On to Medellin

Medellin's main airport is about an hour outside the city so on the way in we visited a fantastic flower farm/finca in Santa Elena.  The Silletero Parade in Medellin each year is basically a competition of the campesinos and fincas from this area.

We were shown how the flowered chairs were made......the finished product was very heavy!

The city of Medellin has changed quite a bit since the days of Pablo Escobar and we were able to visit the dangerous (then!) comuna 8. Getting there was interesting... first their metro to the outskirts,

which did have some graffiti en route.........

 then a cable car to get up to the top of the hill....

there are now actually a few roads to the area, underneath the cable car........

Our great local guide performed a dance at the top! He also mentioned that when growing up in the next Comuna he would never have dared to go to a different Comuna. He would have been noticed and targeted by gangs!

 In the past there were very few ways of getting up there except by steep steps!

We walked a route through the actual narrow streets used by locals and visited a store......the owner was very in favour of Escobar...she had gotten her store free.. maybe not quite free! He liked to ask favours down the line!

The cat was happy however.......

We visited  Cerro de los Valores an area which had collapsed, maybe a landslide which  may have been from a guerrilla munitions explosion... it is now a recycling centre with an exotic hillside garden taken care of by ex guerrilla soldiers!! Amazing transformation..... sculptures from the metal which can't be recycled!

..

Another day we visited Guatape about an hour outside the city. I resisted climbing the steps to the top of 

La Piedra...

 the view from the bottom was sufficient!

The boat ride on the lake..... was interesting

It was a favourite area for Pablo Escobar and we saw his semi destroyed house.

The town of Guatape was very colourful..... it had a central plaza with an old church...

 and Motochivas. We had to take a ride!

...and colourfully painted homes ,Zocalos, murals painted on them  indicated the trade of the owner

They were fantastic!

Some graffiti......

and the shady umbrella street was much appreciated!

The centre of Medellin city was traffic intense..

 but we did get to visit the Botero museum, after admiring his many sculptures in the plaza outside.

                                              He obviously liked corpulent bodies!!

Return to Bogota, Colombia!

I visited Bogota many many years ago......... and decided to revisit........

At that time it was essentially a small high altitude colonial city of around 2 million in population with a fabulous Gold Museum. It now has a new museum building and the city is 10 million people, of whom 1 million have recently crossed the border from Venezuela!  The old colonial centre is still there, however the suburbs are where all commerce and hotels exist, and getting to the centre takes around 25 minutes.  Lots of traffic! The various areas are in themselves very interesting.

The Gold museum is still superb! 

And the graffiti art on the surrounding streets is also superb. We took a tour and this was extremely interesting as we learnt the back stories of the political problems being brought to attention. It is no longer illegal for the artists, just a misdemeanour so if caught they can pay a fine!

The Botero museum was huge...... it is in a museum complex in La Candelaria, the old colonial area of Bogota. Great place to spend some time.

Exploring their upmarket local malls was also fun. Interesting local designers.

And a visit to a Tejo court should not be missed!

Restaurants in Bogota offer excellent  choices. It has 2 restaurants in the 50 best restaurants of the world and we tried one, Leo.  This was a total experience! Included big headed ants!! We needed to be told what we were eating! We had no idea! And lost track of number of courses!

Other restaurants we tried were more normal!