Checkers Anyone?

Nov 25

The magic of Medellin got us as soon as we woke up and looked out the window, surrounding the city are lush green peaks being swallowed with red brick housing. Once again we are saddened that we did not get to see this as we approached the city yesterday but today we will make up for it by taking the tram up to the summit at Santo Domingo. From this vantage point we could see a large portion of the city and the valley in which it occupies. 

We talked with a station attendant, William, who explained about the growth of Medellin in the past decade. We also found out he was a Chemistry teacher and taught himself English by watching TV, movies, and listening to music. He really impressed us with how fluent he was without any formal training. William is now trying to learn French so that he can immigrate to Canada, I guess I have to try harder with my Spanish.

This was such a great view of the city we decided to go to take the train to the South end of the city and take a different tram up to a different summit. By the time we got there some of the clouds that remained from yesterday’s rain had cleared off and we were granted the most amazing view of the valley.

The metro train system was very easy to figure out, and once inside the paid area we could transfer to different trains or trams without any additional cost, similar to our system. Medellin has designed their whole metro system to reach the maximum number of neighborhoods, combined with the very low cost (less than $2 for us) it entices residents to use mass transit instead of taking cars or whatever.

Our hotel was just off the busy downtown core area which like normal was buzzing with shops and vendors. There is of course some stunning architecture in the city, churches are expected but it was a real treat to see a “checkerboard” building.

Checkers anyone?

While snooping out the buildings we found a very large Christmas decoration on the boulevard, the guys were still hoisting up panels for the top section which would make the thing about 80ft tall.

There were other crews stinging lights on trestles over the street as well, unfortunately we are about a week early to see them all lit up. We took a break from walking and did some curb sitting, well not really on the curb more like a planter box. From here we watched; a gentleman restring a rattan rocking chair (at home this would have likely gone in the trash), a little old guy energetically selling gum and other candy (he must have been 80 but was very spry), an armoured car transfer money into a bank (they don’t mess around down here, one guard had his revolver drawn and ready to fire the other had an assault style shotgun that was very impressive with a chrome barrel). 

The numerous vendors did not seem to be selling much with the exception of the people with “cell phones on a rope”, a pay as you talk system that seemed very popular. The friendly rain clouds returned so we made our way back to the hotel to get jackets before supper. We had hoped to frequent the vendors again but by the time we were ready to eat it was raining quite hard so all we managed to by was some fruit for the morning, we opted for a quaint restaurant that served roasted or fried chicken with baked potatoes and of course Arepas. A half chicken with 6 baby potatoes and 3 Arepas was $7600COP (approx $3.50CDN). The evening was spent drinking Tinto and planning the next couple of days.