medellin

we spent the last few days in the city made infamous as pablo escobar's cocaine capital.  although you can still see shadows of this violent history, medellin has worked hard to change its image.  we found instead a very modern feeling city that is quite large.....extending down an entire valley and climbing up the sides of the hills.

with the exception of a few buildings, the city was absent of the colonial architecture found in the other major cities visited along this trip. instead there were tall modern apartment buildings and a commuter light rail system (a very clean and safe rail system i might add).

we stayed at a nice hostel (black sheep hostel) in a nice neighborhood called el poblado.  walking around the area looking at the trendy restaurants filled with hipsters it was hard to believe we were in colombia....very sureal!   the hostel we were staying at felt more like a hotel.  our room had two queen beds, a large leather couch and a big screen TV.  we haven't sat on a couch in nearly six months, but it took us no time at all to get used to it again! we gathered to cheer on colombia in a futbol match and even had a movie night!

we spent our days doing what one would normally do in a modern city....we went to an art museum, visited parks, went to a science museum and an aquarium.

fernando botero was born here in medellin and there is a park filled with his sculptures.

in one park you can see where history crossed medellin's two most famous persons in the form of a bombed out botero sculpture.   the city left the remains of the bombed sculpture as a memorial to the nearly one hundred killed in the explosion.  erected next to it is a new sculpture and now the pair is called 'los parajos de paz'.  pretty powerful stuff.

inside the art museum you can see botero's famous painting depicting escobar's death on the rooftops of medellin.

we even went to the mall because it is housed in the beautiful old palacio national  (if it wasn't in a historic building todd never would've stepped foot inside a mall!)

we spent an entire day at the city's science museum called parque explora.  it was a very very well done museum (todd and i thought it was better than portland's omsi).  there was a exhibit room devoted to physics, one devoted to the mind and one devoted to time.  plus there was an aquarium on site and an outdoor area with large interactive physics exhibits.  oh and did i mention all the dinosaurs tucked into the garden!

each of the red squares holds a different exhibit

and one day we rode the cable car system up and over the hills to a large nature reserve called parque arvi.  we went on a nice hike through the forest (of pine trees no less!).  it was amazing to have this huge natural place so accessible to the people of medellin, another example of this progressive city's forward thinking!

generally we really enjoyed medellin.  i can certainly understand why it is such a popular city to visit.

today we fly to cartagena and will spend our last 2 weeks on the caribbean coast.  we are packing all our fleeces, pants and long sleeved shirts in the bottoms of our bags cause it is gonna be hot and humid from here on out!!
hasta luego!



bonus picture!