Medellín - "La Ciudad de la Eterna Primavera"

Nothing like another one of those 15 hour windy bus rides to take us to "The City of the Eternal Spring" - MEDELLIN.

Estamos aqui.

This unique blend of being almost 5000 ft. above sea level, within a valley in the Colombian Andes, and just above the equator is the perfect recipe for that delicious weather: never too hot nor too cold. Que rico.

Average annual temperature: 72 °F.

I can definitely get down with a climate like this.




It's hard to believe that just recently (1980's - late 90's), this city was known for being a base for the most powerful international drug trafficking organizations like the home-based Medellin Cartel led by your boy - Pablo Escobar. This plus all the street gangs doing their thing made Medellin one of the most violent cities in the world (6,349 homicides at a rate of 18 per day in 1991). What am I doing here?

We actually drove by the house where this Colombian Drug Lord was located and cornered by the Bloque de Busqueda on December 2nd, 1993 . On that day he was shot down and killed on the rooftop of this now abandoned home pictured here.




Nowadays, it looks like those times of terror are long gone. The nearly 3 million people that live here, aka Paisas, have this clean Metropolitan city back on track: transportation systems, universities, parks, museums, architecture, libraries, sports, and shopping malls. It's all good...
especially when ROBOCOP is out there keeping the streets safe at night.







The Metro de Medellín - you have to take a shot of Patron when you buy your ticket.






Off the Metro is the Metro Cable line which glides up above the hill over the barrio of Santo Domingo. As we went up we looked below at what was once considered perhaps the most violent neighborhood of all Latin America. But on this day, a Medellin man with his 8 year old daughter that sat across from us in the Metro Cable enjoyed telling us about how much he loved his city: weather, food, people. I love that about the people from Latin America. And his little daughter was so cute counting out loud out of nowhere in English probably because she heard us speaking in English "weny-one, weny-two,.." - what a show off. j/k I can't wait until the day I start telling foreigners about how I love Union City: TV Arcade, Silver Dollar, The Holly Center, UC transit, Mexico Lindo and ABT.


Botero Park



Universidad de Antioquia


Centro Comercial - El Tesoro


Pueblita Paisa on Cerro Nutibara

Still going strong with the best deal in town: Menu del dia

Parque de los Pies Descalzos
This oasis in the middle of the city is a sweet spot to get your relax on. It's perfect if you wanna just kick off your shoes and let your feet groove with the elements: water, grass, and sand.
Hence, the translation: Park of the bare feet.








There was even Capoeira going on in the Parque. I guess it makes sense since they were all bare footed as well.

COUCHSURFING?

I thought we were couchsurfing but it turned out to be more like house-sitting.

Our host, Juan Carlos, picked us up from the bus terminal and we took a cruise around town in his Mazda 626. We stopped to enjoy a solid late dinner: steak and beer. He even got us with a sneak attack treat when he picked up the tab. Baller!!! This lawyer and quizzing machine who never eats meals welcomed us to stay at his condo on the Piso Superior (top floor). After showing us around his condo (how to work the stove, wi-fi, how to turn on the hot water, etc.) and teaching us to use the public transportation, he gave us the keys and left for his mom's house for the night. So we were left there in his pimp suite for our first night. FULL TRUST status for first time meets. It turned out that out of the 9 nights we stayed here, he only slept there once. We definitely owned this place...

SPANISH 101
When this guy gets home from work he starts quizzing us right away in Spanish. He would point the paintings on the wall, the wall itself, the door, the ceiling, the chairs, the windows and ask us what the word is in Spanish. It's cool and all that he wants us to learn Spanish but damn, there's gotta be a less dorky way to do it. I'm just playin'. I live to learn anyway I can. To close out the night, he would ask us formally to tell him about our day so we could practice speaking Spanish in the past tense. Me and Muzz would sit on the couch and he would sit across from us on one of the chairs - Hella formal interview steez. He would start by asking Muzz, "¿Que hiciste hoy?" (What did you today?). And as soon as Muzz finished telling about his day, he would ask me the same exact question. We pretty much had similar days so it was a bit silly. Juan cracks me up but it's all good fun.

Roomies eating. Adobo otra vez.

This is definitely a true bachelor pad. His freezer was completely empty and the only thing in his fridge was ham (deli), ketchup, mustard, eggs, tomatoes, and soda. Surprisingly he owned a cheese grater which came in handy one night to cook up some whipped cream spaghetti carbonara for dinner. Don't ask. Here's Muzz cooking up a breakfast storm en la cocina...

...baconsilog.

Our room

Exercise 101:
I guess it's true in different parts of the world: The more tasty the food is the more it is bad for you. I don't wanna gain too much weight so I'm trying to get in some sort of shape. Speaking of shapes....baaah, I won't get in to that right now. Anyways, we used the bars on the balcony to stretch out, did some casual push-ups on the living room floor, knocked out some pre-eat jumping jacks and set the bar stools just a bit wider than shoulder width apart to get a couple sets of dips in.

Our favorite Medellín radio station, 88.0 F.M., provided some excellent workout music.

It was the first time we heard some good hip-hop and R&B on the air waves and we would bump it.
Sample song playlist:
Chronic 2001 - The Next Episode
Wu-tang - C.R.E.A.M.
Brandy - Full Moon
Musiq f/ Mary J. Blige - If you leave
T.I.- whatever you like
Ne-Yo - go on girl
Ashanti - Baby
T.Pain - I can't believe it
Lil' wayne f/ Bobby Valentine - Ms. Officer
De La Soul - All good
Notorious B.I.G. - Juicy

The view from the condo was SIC. Not sic meaning unhealthy, but sic meaning SUPER BIEN!

This is what I stepped out to in the morning when I would brush my teeth out on the balcony.

The sun shining over downtown

And being on the top floor made it easy access to the rooftop which had a mini kitchen, bathroom, sauna, and dope patio area. We had visions of throwing a crazy rooftop party. Still do.


Speaking of parties, there was a Couchsurfing Despedida going on for Nacho from Buenos Aires, who has been living here for the past 7 months. We met a lot of CS from Medellín and other parts of the world and a couple dudes from the states who moved down here. It's not a secret why. CS peeps are the coolest folks on the planet yo, and they know how to enjoy life.



Despedida boy






MEDELLINNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!

And the MADNESS has only just begun....