Medellin, Colombia

Wilson and I spent nearly two weeks in Medellin, Colombia, and were both very sad to leave the city. Although there were not a lot of tourist things to see, we both felt this was a very livable city, and met a number of nice people. Not to mention, the weather was perfect (felt like Spring everyday). We stayed in an apart-hotel in the barrio Laureles; a very pleasant area with a number of restaurants and bars within walking distance.

Ironically, we felt Medellin was one of the safest cities we had visited so far in Latin American (other than the Galapagos Islands). The city of Medellin was once one of the most dangerous cities in Latin America during the drug war in the 70s and 80s. According to Wikipedia entry, it's been estimated that around 3,500 were killed during the height of the Cartel, including over 500 police officers in Medellín. Apparently, the Cartel in Medellin lost much of its consolidated power and influence after the death and capture of many of its leading figures, including the death of Paolo Escobar in 1993. From then, the city of Medellin progressively became more secure. Check out the Wikipedia page for more info: (ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medell%C3%ADn_Cartel

In Medellin, we went to the typical tourist spots including the aquarium, planetarium, Botanical Gardens, some bars and discos. One of the most interesting experience, I thought, was when we hit Medellin's popular discoteca, Mangos. We started the night at another popular discoteca, The Palmaharia, where we only stayed for a couple hours. We watched a couple of men and women dance on the bar, and left early to hit Mangos.

At Mangos, I was told by my teacher that there were dancing enanos (midgets), so when we arrived, we asked one of the employees if we can see them. He said we would have to pay if we wanted them to come out so we declined. We bought a half bottle of vodka and sat at the bar watching the hired dancers do their job: dance.After, Wilson was warmed up to dance so we hit the dance floor where we met some locals who offered us Aguardiente, a local licorice-tasting liquor. We all danced the rest of the night. Around 3 a.m., to our surprise, the enanos came on stage and started dancing. The crowd went wild (including me). It was extremely odd to see the little people come out on stage to dance, and be mocked by the audience. After, we followed our new friends to another club, WILD. By 5 a.m., we were ready to go home.

We also visited a little town right outside of Medellin, Santa Elena. This little town is known for their “shrooms” and as our friend, and Wilson's Spanish teacher, told us, was a town that has created a culture around the “shrooms.” We walked around a local national park (which I forgot the name) and then went for a hike around a hydro-electric plant where we got lost. Although it may sound odd that we would have gotten lost while hiking around a hydro-electric plant, it was in the middle of nowhere and there were absolutely no signs to which direction we were to go. Eventually we found our way back home.

Wilson and I also took a couple of conversational Spanish courses. I feel my Spanish is really getting worse since I haven't been conversing too much with the locals.

Overall, we loved Medellin and felt really safe and comfortable in this city. The people in Medellin are extremely friendly and helpful and you can't beat a city where it is known for its “Eternal Spring.”