Medellin is a very nice place. Perfect weather year-round, with a clean, modern subway system, botanical gardens, bars, restaurants, and discotecas spread throughout this metropolis of roughly 2.2 million people. Granted, there are seedy areas that we did not venture into, but Zuckerburg doesn't find himself in Richmond too often, either. You really could not tell the difference between El Poblado, the neighborhood we stayed in, and University Ave in downtown Palo Alto. Coffee shops, organic/vegetarian restaurants, yoga sanctuaries, and parks cover a leafy 10 square blocks. Juan Valdez, South America's Starbucks, even has the same color scheme as its North American counterpart and is filled with non bpa waterbottles and free-trade clothing.
The remarkable aspect of all of this is that Medellin was one of the world's most dangerous cities less than 25 years ago. Its most notorious citizen was Pablo Escobar, the cocaine kingpin that reached number 7 on Forbe's list of richest people in the world in 1989. In the early 1990's car bombs were a weekly occurrence as Pabs assassinated police, judges, politicians, journalists, and anyone else that spoke against him. He was finally killed in 1993 with some assistance from Uncle Sam and friends
and Medellin has been on the road to recovery ever since.
Our first day Pete and I took a gondola up above the city into a eucalyptus forest for a bit of hiking and nature. The gondola is part of the city's subway system and is the easiest way for many of its inhabitants to get to their houses on the hill.
We explored the park, took a walk through some gardens, and embraced the peace of nature. Despite its reputation for being a wild city, we found that weekdays were there was significantly less life during the week here than Cartagena. During the weekend every bar was packed, but a peaceful
Wednesday evening on the square was quite refreshing.
The next few days we managed to be reasonably productive. Our hostel offered a Pablo Escobar tour that drove you through some of his old lairs, car-bomb ruins, and finally his grave.
Later that evening we ventured to a Medellin soccer match. The quality of play was a significant step up from Bolivia and the stadium was reasonably full of shouting fans. There was only one real cheer
that everyone repeated over and over again and we quickly fit in with our fellow bleacher-mates.
We only spent a few days in Medellin, but of all the large cities I have visited so far this one felt the most liveable.
The remarkable aspect of all of this is that Medellin was one of the world's most dangerous cities less than 25 years ago. Its most notorious citizen was Pablo Escobar, the cocaine kingpin that reached number 7 on Forbe's list of richest people in the world in 1989. In the early 1990's car bombs were a weekly occurrence as Pabs assassinated police, judges, politicians, journalists, and anyone else that spoke against him. He was finally killed in 1993 with some assistance from Uncle Sam and friends
and Medellin has been on the road to recovery ever since.
Our first day Pete and I took a gondola up above the city into a eucalyptus forest for a bit of hiking and nature. The gondola is part of the city's subway system and is the easiest way for many of its inhabitants to get to their houses on the hill.
We explored the park, took a walk through some gardens, and embraced the peace of nature. Despite its reputation for being a wild city, we found that weekdays were there was significantly less life during the week here than Cartagena. During the weekend every bar was packed, but a peaceful
Wednesday evening on the square was quite refreshing.
Later that evening we ventured to a Medellin soccer match. The quality of play was a significant step up from Bolivia and the stadium was reasonably full of shouting fans. There was only one real cheer
that everyone repeated over and over again and we quickly fit in with our fellow bleacher-mates.
We only spent a few days in Medellin, but of all the large cities I have visited so far this one felt the most liveable.
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