Breakfasted, packed and checked out we piled into a mini van for the short drive to Chinchina, a small town about 30 minutes from where we stayed.
There we begun our trip to Medellin, but before that we had the opportunity to stock up on a few goodies for the trip and tell stories and lies in the waiting room.
Our drive was uneventful going through beautiful but very hilly country. It was slow going, with many many stops for road works. There were some quite substantial wash outs and general maintenance was being done as well so much of the time one lane was closed and the traffic flow was being controlled by the workers, letting one direction through at a time.
Once past the roadworks it didn’t speed up too much. With a single lane in each direction and many large trucks on the road the queues were quite long and unless confident drivers put their foot down and passed on yellow lines there was no way they could move up in the queue. Our 6 hour trip turned into more like 8 hours but it could have been worse. We had been warned that it might take up to 11, and anyway it was a great excuse for a day of doing nothing.
Our new hotel is rather different to the previous two we have stayed in, very modern and functional but very nice and in an affluent area where we are literally surrounded by bars and restaurants and lots of tourists! Sadly its miles from anything else.
Again I got a room with the number 4 in it. Each room I’ve had has had that same digit somewhere in the number, this time it’s 404. Im still not happy about using a lift and going up 4 floors is less painful now we are back at a lower altitude. So I’m going to get used to the stairs and not use lift any more than I need to.
Dinner was as a group. One of lovely American ladies had a birthday so it was nice to be all together to celebrate that. Wish I could say the same about the meal. Tourist type Italian, that wasn’t what it said it would be, with pasta that was stuck together, dry and over cooked. Sad as it had promise, but at least I had food in my belly.
Next day we had our group walking orientation of the neighbourhood. It looks very pretty with lots of greenery and parks but the number of chain type restaurants didn’t impress me.
Orientation done we are collected by private bus (a 50 odd seater for 5 of us seemed a bit silly) to drive us through the city. It took ages, right in the middle of the morning commute but a few street gymnasts kept us amused for a while.
I was amazed at the number of brick buildings, including high rises, there are but when I am told that the bricks are made here it all made sense.
Our destination was the Minoristas Markets, the second largest markets in Medellin. Although fun they weren’t too dissimilar to markets anywhere else in the world and apart from seeing a few unusual fruits, there wasn’t much of interest. One thing that was fascinating was a woman chopping carrots into small cubes, no chopping board and all whilst holding the carrot in a glove covered hand and using the other hand to chop the carrot, without watching what she was doing!!!!
Markets done, we caught the train and then the metro (Medellin is the first and currently only city in Colombia that has a metro and they are very proud of it) to the San Javier metro station where we transferred onto the cable car, which is really a gondola. The ride took us over the area known as Communa 13, one of the poorest districts of Medellin. Looking down we could see very steep hillsides, jam packed with basic, often self built homes, bearing ramshackle roof’s mostly windows with no glass and generally in poor condition. Some had decks held up by bamboo poles and in some cases it looked as there were no retaining walls or supports other than the bamboo poles sitting on solid rock. Every now and then a high rise changed the landscape; these mainly for state subsidised accommodation.
The ride was massive, we got to the top of the hill and just when I thought it was time to get out it went over the crest of the hill, carried on down into the valley and then went up to the top of the next hill. We didn’t get out as our guide considered the neighbourhood rather unsafe, but looking at other people that were riding with us it didn’t seem threatening at all.
The cable car was originally implemented to provide transport for the local people living on the hills (there are also escalators in some parts) but are now the no 1 tourist destination in Medellin. This particular route has 2.7km of cables and there are four stations along the way. If there is a power outage there is no way to open the doors. Now I only found that out as I was writing this blog and am so pleased I didn’t know before hand. But they do have communications systems in each car -whoopee, some consolation that would be.
Stomachs were complaining so having finished that part of our day with our tour leader, we set off to fill our bellies and then join the afternoon adventure.
Lunch was at a dingy, rickety chair, basic place above a metro station where my cod soup, and Talapia meal were two of the best meals I have had and all for less than $10. I was drooling over the fish soup, just a simple but beautifully seasoned broth with pieces of cod, potatoes and lime juice. Exquisite. Then the deep fried Talapia to follow. It was almost as good as the soup but not quite. Crispy skin and tail bones and super fresh soft, flakey and tasty fish made for a great great lunch inducing dribble and great feelings of happiness.
We (Caroleen, Carmen and myself) then headed off to join a free walking tour led by a hilarious guide called Monsa. Monsa had once upon a time trained to be a circus performer, she had also trained to be a tour guide and certainly knew her stuff, but she presented everything in the coolest way, with a bit of drama, sound effects, dance and fun thrown in. She was brilliant.
There were about 15 of us that enjoyed Monsa’s treats, leading us around the sights, telling us bits of the history, politics and the transformation of Medellin from the most dangerous city on earth a few years ago to the vibrant, modern, clean and much safer city that it is today.
We heard of the Pablo Escobar years, saw statues from the famous Fernando Botero, saw some of the amazing architecture, walked through the square of lights,, learned of the bombings in San Antonio park, walked the streets where porn videos are openly displayed and sold to whomever and in general got a taste of what life in the centre of Medellin offers.
It is by no means an attractive city centre and not one that I would return to in a hurry. But this city has so much recent history that it is probably one of the most transformed cities I will ever have the chance to see, so that’s tomorrows walking tour...
We were exhausted by the time we finished. It had been a long day so by the time we got off the Metro close to go home there was no way we were walking the 2or so km’s to get there and so hopped in a cab to be safely delivered to the door of the hotel for about $2.50.
The others were going to a chain restaurant ‘Crepes and Waffles’; not my thing at the best of time and certainly not here where this so much great food to be had. So I went to a place called Mondongos, just along the road. Mondongos means tripe and I had fully intended trying it, until I saw that pork steak was on the menu. No regrets as my pork steak was the best piece of meat I’ve had in nearly a month. It came with freshly fried plantain, (nothing like fried plantain I’ve had before), green tomatoes, arepa, avocado and of course fries.Yummo.
My exhausting day has ended on a high note. My blog done I will be hitting the sack and looking forward to tomorrow.
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