Medellin

11/8/23

After breakfast today we drive to the center of Medellin as we want to take a tour of the city today.

Medellín is the capital of the Colombian mountain province of Antioquia with around 2.6 million inhabitants and 50,000 yellow taxis.😂 Because of the moderate temperatures, it is also called the “City of Eternal Spring”. Modern cable cars connect the city with surrounding neighborhoods and offer views of the Aburrá Valley

We are dropped off by taxi at the sculpture “La Gorda de Botera”.

Fernando Botero Angulo was a Colombian artist , painter, sculptor and figurative draftsman .

He is known for his figures with round and voluptuous shapes, inspired by pre-Columbian art .

There are a number of sculptures of him here in the city and there is even a museum, which we won't visit today because we still want to see a lot of the city.

The center is characterized by street markets with fake goods and lots of prostitution.

We don't see a single tourist here, but we still feel safe.

Plaza Botero is fenced off due to the drug and prostitution scene and the entrances and exits are monitored by the police. Nevertheless, there is a prostitute on almost every corner. In the square is Inglesia de la Veracruc, a pretty little white church built in 1803.

the Palacio de la cultura

and

the Museo de Antioquia.

There are also a lot of Botero sculptures here.

We continue by taxi to the Jardín Botánico. Entry is free, you just need to have your passes with you.

The Joaquin Antonio Uribe Botanical Garden of Medellín, is 14 hectares in size and there are 4,500 flowers and 139 species of birds.

We old botanists and ornithologists can't really see that many species, but it's still beautiful here. An idyll in the urban jungle.

We see turtles sunning themselves on the stones

Iguanas running freely through the park,

colorful parrots in the trees

a kingfisher (at least I think it is one)

and many plants and flowers that are sold as houseplants in Germany.

After an empanada break, we look for a taxi and are lucky that the taxi driver speaks English quite well.

So we can ask him a little more about Medellin.

He tells us that there is a lot of drug and prostitution tourism in Medellin, but it is still pretty safe.

Jairo takes us through the traffic chaos to Cerro Nutibara.

It is one of Medellín's protective hills and covers an area of 33 hectares and a height of 80 meters above city level.

At its summit is the Pueblito Paisa, built in 1977

Built in the architecture of a traditional village that seems frozen in time, the bright colors and traditional structure of the villages of Antioquia: a stone square with gardens and a large fountain, a church that stands out at the top of the village , a rectory, a town hall, a school and a hairdressing salon.

A bit cheesy, but some locals mentioned it to us as a tip for Medellin.

We arrange for Jairo to pick us up again in an hour, which works. Back to the traffic chaos of Medellin (red lights and other rules are ignored here, zebra crossings are completely overrated here 😂) back to the apartment where we cook and end the evening by the pool.

Choosing an apartment for the 4 nights in Medellin was a good decision, as we had to leave very early in the morning and probably wouldn't have had breakfast and didn't have to eat out in the evening. We were also able to wash a few things because there was also a washing machine in the apartment. The people at reception were very nice and helpful and the apartment was in top condition.