JJ's Travelogue

Actually, it’s always Spring here. In fact, Medellín (pronounced Med a JEAN) is known as the “City of Eternal Spring” because of it’s mild climate, being only six degrees North of the equator and not at high elevation. Lately we’ve been having spring showers, but at least it’s warm. It completely changes my relation to a city when I can just walk out the door without having to carry clothes for all kinds of weather, as one does in Bogotá. Although there are no bodies of water, Medellín does have hills and mountains that offer great vistas – one of my other requirements for a livable city.

In the late 80′s and early 90′s Medellín (Colombia’s second-largest city) was incredibly dangerous, with an enormous amount of murders and kidnappings. But since Escobar and his cartel were disbanded, the city has completely turned around. It’s now a safe, modern, vibrant city. In many ways it’s more advanced than the capital of Bogotá. For example, there is a modern, efficient, super clean above-ground metro system / light rail. In the outlying areas the metro connects to cable cars which provide transport to the poorer communities built up on the hillsides. It’s a brilliant mode of transport – much cheaper than laying tracks or roads, and far less impactful – the gondolas silently glide right over the buildings, providing fantastic views.

I’m really impressed with the infrastructure of the city and it’s commitment to even the poorest neighborhoods. Even in barrios where the residents can only afford to build tin shacks, the city has built modern gleaming libraries and schools, nicely paved roads and sidewalks, and efficient and clean public transport.
The city is also known for it’s public art, typically sculptures. In the 80′s there was a law mandating that 5% of the budget for any new construction had to go towards art for that project (and I thought Seattle’s 1% for art was generous). Botero is from here, and there is a plaza with dozens of his works scattered about. Aside from his pieces, I generally don’t like most of the sculpture around town – they’re generally imposing, dark pieces that look like they’re from the 70′s, even though they’re not. The equivalent in sculptural terms as the cheap monolithic concrete block architecture from that era.

I’ve actually been to Medellín twice in the last couple of weeks, with a break in between to go to Villa de Leyva with Eloisa (more on that outing in the next post). The first time, I stayed downtown, where the cheap hotels are located as usual. This area is thriving during the daytime, but as soon as the sun goes down all the businesses shutter up and the area becomes sketchy. It’s amazing how an area can completely transform from busy commerce to shady prostitution in just a couple of hours. I had to resist from judging the entire city based solely on this neighborhood I was staying in – as I saw later, there are many other Medellíns. Although I will say that even in the sketchy downtown area, I was only panhandled once in 10 days – compared to multiple times a day in Bogotá. The homeless are much less aggressive here than they are in the capital.

An aside – I don’t understand why one would choose to live in a cold city if one were homeless. Wouldn’t you live where the living is easy? For example if I were homeless in the States, I would live in San Francisco, since that city has the most support and services for the poor. Elo, who admittedly knows far more about these people than I do, says the homeless in Bogotá were born and grew up there, and have their routines established – it would be too much of a challenge to try to start all over somewhere else. Perhaps I am being naïve, but it’s always seemed to me that one of the great tragedies of us humans is that we all too often fail to recognize the power we have to change our lot in life. I know that’s a very American-centric statement – a Brit who grew up in the class system would never make such a statement. But it’s also true – anyone, from any walk of life, from anywhere in the world, only has to hitch a ride to a city with more opportunity, and they can reinvent themselves. It might take enormous work to become educated and work their way up the ladder, but it’s possible.

Whence I returned I stayed in the upper-class neighborhood of El Poblado. What a completely different experience.. trendy bars and clubs, fashionable malls, not sketchy in the least even at 3am. But also not nearly as cheap as downtown. The great thing about this climate is the architecture doesn’t have to protect for all seasons. It’s pleasant year-round, so bars and restaurants can build elaborate decks and lounges right outside, only having to shelter for the rain, not for the cold or snow. It’s a great feeling.

One day I happened upon an enormous group dance class going on in a park. The leader / teacher was up on a stage with a head mic shouting over the music, and about 200 people were following along in front of her. It looked like fun. Of course the teenage boys on the sidelines were making fun of everyone – I guess insecure boys are the same the world over.
Another day I was hanging out in a mall leaching their WiFi as they were closing, and witnessed the entire place transform into a sort-of informal club – people were drinking, smoking (in a mall!), then a group of teenage hip-hop dancers started practicing their routines. Good fun.

There are several universities in Medellín, one large one in particular that has very pleasant architecture, parks, and a botanical garden free and open to the public. Last Sunday I sat and watched several groups of competition cheerleaders practicing. Most of them were guys, interestingly enough. Crazy gymnastics.. backflips, throwing each other high in the air, that sort of thing.
Just as in Bogotá, Medellín closes some of their main avenues to traffic on Sundays to allow bicyclists and joggers to stretch out. Wonderful.

Medellín is meant to have the most beautiful women in Colombia (although Cali might disagree), which in turn is meant to have the most beautiful women in the world (although Venezuela might disagree). Alas, I have not found this to be true – the women here are neither more nor less beautiful than in the rest of Colombia.

My guidebook recommended a vegetarian restaurant that I walked to with great excitement.. finally, some healthy food! Turns out everything on the menu had just as much mystery meat as any other restaurant. Hmm.. maybe it’s called a veggie restaurant because they don’t hide the vegetables quite as much as in other places.

I continue to be amazed how similar businesses group themselves into the same area – you would think this would be bad for business. For example, the block surrounding my hotel downtown contained nothing but sewing machine shops. Not fabric or other sundries, only sewing machines and accessories. Dozens of businesses all selling the same thing. A couple of blocks away was the bulbs block – all the shops sold light bulbs. Not fixtures or wiring, only bulbs.
Speaking of, I’ve taken to carrying my own incandescent bulb with me, since I can’t stand the fluorescent bulbs that many hotels have changed over to. It completely changes the feeling in the room, and I don’t know how people put up with it. First-world countries are phasing out incandescents – the UK has already done away with them, in fact the BBC had an article on a shop that’s selling their remaining stock for 3x the normal price. The U.S. is not far behind. Developing countries, of course, have had solely fluorescents for years because they’re far cheaper.

There is a plaza and park downtown that’s one of the great success stories of the city’s transformation – 10 years ago it was one of the most dangerous areas of the city; now it has “smart” buildings surrounding a lovely “barefoot park”. The park is designed to be experienced by walking through it barefoot – through a bamboo garden, sand pit, shallow water plaza, etc. I love anything that invites adults to rediscover their inner child.

One of my last days in town I hooked up with Victor, a friend of a friend of Elo’s who lives here. We spent an afternoon and evening together, and he was wonderfully generous in showing me things I hadn’t seen yet, things only a local knows about. Victor doesn’t speak English, so it was a good challenge for me to hold up my end of the conversation for so many hours. I only understood about 70% of what he said, but I think I got enough to not look like a complete idiot.
Victor took me to an old man’s bar downtown that I had walked past numerous times but never really noticed. It’s been there for 50 years and looks no different than when it opened. The owner (?) was DJing records of tango music from the mid 20th century. What a scene. Victor then led me downstairs to a rec-room where kids were rehearsing for a tango performance. Wish I’d gotten photos of this, they were fantastic. Tango is probably my favorite style of dance. It’s sexy, complex, fierce, breathtaking, smoldering, emotional, physical, and you get to wear Martha Grahamesque makeup without looking like a drag queen.
That night we ended up at a small local bar to watch a salsa band play. Although salsa is not normally one of my favorite styles of music, I love anything live. Trumpet, alto sax, timbales, keys, bass, vocals, percussion, and the floor was crowded with people dancing. In the last few months various people have tried to show me the basics, but I need some serious lessons. It’s clear that if I’m going to understand (or hope to fit into) Latin culture, I need to learn how to dance.

Here are a few videos. By the way, if the videos all started playing at once as soon as you loaded this page (and that’s annoying to you), you can change that behavior in your QuickTime preferences – uncheck the box that says “play videos automatically”.

First, a slice-of-life riding the tourist bus around town, just to give you a sense of the architecture and street life. The woman you hear narrating is the tour guide. Didn’t understand a word she said:

Next, a snippet of buskers in Plaza Botero. Nice traditional music being played:

Finally, a clip whilst riding the cable cars. Wheeeee!