Colombia Day 11

A rainy, cloudy day in Medellin. Awake early at our “hostel”. 😊 Its really quite interesting – the apartment is very nice, decorated well and with modern bathroom and kitchen amenities - on the 4th floor with a terrace at the top. It would be fine if we were there by ourselves. Oh well, another travel lesson learned. (Read the fine print)
Decision made on a hotel to move to and out for an early walk in the rain to find a grocery store and a bank – both Robert and I out of money Got there by 8:30 and they opened at 9. Back to the hotel where I found 40,000 Colombian pesos ($15.00) so we could go to breakfast!! Found an outdoor “hole in the wall” local’s place near a large church (its Sunday) and had our empanadas and other meat filled pastries for breakfast. The apartment is in a “neighborhood” - so fun to see all the people there, lots of diversity and many children.
Then Uber to our next hotel (Hotel Sites -very nice) to drop off our luggage and out to see downtown Medellin – a large city of 2.5-3 million people. An uber to city center where you find most of the museums and pedestrian areas to see the city sites. The city center has a large plaza named Botero plaza. Botera is a Colombian artist known for painting and sculpting very large (fat) figures. The plaza has probably a dozen of his sculptures. Lots of people there even with the cloudy, rainy weather. Also, a museum – Museo Antiquiro (the state of Colombia that Medellin is in) devoted to Botero’s paintings and his art collection with artists from all over the world that he donated to the museum. Three stars for this museum – well done and interesting.
One of the primary reasons to come to Medellin at this time in our trip was to see the annual Medellin Flower Festival – a week-long event with flower displays at many places in the city and special events. One of the tourist police gals headed us to another plaza where she said there were flowers. A stop for a beer overlooking another large plaza filled with vendors selling handicrafts of all kinds. ML looking for a bag to carry her camera but could not find anything that would work. I would have bought several things but had no money !!! ☹ (Its Sunday and no banks, or their ATMs) open. And no flowers…….
Back to hotel to do some wash – free laundry at our hotel. 😊 Cocktail hour on the top deck with a 360 view of the city. Very nice. A walk to another neighborhood to a pizza place, Zorba’s that we had been told about. It was a jumping, happening place – pizza was very good – dinner for 3 with food and drinks - $26. 😊 Back to hotel with a stop at an open ATM at a bank for some money for Kay!!! Yeah !!! Finish up on laundry and to bed.Read more