Colombia | 2015

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19 de junio de 2015
Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Prologue
19 de junio de 2015, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
Jeff was planning to compete in the Pan American Master's Diving Championship in Medellin soon after our wedding, so I decided to tag along and extend our trip to Cartagena and make a honeymoon out of it. I actually cringe at the "honeymoon" moniker as we have been together for almost 15 years and it wasn't as if we were embarking on a new life together, but regardless it feels good to have our relationship legally recognized now that Hawaiʻi has passed marriage equality.Leer más
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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Honolulu to Dallas/Fort Worth
19 de junio de 2015, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
American Airlines AA102 | HNL/DFW
Economy Class
Boeing 767-300ER | N357AA
ATD/2039 | ATA/0927+1

I initially had my upgrade confirmed, but I was downgraded back to Economy Class because my assigned seat was inoperable. American had already assigned all extra legroom seats by the time they downgraded me, and I was seated at a window seat next to a large person. Luckily for me, he was aware of his size and he positioned himself in a way that made the flight tolerable for me.Leer más
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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Dallas/Fort Worth to New Orleans
20 de junio de 2015, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
American Airlines AA390 | DFW/MSY
Economy Class
Airbus A319-100
ATD/1037 | ATA/1201

Unfortunately, this wasn't the most pleasant flight. Someone across the aisle was passing a lot of gas throughout the flight. The same aircraft was utilized for the next segment to Miami, and a surprising number of passengers from the DFW/MSY sector reboarded the flight. Mercifully, the flatulent passenger either disembarked at MSY or they took care of the issue while in transit.Leer más
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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
New Orleans to Miami
20 de junio de 2015, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☁️ 31 °C
American Airlines AA1073 | MSY/MIA
Economy Class
Airbus A319-100
ATD/1256 | ATA/1611
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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Miami to Medellin
20 de junio de 2015, Estados Unidos ⋅ 🌧 30 °C
American Airlines AA923 | MIA/MDE
Economy Class
Boeing 737-800
ATD/1702 | ATA/1922
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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Arrival in Medellin
20 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C
I generally avoid arriving in a strange city after sundown, but the flight schedules did not facilitate a daylight arrival.

After clearing immigration and customs, I boarded the minibus service for San Diego Mall. Medellin’s main airport is located in an adjacent valley from Medellin itself, and it was a 45 minute drive into Medellin. The views of the city lights were spectacular as the minibus descended into the valley.

At San Diego Mall, I took a taxi to our hotel. Jeff had already checked in, and he had brought a doggy bag of leftovers from his prior dinner for me, which hit the spot. Unfortunately, the hotel wasn’t great, there was a fair bit of noise, and the aircon did not get fixed despite repeated calls. We checked out the next morning, squatted with his fellow master’s diver Susie at her AirBNB the next evening, and then we found our own AirBNB near the pool for the remainder of our stay.Leer más
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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Museo de Antioquia
21 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C
A visit to Medellin is not complete without viewing Fernando Botero's art and sculptures. On my first full day in Medellin, after Jeff established a new world record in master's 3M springboard, we trooped out to the Museo de Antioquia with a number of his master’s diver friends.

We took the Metro from Estadio, where the competition was held, to Parque Berria and walked one block to the museum. This museum is excellent and it is the most fun museum I've been to. Not surprisingly, the works of Medellin's most famous (noncriminal) son take center stage at this museum. Many of Botero's works were on show. His signature visual is “gordo” or voluminous, and his paintings and sculptures featured proportionally large people, animals, and other figures.

The top floor of the museum featured a number of fun interactive exhibits, including one exhibit in which you to made your own Botero-inspired selfie and another which featured animations of Botero paintings.

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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Botero Plaza
21 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ 🌧 27 °C
Located next to the Museo de Antioquia is a public space called Plazoleto de las Esculturas, also known as Plaza Botero, with a number of Botero statues on display. Botero donated these statues, which are worth millions, to the city. It was really nice to see people hanging around the sculptures and enjoying them.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/plaza-botero

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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Estadio/Laureles
21 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ 🌧 23 °C
As it was a Sunday, we enjoyed people watching while walking around the Estadio area where as many people were out and about watching the Colombia-Chile football match in the bars and restaurants.

The highlight of our afternoon was our encounter with a street performer. He was dressed in Colombia’s national colors, and he was on the sidewalk entertaining restaurant patrons seated in the patio. I approached him to ask if I could take a photo of him, and he seized the opportunity to incorporate us into his act. He spoke English and he got us to wear some of his props. He then said some stuff in Spanish which made people at the restaurant laugh. They were probably having a laugh at our expense but we didn’t mind.

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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Pablo Escobar Tour
22 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C
On my second full day in Medellin, I learned about a darker period in Medellin's history when I took a Pablo Escobar tour offered by Paisa Road. I booked this tour via a nearby hostel. I was aware that these tours are controversial locally because many Colombians just don’t want to talk about that period in history, and simply joining a tour like this is akin to promoting it. However, as an Urban and Cultural Geography major, I am always fascinated by the historical and cultural factors, including the shared traumas, that shape urban landscapes, so I went on this tour to learn more about what makes Medellin tick.

This tour was quite an eye opener. The guide, Paula, grew up in Medellin when the cartel was at its most active. Some Trip Advisor ratings of Paula weren't too positive, with people calling her cranky and opinionated. I definitely saw that in her, but what I also saw was a young woman who was robbed of a normal childhood. I cannot imagine what it was like to live through years of this violence and, as a child, being able to tell the difference between pistol and rifle fire.

Anyway, back to the tour itself. The majority of the sights were in the upscale El Poblado area. Paula showed us buildings that Escobar occupied, sites that his forces attacked, the building where he was killed, and a shrine where cartel members used to pray for protection. The last stop on the tour was Escobar's grave which was in a cemetery a little south of Poblado.

Along the way, we got insights into Escobar himself as well as life during the cartel days and its lingering effects. For example, in the past motorcycle helmets were banned as the police wanted to be able to recognize riders, and even today it is illegal for two males to be on a motorbike because in the past the pillion riders would fire weapons from their motorbikes (I guess the assumption is that women cannot shoot!).

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/rosa-mistica
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/pablo-escob…

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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Parque San Antonio
22 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
After the Pablo Escobar tour, I went to Parque San Antonio to view the Birds of Peace sculptures. In 1995, a bomb was detonated at the base of the original statue during an outdoor concert, killing 30 and injuring many others. Botero refused to allow the original damaged statue to be removed. Instead, he donated a second identical statue to be placed next to the original. The two statues - one damaged, one undamaged - stand side by side. The names of the bombing victims are displayed on a plaque at the base of the original statue.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-birds-o…

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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Metro Line K
23 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
Escobar was not universally hated, though. Many economically disadvantaged people considered him to be a modern day Robin Hood because he did things that benefitted them. In the aftermath of his death, city officials realized that one of the key reasons why people in disadvantaged communities - many of which were built into steep hillsides fringing the city - supported Escobar was because they were physically isolated from the city and its economic and educational opportunities. For this and other reasons, the city built a metro to connect the people, and for the hillside communities, they built cable cars lines that connected with the rest of the metro network. I also understand that several long escalators were built into other hillsides. Collectively, this was an effort to include and engage the communities on the periphery.

On my third day, we took the metro to Acevedo station where we connected to the Line K cable car. The first section of the cable car, which has four stops from Acevedo to Santa Domingo station, is included in the single trip metro fare of COP 2,000. Along the way, we passed over the communities built into the hillside and saw glimpses of life there. I was impressed by how many public spaces there were. There was also a large library and community space.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gondolas-of…

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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Metro Line L & Arvi Park
23 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ 🌧 23 °C
At Santa Domingo station, one can connect to Line L that goes to Arvi Park for COP 4,600 each way. This was a very long line with green and scenic views with no stops along the way. Arvi Park was at the end of the line, and we stopped there to look at the shops and eat some fresh fruit. It looked as if there were other sights in the area but some members of our party were wiped out from the competition so we made our way back.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/parque-arvi…
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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
El Penol
24 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C
Jeff, Susie (one of his master's diver friends) and I took a day trip to Guatape the day after the conclusion of the Pan American Master's Diving Competition.

Early on Wednesday, we took the metro to Caribe station and then used an overpass to cross the highway to the Northern Bus Terminal where we secured seats on the public bus for COP12,500 each. The bus left the terminal soon after we bought our tickets and it wound its way up the mountains that fringe Medellin. Before long, we were surrounded by pretty countryside. The bus ride took about two hours. I'm not sure if the bus driver deliberately played English songs because he had gringo passengers (we were the only ones) but we had a fun time rocking out to Supertramp, Midnight Oil and Men Without Hats.

The bus dropped us off at a gas station near the village of El Penol, and from there we walked up a steep-ish road to get to our first destination of the day - La Piedra ("the rock"). La Piedra is a granite monolith with a fissure in it, and a staircase was built into this fissure to aid the ascent and descent of visitors. A signboard on the road up proudly proclaimed in caps that this was "The Rock With The Best View In The World".

We bought our tickets for COP10,000 each, took a collective deep breath, and tackled the monster. I made it up in about 15 minutes. I was impacted a little by the thin air at this high altitude (7,000 feet).

So, was this the best view in the world? I have seen nicer views, but I have not seen such a nice view before from a rock. The view of the artificial lake and the countryside surrounding La Piedra was indeed pretty spectacular.

There were food stalls at the summit. Susie and I both had some fruit while Jeff had ice cream and we sat and chatted for a bit - mostly about diving and deaf education - before we tackled the last 81 steps which were up a spiral staircase inside a brick structure which first led you to a souvenir shop before letting you out onto the roof. So, 740 steps in all.

After hanging out on the roof for a bit, we made the journey down La Piedra on a separate staircase for descending. At the bottom, we negotiated a fare with a tuk tuk driver to take us to Guatape for COP10,000. Just as we set off on the 10 minute drive, we discovered that his dachshund was tucked underneath his seat! Our driver deposited us along the main lakeside road in Guatape.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/el-penon-de…

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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Guatape
24 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 26 °C
Guatape is an old colonial town best known for colorful tiles on the lower half of the facades of its buildings. These tiles depict everyday scenes, natural features, agricultural produce, and other natural and cultural icons. We had an enjoyable time strolling through the streets and admiring the buildings.

We ate a vegan lunch at Namaste Cafe and then strolled around some more before heading back to the lakeside road and hopping onto the next bus back to Medellin. The bus ride back seemed faster than the ride out and I think it was because there were more downhill coming back.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/guatape

Muchas gracias to Susie for her invaluable Spanish language skills. We would not have had such a smooth day trip if not for her.

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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Parque Explora
24 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 28 °C
After our day trip to El Penol and Guatape, we stopped at Universidad station and visited the Parque Explora. Our main goal was to visit the aquarium, which has an extensive collection of South American fish, but we also visited the reptile house and played with other exhibits. It was fun to see many children at Parque Explora interacting with the exhibits. There is also a well regarded botanical garden nearby which we did not visit.

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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Medellin: Parting Thoughts
24 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 21 °C
Many of my friends reacted with surprise and consternation when they learned I was going to Medellin. Is Medellin safe? Well, I felt safe in most of the parts of the city I visited, but I was aware how much I stood out. The people are friendly and helpful. There was a noticeable police presence, but most of them were patrolling on foot instead of in cars, which made it feel as if they were in the community. I especially loved the fact that the public infrastructure was built to integrate and include.

I guess the people have been isolated for so long that they were genuinely pleased to see visitors. Strangers would make sure we got onto the correct platform on the metro, and they would offer us their seats. Service staff would try hard to communicate even if they spoke no English. A taxi driver transporting one of Jeff's diver friends called his English-speaking daughter in Miami to make sure his passenger understood where she was going and what she should expect at her destination. Other visitors to the Parque Explora aquarium told us the names of the various fish species. I could go on and on. In short, my already positive impressions from our 2011 trip to Cali were reinforced

Apart from the metro system, Medellin also built a lot of public spaces. We were impressed by the many parks and public squares, and Botero himself donated many of his statues (worth millions) to those parks. Medellin has also built some world class sports facilities and the city hosts international sporting meets such as the one Jeff competed in. This was, in fact, his second visit to Medellin for diving.

It would be naive to say that Medellin has put its past behind it. As Paula told us on the tour, most Colombians don't want to talk about the past. But all this infrastructure that has been put in place can only be a positive development in support of the healing process.Leer más
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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Medellin to Cartagena
25 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C
Avianca AV9386 | MDE/CTG
Economy Class
Airbus A320-200 | N284AV
ATD/1022 | ATA/1129
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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Les Lazards B&B
25 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ 🌙 32 °C
While researching places to stay in Cartagena, I chanced across Les Lezards B&B in the Getsemani area and saw that it had very positive reviews. I knew we would be in for a good stay when minutes after booking our room, Marcus, the owner of Les Lezards, emailed me to ask for my flight information and told me that he'll send a driver to get us with his compliments. We were certainly off to a good start!

Jeff and I left Medellin on June 25th and landed in hot, sultry Cartagena to find our driver waiting for us as promised. A quick 15-minute drive later, we were at our accommodation. What a cute little place this is! Our room was small but cheerful, and we had an outdoor shower which was a lifesaver as Cartagena is hot and humid. More delights revealed themselves as we stayed there - there was a friendly resident kitten who entertained us, and there is also a tortoise on the property. Apparently our room is special for the tortoise as it likes to sneak in whenever the door is opened. Imagine our surprise when we looked down on the floor and saw it there! Dandy, the neighbor's chihuahua, was a delight to play with. Every morning, we woke up to squawking from another neighbor's birds. This was critter overload!

Marcus and his assistant Luis were great hosts. They arranged activities, recommended things to see and do, where to eat, and called for taxis when we needed them without being asked. When we set off for Volcan El Totumo, Luis saw us off and handed us towels as we got into the car, and he was at the front door waiting for us when we returned. Even though our departing flight was well past check out time, Marcus let us return to use the hot tub and shower before we set off for the airport. Les Lezards also offers complimentary breakfasts which were good with toast, freshly made jam, fresh fruit and eggs.

I rarely rave about my accommodations but I would gladly return to Les Lezards again.

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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Centro
25 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C
We spent some time wandering the Centro area. I especially enjoyed the brightly painted houses. Of particular interest were the vividly painted doors and their unique door knockers.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/door-knocke…

Other sightseeing highlights in Centro included:

Museo del Oro: The Museum of Gold in Cartagena is small compared to the one in Bogota, but since we weren't going to Bogota we decided to visit this one. Admission was free and all the signage was bilingual. We both liked this museum a lot as it told a coherent story of gold in Colombia (especially how it relates to the Zenu people) and struggles over this resource.

Palacio de la Inquisicion: There wasn't much English signage in the Palace of the Inquisition but we could more or less figure out what was being communicated in the exhibits. The torture and execution instruments on display on the ground floor were pretty horrifying - they included gallows, a guillotine, instruments for garroting and pulling people apart.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-palace-…

Museo Naval del Caribe: We were warned when we bought our tickets that there is no English signage but we enjoyed this museum nonetheless. The highlight was playing with a submarine mockup on the upper level.

Churches and Squares: Almost all the churches were shut, including Santo Domingo. The only one that was open was Iglesia de San Pedro Claver, and even then large parts of the interior was blocked off for renovation or restoration. Plaza Bolivar was good for people watching.

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City Wall
25 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 32 °C
The city wall around Centro and Getsemani was well preserved and we had an enjoyable time walking on the wall.

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Colombia | 2015 Viajero
Volcan El Totuma
26 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 33 °C
I just had to go to Volcan El Totumo after reading about it as it seemed like a lot of good fun. Our B&B arranged transport for us and so off we went on a hot and humid Friday morning.

The drive to Volcan El Totumo took about an hour. Leaving Cartagena, we took a road that hugged the hot and dry coast east of Cartagena. There were many new luxury developments on the northern side of the road along the coast, and on the southern side of the road we saw less privileged families living in run down housing. It was quite a contrast.

Arriving at the volcano, we saw that it looked like a giant anthill. We followed the drill:
- Climb up the stairs.
- Strip down to trunks.
- Hand your footwear to one guy, hand your camera to another guy who will take photos of you and your party.
- Climb down the ladder into the squishy mud.
- Once you're in the mud, someone grabs you, floats you on your back, massages you (or rubs mud into your skin - I couldn't quite tell), flips you over, massages you some more, and then pushes you away into a corner so that he can massage his next customer.
- Once you've had your fill, you climb up the other ladder where someone will flick mud off you back into the crater (suggestion: when you're in the mud, don't hang out under this ladder).
- Descend the hill, walk to nearby freshwater lake.
- At the lake, a woman with a small pail will grab you by the hand, pour water all over you to wash off the mud, and violate your ear orifices. She'll then instruct you to take off your trunks. Horrors, the lake is shallow so you have no choice but to flash her. She'll then wash your trunks and hand them back to you.
- At the shore, the guy who took your footwear and the guy who took your camera will be waiting for you. Before you get back to your car, the massage guy will also show up.

Here's where things got iffy. The camera guy, the footwear guy, the massage guy and the old lady will all descend on you to ask for payment. Nothing is negotiated beforehand but the going rate seems to be COP10,000 for the massage and COP3,000 for everybody else. I had read about this but boneheaded me left the small change at our B&B so we had to scramble to get small change, and we had to pay some of them in USD.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-volcan-…

Once we were all cleaned up, we headed back to Cartagena. When we got back to our Les Lezards and got back online, we found that social media had gone crazy with news that the Supreme Court had legalized same-sex marriage throughout the U.S. What a great day!

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Getsemani - Street Scenes
26 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ 🌙 30 °C
We went to Cartagena expecting to be wowed by the historic town center and the forts. Don't get me wrong; we were wowed by these even though they were tourist traps, but the unexpected gem of our trip was the neighborhood of Getsemani where we stayed. Getsemani is situated within the walled city and it is a gentrifying but still somewhat gritty part of town. My understanding is that it wasn't safe to wander these streets just a few years ago. The streets are narrow, the houses are brightly painted, there is street art everywhere and ordinary people still live there. In the cool evenings, the streets come alive with food vendors and people hanging out. The cobblestoned Plaza de la Trinidad is the center of life in the community, and people gather there to hang out. On both our nights there, we ate on the sidewalks and soaked in the atmosphere. Our second evening was particularly fun as it seemed as if the entire neighborhood was in the square watching the Colombia-Argentina match. I've always wanted to be in Latin America when a goal is scored in a futbol match and this crowd did not disappoint. Sadly for Colombia, they lost after a penalty shootout.

There are some really great restaurants in Getsemani. In the evenings we ate at Trinidad Square - one meal was at a Mediterranean restaurant with tourist prices, but my spanish seafood rice was out of this world. The other meal was at a pizza place with a mix of tourists and locals where we shared a huge vegetarian pizza for only COP24,000. We ate lunch twice at Donde Socorro, a seafood joint. They made special off menu vegetarian meals for Jeff while I enjoyed seafood stew and cerviche.

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Fuerte San Felipe
27 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C
Fuerte San Felipe is a massive fort built by the conquistadores to protect their port of call while they spread disease, DNA, and general mayhem all around. There isn't much English signage but there is an English language video presentation which you have to ask for otherwise they play the Spanish language one by default. For us, the highlight of this visit to the fort was exploring the dimly lit (and in some parts, not lit at all) tunnels - there are apparently several hundred meters of tunnels within the fort. It was great to be allowed to explore the tunnels. The city views were great too.

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Cartagena to Bogota
27 de junio de 2015, Colombia ⋅ ☁️ 30 °C
LAN Colombia LA3103 | CTG/BOG
Economy Class
Airbus A320-200 | CC-BAN
ATD/1946 | ATA/2111
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