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February 20, 2006
Medellin, Colombia
The last time i was in Bogota, i remember wondering what it would be like to live there for an extended period of time. So i was glad to get to spend another 2 weeks there, wandering the streets and getting more of a feel for the city. Though it stands as my favorite Latin American capital city, i'm not sure i could ever spend months and months there. Seeing the disparity between the extremely rich people and the people starving begging in the street feels bad, which is not to say that that doesn't happen in the U.S. but i've never seen a private security guard pretty much beat up a homeless women for begging from the haughty rich people entering a fancy discoteque. That was just one excerience among several that i won't recount, but it left me with a more realistic, less romantic verrsion of the city.
One of the good experiences (there were many of those as well, don't get me wrong) was spending time in the library of the Instituto Colombiano de Antropologia y Historia. the librarians were very helpful, and i photocopied a ton of information about the Lost City. The other users of the library seemed very curious about why i was there, and i had some interesting conversations. I'm gonna have to spend some more time in the library and at the Instituto when i return to Bogota before i fly out, and i'm kind of looking forward to it.
The last time i was in Colombia, i was told that people from the department of Antioquia were the nicest, most friendly people in the country. Our schedule didn't allow us to visit Medellin, only a few small towns also located in this district. As promised, the people were amazing, so fun, for example here's my entry from that time last year in a pueblo called Marsalles. Remembering that, i knew that when i returned to Colombia this time, i would make certain to spend some time here. I arrived in Medellin last thursday night, accompanied by a friend i made in Bogota, an english guy named Lee. We spent the entire day on the bus staring out the window, watching the countryside as we went over the Andes, and dropped down into the green rolling hills of Antioquia. I tried to take many photos out the window of the bus, which nearly always turns out crappy, but a few were ok. I find that spacing out my bus trips makes the rides more enjoyable, to the point where i look forward to spending a day reading, listening to music, and watching the view.
Medellin is a big, bustling city, the second largest in this country. The hostel we are staying at is very much a gringo palace, everyone speaking english, watching champion's league football and movies in english on one of the two (two? wtf?) televisions, and drinking tons of beer. It's located in a rich part of the city as well, which i don't like nearly as much as the hostels you normally find in the centers of these cities, surrounded by the grit of everyday reality and not within easy walking distance to Blockbuster Video. Unfortunately, i've been too lazy to switch hostels, and i have met some good people here.
Botero sculpture.
Botero sculpture.
me posing in front of the backdrop for the first camera ever brought to colombia, in 1870.
largest brick cathedral in the world.
church in parque berrio.
Yesterday we went to el Peñol, a granite monolith sticking up out of the ground several hundred feet and surrounded by a network of lakes. it was beautiful to take in the view from atop La Piedra as they called it, and afterwords the small group of us headed down the road a bit to swim in one of the lakes and jump off a bridge into the water. It was probably only 10-12 meters, but those heights always feel much taller when you're looking down from them. I loved the feeling of my heart getting worked up as i stood up their getting ready to throw myself off, and then the peace that came over me as i gave my send the 5-4-3-2-1 countdown, and leapt off. my friend Lee took some good photos of the leap.
el peñol.
lakes region.
self portrait.
vegetation growing on the rock.
the bridge i jumped off of.
me jumping off of the bridge.
sunset over medellin.
The one thing i haven't done yet that i must do before i leave this city is vist the grave of Pablo Escobar, just because it will be so weird to do so. i remember reading this book called "Killing Pablo" a long time ago when i was living in Seward, Alaska, about how the CIA and the military of Colombia killed him, and since then i've been morbidly fascinated by his life. i remember meeting argentinians the last time i was down here who felt that Escobar was a hero, because he was selling a resource of Latin America to the United States at a competitive price, instead of just letting us take it, and for that he was killed. i disagreed with this, but it's interesting to think that people will lionize a man who spread so much misery and violence across this entire country. I'll be sure to take a photo of the grave.
Today we're supposed to go hang-gliding. I'm excited for that. it's 25 bucks for a tandem ride, too cheap not to do it.
On thursday or friday i'm heading with a small crew to Barranquilla for Carnivales. it's said to be the second largest party in all of S. America. sufficed to say, it's gonna be nuts. i'm looking forward to it, but if it gets to nuts i'm gonna head out to some small town on the coast to chill out for a bit, drink some tropical fruit juice, and swim in good old el caribe. life is good.
Posted by bendan at February 20, 2006 09:12 PM
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