Medellin

We just did a walking tour of Medellin the second largest city in Colombia. The photos mostly cover the variety of what we saw.

This isn’t a pretty city - the main style of architecture is brutalism (ugly concrete basically). But this is a city with a huge positive energy as it comes out of a period of tremendous conflict when it was “the most dangerous city on earth”.

This is a city and country of contradictions.

You can get an Uber but you have to sit in the front otherwise the police will stop you for a bribe.

You can check into a nice airbnb but the room will have a card telling you bringing minors back to your room for sex is illegal. (Foreigners come here for this sadly).

You can get cash from a cash point but you might need to step over an unconscious homeless person to do so.

The second oldest church in town is the meeting point at night for prostitution. Makes confession easy in the morning apparently.

The safest districts for tourists are controlled by the mafia who ensure the tourists are safe but charge protection from the businesses that serve them.

The country has a terrible and recent history of violence but the people are super friendly and welcoming.

We have been studying Spanish here but I (Michael) have been a bit unwell with stomach upset so missed some classes. On Saturday we move on to Bogotá the capital.もっと詳しく