Magic in Medellin

The weekend that past was a holiday here, Fiestas de Quito, and while everyone celebrated their traditions here, playing Cuarenta (a super competitive card game), eating hornado (pork) a traditional dish accompanied with avocado, mote (which is in the corn family), and llapingachos (potatoes), I flew to Colombia.

Colombia is a place that people are afraid of. Many people think of Colombia as a place that still holds the reputation it had in the past, especially in the city I was in, Medellin. The truth is that it is a place that has clearly come a very long way from crime and drugs--not to say it doesn't exist--but I didn't feel threatened by either in the time I was there.

The highlights of my trip (which was the whole trip) included exploring the metro from Poblado to Parque Arví, touring Guatapé (a giant rock about 2 hours from Medellin), Comuna 13 (a famous sector in Medellin), Candle Night (a religious celebration through the city), and seeing Parque Botero.

After my 3 am flight to Bogota, and my 10:30 am flight to Medellin. Here I am!

Thursday, when I arrived was my self-guided Metro tour. Their metro is incredible. It is so incredibly clean that people will shame you for eating or drinking on it. It is also a very smooth, efficient ride. Each stop comes every 2-5 minutes.

As part of their metro system, they have cable cars that go all the way up to Parque Arvi.

Views from the cable car...

Candid selfies.. Gotta get all the views guys!

When I got to the top of the cable cars, I waited at an information center to get a map and so was this other girl. So we journeyed together around the park, starting with food.

We split this thank God. I don't know if you can see how enormous these avocados are. ALSO, I was (not shockingly) super paranoid about eating at this restaurant, since it was on the street and there was no name... However it turned out to be pretty good. It had chicken, a Colombian arepa, plantains, avocado, and a little salad.

One of the sights around the park

After I passed this man on the street, I ran back and asked if I could take a picture of him. I think he was extremely confused when I asked in my broken Spanish, but I got the photo anyway!

On the cable cars back down to the city...

The view from Tara's apartment (where I stayed for the weekend)

Friday I took an all day tour of Guatapé and made a new friend Maria...

We saw a small church that had this as its confession booth. Apparently, it doesn't have a door on it because they believe if you have sinned, you deserve the punishment of having everyone hear what you did. That made me giggle. Imagine?!

Amazingly, this is an artificial reservoir, which it took them years to fill using about about 6 rivers worth of water...

The other guy who got up here looked so much smoother than I did. LOL

The colorful village of Guatapé...

Zocalos are paintings that are done on every building in the village. They tell stories about the people who own the building, describing what they are passionate about. They also tell what kinds of things different stores sell. Every building must have a zocalo, it is a requirement.

Decked out in Christmas decorations

The center.

We had to try obleas, which are two wafer-like cookies with a kind of caramel in the center.

Friday night, Tara took me out with some of her friends to see the celebrations that were going on for Candle Night.

FOR ONCE, I am not taking the selfie! This is a RARE occasion!

So many lights!

Saturday morning Tara and I ate at Burdo and then made our way to Comuna 13, a super famous area in Medellin.

Bacon wrapped sammy with cheese, and eggs, avocado and tomatoes on the side!

Friday evening I went on a chiva (party bus) with teachers who work at Tara's school, and was able to meet up with some amazing people I worked with in Venezuela...

Jeremey was the first person Vicki (Tara's sister) and I went out with our first year in Venezuela. Seeing him brought back so many memories...

Cat was another teacher who worked in Venezuela with me. She's another person who understands the crazy life we lived there. And she is the reason I was forced into making a remake of "Let it Go" for a middle school writing challenge.