We wake up today and head out to
explore the city. Medellin was a city
dominated by Pablo Escibar, the drug lord of the city. Motorbike riders would carry out gangland
hits for this fella and he would also pay hitmen US$1,000 for every police
officer they killed. He was popular with
some locals as he was very generous to the poor. The face of Medellin changed in 1993 however
when he was killed by police in a rooftop shoot out (as previously mentioned on
day 70 blog during the Police museum tour).
Since this time Medellin has progressed into a relatively modern city
with government investment in local infrastructure, this is evident in the
public transport system which is very efficient (metro train).
When we arrive into the city, we
go to Parque Berrio, which is a major plaza in the central city. We then take a
walk to Centro Commercial, which is an historic building that has been restored
and is now a shopping area. We each buy
an ice cream here as it is quite warm, we are definitely at a lower altitude
here in comparison to Bogota! We then walk to Plazaleta de las Esculturas, a Plaza
which is dedicated to a Colombian artist and has sculptures of all of his work,
which mainly consists of fat men and women.
We find a tourist office and get some information about buses leaving
the city, we are just about finished with what we want to see in Medellin. We also walk to Parque de Bolivar, a nice
park with alot of greenery. When I say
greenery, I am also talking about the weed that was being smoked in this park,
the smell was immense! Probably about
five times as strong as what we smelt at Rick and Kits wedding, the locals were
having a good time. Adjoining this park
was a pedestrian street full of market type shops, so we had a look in
these. I really wanted to buy some
coffee beans in Medellin since this was the coffee capital of Colombia, and
Colombia produces some of the best coffee in the world. I buy a couple of bags, all very well
presented. Ann and I also want to find a
cafe in the city and experience a coffee.
We find one across the street from the market and go in and order. We both get frozen coffees as it was too hot
for hot coffees, these are fantastic and I am not usually a coffee
drinker. We then head to the supermarket
and buy some food to cook for dinner.
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