Bogota Blogger

Lots of Americans have heard of Medellin, and it’s almost invariably because that is where Pablo Escobar lived, developed his drug empire, kidnapped and killed, and eventually died. But it is also Colombia’s second largest city, and has about the best year-round weather you can imagine.

In Colombia and the rest of the tropics weather is dependent on elevation, not distance from the equator. Medellin is still in the mountains, but has a much lower elevation than Bogota, so the weather is basically low-to-mid-seventies year round. Humidity is also reasonable, so it’s kind of like south Florida in winter–just about perfect.

My First Trip to Medellin

I’ve been twice–once in October of 2005 and once just before Christmas-time last year. My brother was living there in 2005 (he’s now back in the US), and I went for a long weekend with two friends from work, James and Jeff. (Jeff looked for and eventually found a girlfriend from there, and has now moved there.)

That was a quick trip, but we did a few of the mandatory tourist things. We rode on the Metro–the only one in Colombia–which is modern and efficient and effective. It has a sky-tram extension that goes up the side of one of the mountains, and we did that as a tourist activity, like lots of people do. But a friend of mine who used to live in Medellin explained that the sky tram actually goes up to a very, very poor neighborhood that was difficult to reach before, and has opened up lots of opportunities, because the people from there can now come down into the main part of the city to possibly find jobs.

Botero and Juanes–the Pride of Medellin

James and I also went to the Museo Antioquia, which is basically almost entirely dedicated to works of Botero, who is from Medellin. There is a plaza with something like 50 of his sculptures outside the museum, and probably half of the works inside the museum are his (and another 30% are works that he had owned and donated). Very impressive–I like his paintings a lot–and also entertaining for people who aren’t so big on museums. Apparently he now lives in Paris, and has for years.

The other favorite son of Medellin is the pop singer Juanes, and on that weekend, it was the anniversary of the city, and Juanes was giving a free concert in the street. Some girls on the Metro gave us tickets, because even though the concert was free and outdoors, the space was still limited and there was a lot of security. So we went, but only saw the opening acts and I think two songs by Juanes before the rain drove us away. (It wasn’t a bad rain, but we were tired and didn’t really realize how big a deal a Juanes concert is, I think.)

Hanging Out in Medellin Neighborhoods

On that trip we also hung out in Parque Lleras, which is basically the Zona Rosa of Medellin, with the upscale restaurants and night clubs, and this is where you’re probably find most of the gringos who happen to be living or visiting (though there still aren’t too many of them, relatively speaking). But we also went to a town called Sabanetta, not far away, which had a big park surrounded by restaurants and clubs, but the flavor was much more Colombian, even though it was also somewhat upscale.

To me the city seemed much cleaner than Bogota, but on the second trip (for a later post) I saw a lot of pretty run-down neighborhoods. But life is a little easier there, just because the weather is more pleasant, even though there are fewer opportunities for the poor people. It’s a pleasant place to hang out.

The Reputation of Medellin

When you mention this town to any Colombian, they’ll immediately want to explain to you that in Medellin you find three things–the most beautiful women, the friendliest people, and the nicest weather. The weather I have already talked about, but should say a few words about the other two.

The people are just extremely friendly. When you’re walking on a street and want to cross, drivers will slow down and stop for you, which is a 100% contrast to the attitude in Bogota, where driver’s don’t even think they should slow down for stop signs, because they have somewhere to go and it’s their right to get there as soon as possible. Asking anybody for help on a street will get you all sorts of warm smiles, detailed directions, friendly conversations. People in bars and restaurants are very quick to make friends, much more so than in Bogota (of course, you still have to be discreet and look out for scams, but the friendliness in Medellin is much more likely to be genuine than it is in Bogota).

Finally, the beautiful women. The women certainly take care of themselves, and it’s true that they’re just naturally more attractive, too. Or, maybe not entirely naturally. The city is known as a plastic surgery Mecca, especially for boob jobs. But you’ll have a hard time finding a woman in Medellin who doesn’t pay a lot of attention to her hair, makeup, and clothing before heading out in public for any reason at all. Gringos looking for beautiful and friendly women have a field day here, because anybody with an American, Canadian, or European passport can have his pick, pretty much. I have a friend who now lives there who is Canadian, and he tells about a Canadian girl he works with who’s nice looking and has a pretty good personalilty, but can’t seem to find a boyfriend. According to him, this girl in Canada would be an 8.5, but in Medellin, she immediately drops to a 5.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 at 3:13 pm and is filed under Out of Town Trips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.