Medellin - City of Eternal Spring (Sort of)

That's the official tag line of the city: "eternal spring". You might be more familiar with the city through TV shows like Narcos which, admittedly, colour the city with a particular light. As to the eternal spring thing, I don't know any Canadian that's going to call 28 & 29 degrees Celsius, "spring", but I guess for a tropical city, they can get away with it. 

Medellin is definitely different from Bogota. It's located at a lower elevation and a bit closer to the coast, so it has a very verdant vibe, especially in the neighbourhood of El Poblado. (It's super posh, one of the most expensive parts of the city.) It's also amongst the safest, which is why we decided to stay in the area. Add to this the fact that there are heaps of restaurants nearby, in the Zona Rosa and it was a major win for us.

The drive in from the airport took about 40 minutes and included a very long tunnel (actually a couple of tunnels) that required a toll. The traffic seems less manic here, but that could just be me, after the pure insanity of Bogota traffic.

Our hotel entry

Our hotel is located at the top of a steep hill, just because, near the end of a cul de sac. So whenever we want to head out to find something to eat, we trundle down the hill and then have to hike back up to get back home. (I tried to think of it as a built-in exercise program.)

Deceptively quiet Zona Rosa

I was still fighting my cold a bit, which was an added strain, but seem to be slowly recovering. That didn't stop us from getting out to see what the heck El Poblado is all about. We trekked down the hill and checked out all the interesting restaurants and goggled at the highrise condos. We finally decided to stop and try a Japanese/Peruvian mash-up that offered excellent sashimi and sushi, plus a nice environment for us to dip our toes into the Medellin culinary experience. We weren't disappointed. (My taste buds were still a bit off, so my margarita wasn't the absolute best, but we can't blame the restaurant for that.)

After the hubbub of El Poblado, I was quite relieved to have a quiet dinner at the hotel. We both ordered pasta and were happy with our choice. 

The next day we decided to do something crazy: take the metro. Medellin has a pretty famous (for all the right reasons) light rail system and we wanted to head out to Parque Explora - a science park, with a freshwater aquarium and replica dinosaurs. 

The aquarium is really the main draw. It hosts displays of all of the Amazonian fish and is one of the largest freshwater aquariums in the world. (Or so I believe.)

Oh, and I saved Ron from being devoured by a Tyrannosaurus Rex...that's me, a big hero, sacrificing myself so others could live.

Since the botanical gardens are right next door, we stopped there as well. We had to show ID to get in, but there was no cost, which was a pleasant surprise. The main entry, that usually houses their orchid exhibits, was a really interesting structure that had a Zen feel. The only down side was that most of the orchids were MIA.

Teddy and me posing with the huge roots
 of this tree

After enjoying both, we stopped in El Centro to visit the Plaza Botero, which hosts a dozen of his bronze sculptures. The energy in the centro historico is frenetic. There are vendors everywhere, each with a megaphone or boombox.They had almost anything a person might want, from underwear to books, jewellery to charging cords. There also seemed to be a lot of working girls in the Plaza and a bit of research told us that prostitution is legal in Columbia. The press of humanity was quite overwhelming, but we still got to see the sculptures before hopping back on the metro and heading back to our own neighbourhood, where we stopped for a quick lunch of tacos - yum.

I then had a very satisfying nap and we finally headed out for dinner at a burger joint, trying to keep our budget under control, after our splurge on lunch the day before. They do make pretty solid burgers in Columbia. As a weird aside, if you want fries you order your burger  "francesa".

We climbed back up the hill and watched a bit of TV before crashing and burning. 

Up next: Comuna 13