We still had a couple of neighborhoods to visit before we left Medellin: the downtown "El Centro" and the neighboring suburb "Envigado" where it is safe enough for gringos but much more affordable than the touristy, ritzy Parque Lleras where we were staying.
El Centro
Our walk to the Metro station felt much shorter than our first time had been. It's always the case when you already know where you're headed. The removal of mystery calms you down and the weight of time slips away to let you enjoy the sights around you.
Don't let Michael's frown fool you:
He's excited. He's on vacation.
Locals' and tourists' descriptions of El Centro sounded like it might be like Los Angeles's downtown, full of tall buildings and miscreants.
Well, the tall structures were there.
No miscreants here, just fellow shoppers!
Walking through the few blocks of El Centro, it felt like we were indeed in LA, but particularly in LA's garment district where one can buy the crappiest quality of hoochie-clothes and electronics for mere dollars. El Centro actually felt safer than LA because there weren't homeless people asking for money!
Appliances under $5 USD
So this is where all the bear claw clips are!
We walked around an indoor mall next to the station and it felt like any swap meet building with lots of hopeful vendors selling the very same things you can get a few doors down. If you've ever wandered through the buildings in LA's Chinatown, you'll get the same feel. I don't know if there's an equivalent in Minnesota, but rest assured that it is no Mall of America. It's more like Closet of Colombia: tiny, dark and stuffed with crap.
Internet access is very important - to locals and tourists!
Spanish Spanx!
We found out the secret to Colombian women's fine figures! Spanx: the modern corset. There were all sorts of stretchy fabric and heavy-duty stitching to hold in all the folds that come with eating all those arepas. The woman in the foreground of the photo above likes to showcase her booby spanx. Maybe she was in the market for a new pair that doesn't criss-cross applesauce.
I saw a problem with all these figure-enhancers. Using them makes you look great in your clothes because they are well concealed. There are even combo corsets that not only shape your thighs, belly and breasts, but they also have a little zipper at your nether regions so you can pee (and maybe poo?) without having to take everything off! They thought of everything and every situation .... except for when you get to the goal why you wear these Spanx. Girls are trying to attract men or women by holding in their rolls and lifting their butts and boobs. Once the attraction is struck, couples are going to want to get down and dirty, i.e. nekkid! Well how attractive is it when you take off your clothes to reveal your sausage casings?!
Guarapo and its vendor
Colombians love their fruit and their fruit juices. Guarapo is a sugarcane juice that is sold on the streets with quite a flair. The vendors themselves are regularly-dressed and the juice is just presented in plain plastic cups, but the broadcast of their presence is interesting. While walking around El Centro, we would hear this human bird call, "Guara, guara, gaura, guarapo! (3 seconds) Guara, guara, gaura, guarapo! (3 seconds) (repeat until someone buys a drink)" I didn't try it because I just wasn't in the mood. Now as I write this, I wish I had tasted it so I could report on it. At the time we had been looking for shoes for moi.
Although the ridiculously tall shoes looked painful, I noticed that there were some pairs that alleviated the incredible ball / heel height difference by also increasing the sole under the balls of ones feet. So even though I'm standing an extra 4" in the air, my feet are not at an incline equal to it. Some shoes provided a mere 1" incline while giving me the desired vertical advantage.
Looks administrative
Now this is more like it!
Glitz?
Despite the beautiful architecture and wonderful atrium that lit up the space, the shopping was more of what was outside ... except indoors. We ate a lunch special that was not very. It resembled the wares for sale. Cheap price and equally cheaply prepared. But at least my company was top notch!
No need to haggle for this one - I'll take him MSRP!
At least we knew what the downtown had to offer. There are more that tourists do here like visit museums, gawk at the statues of Colombia's famous artist Fernando Botero, and bend the knee in old cathedrals. None of these activities interested me - not even the art museum. I have never been a fan of Botero who seemed to have just become popular because all his subjects are rotund. The Colombians seem to be proud of him merely because he is one of them and not really that they like his style. Maybe they do, but goodness gracious, variety could be the spice of life!
(Says the girl who did only one thing in Medellin's downtown ...)
On the way back to the Metro, Michael had to pee. No store will admit to having a restroom and everyone will direct you to the public bathrooms where one has to pay 500 pesos (20 cents USD) to enter. You can't just wait by the door until someone inside exits and leaves the door open for you because there are at least two bathroom guards. One collects money for your entry. Sometimes the second person is just the janitor, but other times that person is the Keeper of the TP! (Mom and Dad, TP is slang for Toilet Paper. It's an acronym) That's right, if you want to wipe your privates after you've relieved them, you better have prepared yourself prior. There is never any TP inside the stall with you. You either have to buy it from a machine that also dispenses the tampons and condoms or you have to buy it from the Keeper of the TP. Woe is she who doesn't bring the TP into the stall with her and realizes after the fact that she should have not assumed that a foreign country would operate like her motherland.
Bathroom Guards
Who holds the key to the TP?
Tricycle Treats
Why not?
Hmm ....
The sweets were not as mindblowing, but we were glad we tried it. I wonder now what our faces would have looked like if we had tried the guarapo.
Onward Ho! To Engivado!
typical metro scene
We had originally planned to visit just El Centro for the day and then visit Envigado the following day. It was 6pm and, if we were at home with the kids, we would have normally started to wind down for the evening by finishing up dinner, brushing our teeth and putting on our pajamas. But Michael and I were on vacation and our youthful vigor had returned to revive us into pushing on towards Envigado for an evening jaunt through uncharted (well ... uncharted by us) blocks.
We stayed on the subway, passed our regular station and headed to the one entitled "Envigado." Unfortunately, we found out after we got off that all the fun commercial stuff was 1 station prior in the northern part of the neighborhood. Oh well, we thought. Now we were going to see more of what most locals experienced.
Right outside the station.
Gnarly Trees
Local, street-side gyms!
America should implement this public service!
Beautiful homes
Multi-use building
Once we got to the more commercial area of Envigado, I immediately took to the area. It was really quaint with lots of locals hanging out leisurely.
Stylistic lamposts along the pedestrian-only roads
Modernized passageways.
Well-dressed elderly
Our first Spanish teacher had told us about the one arepa he could stomach and that was the Arepa Chócolo. On our wanderings we came across a storefront that sold only this very arepa that John lauded as tolerable so we just had to try it.
Still not tasty. Chócolo refers to the grain that is used to make the little cake and it's some type of corn. This vendor put thick slabs of cheese on it and then dribbled sweetened, condensed milk on the whole works. I think it was good because of the milk, but otherwise, it was "meh."
Michael's love for the motorcycle increased while in Colombia. Many people ride them or scooters as transportation. Lane splitting is allowed there and the men and women, young and old, use this a lot to their advantage. It had been 7 years since Michael had owned two wheels and he was badly missing the ease through which he could maneuver through any jam.
Traffic: is there Uber with motorcycles?
Zippin' through
In the same photo above, but on the left side are two examples of how jazzy jeans are in Colombia. It's not enough to be skin tight, but there is a lot of bedazzling happening on the butt region. The round and taut rear is so highly valued that many jeans purport to lift your saggy cheeks should you need such an aid. And then much attention should be directed to the enhanced behinds, hence the sparkles and intricate cloth weaves.
Buttazzled
Vintage trucks
Michael was so excited when he noticed so many 50s Dodge trucks operating fine and dandy on the streets of Medellin. "So this is where they go!" Just as old school buses are sent to Mexico for a second life, the mid-century trucks were sent to Colombia, and to who knows where else in Latin America.
Reuse and multi-use is so prevalent in Colombia. Need a bollard? Forget concrete, Use scrap steel!
Not an I-Beam, but an I-Post.
Beer Bottle Dispensing Water
Ugly or Genius
One thing that Michael likes in Colombia that is lacking in America are the plethora of different cars. Due to all our regulations, many cars are not allowed to be sold in the US, much to Michael's disappointment. I'm guessing the concern is smog emissions, something I find more important than selection of vehicles. I found the truck above quite frankensteinian while Michael considered it desireable.
Miscellaneous ...
Modern architecture nestled in succulent greenery
A store just for us!
Envy
Despite all our walking the entire afternoon, we did more exploring that night and stopped by a club called Envy that sat atop the roof of the Charlee Hotel. It had a spectacular setting with a city view and a pool.
Front door of the hotel
Monolithic wood slab for the Hotel Charlee's front desk.
Cork ceiling, living Walls
Future design feature of Casa Meyer
Complete with gutter tray
A Pool with a View
Swanky!
I didn't realize how much of the landscape was filled with high-rise buildings.
The main road Calle 10 is the lit street just right of center.
Parque Lleras on the bottom left corner
More of the gnarly trees, but as chairs.
Women and Men's washroom share the sinks on opposite sides of a common wall.
We enjoyed Envy's setting so much we decided to come again on Thursday when it was supposedly going to be more happening, complete with beautiful people and a live band.
Again with the vehicles...
Now this van was adorable.
I would smuggle it into America and ride it around my future farm.
Sushi, Take Two
Despite being full, I wanted to give Colombian sushi another try. I decided to try Sushi World that dedicated its entire menu to sushi.
At least their cheese was more than a sliver
My sushi control: salmon nigiri
Suspiciously too much rice.
The nigiri did not increase my faith in Colombian sushi. I was really starting to miss America with their fat slabs of fish and only minor portions of salty rice. I wonder though which version is closer to the real thing in Japan. I may be surprised to find out that Americans have been doing it wrong all this time!
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