i am writing this extremely hastily... I assume I am rambling and writing in incomplete fragments at times, I apologize for this. I've left a lot of details about specifics out because I have no time to write. I've already forgotten a lot and wanted to get some stuff down so I don't forget more. What a great experience medellin has been... begun blog:
Dec 28, 29, 30
The past three days have been a whirlwind. Primarily I stuck with the three Canadian officers (they met in the Canadian military academy) which was nice- I didn't pay attention to anyone selling cocaine - mostly because I think we projected a big time drug free aura. After the Pablo tour we decided to book paragliding and an afternoon tour. I met a local girl walking around and scheduled a dinner date for the following evening. We woke up early, met for breakfast and took off for the paragliding trip. A couple hostel mates from the Bay Area remembered me and gave me a hard time the entire trip, we bullshitted back and forth- the group was a good fit and the day was pretty awesome. I remember no one telling me anything, nest thing I know I'm being pulled towards a cliff and told in hasty Spanish some directions I can't make out; surely if it was important someone would have told me something- go pro in hand I just went with it and ran off the cliff, all was well and we were in the air following hawks and cutting clouds.
We made our way back down to the taxi that the tour promoter set up for us to drop us off at the walking tour meeting point. The tour guide we got was the owner of the company and did a tremendous job telling us about how it was to grow up in Colombia and that he had an engineering degree, masters degree, and lived abroad or many years- he knew what it was like to travel and he would take care of us- we could trust him that he was our for our best interest. We learned about a lot of beautiful history of a strong, proud people, before cocaine ever made its way to Colombia; but also drugs, prostitution, cops, and massive wars/problems. Colombia is an interesting place that is for sure. Everyone has earned me about the corruption and how you can get thrown in jail or forced to bribe officers for things you didn't even do. I am clear there is a problem here.
I met another Bay Area guy, an African American named joe who accompanied me to the dinner with the local girl and her friend. They took us to their favorite spot and gave us a lot of insight to the area, they spoke English but almost demanded we speak in Spanish - i can carry on basic conversation in Spanglish and it went well. The evening was very authentic and professional, I really enjoyed it, the ladies went home after the dinner and I feel we've got friends for life. Joe and I joined a pub crawl with about 70 gringos- we met all kinds of people and went to some really terrible bars, until finally we ended up at an odd mix of Colombian disco/hole in the wall that had a great vibe to it. I sat and watched fully content from my dinner as slowly all the western guys were dancing with local girls (or so it seemed). What an experience to just sit and watch. I went home and passed out- I had cable cars in the morning.
The next day I woke up and wanted to go for a run, but I saw the Canadian officers and they said they had to catch a flight so I decided to push my run back and grab breakfast with them/go to the cable cars with them- why not see all the sights together ? By the time we were done with breakfast and they packed so much time had elapsed they decided to call it off so they didn't miss their flight. I had met a few other people that wanted to go with me so I told them now I could go with them since I was not on a time crunch with the officers any longer. Before I knew it the other group of friends (two Australian female roommates) told me the uber was downstairs - I didn't even know we were taking uber but they said they were in a hurry because they had a plane to catch as well.
We got to the cable cars and enjoyed views of the city, beautiful Ride to the top and then got off at park arvi. The girls had To go, the fourth friend a guy from London decided not to stay as well so I was left alone. Almost immediately after splitting up I ran into two girls from the Bay Area and we hiked around together trying to find whatever there was to see in the area. We paid a taxi, took a bus, walked for hours, and didn't really see much of anything special. Disappointed we headed back to the cable cars and discussed plans for their last evening in medellin. I told them about my hostel and they wanted to check it out, we grabbed sushi downstairs and had a margarita. After the appetizer (the sushi was actually really good even though we had our doubts) we split ways and I saw the guy from the gondola ride - I told him I'd grab dinner in a hour or so and asked if he wanted to go - (his name is Andrew) he said he would. I grabbed my running shorts and ran through the hills behind the pablado area - I ran up up and kept going up, passing little high rise apartments all with security gated perimeters. As it was around 6pm I saw lots of people transitioning between work and going out for dinner, I looked into the buildings and saw Tv's playing, people living life, everything looked safe. I imagined living here; rent couldn't be that bad, the weather is the same all year round, people seem to be really chill, I really like this place. In the back of my mind the warnings from everyone reverberated and I have to force myself to remember the grass always seems greener on the other side, while also remembering some places do in fact agree with people better than others- I couldn't tell which was more likely going on in my head and dropped the idea altogether. The run back was all down hill on Calle 10, I turned left to go back to the hostel area and ended up running right to the park with the basketball court and free weights. I purposely didn't bring my phone this time because last time I brought my phone I had no pockets and I felt sketchy leaving an expensive phone lying around Colombia as I worked out. The weights were so packed (this was a higher class neighborhood and right on one of the most walked paths in the area, I suppose guys love working out here and getting the attention from everyone walking by) so I decided to do some sprints and leg workouts in the basketball court as no one was there. While in my workout I saw the same guy playing basketball two days before when I worked out last time; I remembered he spoke in English, was really good at basketball and commented on "getting older"- he seemed like a good guy to work out with but we never spoke. I finished my workout and headed back to the hostel; caught a shower and met Andrew for dinner. We went back to the place I had gone a couple nights before (I can't even remember who I went with anymore, one of the guys from the hostel) as I knew it was a good place and it had lots of options. Previously I had ordered "noisettes" some kind of mashed potatoes breaded and fried, with cream cheese and bacon dip... little balls of heaven, along with ribs for around $20 total. Everything was delicious, the guy I was with got pizza and we both shared each other's food, both was amazing. Today the waiter said he didn't have noisettes for some reason (I didn't understand all the Spanish) so we ordered some chips and dip that contained a massive list of ingredients (but all things I liked including cream cheese bacon quest beans guac salsa etc); we both got some kind of meat pizza for the main course. The service was really slow - I guess because they were so busy; we finished our meal and went back to the hostel to meet a friend of his flying in from London.
(Out of chronological order) at the restaurant with the local girls I ordered ravioli (they mostly had seafood) and I really have to think it was some of the best ravioli I've ever had and priced at around $8. The food here has been amazing, and I can't find a meal for over $15.
(Back in order) Andrew and I started off sitting alone for a while, then slowly our table grew to six guys or so, maybe eight. The Cali girls showed up and I introduced them to everyone - we had a conversation about the Red Bull, someone worked at Red Bull and said it was created based off something Thailand and that it was a bit restricted in the USA due to the FDA requirements, but in Colombia was unrestricted and thus a little stronger. One of the guys was a doctor and said it was terrible for you. On a side note, I asked him about cocaine and he said it's not so bad... I have been asking everyone here if they do cocaine and am really confused at how high of a percentage of people do, maybe it has something to do with where we are at ?? I didn't come here for that but now that I wasn't around the Canadian officers anymore it seemed much more prevalent. Thoughts of trying this entered my brain but I just like the idea that I've ever done it, I have a lot of things I want to do with my brain still, and I feel it's too weak naturally so why do I want to put anything else in there to make it weaker? Many people argue small drug use enhances thought, but I haven't been convinced. In the end I drink alcohol so I suppose it's just as bad.
The night went pretty flawlessly, the group kept growing and we eventually took everyone out. We had people from South America, all over europe, Australia, North America, and Asia. Poblano (the nice area for foreigners) is small and eventually everyone runs into everybody else. Apparently the locals have a fascination with foreigners and especially blonde people: even stopping them to get pictures with them. The tour guide said for a long time medellin was sealed off from the world due to rough geography- also that tourism wasn't heavily popular until recently so many locals haven't seen foreigners. The tour guide (named Pablo ironically) also said gringo was not offensive here and the culture was simply to say hola and be nice to each other so do not get upset. Pablo talked about bartering also but I'm getting off topic.
At the end of the night I met a local and ended up going back to meet her mother in a random set of situations. Several things led to this, one I had been told it's legal to pee in public- I never do this as I believe in America it is really frowned upon but I really had to pee. I decided to try and pee behind a tree real quick (but not thinking it was illegal I didn't really scan the area for police) and immediately had two cops on me before I even peed. Fearing the corruption I immediately said I was sorry and attempted to explain myself. They looked like they wanted to give me a hard time but someone I had met through friends in the disco came to my rescue. She later said to me that she told the cops we were dating and made up a story to get me out of trouble. I felt very thankful and we walked a bit together, some how It ended up that I was to meet her mother ? I went with it and next thing I knew I was in a four story, immaculately clean, 5-6 bedroom 4-5 bathroom house with a beautiful view. We talked for a bit about where I was from and what I thought about Colombia; honestly I couldn't get over the house- the funny thing was they kept saying it was small. I saw no signs of anyone but her mother living here... I got a guest bedroom on the same floor as the mom and went to sleep, had to wake up early to go on a tour in the morning at 8 am.
I fell asleep so fast (by myself of course) and the alarm woke me up in what seemed like an instant, I woke up folded my blankets and Gave the mom a hug goodbye (didn't see the daughter) she walked me out and asked the neighbor to walk me down to find a taxi. I grabbed a taxi back to the hostel got ready and went out to the tour of guatape.
The tour to guatape had a really interesting group, at first I thought it would be a really separate / group of individuals, but now as we ride back from guatape i see we've really bonded, everyone is now one big group of friends. We've spent the day sharing stories/experiences and joking, it poured rain and we all froze a bit on the boat ride we took to the second biggest rock in South America (the first is Rio de Janeiro). We saw Pablo Escobar's second biggest property, walked around guatape, climbed the rock, and now are on our way home stopped at a view point / lookout overlooking the entire city for a really cloudy sunset. This city is awesome, I can't describe the feeling I have right now for the city I'm staring at. Pablo, the tour guide said the people of medellin forget all the bad stuff and find reasons to be happy, that is their culture. The people I've met for the most part have been so friendly and do a good job of making us feel like they truly care about other people : specifically each of us individually. It feels good to visit here, I feel like I'm part of the community even though I know I'm not, great job medellin I am really impressed.
I decided to stay here for New Years as everyone said Bogota was just alright and I had a lot of stuff I still wanted to do here. Much like Kyoto I didn't want to leave this place with a feeling that I should have spent a few more days - this place was very interesting and I wanted to leave making sure I felt like I really got a genuine, thorough experience so I didn't feel obligated to return. Guatape specifically was something I was told I had to do, and I kind of see why; although I admit starting off meeting Pablo Escobar's brother, then paragliding, set up the next two days for failure- how do you compete with those?
In closing, I have really enjoyed medellin and also am proud to say I think I've done a fairly good job of being professional, polite, and definitely productive. I know medellin has a lot going on and I see the drugs everywhere, but I also believe pablo the tour guide that drugs are only a small part of the beauty that is medellin. Random note: I'm not sure if I commented on my roommate being out of money; he had been sitting in bed for two days straight until I finally asked him, "is everything ok?" I really was curious to know if he was sick, I felt bad for him, he said he was broke an waiting for payday on the first. I offered him some of the food the Panamanian family packed for me and he hopped out of the bed for the first time Since I've been here and said I was a life savor.
I got back to my room and talked to my American roommates that have kind of been anti social (they were laying in bed reading... strange to me) and said "wow what an amazing place"- they agreed and said they had been here before and were excited to come back.
I want to keep emphasizing the things I've seen and learned here: there is a real problem, prostitution and drugs are everywhere, the war for cocaine is still going on in the jungles apparently, but, this place was beautiful long before drugs were here- drugs entered the region in 1970, a small window of time. Hopefully, drugs didn't play as big of a role in economic development as some of us think, and it is more of a huge downside / hinderance to a great place. I don't know the truths but this is Kind of what is going on in my mind. I do feel really ashamed I tried peeing in public but admit sometimes I have to do it.
Now I will get showered up, grab some food, meet with friends and hopefully get to sleep in tomorrow. Tomorrow I just want to do some shopping and relax, my first day without a full agenda and I am looking forward to it. New Year's Eve is supposed to be a really fun time here and lots of the friends I've made are coming to my hostel to celebrate together.
Dec 28, 29, 30
The past three days have been a whirlwind. Primarily I stuck with the three Canadian officers (they met in the Canadian military academy) which was nice- I didn't pay attention to anyone selling cocaine - mostly because I think we projected a big time drug free aura. After the Pablo tour we decided to book paragliding and an afternoon tour. I met a local girl walking around and scheduled a dinner date for the following evening. We woke up early, met for breakfast and took off for the paragliding trip. A couple hostel mates from the Bay Area remembered me and gave me a hard time the entire trip, we bullshitted back and forth- the group was a good fit and the day was pretty awesome. I remember no one telling me anything, nest thing I know I'm being pulled towards a cliff and told in hasty Spanish some directions I can't make out; surely if it was important someone would have told me something- go pro in hand I just went with it and ran off the cliff, all was well and we were in the air following hawks and cutting clouds.
We made our way back down to the taxi that the tour promoter set up for us to drop us off at the walking tour meeting point. The tour guide we got was the owner of the company and did a tremendous job telling us about how it was to grow up in Colombia and that he had an engineering degree, masters degree, and lived abroad or many years- he knew what it was like to travel and he would take care of us- we could trust him that he was our for our best interest. We learned about a lot of beautiful history of a strong, proud people, before cocaine ever made its way to Colombia; but also drugs, prostitution, cops, and massive wars/problems. Colombia is an interesting place that is for sure. Everyone has earned me about the corruption and how you can get thrown in jail or forced to bribe officers for things you didn't even do. I am clear there is a problem here.
I met another Bay Area guy, an African American named joe who accompanied me to the dinner with the local girl and her friend. They took us to their favorite spot and gave us a lot of insight to the area, they spoke English but almost demanded we speak in Spanish - i can carry on basic conversation in Spanglish and it went well. The evening was very authentic and professional, I really enjoyed it, the ladies went home after the dinner and I feel we've got friends for life. Joe and I joined a pub crawl with about 70 gringos- we met all kinds of people and went to some really terrible bars, until finally we ended up at an odd mix of Colombian disco/hole in the wall that had a great vibe to it. I sat and watched fully content from my dinner as slowly all the western guys were dancing with local girls (or so it seemed). What an experience to just sit and watch. I went home and passed out- I had cable cars in the morning.
The next day I woke up and wanted to go for a run, but I saw the Canadian officers and they said they had to catch a flight so I decided to push my run back and grab breakfast with them/go to the cable cars with them- why not see all the sights together ? By the time we were done with breakfast and they packed so much time had elapsed they decided to call it off so they didn't miss their flight. I had met a few other people that wanted to go with me so I told them now I could go with them since I was not on a time crunch with the officers any longer. Before I knew it the other group of friends (two Australian female roommates) told me the uber was downstairs - I didn't even know we were taking uber but they said they were in a hurry because they had a plane to catch as well.
We got to the cable cars and enjoyed views of the city, beautiful Ride to the top and then got off at park arvi. The girls had To go, the fourth friend a guy from London decided not to stay as well so I was left alone. Almost immediately after splitting up I ran into two girls from the Bay Area and we hiked around together trying to find whatever there was to see in the area. We paid a taxi, took a bus, walked for hours, and didn't really see much of anything special. Disappointed we headed back to the cable cars and discussed plans for their last evening in medellin. I told them about my hostel and they wanted to check it out, we grabbed sushi downstairs and had a margarita. After the appetizer (the sushi was actually really good even though we had our doubts) we split ways and I saw the guy from the gondola ride - I told him I'd grab dinner in a hour or so and asked if he wanted to go - (his name is Andrew) he said he would. I grabbed my running shorts and ran through the hills behind the pablado area - I ran up up and kept going up, passing little high rise apartments all with security gated perimeters. As it was around 6pm I saw lots of people transitioning between work and going out for dinner, I looked into the buildings and saw Tv's playing, people living life, everything looked safe. I imagined living here; rent couldn't be that bad, the weather is the same all year round, people seem to be really chill, I really like this place. In the back of my mind the warnings from everyone reverberated and I have to force myself to remember the grass always seems greener on the other side, while also remembering some places do in fact agree with people better than others- I couldn't tell which was more likely going on in my head and dropped the idea altogether. The run back was all down hill on Calle 10, I turned left to go back to the hostel area and ended up running right to the park with the basketball court and free weights. I purposely didn't bring my phone this time because last time I brought my phone I had no pockets and I felt sketchy leaving an expensive phone lying around Colombia as I worked out. The weights were so packed (this was a higher class neighborhood and right on one of the most walked paths in the area, I suppose guys love working out here and getting the attention from everyone walking by) so I decided to do some sprints and leg workouts in the basketball court as no one was there. While in my workout I saw the same guy playing basketball two days before when I worked out last time; I remembered he spoke in English, was really good at basketball and commented on "getting older"- he seemed like a good guy to work out with but we never spoke. I finished my workout and headed back to the hostel; caught a shower and met Andrew for dinner. We went back to the place I had gone a couple nights before (I can't even remember who I went with anymore, one of the guys from the hostel) as I knew it was a good place and it had lots of options. Previously I had ordered "noisettes" some kind of mashed potatoes breaded and fried, with cream cheese and bacon dip... little balls of heaven, along with ribs for around $20 total. Everything was delicious, the guy I was with got pizza and we both shared each other's food, both was amazing. Today the waiter said he didn't have noisettes for some reason (I didn't understand all the Spanish) so we ordered some chips and dip that contained a massive list of ingredients (but all things I liked including cream cheese bacon quest beans guac salsa etc); we both got some kind of meat pizza for the main course. The service was really slow - I guess because they were so busy; we finished our meal and went back to the hostel to meet a friend of his flying in from London.
(Out of chronological order) at the restaurant with the local girls I ordered ravioli (they mostly had seafood) and I really have to think it was some of the best ravioli I've ever had and priced at around $8. The food here has been amazing, and I can't find a meal for over $15.
(Back in order) Andrew and I started off sitting alone for a while, then slowly our table grew to six guys or so, maybe eight. The Cali girls showed up and I introduced them to everyone - we had a conversation about the Red Bull, someone worked at Red Bull and said it was created based off something Thailand and that it was a bit restricted in the USA due to the FDA requirements, but in Colombia was unrestricted and thus a little stronger. One of the guys was a doctor and said it was terrible for you. On a side note, I asked him about cocaine and he said it's not so bad... I have been asking everyone here if they do cocaine and am really confused at how high of a percentage of people do, maybe it has something to do with where we are at ?? I didn't come here for that but now that I wasn't around the Canadian officers anymore it seemed much more prevalent. Thoughts of trying this entered my brain but I just like the idea that I've ever done it, I have a lot of things I want to do with my brain still, and I feel it's too weak naturally so why do I want to put anything else in there to make it weaker? Many people argue small drug use enhances thought, but I haven't been convinced. In the end I drink alcohol so I suppose it's just as bad.
The night went pretty flawlessly, the group kept growing and we eventually took everyone out. We had people from South America, all over europe, Australia, North America, and Asia. Poblano (the nice area for foreigners) is small and eventually everyone runs into everybody else. Apparently the locals have a fascination with foreigners and especially blonde people: even stopping them to get pictures with them. The tour guide said for a long time medellin was sealed off from the world due to rough geography- also that tourism wasn't heavily popular until recently so many locals haven't seen foreigners. The tour guide (named Pablo ironically) also said gringo was not offensive here and the culture was simply to say hola and be nice to each other so do not get upset. Pablo talked about bartering also but I'm getting off topic.
At the end of the night I met a local and ended up going back to meet her mother in a random set of situations. Several things led to this, one I had been told it's legal to pee in public- I never do this as I believe in America it is really frowned upon but I really had to pee. I decided to try and pee behind a tree real quick (but not thinking it was illegal I didn't really scan the area for police) and immediately had two cops on me before I even peed. Fearing the corruption I immediately said I was sorry and attempted to explain myself. They looked like they wanted to give me a hard time but someone I had met through friends in the disco came to my rescue. She later said to me that she told the cops we were dating and made up a story to get me out of trouble. I felt very thankful and we walked a bit together, some how It ended up that I was to meet her mother ? I went with it and next thing I knew I was in a four story, immaculately clean, 5-6 bedroom 4-5 bathroom house with a beautiful view. We talked for a bit about where I was from and what I thought about Colombia; honestly I couldn't get over the house- the funny thing was they kept saying it was small. I saw no signs of anyone but her mother living here... I got a guest bedroom on the same floor as the mom and went to sleep, had to wake up early to go on a tour in the morning at 8 am.
I fell asleep so fast (by myself of course) and the alarm woke me up in what seemed like an instant, I woke up folded my blankets and Gave the mom a hug goodbye (didn't see the daughter) she walked me out and asked the neighbor to walk me down to find a taxi. I grabbed a taxi back to the hostel got ready and went out to the tour of guatape.
The tour to guatape had a really interesting group, at first I thought it would be a really separate / group of individuals, but now as we ride back from guatape i see we've really bonded, everyone is now one big group of friends. We've spent the day sharing stories/experiences and joking, it poured rain and we all froze a bit on the boat ride we took to the second biggest rock in South America (the first is Rio de Janeiro). We saw Pablo Escobar's second biggest property, walked around guatape, climbed the rock, and now are on our way home stopped at a view point / lookout overlooking the entire city for a really cloudy sunset. This city is awesome, I can't describe the feeling I have right now for the city I'm staring at. Pablo, the tour guide said the people of medellin forget all the bad stuff and find reasons to be happy, that is their culture. The people I've met for the most part have been so friendly and do a good job of making us feel like they truly care about other people : specifically each of us individually. It feels good to visit here, I feel like I'm part of the community even though I know I'm not, great job medellin I am really impressed.
I decided to stay here for New Years as everyone said Bogota was just alright and I had a lot of stuff I still wanted to do here. Much like Kyoto I didn't want to leave this place with a feeling that I should have spent a few more days - this place was very interesting and I wanted to leave making sure I felt like I really got a genuine, thorough experience so I didn't feel obligated to return. Guatape specifically was something I was told I had to do, and I kind of see why; although I admit starting off meeting Pablo Escobar's brother, then paragliding, set up the next two days for failure- how do you compete with those?
In closing, I have really enjoyed medellin and also am proud to say I think I've done a fairly good job of being professional, polite, and definitely productive. I know medellin has a lot going on and I see the drugs everywhere, but I also believe pablo the tour guide that drugs are only a small part of the beauty that is medellin. Random note: I'm not sure if I commented on my roommate being out of money; he had been sitting in bed for two days straight until I finally asked him, "is everything ok?" I really was curious to know if he was sick, I felt bad for him, he said he was broke an waiting for payday on the first. I offered him some of the food the Panamanian family packed for me and he hopped out of the bed for the first time Since I've been here and said I was a life savor.
I got back to my room and talked to my American roommates that have kind of been anti social (they were laying in bed reading... strange to me) and said "wow what an amazing place"- they agreed and said they had been here before and were excited to come back.
I want to keep emphasizing the things I've seen and learned here: there is a real problem, prostitution and drugs are everywhere, the war for cocaine is still going on in the jungles apparently, but, this place was beautiful long before drugs were here- drugs entered the region in 1970, a small window of time. Hopefully, drugs didn't play as big of a role in economic development as some of us think, and it is more of a huge downside / hinderance to a great place. I don't know the truths but this is Kind of what is going on in my mind. I do feel really ashamed I tried peeing in public but admit sometimes I have to do it.
Now I will get showered up, grab some food, meet with friends and hopefully get to sleep in tomorrow. Tomorrow I just want to do some shopping and relax, my first day without a full agenda and I am looking forward to it. New Year's Eve is supposed to be a really fun time here and lots of the friends I've made are coming to my hostel to celebrate together.
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