Our first touchdown in the land of drugs, violence and poverty, was in Medellin, the former residence of druglord Pablo Escobar. This city has gone through some serious times during the reign of Mr. Cocaine himself. Although he was feared by anyone and everyone, due to his cruel methods, he still was a caretaker of his people. Despite the fact that business was far beyond legal boundaries, people apparently had a good life.
Medellins airport is about half an hour by bus outside of the city on a stunning altitude of over 2500 something meters. Thus, the busride into town allows the visitor an even more breath taking view on the city, which is rammed in slim valley between two mountain ridges. Unfortunately the bus raced down the 2 lane street like it was hunted by the devil himself, so all the pictures I tried to take are absolute crap… -.-
Compared to our previous accomodation in Ho(e)tel California, this little Hotel was insanely cheep and way more comfortable, although it too, was in the tramp district. The next day we started to check out the city and it is a grey and un-welcoming city. Everywhere are people trying to sell you stuff that is a) overpriced, b) fake, fake, fake and c) will possibly break the next day. Summing up: everything has the same integrity as Mr. Gutenberg, who apparently is a role model to those people here, as depicted…
After a short stay and some standard sight seeing we figured that this city is not really a keeper as it is huge, grey and is rains every day because the clouds get jammed in the mountain tops and in order to continue their journey they shoot their load on everyone beneath… :D
Next stop was Cartagena, a big city in the north west of Colombia. Our friend and helper the „Lonely Planet – South America on a shoestring“ (LP) almost did not stop talking the beauty of the old town, in which almost every street looks like postcard pictures. And indeed the center was stunningly beautiful and looked alot like Cubas capital whereas the rest of the city was probably as charming as New Yorks sewer system.
The day we arrived in Cartagena, the whole city was in the old town and they had a parade and a massive street party for the finalists of the Miss Colombia Election. Everyone had a blast, people cheered for their favourite Miss Colombia candidate and we were in the middle of it.
Sadly, a huge amount of people attracts thieves and pickpocketing becomes a national sport. And we were in the middle of it, too. Chris’ camera almost got stolen 4 times and i guess my boarshorts weren´t the safest place for my money, either. By concentrating on not donating my camera to someone else, I paid to few attention to my money and thus someone else is now spending my 50.000 Pesos ( = 20,00 €).
I just call it a good deed…
A few days later we again decided to move to another city since the festivities had have a strong impact on us and health became an issue for all of us. Next up the Carebbean Coast, once again.
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