Is it still 'The most dangerous city in the world'

  Medellin, Colombia Tuesday, October 27, 2015

The airport here is a few miles outside of the city and as we exited the terminal a bus was there ready and waiting to take us to the city. Perfect timing. The bus dropped us off in what appears to be a busy town centre - no bus station just down a back street and lots of people were staring at us. And it was raining. Umm not the warmest welcome to the city. We hadn't booked anywhere to stay here but had a place in mind - we just had to get there. The first taxi we asked wouldn't take us but the next one did - we just had to hope they had a room for us now.The Palm Tree hostel was in a quiet area of the city to the west of the centre and luckily for us there was a room. For just £14 a night we had a big room but had to use the toilet and bathroom along the corridor. We could cope with that. There was also a large kitchen, dining room, an outside seating area and a bar. And breakfast included with free tea and coffee all day - bargain! The girl on reception didn't speak any English at all but we were getting by on our limited Spanish now so it wasn't a problem. Then an American guest (we'll call her Jenny) happened to be in reception and stepped in to translate. Which was good of her in some ways but wasn't helping us learn any more Spanish. So we got settled into our room and decided to venture out for a late lunch. This area was very much a locals area not really for tourists which meant all the shops and restaurants nearby, were for locals. Which was good for us as we got to practice our Spanish and taste traditional Colombian food. A typical traditional meal starts with a soup, followed by the the main of beans, rice, fried plantain, avocado, fried egg, a few french fries then as much meat as you can physically cram on the plate - beef, pork, spicy sausage, steak, chicken - anything and everything really. All for £2.60 - another bargain (for Bryan anyway) We went back to our room quite tired that first night and thought we were in for a good night's sleep. That is until 2:30am when the couple in the room next door came crashing back from where ever they had been and then proceeded to have noisy sex. The walls were paper thin and we could hear everything. Yes everything and it was disgusting. Jody could only sing  la la la for so long. Grrr!!!!We slept in a bit longer than planned after that and had our breakfast. Jenny was around again and she really started to get on our nerves. She had a very patronising way about her - Oh you don't know about this?, Oh - no-one told you about that? I can't believe you don't know about this! on and on. Grrr! This hostel is a bit too small for us we think which was a shame as the staff were really lovely. We got to hear about a FREE walking tour of the city - Oh you don't know about these Jenny! They were by a company that does Real City Walking Tours all over the world. They pride themselves on a few things. 1. they tell it like it is - they don't avoid the truth 2. they don't charge - you just tip the guide at the end And this was the best thing we could have done in this city. We booked it online and there were about 40 people all waiting to do the tour when we arrived at 2:30pm so we were split into 2 groups. Our group got Juliana and she was brilliant. We could not have asked for anyone better to take us. She told us she was half American half Colombian and a professional storyteller amongst other things. Wow! how do you get to be a professional story teller we want to know!She explained many of the things we saw in the streets, gave us a history lesson on the first settlers of this part of Colombia, the drug cartels and politics of the last 50/60 years, taught us about the guerrilla fighting and how it all started and eventually how Colombia was sorting itself out. A hard-line President had taken on the problems in 2002 and even though his rule is still surrounded in controversy, Colombians are seeing the results of his stance and gradually lives are getting better here. This hard line President was from Medellin so knew just how bad it could be. Wikipedia says this about him "in two years, homicides, kidnappings, and terrorist attacks in Colombia decreased by as much as 50% – their lowest levels in almost 20 years. In 2003, there were 7,000 fewer homicides than in 2002 – a decrease of 27%. By April 2004, the government had established a permanent police or military presence in every Colombian municipality for the first time in decades" He put armed forces on every major road in the country and for the first time, Colombian people could move safely from city to city. He sounds like a great man yet Juliana was fearful of mentioning his name over her microphone. Ummm! She took us to the park where, she said, more crack cocaine was taken and dealt here than anywhere else in the city. We walked right through the centre of it all and people here were shouting out to us "welcome to Colombia". Now you would think this was an attempt at some sarcasm or said in an ironic way. But no - these people whom society shies away from, were actually very sincere in their greeting to these 18 western visitors in their city. Amazing! Next stop was a very busy square where all sorts was going on. That's a witch Dr she said, pointing out a man with lots of different picture cards laid at his feet. And over there is the guinea pig gambling. We watched as a man had a tight circle of buckets with numbers on the top and holes cut out on the inside of the circle. Punters placed their money on the top of a bucket and the guinea pig was released. Whichever bucket he ran into won the money and everyone else lost. Genius! And no guinea pigs were harmed in the process. Watch it here Juliana pointed out a church. You see those ladies out the front she said - they are Loving Providers! The idea is; you receive some loving from a provider for a fee, (we all know what we call this in England) then afterwards go in the church, confess your sin and go home to your wife with a clear conscious. That's religion for you! It sounds like we only saw bad things here but the truth is she also showed us a lot of the positive things happening in the city too. She took us to a square where the sculptor and artist Fernando Botero had donated at least a dozen statues. We had seen one of his statues already in Cartagena. He lives in Italy now but is from the city of Medellin. Each statue was fun and they were all mis-proportioned. Now worth over $2m each too. She said that for the first time ever this year, families were coming to Medellin as tourists. Which she enthused was fantastic and how glad Colombians were that tourists were finally coming here.Juliana was an absolute mind of information. And she also gave tips for going to a football match: Wear closed toe shoes, your feet WILL get stamped on When Medellin's team score a goal, everyone rushes down the terraces to the front and then back again like a wave - don't fall down - you will die! If Medellin scores a goal, you must just up and down, otherwise the locals will think you support the other team and they will kill you! If you see a circle form, get away fast. A firecracker or firework is about to go off and you will die! Don't wear Yellow, it's the oppositions teams colours and they will kill you! Don't wear red, it's the oppositions teams colours and they will kill you! Don't wear green and white - Medellin team colours, the opposition will kill you! Make friends with the local supporters in green and white strips, they will protect you. Whilst all this was really interesting, Medellin is not the prettiest city in the world. The following day we decided to hop on a bus and take ourselves to Santa Fe just 30km to the north of the city. It was much much calmer here. The houses are cute, the men ride horses through the small cobbled streets and the houses are covered in bougainvillea. Its a world away from Medellin.Whilst we were here we went for lunch and Jody tried in here best Spanish to ask for a meal without any meat on. The girl was not understanding and an old man stepped in to ask if he could help. He was a retired pilot and was now living in Santa Fe so his English was good. His name was Jose and for his efforts, Jody got 2 boiled eggs and a bit of salad. Thank you Jose! On the way back we took a detour in the city and went a bit further north on the metro (which incidentally is the only one in Colombia and also is the brainchild of the President whose name we shall not mention - he built it to link the slums to the city centre - instantly improving opportunities for the Colombians most in need of it). The metro ticket which is 40p to go anywhere, also includes the cable car. The cable car is exactly like the ones you get at ski resorts and goes right to the top of the mountain to the slums highest up. Now supposed to be safer than downtown Medellin at night, we decided to venture up to the top of the slums and see the city light up. Well the best laid plans don't always work out. When we got to the station for the cable car the queues were horrendous. It was rush hour and about a million people live in the slum (sorry we keep using the word slum but they are more like communities which have built themselves - look like a slum but they are not filthy like a typical slum - we just don't have another name for these crammed streets where so many people live). We joined the queue and an English speaking policewoman came to talk to us (we are easy to spot as we stand head and shoulders above the average Colombian). She suggested we may like to come back tomorrow as it was so busy and could take a while to get to the top.Encouraged by the fact that she didn't say it was not a place for us to be at night, we said we would stay. The queues were in fact full of shop workers, cleaners, office workers and generally just your average person making their way home from work. Not an armed gangster or drug dealer in sight (as far as we could tell anyway!) 45 minutes later we were at the top. It had taken us a while to get to the front of the queue so it was fully dark by now and we watched the city below for a while. On the way up the noise of children playing and laughter was very evident and our lasting impression of the slums was of a great community that seemed safe and a fun place to live. It might actually feel different to live there we realise but the outward impression was one of community. Can't say that for many places in England that's for sure. Well time to move on again and the following day we would leave by bus from the South Terminales to Armenia. Armenia is the capital of the coffee growing region and would be very different again from the cities we had seen already. We survived the World's Most Dangerous City (was) and actually, although it isn't all that nice here, we were pretty glad we came. Anyone for a cappuccino?? 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