Medellin, Colombia

In Ipiales, Colombia (the border town) I bought a bus ticket to Medellin which I believe is the second largest city in Colombia. I once again got really lucky with my seating arragnement becuase I spent the entire 18 hour bus ride sitting with a Colombian guy (prolly in his 40´s because he was married with kids) who ended up being a wealth of information. He had lived all over Colombia and was very educated in a variety of subjects and thus turned out to be a huge help to me - just teaching me about the geography and politics and culture of the country. Lucky me. Medellin turned out to be a really beautiful and highly developed city. This is one of the things that really surprised me about Colombia - the high level of development and westernization (especially after so much time in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador). Its such a shame that such bad stereotypes still exist about Colombia and its people becuase I haven´t found any of it to be true. The two most impressive things about Medellin were its public transportation system and the Mueseo de Antioquia. The transportation system was soooo clean (not at all like in BsAs) and it included busses, metro and ahhh I can´t remember what they are called in English . . . . gondolas I think. The museum consisted mostly of art by Fernando Botero. I recognized some of his works but I hadn´t heard his name before, and even though I´m not usually a big fan of art museums, this one I loved. I also discovered another artist that I really like - Luis Caballero. I don´t think I´ve ever been affected by a piece of art until I saw something by him.

Also in Medellin I did paragliding. Don´t think I would classify it as an extreme sport but it was really fun and the view of the city was breath-taking. After two nights in Medellin I headed north to the carribean coast of Colombia.