Last Stop, Medellin, Not the City of Recent Infamy

Medellin is known for many things.  It's the "City of Eternal Spring," because of its temperate climate.  It's the namesake of what was the most feared drug cartel in the Americas. The drug and political battles of the late 1990s and early 2000s made it what some considered to be the most dangerous city in the world. Today, it has the only Metro system in Colombia and is known globally as a center of social and economic innovation.

Despite its bad rap and rep, we found Medellin a vibrant city of 2.5 million people nestled high (5900') in the central Andes range. This was our last stop in Colombia, and our 6 nights there gave us opportunities for unhurried tourism ... selective sightseeing, seeing friends (a Seattle couple there for 3 months studying Spanish), and just relaxing.

Getting to Medellin was, however, not relaxing.  From Hacienda Venecia near Manazales, the drive was a long, maddening slow, snaking route over mountains, along ridges, through river canyons, behind an endless line of big trucks, all constrained by road construction and repairs that sometimes idled us for 30+ minutes.  We found out later that we could have flown, probably a 40 minute flight, vs 6 hours! Argghh!

In any case, we did make it to the Airbnb we had reserved in a bustling section of the Poblado neighborhood.  Lots of restaurants, small shop, and cafes filled with young tele (as far as we could tell) workers on their devices. Our 3rd floor apartment was a bit funky, and there was that confrontation one night with a huge rat right outside our door, but all-in-all we enjoyed our little piece of Medellin.

We did take two of the "most popular" tours, one of a flower farm in the hills above Medellin in combinations with the town of Guatape and its big rock, and the second was of Comuna 13, the Medellin's once-violence ridden favela.  

Flower Farm and Guatepe

The 6th generation flower farmer, Joseph or Nacho, was right out of central casting, a real character. Here he demonstrated the long tradition of Cijateros or "chair carriers." This is how goods and people were transported in the rugged mountains - yes, on chairs! - and an annual festival in Medellin celebrates the tradition. Nacho amazed us with his knowledge of the Sephardic immigration from the Basque country of Spain to this part of Colombia. Did you know ... "Lopez" is a variant of "Lupiz," which is a Spanish/Portuguese surname adopted by many Iberian Jews when they were forced to convert in the 15th century.  Many retained the surname once they migrated to the New World.

Nacho showed us the largest of the flower "sculptures" with which the region's flower farmers compete during the annual festival in Medellin.

The rock of Guatepe.  Though tourists flock to the climb it, the rock apparently has no religious, cultural, or historical significance.  It is owned by what was, back when, a farm family.  After they allowed a trickle of people to climb it, they planned to sell it.  A neighbor convinced them they had a potential gold mine, and instead of selling, they now have a humongous tourist attraction complete with dozens of shops selling trinkets and food, and of course tickets to climb the rock.

 

We climbed the 770 stairs with hundreds of other tourists...

... and enjoyed the views of the dam-created lake below.

The town of Guatepe, itself, is quite picturesque.

Most of the town's central buildings are painted with these brightly colored panels depicting local culture and history.

Comuna 13

Comuna 13 was Ground Zero of the urban battles between the government, different drug cartels (remember Pablo Escobar), and political rebels.  Our guide, who grew up in Comuna 13, described a living hell in which families had to dive for cover in their own homes as bullets flew every which way.  Streets divided militarized territories, and woe to anyone who crossed such a street.  A strongman president, Alvaro Uribe, 22 years ago decided enough was enough and carried out 10 military operations including  a 3-day invasion of the area with more than 1000 soldiers and police plus helicopter gunships. 

The official civilian death toll from the operations is 3, but the local community counts 100+ still missing (see photo below).  No doubt "the truth" about this time remains contested, but what is clear is that the community mobilized and transformed itself from a place of violent conflict to a center of art, music, and dance.  As our guide described it, the catalyst for this transformation was hip-hop culture, which energized youth and gave them outlets for their hopes and dreams.  Comuna 13 is now an economic and cultural hothouse.

Comuna 13 climbs steeply up a hillside in Medellin. It started as a favela, an illegal settlement, with densely packed structures made of whatever residents could find.  No roads, mostly narrow pathways, no infrastructure, plumbing, water. After the 2002 military operations, the city gave legal status to the community, provided resources to residents to bring buildings up to code, and also began to build high rises like the one in this photo.  Residents are given first dibs on units in these new apartment buildings for little or no cost.

 

 

You can see in this photo how dense Comuna 13 was and is, no way for cars, buses, garbage trucks to move.

 

Steep stairs and pathways are mostly the only way goods and materials can be transported within Comuna 13, until the developments noted below.  We saw a man coming down these stairs with a washing machine strapped across his forehead; our guide told us people rented the machine for laundry day!

Back streets...

The memorial to still-missing residents, young and old, from the 2002 military operations in Comuna 13.

One of those killed was a child, who loved to play on slides.  So, as a memorial, the community built this little park, and it was custom to honor the child's memory by sliding down ... which we did!

Among the important developments in the neighborhood was the installation of these escalators ... not primarily for tourists, but to help residents get around and into and out of the neighborhood for work, school, errands.  When I asked our guide, lower right corner, how often the escalators broke down - visions of Seattle's light rail station escalators some of which closed for maintenance only months after opening and VERY frequently thereafter! - he said "almost never" (although we did see one segment closed during our tour).  Local resident-volunteers were stationed at each segment to help people navigate the moving stairs.

 

The gorgeous, vibrant mural art that covered nearly every wall we saw is a now-acclaimed art form that began, after violence subsided, as Christmas paintings but then, spurred by hip hop culture and rap music, became an expression of youth's aspirations for their future and that of their community.

We saw some pretty amazing dance in Comuna 13: here's a short video clip of one.

The other amazing transportation development in Comuna 13 was the construction of cable car "runs" to help residents get into and out of the mostly roadless neighborhood for school, work, etc. Like the escalators, the cable car was not primarily for tourists, although it is an attraction for tourists like us. It also connects to and is part of Medellin's Metro one-fee system, making it quite cheap for locals to get around easily and reliable.  The Metro, itself, is a local gem, engendering strong feelings of ownership by locals - e.g., "The Metro Way" which means people don't mess it up, no graffiti, garbage, or eating on the trains!.  Some Metro stations even have little libraries, computer work stations, and psychiatrist consultation tents(!) to mitigate the leading cause of suicide in the city, jumping in front of trains.

Our last evening in Medellin and Colombia.