Medellin

Medellin (pronounced with silent ll’s: me-de-een), population 3 million and cocaine capital of the world. Despite everyone’s best efforts, Columbia still produces most of the world’s cocaine.  Back in the day (80s/90s) Medellin was the front line of a very bloody drug war lead by the infamous Pablo Escobar, the granddaddy of all Columbian drug lords. Apparently he paid anyone $1000 US for every cop they killed. Free travel in or around Medellin would have been unthinkable back then. But, the government hunted down Pablo and killed him in 1993, and thus opened up Medellin to the rest of the world. So here we are, relaxing and taking in the sights and sounds of Medellin.  From all accounts it’s 100% safe now (guess we’ll see about that).

We never really got the nice long descent into Medellin we were hoping for.  While we descended, it was steep and relatively short-lived, and then back to rolling hills right into town. Needless to say, our legs were very happy to arrive at our home for a few days, the Palm Tree Hostel, near el centro. We both know (but don’t talk about it) the cold hard truth is that we are just going to have to get used to it. The Andes is not known for flat terrain. This is big mountain country.

Speaking of which, the terrain and scenery is quite spectacular – very reminiscent of Nepal. And, given the fresh mountain air (Medellin is known as the city of “eternal spring”), our 5am wake-up is no longer required and we can comfortably get up “whenever” and ride through the day. Nice change of pace. Conveniently as well, for some inexplicable reason, it rains almost every day, but only at night! By the time we pack up and hit the road, things are sunny and dry. Not sure which god is responsible for that, but we thank him/her.

Medellin is a big modern city – flashy, chic, clean, and complete with a state-of-the-art metro (subway) system. Zipping around on el metro we’ve had more than one flashback to Toronto or some place like that (although, Medellin’s system is far superior). In fact, Medellin’s el metro is famous for its sustainable design and linking of poor neighbourhoods/slums (called favellas) with the rest of the city. A highlight has been taking a series of gondola rides (all part of el metro system) to a park on top of a mountain overlooking the city known as Parque Avri. Kind of like a free ride up Grouse Mountain in Van.

As such we’ve been living the city-slicker life the past few days of touring around and relaxing in coffee shops.  Being in the big smoke also allowed us to find a replacement tire for a blown sidewall that occurred a few days ago on my rear tire. We found a “bike shop” about the size of garden shed, but the guy had an amazing array of tires...all for the exorbitant price of 7 bucks each. Hmmm, at these prices, I may never be able to buy bike parts in Canada ever again.

Our hostel has all the comforts of home including a full kitchen, courtyard eating area, and a large grocery store across the street, so we’ve been enjoying cooking our own food and taking a break from deep-fried street food. Amy, the veggie Nazi, has been doing a great job of creating gourmet dishes touching on all four food groups. Although I still indulge in the street food when we’re out and about. Can’t go cold turkey! The only drawback is that Columbians are not wine people. Despite sharing a continent with some of the best wine areas on the planet, the wine here is quite expensive. That same bottle of Gato Negro we can buy in the BC liquor store costs more here! Amy is dreaming of the day we cross the border into Argentina and into wine country. But that’s a ways off. For now it’s all about a nice cold Aguila in the afternoon.  Speaking of which, it’s about that time.

So what’s the plan now? Tomorrow we ride towards Manizales in the heart of the Zona Cafetera, aka “coffee zone”. According to my google maps elevation profile (something I figured out last night how to do), we go up, then down, then back up (I know, why do I need a profile to tell me that?!).  Should take 3 days, but we’ll see how it goes. At any rate, time to see what this Colombian coffee thing is all about. As always, more on that soon.