MEDELLIN

​December 24, 2018
             It was a mad dash to the airport when our taxi didn’t show at 5:30am. Another one arrived within 15 minutes and we made it to the airport with time to spare. Our next glitch... the boarding passes didn’t work so back down to the Avianca desk. This is why you allow enough time when traveling internationally. Today is mostly a flying day... having to go from La Paz to Lima to Medellin. We added it up; we have 13 flights total for this trip. I think this may be our flight heaviest trip to date.

Once we landed in beautiful Medellin, we went with Anna to a new mall (on Christmas Eve!) We walked around and ended up buying another backpack because we’ve run out of room to pack items we bought (mostly coffee).

We had dinner at an Italian restaurant.

We are now at their beautiful, comfortable house putting up the Christmas tree!

​December 25, 2018

Anna dropped Robin and I off on the very popular Poblado Avenue on her way to the hospital to see her mom (she fell about two weeks ago and broke her hip, elbow and shoulder. She’s had surgery on her hip and is waiting to have surgery on the other two broken bones).

We walked about 2 miles and ended up in the very trendy “gringo” area of Parque Lleras.

We had a fabulous breakfast at Brujeria (“witchcraft” in English) with many 20 to 30 year olds, who probably partied in that same area the night before.

​ Kenny and Anna’s house is very beautiful.

They call it “Casa Tokareva”.

They purposely designed it with many windows with sliding glass doors for the cool, refreshing breeze being this far up in the mountains.

The view is fantastic, with the exception of the construction fence next door.

Anna, Anton, Robin and I headed to a Tesoro Mall for dinner. We drove for what seemed like a long time, only to find it closed. So we went down to Poblado again. All the restaurants were crazy busy and we ended up at a vegetarian place.

Thankfully, this area caters to tourists so we were able to find places that were open!

December 26,2018      

Since the next few days involve tours for Robin and I, we decided that it is an easier jumping-off point to be down in Poblado. Casa Tokarava is not easy to get to… it is up a hill in Envigado and the taxis/Ubers can’t find it because the GPS shows a completely different location. I have enough points to book at the Marriott (only 35K for TWO nights. ONE night in the US is usually 40-50K)!

The Marriott hotel is beautiful. We checked in, and then walked to Oviedo Mall. We bought some chocolate for Anna since today is her birthday.

​ We took a taxi to Parque Explora, a fairly large science center.

We visited the aquarium...

Although this would not have been my choice, we thoroughly enjoyed our day with Anton.

We then walked across the street to the free botanical gardens, but hardly anything was in bloom and Robin said it needed a lot of work.

Although this structure was quite unique.

​             

While driving, we’ve passed signs of Donald Trump with a circle and a line over his face. Anton translated it for us: “Out of here, Yankee! Fight the right of Trump/Pence with revolution!” Again, for the thousandth time... if people just traveled the world they would find out how much he is hated.

I was taking some pictures out the open taxi window when the driver yelled at me to put my camera away. Apparently, the street thugs will ride up on bikes or motorcycles and steal your camera or phone through the open window.

Anna wanted to go to a piano bar for her birthday. The piano player is one of her students. The restaurant is in the corner of a furniture store called Ambiente Living at Tesoro Mall. Although it seems strange to eat in the corner of a furniture store, it was actually quite nice.

Kenny and Anna arrived, and then we waited another hour for her friend Elena. The traffic around the mall was horrible and everybody was running late. ​ But the food was good and the ambience was pleasant and it was overall a very good birthday dinner.

          During dinner, we were planning our next day on the Guatapé tour and how we were going to meet up with Anton. At first he was going to Uber it, but then Anna thought maybe she could drop him off on the way to the hospital. But then she remembered that this was her “off” day. On specific days during specific hours, certain numbered license plates aren’t allowed on the road. This is to control traffic. Motorcycles and tourist vehicles (white plates) are exempt. She was not able to drive between 7-10 am, and 7:30 was our meeting time. So it was going to be Uber again for Anton.
          After we left dinner, we found out about the kindness of strangers. We had ordered an Uber while still sitting at the dinner table, but then could not find our way out of the very confusing mall. Once we found an exit, it wasn’t a straight street. Part of the twisting and turning road around the mall actually went through various parking garages! Plus it was extremely hilly... was the driver on a road above or below us? We could not find him anywhere. The first driver canceled us after 15 minutes when we didn’t show, and a second one canceled us again after we no-showed. We stood there wondering what to do when this young handsome man came running over to us. Apparently he had the same issue we did and had been standing beside us at some point, but had now found his Uber. He asked us where we were going and if we wanted to share. He was Colombian and his girlfriend (in the Uber) was Belgian (they live in Cologne, Germany). He said the driver would drop them off first since it was on the way, and from there we could pay to our hotel. I told him we didn’t have WiFi... so he paid our way! Even though it was probably only about $3, this couple really went out of their way to help us.

STONE OF EL pinol/guatape

​December 27, 2018

Got up early and had a delicious breakfast at our fabulous hotel.

We walked about 3/4 of a mile to the square to meet the tour. Unfortunately, it’s a giant tour bus and we are with 40 other people. But it was a paltry $30 per person (we paid $90 to include Anton, but he decided not to come because he was tired. He hadn’t had any sleep because he was sleeping on the couch). Even though I knew it wasn’t close to being a private tour, I certainly didn’t expect 40 others. (Note to self: pay extra for smaller tours).

OMG! The climb up El Pinol (one of the tallest monoliths in the world) was grueling!

It’s 659 steps up and then another 150 steps to the very crowded viewing balcony .

It was $6 each to climb. Before the stairs, it took 5 days to get to top. A local family saw climbing the rock as a business opportunity and built the stairs.

Thankfully I was able to rest about every 25 steps.

I was going to take the “sissy exit” at the halfway point, but thought hell... I’m halfway - I may as well continue.

It was SO crowded at the top that we took a few pictures and started our descent (personally, I think pictures are better closer to the ground).

Since this is Christmas week, we are here during one of the busiest times of the year. The lines were long and the shops were packed.

We had lunch on our way to Guatape.

It was quite nasty. Again... a large tour vs. a small tour (but really boils down to price).

I loved the town of Guatapé. I think it’s the most colorful town I’ve ever been in.

Almost every building has a “zocalo” at the bottom of it. A zocalo tells a story about that particular building.

Some are commercial stories, letting you know what they are selling inside. Some tell the story of what they do for a living.

Personal zocalo stories tell of the family’s history.

If you move to a new home, you can’t change the zocalo. You can change the inside and make the zocalo prettier, but you can’t change the actual zocalo.

The closest stall to Robin's usual required Farmers Market.

Downtown at Zocalo Square, the government gave away houses. They had one requirement - that the outside of the houses are colorful and pretty.

We stopped at some forgettable colonial town on the way back. We just waited in line to go the bathroom. I’ll bet if they had taken a poll, the entire bus would have declined. We are tired from the stairs and the hot sun. Thankfully, our bus driver was cruising along so the 2-hour drive wasn’t unbearable.

We were supposed to meet up with the others for dinner. But when I texted Kenny, Anna was still at the hospital. (She has had to be there 24/7 since her mom only speaks Russian and she needs to translate. She has hired a Russian-speaking person to be there when she is not). So I suggested lunch for the next day instead. We were exhausted and were very happy to eat for free at the concierge executive lounge instead.

MEDELLIN

December 28, 2018
              Got up at a decent hour, had our fabulous hotel breakfast, and met our guide for our Comuna 13 tour (another José) at 9am. 

Our first stop was downtown at Botero plaza. Botero did 23 sculptures for this area from 1999-2001.

On to Comuna 13. There are 16 Comunas (districts)in Medellin. Each Comuna has many neighborhoods. Poblado is Comuna 16. Comuna 13 consists of eight neighborhoods. It has always been an overpopulated poor area of 135,000 people. Comuna 13 was considered the most dangerous place in the world in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s. This area was important to the drug traffickers because it was a convenient route to send drugs to the Pacific coast via the San Juan Highway. After Escobar was killed, FARC and ELN fought for control over the route. Homicides happened frequently. Eventually, the Colombian government used far right paramilitary groups to combat the leftist groups in Operation Orion in 2002. This operation was very controversial because about 100,000 residents were caught in the crossfire. Many residents disappeared and have never been found. But with the violent groups gone, Comuna 13 has risen from the ashes.

Although the government said the official dead count stands at 7 people in the 2002 incident, all these colorful planters represent all the people who died.

José has lived in Medellín his whole life except when his family left when he was seven because of the “war” from 1992-2001. I thought “what war?” It turns out it was the Pablo Escobar years; many of the people of Medellin felt that it was too dangerous to stay and consider that timeframe a war.

In 2011, escalators were installed so people weren’t so isolated from the rest of Medellin.

The street art also became a popular attraction around that same time.

Tourism to this area has continued to grow...in 2017 an estimated 600,000 people visited and this year it is expected to hit one million.

​We heard this high-pitched squealing that was clearly an animal in agony. A group of boys appeared.... trying to get a very large, terrified pig up the escalator. Our guide told us that probably ten families bought the pig and they will kill it for their New Year’s Eve celebration.

Part of the celebration is also filling scarecrow-like figures with gunpowder to light on fire to symbolize out with the old and in with the new. This particular one doesn’t have its head yet, but may end up being a politician or other famous person.

We stopped at a funky coffee shop so that Robin could use the bathroom and I could buy a t-shirt.

Obviously, Bill Clinton had been here!

After we left Comuna 13, we drove to Nutibara Hill. The main attraction is a replica of a traditional Colombian Township from the early 1900’s.

This replica (named Pueblita Paisa) was built from salvaged materials - bricks, windows and doors – from a town that was flooded when the government built a dam in the 1970’s to create Lake El Penol.

We met Anna and Kenny for lunch at Archie’s. Again, it was in a mall. (More about malls... we ended up at six different malls while in Medellin. While some malls in the US seem to be dying, Medellin malls are thriving). We visited with them for an hour and headed back to our hotel to check out.

What is more surprising than Robin eating a HOT DOG?! Robin eating a hot dog in an AIRPORT that is in a FOREIGN COUNTRY!

The flight to Panama City was uneventful. Since we had to stay in Panama overnight, we had every intention to have dinner in the Casco Viejo area of the city. We ordered an Uber and waited forever. The Uber app was now telling us we would arrive at 10:06 pm. The restaurant we were trying to go to was closing at 10:30. So I canceled the car and we ate the hotel. I’m glad that we didn’t go because we had to be up at 6am for our flight. (The Crown Plaza front desk told us to get to the airport 3 hours early. We were at our gate in 25 minutes.) Thank You for this wonderful trip!!