Joint blog again. Greg first…

MEDELLÍN

This was the phrase that described the US in the 70’s. Cocaine, bullets and bloodshed described Columbia in the 80’s. Best know for Pablo Escobar and the rival Cali Cartel waging war against the government and openly killing officials and police officers in broad daylight with Medellin being the focal point. Can you imagine a US citizen so powerful, and to some degree adored by the public, that they go to war with the US ARMY and local police? It is said that walking to the grocery store was putting your life in god’s hand. Twenty years later Medellin is now recognized, and has won awards, as the most innovative city in the world. It must have been amazing to witness such a drastic transformation. The locals say the only risk tourists face here is that they may never want to leave. It is, however, not all positive. When walking the streets of downtown we didn’t see architecturally interesting buildings or clean streets. Instead we saw peddlers and homeless people lying on the sidewalks. To be more specific, imagine walking down K Street and literally stepping over a homeless person (most likely on drugs), sprawled out in the middle of the sidewalk with no shirt on.

Low income area of Medellín

This scene was fortunately not in the fun, vibrant area that we stayed in called Poblado. So much effort has been put into crime prevention, which has been successful, that they are just starting to get to other important social services. Our tour guide sited EDUCATION as the number one reason for the change. We saw “library parks” scattered around that offer free access to computers and books galore. There was even a mini library in the metro station. Also, all underprivileged families have free access to any museum or park in the area. What a severe contrast to, for example, the Taliban’s desire to suppress and repress its people.

Outside of Museo de Antioquia – Art Museum. Work of Fernando Botero. Famous artist from Medellín.

Instead of being downtown with the bums (no pun intended with the above picture :-)), the south of the city is where it’s at! Poblado is where the upper class and gringos hang out. The town boasts a trendy, hip and lively vibe similar to South Beach. Our hotel (The Charlee Hotel) was like the W brand – with a gorgeous three floor gym and our modernly appointed room that even had an open air balcony with grill and bar overlooking the “cool” part of town.

Charlee Hotel – our patio with grill and cool furniture.

View of fun Poblado area

Poblado is a perfect location for a group of friends to spend a long weekend living it up if eating late and clubbing into the dawn peaks your interest. Once again we couldn’t make a recommendation without first trying it. We set out on foot to grab some dinner. It turned out to be great people watching because most every restaurant had indoor and outdoor seating in the four block area that was filled with partygoers and wealthy men hand in hand with their young trophies on their arms. After dinner we hit a Mexican themed bar that was packed wall to wall, but this didn’t stop the tables full of people from bouncing up and dancing the sexy salsa on the make shift dance floor they individually created next to their own tables. We had one last stop at a hip hop bar that was playing American music. We didn’t know you could dance the salsa to rap music, but the local Columbians do it superbly. I still don’t understand how a Spanish speaking country listens to so much American music. Imagine walking into a bar in Bethesda and rocking it out to some tunes in Spanish all night (Rio Grande doesn’t count), it just doesn’t make sense to me. The next day a late lunch cemented the South Beach similarity…late partying equals a late wake up. At one o’clock in the afternoon it is still a ghost town with most places still closed. Four o’clock and a cup of coffee street side for people watching and we could see the town coming back to life. The party gods turned on the light switch for round two. We could not partake as we had to head to Cartagena on a late flight, but we were still doing the salsa in spirit!

CARTEGENA

Charm, charm, charm. We felt like we were living in an old colonial town complete with horse drawn carriages and vibrant town squares. Now I understand why Obama came to this walled-in city on the coast. Too bad his secret service took the opportunity to put Cartagena on the map for the wrong reasons.

The bar the Secret Service got in trouble at.

Narrow one-way streets accented with two story buildings complete with ornate wooden flower filled balconies set the stage for a romantic stroll down the safest streets in Columbia. Since we were so tired from our late travels from Medellin we opted for a ham and cheese from a mini mart for dinner.

The next day we walked the city with David (pronounced Dah-veed), our proud tour guide. We particularly enjoyed the heavy, ornate doors on the adorable casas. Each adorned with a large brass unique doorknocker. Apparently, doorknockers represent the owner’s personality and the additional hardware on the doors represents their wealth. After a four-hour walking tour we basically saw the entire city. Not the most beautiful beaches in the world, but it gets the job done with warm water and hot weather. New twenty story sky scrapers were going up along the beach and they are starting to rival US prices – starting at 600k going up to over a million. The government is pushing hard to increase tourism and new international investments with a 30-year break on paying any taxes for hotel owners and any other tourism investments. I don’t think the US needs tourism investments, however one of our biggest problems is not enough resources for giving back. We could use additional resources to support our non-profits and volunteer efforts. So how do you get the brightest and the best to go into this field? No income tax for this industry? There you go, problem solved. On that note, we have been discussing how to give back based on seeing the lower quality of life, but where do you start? Support your family first? Maybe your community or your religious preference? Maybe your country, if feeling patriotic scratches your itch? How about a specific cause near and dear to your heart, cancer research, homelessness, stray dogs, education….we plan on figuring this out as we continue our travels.

Switching to Linda now…

What fun activity do you still do that your grandparents did? Do you dance the same way as your grandparent? They do in Latin America…with pride. I love it! While at a fun bar in Cartagena, I had a sweet Columbian lady attempt to teach me her ways. You all know I love to dance; so learning the Columbian salsa was a fabulous undertaking for me. The hardest part was not the foot steps, or the hip movement, but the fact that she told me my upper body HAD to remain still. Say what? No wiggles at all? You’d think not moving something would be easier than moving something else in a certain way…but not in my case. She even had her husband help as well as a friend. I asked the counts for the steps and she hesitated and told me that the steps didn’t matter and that I should just feel the music. How fun.

After a late night of salsa dancing the night before, we slept in and decided to take an afternoon walk out of the walled city to visit the Castillo de San Felipe Barajas fortress. The fortress is the most formidable defensive fortress/castle built by the Spanish in the mid 1500’s in a location that could defend enemies approaching by land or sea. Now, certainly no Inca building, but very impressive. We even eerily walked through some of the underground tunnels.

Tunnel at Castillo San Felipe de Barajas

It was all fun and games until the lights flickered out and we were in pitch black! Freaky! During our brisk walk to and from the fort, we realized that the charm of Cartagena is definitely much more prominent within the old city’s stone walls. The walls were built in the late 1500’s to protect the town from repeated wars and pirate attacks…the English sea captain, Sir Francis Drake, being the main nemesis. During a stroll on the wall we were stopped by the Mother of Spanish speaking family, that was holding a camera. We assumed she was flagging us down to take their picture, but lo and behold, she wanted us to be IN the picture. Now, that’s a funny twist! I guess we gringos are picture worthy.

Next, a long overnight fight to Brazil…Rio de Janeiro. More soon!