La Pradera

Up and about early this AM. Robert cooking breakfast - eggs and veggies. A short walk after breakfast, settled account with the hotel and off via taxi back to Medellin with Alex, our driver. Arrived back at the hotel we stayed at previously and they did not have the reservation that Robert had made - and they were full. :-( !!!! Back to Booking.com and quickly made another reservation in another hotel - The Art Hotel - about a mile away. Uber to the new hotel, short "settling in" period and out for wine. Busy area and nearby a park with all kinds of street entertainment going on. Salsa and tango dancers, mariachi, clowns, juggles, break dancers. violins, and most anything else you can think of. There were small stages set up in the streets all around the park. Surrounding the streets were restaurants and bars on all sides. Lots of places to sit and watch the entertainment. Each group would perform for about 20 to 30 minutes and then all the stages would change. It was a cacophony of sounds and lots of fun. We stopped for a drink at one of the bars and enjoyed the vibrancy of the neighborhood.
Got to be late enough to go right to dinner from there. We had been talking about having sushi and there was a Kabuki (Peruvian and Japanese restaurant) near by. A walk through the very busy streets to an extension of the same neighborhood and a "restaurant row" area. Lots going on here as well and we had good sushi, cerviche, and sashimi.
A walk back to our hotel through the entertainment area now transformed into multiple venues of dancing and music. All VERY loud!!! We were "done" for the day and decided to let the rest of the evening to the younger folk. After the hotel fiasco, made lemonade out of lemons. We would have never had the experience of this lively neighborhood from the other hotel. Another one of the joys of travel.Read more