Medellin

We were really looking forward to our time in Medellin, having heard so many good things about it. Colombianos got excited when they heard we'd be visiting this city full of energy and vitality. Once the center of drug lord Pablo Escobar's domain, the violence he constantly threatened throughout the city paralyzed its citizens. Long gone, he only is a memory and everyone is kicking their heals and loving life.

We flew in from Cartagena and quickly got settled in our hotel in the Laureles neighborhood...lovely, charming, full of mature trees and parks. and conveniently located with lots of good restaurants on nearly every block. We hit the streets looking for food and came across a little lunch spot with the friendliest waiter who not only fed us well but schooled us up on getting around the city, complete with a map. Here we ate another rendition of almuerzo corriente or menu of the day: soup, main course (meat, rice and salad) and a drink. We ate many of these throughout our travels and paid in the range of $3 or $4 each. Delicious! And Colombian meals like these are always hearty. So on our waiter's instructions, we boarded the #190 bus for a short ride downtown and did an hour or so walk about to get ourselves briefly acquainted with this large city. 

That evening, with a craving for pasta, we found a local joint a few blocks away which fit the bill. We even splurged for a bottle of wine which surprisingly only added another $12 to the bill! My meal was a yummy plate of fettuccini con verduras salteadas. We really had a fantastic evening. Three hours later I was hugging the toilet with extreme vomiting which lasted most of the night. Needless to say, I was cleaned out from both ends and was horribly weak the entire next day, and certainly afraid to eat anything, and to even think about a glass of wine was nauseating! So there was one day shot to hell in Medellin.

The following time there was spent exploring the city (Museo of Modern Art), trying out different restaurants (I quickly regained my appetite), riding the metro system, and looking for requested futbol jerseys in the downtown core. On Monday we took a two hour bus ride to El Renon and Guatape where we visited this beautiful reservoir area and climbed the amazing rock with 669 steps that overlooks the scenic view below. This is an extremely touristy town but we missed the weekend so thankfully things weren't too swamped. 

The only negative thing we felt towards Medellin was that like most big cities, the air quality sucked! Other than that it was very enjoyable and we would gladly revisit again.