Medellin Trip

[Ciza29]

Gentlemen, I am about to head to the airport on my way to Medellin. I will be stopping in Miami so I can stretch my legs in the 30 minute walk everyone seems to take from Terminal A to Terminal ZZZ. Build a rail link! I can't believe there is no money in Miami.

I have been chatting with a young lady through ColombianCupid. She is an inactive member of ColombianSweethearts. Although I do not plan on visiting any agencies, I will inform you of my general feelings of Medellin. By the way, she works in Medellin as a tour guide. Feel kinda bad about making her show me around on her day off.

If things go well we will be heading down to Cartagena for 6 days. If they don't go well, I will be heading down to Cartagena for 6 days. If it is the later maybe I will visit Mr. Turner's place.

Got to go to the airport. I will hopefully have a more interesting post later.

[Micky10]

CIZA,
Have a great, safe and fun trip. Is Jack Lambert going with you?

Love-Micky

[LastLion]

CIZA, can't wait to hear your point of view!

[NunoEFSilva]

Hear, hear!

Do tell us - and have great fun!

Nuno

[MedellinMike]

I will be there on March 29th. My final move sometime in June. If you are there when I am, PM me and I'll give you my cell.

Perhaps we can hook up.

MM

[Ciza29]

After yet another wonderful stay in Miami´s crappy airport. I was on my way to Medellin. Much to my surprise, It was not packed and I had one side to myself. The gentleman across the aisle was also an American. He flies to Medellin once a month for one week. He was 36 and had a 21 year old girlfriend in Medellin.

Everything at the airport went smoothly and was the easiest of the airports(Bogota and Cali) I have experienced. Two members of Medellin Vacation Apartments meet me at the airport. The girl I had been chatting with (M) was late due to traffic. We waited for her and then the 4 of us rode to the apartment. The two young ladies from the apartment were very nice and one of them was very attractive.

The apartment was very nice. The balcony was excellent. The location was great. It is located in Poblado. We walked to parque lleras although there was a lot of construction on roads and sidewalks.

The apartment came with a maid who made me breakfast everyday and cleaned the apartment. She asked me if I needed any ironing the day I arrived. Of course everything is wrinkled during travel so she spent the rest of the day ironing. It was as if it were done by professionals.

I returned that night to find everything I had unpacked in the closet refolded (much better than I had folded them originally). Everyday she took my dirty clothes and washed, pressed and folded as needed. I thought she would just clean the apartment and prepare breakfast so this was a pleasant surprise.

More about the city and M later.

[Ciza29]

I like Medellin for the most part. I have felt safe and although there are many people in the city center I never felt like they were sizing me up to pick my pocket. I think that is because there isn´t really gringo site seeing sites like Recoleta in Buenas Aires. However, I still paid attention and took precautions.

The traffic has been horrible due to all the streets being under construction. Which is different from most other latin cities where once the streets and sidewalks are built they rarely get improved.

The city is easy to get around by taxi and the metro is very clean and simple. I was a little worried about the metro cable since I am not a fan of heights. Another rider told me the metrocable was the transportation of the poor. Which usually means once it is built it is never maintained. However, Medellin seems different then other Colombian cities. The Paisas are proud of their city and much is done to keep it nice.

The temperature is almost perfect unfortuantely, it rained a lot due to the time of the year. I can´t hold that against the city.

One of my complaints came when M and I went to Exito in the North. The North is where the poor are mostly living. Next to Exito was a bunch of shops and M wanted ice cream. We stopped at a place and she ordered something massive while I opted for fruit and ice cream in a juice. There was a photo of the drink. I didn´t recognize the stuff on top but thought it might be shaved ice cream or even shaved white chocolate. Either would have been very delicious. However, It is colombia and was not to be. We got to the table with the order. I looked more closely at the topping and curiously took a bite. It was the worst tasting thing I had ever tasted. I had not expected a mixture of juice, ice cream, fruit and cheese. Yes, the topping was shredded cheese. Who puts cheese in ice cream? M was laughing as I made strange faces and spit the drink onto my tray. She loved her ice cream and cheese but I could not eat any more. Don´t get me wrong, I like cheese in the proper venue but have no patience for it in my ice cream.

By the way, there are a lot of attractive women in Medellin. I am very picky but they were attractive. Unfortunately, there were attractive women that more fat around the middle then I like. It depends on personal tastes.

Later I will tell about my trips to Santa Fe, Guatape and El Penol.

[Cap'n Jib]

Ciza,

If anyone has the right frame of mind then it it is you! Your "However, It is colombia and was not to be." says it all!

[Tinto]

Ciza,

If you don't care for cheese on ice cream I'd pass on another disgusting "C" they have in Colombia which is very popular in Medellin, the dreaded "Chicharon", a greasy hunk of pork fat with little meat that's cooked to oblivion. Don't even think it might taste like a thick piece of bacon. As they say, close but no cigar.

Another nasty is grape juice (jugo de uva) and surprisingly even the coffee unless you buy it at the Juan Valdez stores. Fortunately as you have found out the beautiful chica equation balances out some of the less than desirable culinary options.

Have a great time in SF, EP and GU. Try humping up that monolithic rock in 20 minutes or less! Don't forget to bring your camera as the view is breathtaking.

[Sailover]

Miami DOES have a transport system. Moving walkway upstairs. Not perfect, but not bad, especially going from Delta to Avianca!