Dann Carlton Medellin

We got to Medellin in one piece. An uneventful bus ride apart from two frozen Israelis. We got ourselves to the hostel and while the boys discussed prices and dorms versus private rooms I sat with a cup of coffee and read the local magazine. In this, on the second page, there was an add for paragliding. I showed it to Brian and you could almost see his eyes light up. Paragliding, what he's been talking about for the last month or so. Every ...

... the first five hours out of Medellin through the winding curving roads and the sudden braking left me wanting to throw up the hot soup I'd managed to get down when the bus stopped for dinner. It was extremely cold all of a sudden and we hadn't remembered to grab my sweater from the front of my pack. Big mistake. Bring a blanket, some nausea pills, and your ipod. And hold on tight.<br>

... cannot battle trying to find a hotel in Medellin and head out of town to Marinilla, according to the guide book a picturesque village, which it is by S American standards. A nice village square and friendly people.<br>I find a hotel get a load of water and pop some paracetamol and off to bed to sweat it out.

I have arrived for the last leg of my tour, in the wonderful city of Medellin, where I'm staying with some nice people I met on my Amazon trip! Today we went on a tour of the city in Silvio's 1946 Ford coop (he likes classic cars!) which was fun, if not a little slow as it only has 3 gears. Then I spent a wonderful afternoon in the museum of Antioquia checking out Botero ...

... you are anywhere near Medellin at Xmas time, make it a point to check it out. I traveled a few days with Jack, on his trials and tribuations of the paperwork trail for expatting. So, maybe I´ll kinda know what´s ahead of me, if I ever get back this way again! Well, I knew I couldn´t hang here too long to make my Jan 1 date in Lima! I was kinda sorry I had made the committment...but...

... and the clouds. After about 35 minutes of going up and up we decided to pull the shoot and fly down towards land - it felt like the craziest roller coaster I´ve ever been on. Then we would make our way back up before coming in to land. We were lucky that we went on a week day because usually they cap the rides at 20 minutes and we were up for over an hour. Once we were on land we were quite shaky from going to different altitudes ...

... last couple of weeks in Medellín have been busy but great - making me even more reluctant to leave. I pushed back my flight to Costa Rica by 2 wks so now I have until 30 July in Colombia. The documentary I am making with Sean (my flatmate) is about two characters living in the barrio (slum like area) of Andalucia, a short metrocable ride from the centre. One is a displaced woman, Lidia, who has 3 children and has fled violence twice - once alter her brother was ...

... my own two eyes). Of course I had to see this! The goal of the night was to pick a midget up and get my photo taken with them but apparently they are very feisty and might try to beat me up...So I settled with just dancing with them on the bar. After three tiring nights I had to leave Medellin because my body wasn´t used to staying up till the wee hours of the morning-afternoon after a month of basically chilled out nights. And the beach is calling after all!

... Monday.....I may or may not go out tomorrow!!! :o) Sunday... Today I decided that I woud venture out for the day...Liza, Darren, Susanne and Justin- fellow backpackers where also stepping out so we caught a bus and headed to a market....personally I still have the can't fit anything in my bags problem...which I am working on solving..:o)....so i just looked and didn't buy....it's kinda the same stuff that is everywhere so nothing stood out anyway ...

... The best part part is that even the women are friendly toward foreigners, something I hadn&#8217;t yet encountered. This seems to be a national trait- all or nothing- since few women will risk the disapproval of friends and family, and I think is strongly linked to national identity. The fact that Colombians refer to their language as 'Castellano ...