral |
On our first day we went to the main square to go and see the metropolitan cathedral, statues etc. On our way to the square we seemed to go through the 2/3 block radius of motorbike shops, where they had their wares and such everywhere, pulling apart bits of bike on the side of the road, painting scuff marks on tyres black again. Less well off people raiding the bins of these motorbike people for more scraps to sell on. In fact we came across a whole market of re-claimed items a lot of which seemed to be one shoe. I hadn't particularly noticed a band of one legged people in town, but I did see a lot of people with huge burn marks on the leg nearest the exhaust of their motorbikes.
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| Botero Soldier |
We also saw quite a lot of 'working women'
loitering in the streets, much to our surprise out in daylight, in just their
undies. We were quite taken aback in Bogota that porn was just sold in the
street for all to see, and the sex shops on every corner. But Bogota felt a lot safer, despite having
read about all the social improvement in Medellin we still feel it has a way to
go before it is safe and desirable for increased tourism. This said, the area we stayed in with the university and all the gardens felt safe and was actually really nice. I think when you consider that it was under the control of a notorious drug lord just a few years back it is quite amazing how far it has come on. If you were to stay in the central area or just in the area with all the parks you'd probably feel no different than other South American Cities (for example Rio similarly had a lot of homeless people everywhere) but I think we were just unfortunate in the bits in between the two areas we explored.
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| He looks like Andrew |
Upon arriving at the square the cathedral was
shut, and we noticed the large amounts of homeless people that seemed to be
napping in the strangest of places, like central reservation, the road edges of
streets and of course the benches. Most of these homeless people seemed to be
young men under 30 and terribly skinny. The square was relatively busy with the hustle and bustle of street vendors and
locals enjoying the square. We reluctantly decided to take a pew, and within a
few minutes an elderly couple came to share our pew. They were full of
conversation and we chatted with them for 30 minutes or so. Helpfully that
battered away any young opportunists who wished to pry on us Gringos.
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| Lake in the Botanical Gardens |
With a lunch recommendation in hand, from the couple at the bench, we decided
to check out a little restaurant down the way and had a lechona. This is a
joint of pork stuffed with rice and pulled pork and made into crackling on the
top. It was pretty delicious. As we were waiting for our food to arrive though
another homeless guy started to steal food from the old plates on the edge of
the restaurant, then he caught a glance at us foreigners and started yelling at
us aggressively about how hungry he was and demanding us to buy him food.
None of the locals seemed bothered by this guy and heeded him no attention, he
left before anything could be done. Nonetheless it was an uncomfortable
experience.
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| Our Iguana Friend |
A must see if you are in Medellin is the
botanical gardens. This is a lovely oasis in the middle of a busy city, much
like those in Tokyo and Beijing. It felt like a really safe place for us to go,
and so we spent a lot of time there. The gift shop there is particularly nice
and has gifts for all price ranges. There are a few restaurants on site too,
which were quite average. (I can't get used to this rubber meat Frankfurt
texture). In the gardens themselves there is some wildlife there such as
iguanas, geese (i think), turtles and an array of beautiful birds.
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| Cultural Horse (and House) |
Another square in Medellin that is worth a visit
is the Botero square, which is a bit more touristic, but does have a lot of
Botero's statues in it and a large art museum, which if a you are a student is
fairly cheap to enter. This felt like a much safer square to visit and does
have some nice eateries round the edges. The coffee shop to the right (when
exiting) of the art museum has particularly good coffee and coffee cake (a bit like Tiramisu).
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| Amazing Tiramisu Cake! |
During our time here we also tried to visit a
beautiful church we had seen in the distance from a walk home one evening. We
walked there through a more residential area but had the same vibes as the bike
shop area, where soon we were being yelled at by various males calling us
'Gringos' and other ethnic expletives. Gringos isn't technically meant in a rude way, but imagine walking the streets of your local town and people yell at you about the colour of your skin, it sheds some light on how people in the civil rights movement must have felt (although obviously to a far lesser degree for us). We quickly made our way through and
up to the top of the hill to see the church, which was closed again. (Why are
people locked out of sanctuaries!?!) Feeling uncomfortable about walking the
same roads back we went down the main road instead into the city, which felt
generally ok, until we went past a large group of homeless drug users in groups
on the side of the road. Nothing bad happened. But it was a very uncomfortable
experience for us. Luckily we had noticed a waffle shop in the local mall, so
we went and made ourselves feel better and chubbier (or more Botero-esque). In Medellin, they also do a nice ice cream delicacy here where they'll do you a Mr Whippy but then dip the whole lot in molten chocolate ready for you to eat. Something we should try in the next place.
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| Church of Mercy |
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| Egyptian Palace |
Where next? Well we're off to the seaside town
of Cartagena in Colombia for a few days before taking our penultimate flight to
Mexicoooooo. Until next time!
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| AAAARRRRGGGGHHH!!!! |
See some more of our posts
- Overview
- European Ecstasy
- Adventures in Asia
- Pacific Paradise
- Southern South American Splendour
- Central Celestial Scenes
- Incan Delights
- Heading North
Check out some more of our pictures here and what we're up to currently.
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