Medellin

Ok, alright, where to begin...? The main purpose of this trip was to see Brazil...but I have always regretted I did not spend more time in Colombia when I was here a couple years ago. So, since I had already decided to see the Amazon, I decided I would just enter the Amazon from Colombia, rather than fly all the way south to the big Brazilian cities I am going to visit, and then fly all the way back up here. Since Miami has a $222 flight to Medellin, and since I had not been to Medellin, and had furthermore heard the city was very beautiful, and in walking around I would see many beautiful...sights, I figured I would start here.

On the three hour plane ride down from Miami I exchanged a few words with the man sitting next to me in Spanish. Initially I kind of began talking to him just as a way to ease myself back into speaking Spanish, but he turned out to be really nice. He was Colombian but had lived in Miami for 32 years (and spoke almost no English after all that time in Miami, amazing, but true that you can live for a long time in America and not speak English). When we got off the plane I helped him with his bag, which was pretty heavy. We had a ways to walk and I continued to carry his bag for him and talk to him. We eventually got around to discussing whether or not I had a ride into town from the airport. (The airport is about a 40 minute cab ride outside of town up and over a large ridgeline.) I, of course, had no ride waiting for me, so the old gentleman gladly introduced me to his girlfriend and her daughter, and I rode back to town with the three of them, after stopping for a quick dinner.

The young lady was very helpful and friendly, and drove me to two different hostels and helped me negotiate a better price once we found one. She had some friends coming to town the next day and I ended up going out with all of them to a local bar. I would have loved to been able to go out with them again, but sadly I already had a plane ticket out of town down to Leticia. Canceling or delaying the flight would have tripled the price of the ticket (though I only paid $80 for the original), and given the limited time I had for the entire trip, I decided to continue on from Medellin after only two days. You never have enough time when you really want it, but my time in Medellin was great. If only I had had another day or two.