Bogotá to Medellín is one of the cheapest and easiest short-haul flights anywhere. But I came here to see this country, not the clouds above it. Hence I've spent about 11 hours in aggregate on buses, with a few nights in Honda (see previous blog) to break up the journey midway.
It was gone midnight and I was already half asleep when the bus from Honda reached the outskirts of Medellín. Through the mist I could see millions of lights far above me and also far below me, the road dipping and soaring vertiginously through hills and valleys, past shanty towns and skyscrapers. It was like a dream, and a slightly scary one, given how fast the bus was going, and also given the particular history of this particular town.
Earlier this year in Vienna, I mused on how it's difficult to escape the shadows of local historical figures such as Freud and Hitler. Here in Medellín, there is only one shadow, and there's a monument to him in one of the eastern suburbs. But I will not be polluting this blog with the image of Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria.
On this issue my feelings are similar to those on Che Guevara, whose birthplace in Argentina I visited back in 2012. (Same town as Leo Messi, FWIW). Like Che, Escobar was a charismatic leader who fought with courage and cunning against the existing establishment, and undoubtedly did some good in the short term to improve the lot of some poor people. All that is true as far as it goes; but it's also true of Hitler. The more pertinent fact is that Che and Escobar were sadistic tyrants who killed everyone who got in their way, and also killed many people who hadn't gotten in their way at all. What's more, it's no secret that Escobar freely indulged his taste for underage girls, and that his henchmen were paid handsomely to carry out forced abductions accordingly. Some Colombians may remember him with fondness, just as there are Spaniards and Italians who still revere Franco and Mussolini respectively. The rest of us can continue to spit on certain graves at our discretion.
Medellín doesn't have quite the same level of historical and architectural interest as Bogotá. For me the main attraction is the range of scenic views, either from my 28th-floor apartment or from the MetroCable, a network of cable cars that connects some of the remoter hillside areas with the city centre. Because the MetroCable is intended for locals rather than tourists, it's cheap as chips, and the natural ventilation of the cars as they soar high over the city is a nice way to get some much-needed cool air.
In general there's more life in the streets here than almost anywhere else I've ever been. Fruit & vegetable sellers yell out prices over loudspeakers, and you can hear them bidding each other downwards as the day draws to a close and the produce is getting past its best. When it starts to rain, there's a thunderous rattling from the rush of all the clothing stallholders to get their wares under the nearest bridge. All in all it's a bit of an assault on the senses, but pretty much everything - the sounds, the smells, the food, the music - is locally made and locally owned. I was also much impressed by some quite awesomely boisterous post-football nightlife on Carrera 70. It made the Bigg Market look like Betty's Tea Rooms.
Admittedly I knew next to nothing about Colombia before arriving in the country, although I did win some begrudging respect from the barman in a Bogotà craft beer joint when he offered me a coffee-infused stout called 'Macondo' and I managed to catch the reference to the novels of Gabriel García Marquéz. (Pretentious? Moi?) But now I'm completely converted. It's the eighth country I've visited in Latin America, it comes top by a mile, and I'll be gutted to leave. Viva Colombia.
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| View at dusk from my bedroom window |
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| View at dawn from my bedroom window |
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| Catedral Metropolitana de Medellín |
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| Hillside barrio halfway up one of the cable cars |
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| Looking northwest from the cable car, city centre in the distance |
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| Amateur football round the corner from my digs |
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| Another hillside barrio |
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| Edd vs Food #132 Bandeja paisa at the Mondongo restaurant in El Poblado. Main dish: pork back, ground beef, fried egg, rice, plaintain, steamed potato Sides: beans, banana, avocado, lime, arepa (maize cake), cilantro Drink: maracuyá juice with milk It's safe to say that all major nutrient groups are covered here. |
