Medellin - Days 53-56
Pronounced: med-a-jean
It broke our hearts to leave the Galapagos. But we got to enjoy the beautiful surroundings one last time on the 15 minute walk to the airport. Today was another long travel day - seems to be a more frequent occurrence recently. First, a flight to Guayaquil, then a flight to Quito, then a flight to Bogota, then a flight to Medellin. Though it sounds brutal, it actually wasn't so bad because each segment of the journey (flights and layovers) were fairly quick, less than 2 hrs each. Plus, we got some in-flight food and entertainment since we had an international flight in there somewhere. I watched a few episodes of The Big Bang Theory, to Ben's chagrin. We finally got to Medellin well after the sun had gone down so got to enjoy a pretty drive as the street lights illuminated the city in the valley below. Our hostel - Black Sheep Hostel - seemed pretty neat and had an excellent location, in a trendy neighborhood called El Poblado full of restaurants and nightlife. The plan was to head out for a late dinner but we made the mistake of testing out our bed first. Verdict: super comfy.
End of D53 cribbage score: Ben 82 (12 skunks) – Meg 62 (14 skunks)
Per usual, Ben had done his research and had a few breakfast places in mind for us to try out - all in the El Poblado district so nice and close. And since we were officially in coffee country now, we were hoping to get a real tasty cup of joe. We take a leisurely walk to Ben's first choice restaurant, D'Andre Gourmet, only to find out that it's closed today. Quite odd and very disappointing. Good thing we have a backup restaurant: Mundo Verde, only a few blocks away. Also closed. Not off to a good start Medellin. We decide to head across the street to slum it at a coffee shop that we definitely saw people in and therefore has to be open. Upon closer evaluation at our third choice, it actually seemed quite trendy and full of hipsters. The recipe for a good coffee shop. It was called Pergamino Cafe and indeed it was awesome. Coffee was great and breakfast hit the spot - I got a fruit/yogurt/granola thingy served in a mason jar (in true hipster fashion) and Ben got an egg soufflé. We stay there for awhile, people watching and sipping on more drinks. I start to get a bit fidgety (I can only handle so much caffeine) so get up to take a look around and check out the decorations. There was a wall of bumper stickers and to my huge surprise there was one from Troubadour bakery in Bay View, Wisconsin! Wild! What are the chances! Spoiler alert: this would be the first of many Wisconsin-related encounters we would have over the next few weeks. Stay tuned.
Ben still wasn't quite caffeinated to the fullest (I most certainly was) so wanted to stop by another coffee shop. We took about 50 steps before finding another dope place called Cafe Velvet. This street was full of awesome trendy little shops, restaurants, bars, coffee shops. One of the hippest streets I've been on. Cafe Velvet was no exception. Ben thoroughly enjoyed his cappuccino under an herb garden wall while I learned about Monet from one of the table books.
For lunch, we decide to visit a little empanada stand that was crowded with locals earlier in the day - Empanadas El Machetico. The stand was quite small and simple, with one choice of empanada and one choice of salsa. But boy was it delicious. Excellent crispy outside with a tasty beef and potato filling. We had many.
One of our goals while we were in Medellin was to make it to a soccer match. Fortunately for us, there was one tonight! We just needed to find tickets. Following the advice of the front desk lady from our hostel, we try to find a counter selling tickets at the Exito grocery store. Took some wandering around and Spanish bumbling but we finally got them! Independiente Medellin vs Atletica Huila. We were told to get to the stadium area early to take part in the pre-game festivities. So we hopped on the infamous Metro - the only metro system in South America and the pride and joy of paisas (it was excellent to be fair) - and immediately were surrounded by a sea of red and blue. To avoid being the obvious Gringos, we scrambled to find cheap Independiente Medellin kits. Took a bit of bargaining but we found some that fit well. Mine is a youth large. The crowd around the stadium was wild. Especially for a Wednesday night! A crazy amount of people pre-gaming with plenty of beer and street meat vendors to keep
everyone satiated. I noticed a bunch of them walking around taking pulls of a light yellow drink straight from a 1.75 bottle. A few of the vendors were selling cups of it as well so I go up to one and ask what it was. He looks at me as though I've asked a stupid question and says "Claro, es michelada" (It's michelada, duh). I'm still quite puzzled as this answer provided no useful information so I ask a few of the girls standing next to the cart. They give me the thumbs up and encourage me to try it. It's pretty tasty! Turns out its a mixture of lime+beer+passion fruit juice+salt. All good things. It was a blast to people-watch and experience the chaos while drinking michelada and eating some tasty meats. As we eventually make our way towards the stadium, we hear a growing roar. Must be the chanting fans! This chanting/singing/taunting went on non-stop for the entire game. So much energy! The whole experience reminded me of going to Badger football games at Camp Randall.
End of D54 cribbage score: Ben 84 (12 skunks) – Meg 62 (14 skunks)
Happy Independence Day, Colombia! We thought it would be real neat to be in a bigger city for Colombia's Independence Day. Nah. They don't really treat it any differently than just another day off. No parades or events or anything fun. Plus, everything was closed! It took us a lot of walking around to find a place that was open for breakfast. Worth it when we finally did though - tasty eggs benny at Ganso & Castor. Since everything was shut down, today would be a good day to head up to Parque Arvi National Park. To get to get Parque Arvi you take the metro to the edge of the city then two gondola rides up the sides of the valley to the park resting on top. The gondola rides were pretty neat because they run right over some of the "slum" neighborhoods of Medellin. These neighborhoods were some of the most dangerous in Colombia in the 90s when crime was at its peak. While improving, we were told we probably shouldn't walk around there on our own so this was a cool way to see a bit of the culture of that area without the risk. Once at the top, there was a neat little farmers market to explore before finding one of the trails - we got some emps, uchuvas, coffee, and a few bracelets. It's a pretty big park so we had plenty of options for exploring. We chose to hike to a big picnic area along a river.
Not the prettiest hike but since it was Colombian Independence Day, each picnic site was full of Colombian families grilling out, listening to music, playing games, and having some family fun time. It was a great cultural experience to see how similar yet different these families spend time together compared to what we are used to back in the States.
We stopped by Cafe Zorba back in the city for dinner and got to experience something that we hadn't had since leaving Wisconsin: a glass of ice water. We didn't realize how much we had missed ice cold tap water until we took that first sip. It was so delicious and refreshing. 5-star water, Cafe Zorba. We wined and cribbed and ate some pizza before taking a lovely stroll through the graffitied walls of Medellin.
End of D55 cribbage score: Ben 84 (12 skunks) – Meg 62 (14 skunks)
If you look up the top activities to do in Medellin, the #1 answer overwhelmingly will be to do the Free Walking Tour. Seems odd in a major city, but reviews usually don't lie. There is one company in the city that provides them and they are constantly booked up. You can sign up 36 hrs in advance and must sign up 36 hrs in advance on-the-dot. We tried signing up for the first few days we were here with no luck. But today was the lucky day! There were a few of us from our hostel going on the tour (total was around 30 people yeesh), so we ended up chatting with a couple from Toronto - Joe and Bobbi. They told a funny but not so funny story about how someone attempted to mug them in Bogota in broad daylight. Joe just said "No" and walked away. Apparently that works. The tour took us through the downtown/historic district of Medellin. Our guide, Milo, talked about everything from the interesting history of the paisa region, to the foods of the area, to what most people came to hear about - drugs. The violence, the economic impact, and "The famous man." We weren't allowed to say his name because the locals often are very sensitive about the man who gave their beloved country a horrible reputation for a few decades. Hard to argue with that. The whole tour let us experience how great the people of Medellin are and how hard they are trying to overcome their very recent very violent past. They truly loved seeing tourists and would often come up to us and say, "Gringo gringo! Welcome to our country!" One part of the tour that really stuck out was when Milo took us to a big square that often holds outdoor concerts/events, featuring a statue by a famous Colombian artist. One night back when this area was still dangerous, someone set off a bomb during a crowded event. A little girl died, many were injured, and this statue was ruined. Instead of removing the partially exploded statue, the city and the artist agreed to build an exact replica right next to the ruined one. The people now use these statues as a symbol that they are rebuilding and overcoming their troubled past. Pretty powerful stuff. Another not so powerful, but still noteworthy thing we saw was the street right next to the city's biggest church that sold hard core porn DVDs right next to children's movies. Like on the same table, just lined up all together. Nemo next to porno. Super weird.
We stopped by Mercado Rio for lunch after the tour. It's a big public market with lots of food vendors. Food was good, not great. But we did get a real tasty maracuya/chocolate frozen yogurt bar.
As tonight was our last night in Medellin, we decided to do it up right. We started by going to a cool, hole-in-the-wall Cuban bar. The place starting filling up with locals as they started getting done with work. Corona seemed to be the drink of choice. Made for a nice pre-dinner setting! Next, we went to a much more trendy/touristy bar (37 Park) with a dope outdoor patio. Cafe lights were hung, music was on point, and mojitos were delicious, though pricey. Stop #3 was dinner at an Arab restaurant, Tabun. We enjoyed
our tasting menu, complete with hummus, tahini and lots of different salsas/sauces as well as shawarma and meatballs. All while belly dancers did their thing throughout the restaurant. We attempted to make a post-dinner stop a corner bar that I had read about, but it was absolutely packed (being late on a Friday night and all). Oh well, we had a good run for being old folk.
End of D56 cribbage score: Ben 84 (12 skunks) – Meg 62 (14 skunks)
Overall, Medellin was one of our favorite cities. Great culture, lots of good restaurants and nightlife, perfect weather (city of eternal spring). If for some reason we had to move to Colombia, this is where we would move.