After a 15 hour overnight bus ride with Arctic air conditioning through winding hills while American action movies from ten years ago blasted through the speaker above my head, I was happy to arrive in Medellin. I met some great people and we headed out to see the city. Unfortunately for us, it was a Monday and apparently that's the day almost everything that can be closed is closed.
First we wanted to go to Arvi National Park. It feels like it's a world away from busy Medellin, but it's just a short metro ride away from downtown. In fact, getting there really was half the fun! You take two cable cars up a massive hill to reach the park. It's a fantastic view of the city and the bustling neighborhoods immediately below. I loved it but if you're not comfortable with heights or with being in a small dangling pod that responds every time the wind blows, well, you might want to sit this one out.
Guess what: closed for scheduled maintenance. I didn't mind since it meant I'd get to ride the cable car another day!
Next stop was to hunt down a place called Parque Descalzos, barefoot park. It was supposed to be a great place to walk around, presumably barefoot. We had been told it would be like a foot massage so we were all curious. Guess what: closed for scheduled maintenance.
We happened to be near Plaza Botero, so we had fun checking out Botero's oversized statues before going in to the Museo de Antioquia. Guess what: the museum is free on Mondays! There was a really interesting photo exhibit about the 19th and 20th centuries in Colombia and plenty of Botero's massive paintings.
The map revealed that the Botanical Gardens weren't too far away, so a few of us decided to walk over. In hindsight, I don't think the map was to scale because the garden never seemed to get any closer no matter how long we walked! Eventually we made it and were thrilled at the prospect of catching sunset in the garden. Guess what: closed as of 5 pm and they didn't seem to care that it was only 4:58. So we got back on the subway to call it a day.
Finally Arvi
We headed back to Arvi (on the cable car again!) a couple of days later. We first came upon this guy who was making some sort of sweet. I couldn't understand his explanation but it was entertaining to watch him throw and stretch the dough like substance.
Since it was such a nice day, we decided to follow one of the trails and go for an easy hike. Lush green trees, dirt paths, rolling hills, babbling streams; it was gorgeous.
My only complaint is that there were a few times when the trail wasn't well marked so I had to guess which way to go, which was fine...until I guessed wrong! Of course, we didn't realize that until probably 45 minutes later. We weren't sure if it was best to turn around (a long way to retrace our steps) or to continue on the paved road we had accidentally stumbled upon. The map had no scale so we had no idea if we were fifteen minutes or fifteen miles from our destination! Just then, two cops came by on a motorcycle and stopped to give us directions. They argued among themselves for several minutes about which way we should go, which didn't exactly inspire confidence. One dismounted and decided to practice his English as they walked us to where they thought a bus might be. The bus showed up at the same time we did, so we hopped on and realized after about two minutes that had never been far from where we had started out. Ooph! If only the map had had a scale...! But it was a lovely day and we got to ride the cable car one final time, so I was happy.
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