Medellin 🎉

Hello guys! We have been in Pablo Escobar's hometown Medellin for 4 nights now. It is a very modern city, where the oldest building is only 120 years old. The people who live here are very proud people, especially proud of their metro. It is unbelievably clean and runs from one end of the city to the other. So it's not possible to catch the wrong train, as it's just a straight line with no branches. :D

We really liked the city tour because our guide Caro is Colombian herself and from Medellin. She told us the history of the city in a captivating way. It was a very dangerous time back then, as the guerrillas were unhappy with the political situation and started extorting wealthy people. In response, the wealthy people turned to the military to stop it, but the military did nothing, so the wealthy people formed their own military, the paramilitary. These two groups then fought each other, and the drug cartels had their fingers in everything. Caro also told us about her childhood. Her uncle was kidnapped back then and a ransom was demanded. The whole family threw their money together and paid the ransom. In the end, her uncle was still killed. I can't imagine something like that.. especially not having to live in fear your entire childhood, that maybe your parents won't come home from shopping. :/ It was really very interesting. After that, we went to a museum where there were many pictures showing how it was back then. Children who were recruited by the paramilitary and suffering and misery.

Fortunately, you can't see any of that in Medellin today, and it's a very vibrant city :)

On the second day, we took the metro and two cable cars to Parque Arvi and went for a walk there with three guys from our hostel :) It was nice and cool up there, a welcome relief after the warm Caribbean coast :)

Our hostel was also really great, as there was a large kitchen on the rooftop terrace and an even bigger communal table, which always invited everyone in the hostel to play card games, chat, have a few beers, and then go out and party :) :D

We also tried a great ice cream parlor from our travel guide, but afterwards we felt so sick because of the huge portion of chocolate :D But it was awesome... :D

And now we arrived in Jardin yesterday after a 5-hour bus ride :)

See you soon and have fun working :D

Laura and Chrissie :)