Medellín

Day 74 (September 10, 2018) - Medellín, Colombia

After our trip to the small towns of Colombia, we were (and I especially was) ready for a big city again. We had heard that Medellín was a good city for restaurants and nightlife, and it lived up to that description. We stayed in a section of the city called El Poblado, which has a high concentration of restaurants, bars, and clubs. Unlike in Bogotá, where we hardly saw tourists in the area we were staying (Chapinero), the Poblado section of Medellín was absolutely full of them. Everything was also extremely pricey in this area, probably because of all the tourists and the somewhat fancy restaurants/bars.

Park Lleras - the center of nightlife in El Poblado, Medellín

On our first full day in Medellín, we took a cable car up to a town called Santa Elena. While there wasn't much to see in Santa Elena at the top, the cable car ride itself gave us an amazing view over the whole city (see first picture in this post). A portion of the ride was part of the city's metro system, which the locals are very proud of. As we learned in a guided tour later, Medellín locals are so proud of the metro that they don't vandalize the train cars or stations in any way (a rarity elsewhere in the world).

Mark enjoying the cable car ride

On our next full day in Medellín, we went on a guided tour of the city lead by Real City Tours with our excellent tour guide Juan. He grew up in Medellín but spent a few years in New York, so his English was excellent. He was also a great story teller and gave a very informative tour. While the tour is free, you are expected to tip somewhere between $7 to $15 at the end, which is a bargain considering the tour was about 4 hours. We walked through the Centro (center of downtown), which was extremely lively with many people and shops. For about $0.15 each we bought these little fried balls of dough that they sell on the street (can't remember the name of them, but they were really tasty). We also walked through Plaza Botero, which contained numerous sculptures by Fernando Botero (the artist with the fetish for well-proportioned subjects), as well as a Cultural Center that looked like a fancy church (but is not).

Plaza Botero in Medellín. The Cultural Center is in the background.

Plaza Botero sculpture from a very flattering angle

During this tour we also visited Park San Antonio, where in 1995 a bomb was detonated under a Botero sculpture of a bird, killing 23 people and injuring numerous others. The mangled sculpture was originally going to be removed by the mayor of Medellín, but Botero himself phoned the mayor warning him not to do so. Botero said the people needed to remember this tragedy, and if the destroyed sculpture was removed, people might forget. So instead the damaged sculpture was kept in the park as a reminder, and a brand new sculpture of the same bird was donated by Botero to be displayed next to the destroyed one. The two statutes together (the old and the new) would remind the people of the past while giving them hope for the future.

Mark in front of the Old and New Botero bird sculptures in Park San Antonio in Medellín

Another day in Medellín we went to the Museum of Modern Art. While only one of the four floors was open, it was still an interesting experience. I don't think we'll ever "get" art, especially modern art. While the placards for each piece of art were in both English and Spanish, they were quite nonsensical. The descriptions attempted to give some insight into what the art meant, and why certain features in the art were present, but it seemed quite a stretch of sanity to believe the artist really had all that in mind. 

Modern Art Museum: Flies made from bullets

Modern Art Museum: A burn mark made by an iron

On the bright side, the roof of the Modern Art Museum did have a pretty good view:

View from top of Modern Art Museum

One thing Medellín is also known for is being the home base of Pablo Escobar, the ruthless Medellín drug cartel leader that still elicits a host of reactions from Medellín locals (paisas) to this day (even though he was killed in 1993). Our tour guide kept referring to him as "the famous criminal from this city," mostly to avoid saying his name out loud and having a nearby local overhear (and think we were saying good things about him). Some people (the majority) think Escobar was simply a criminal out to make himself rich, leaving a path of death and destruction that included kidnapping, torture, assassination of political candidates, bribing government officials, and murdering police officers and common people. Others (the minority) think Escobar did a little bit of good for the people, since he built hospitals and homes for the poor (though our tour guide said this was just to gain political clout with the people, and it had nothing to do with Escobar's goodwill). In any event, it is not wise to mention Escobar in Medellín, or you may find yourself in a heated discussion in Spanish. 

In the 1980s and 90s, Medellín was an extremely dangerous place because of Escobar and the cartel activities. Bombings, kidnappings, and executions were commonplace. But today, while Colombia is still dealing with some issues of the drug trade, the kind of violence of the 80s and 90s is long gone. While you still have to use common sense and be aware of your surroundings, just like in any other major city, Medellín (and the majority of Colombia) is comparatively safe. It is actually quite the modern world-class city, just like Bogotá in this regard. There are shops, restaurants, office buildings, tourists, and many friendly locals just going about their lives. We enjoyed our time in Medellín and definitely recommend visiting here (and all of Colombia).

Somewhere in Medellín, on our walk back to our room from a shopping mall

One of the main intersections in El Poblado