Medellin
Trip Start
Oct 10, 2006
1
47
110
Trip End
Ongoing
Medellin ****,
Colombia
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Medellin is the second largest city in Colombia. An industrial city whose fame is derived from once being the home of the world´s most famous narco-trafficker Pablo Escobar. During Escobar`s time, Medellin was considered on a par with Johannesburg in terms of its danger. Now fourteen years after his murder, Medellin is flourishing. It is a very prosperous city and I felt completely safe there at all times.
Medellin have a lot to thank Escobar for, as it so happens. Although an absolute brute of a man, he used his blood-money to do many good things for the city. Escobar built football pitches, bridges, roads and is said to have contributed generously to the only metro that Colombia has..which is excellent by the way
Myself, Collins, Nick Grant Mitchell and hot Jon
. Of course, the Paisas (inhabitants of the region of which Medellin is the capital) are known for their hard working ethic so they also help themselves I`m sure.Medellin does not have the museums that Colombia´s capital Bogota has, or the beaches that the Colombian Caribbean coast has, but it does have a happening night life. And that is why Collins and I chose to be there for Paddy`s weekend. We hooked up with a few of the peeps who did the Ciudad Perdida trek with us and went out Friday and Saturday night for some beers and babble. Good oul fun. Nearly as good as if we were at home.
But once again, Colombia shocked me by its prices. On Friday night, we were drinking in what we later discovered was a gay bar. But we didn`t mind cos it was the cheapest beer we could find..90cent for a bottle!
But then on Paddy`s night, we went to a niteclub that was full of Colombians only, not a gringo in sight. But I was astounded by the prices of alcohol in there. After paying a hefty admission, we were charged 5.50USd for a poxy bottle of Heineken..like hello that is what it would cost in Dublin, not Latin America. They were only selling imported beer so we couldn`t get our usual Colombian crap "Aguila." I wouldn`t have been surprised if it was a niteclub popular with tourists, but we were literally the only pale-skinned people in there. There is defo serious money in Medellin and you don`t see half as many homeless there as in other cities.
We also had a different Paddy`s day from usual. We went to watch Nick, one of the English guys from the Ciudad Perdida trek, play water polo with the Medellin team. And oh my Lord, if you want to see a group of men with six packs (and not of beer!), head to a water polo match.
I`m assured by Nick that this is not the way in England where a post-training, drinking session in the pub is more the norm than going to the gym to do weights. But Colombian water polo players take their training seriously. After the game, we accompanied one of their best players to another swimming championship where he was doing a stint on national television. While we were on the metro, he was rang by an underwear company asking him to model for them. Need I say any more??!
Quite a number of the women are equally impressive in Medellin but while many are very pretty, about one in every five has some sort of plastic accessory, normally existing in the chested area!! The word on the street is that many 16 and 17 year old girls blackmail their parents into buying plastic breasts for them by threatening that they will resort to prostitution to acquire the money otherwise.
I was also talking to an American yesterday who told me about a girl she knew that was getting her ass surgically increased. Apparently, not all Latinos have natural Jennifer Lopez asses!
It is crazy to think that a country that is considered to fall into the bracket of developing (and when you travel through the countryside, you do indeed see the abject poverty and consequently, the less than good looking ladies) country has such a culture of plastic.
After a hedonistic weekend in Medellin, full of Monday blues, we bumped onto a bus to head to Colombia`s capital, Bogota.
