MEDELLIN (Colombia). Our New Temporary Home. 69 672Km

Welcome to our new home. From Cuba, we flew to Bogota Colombia where we spent a few days before jumping on a bus to Medellin. Situated in approximately the middle of the country at an altitude of around 1500m, it is known as the city of eternal spring for mild weather year round. After the last 9 months or so of being on the move, we decided it was time to stay put for a while and Medellin was going to be the place.

After a little trial and error of looking at some apartments we finally found this one

The photo above doesn't do it justice but from our balcony we have a nice little view over part of Medellin. It is in El Poblado, one of the nicer (secure) neighbourhoods of Medellin and has a number of restaurants, cafes, and bars close by. The apartment building has a number of bars and restaurants on the bottom floor, not to mention the ice cream shop just outside our door.

Now after 9 months of travel, beer, poor dieting, and reduced exercise we were pretty keen to get back to the gym. In the photo above from our balcony, you can see a tall grey building just off centre. This is a hotel with a roof top bar atop but our new gym is just below the bar and it too has one hell of a view.

Our first couple of weeks here have mostly been about getting to know the place, going to a bit of language school, and Claire has already started some volunteer work. We have gotten out a little further a field though, eating in some of the other neighbourhoods, and also going on the downtown walking tour.

Some of you would remember the horrendous events that were occurring in Colombia in the 80's and 90's and some, like us, are getting a feel for them through a recent show on Netflix. Being too young to really understand the events at the time, apart from Colombia is a bad place where bad things happen, I never really thought about why Colombia was dangerous. it has been really interesting watching the Netflix show, talking with people in the city, and seeing the things the city is trying to do even now to help the people move on.

For any worried parents - I assure you where we are staying the city is quite safe. But the past problems from last century are still continuing. Since we arrived the country held a plebiscite on conditions of surrender of FARC, a gorilla group operating for 40+ years, and subsequent peace in the areas they are living in. The country was divided 49.2% vs 50.8%. The 1/3rd of the population who turned out to vote essentially said they didn't want the surrender of FARC under the conditions they imposed, a large one of which related to their prosecution and sentencing.

It will take us much more time and talking to really understand the effects the drug wars had on this country.

A reminder of the previous atrocities that occurred in Medellin

Last weekend we went in our first fun run. With the aim of raising awareness and support for women's cancers, we joined a bunch of pink t-shirt wearing runners and took off down one of the central streets of Medellin. It has been a while since we really ran 5Km but we had fun just getting into it.

So for the next couple of months this is where we'll be. We plan on doing some weekends away (which I'll blog about when we do), Claire will continue doing some volunteer work and I am lining some up next week.

Till the next post......

69 672 Km (37660Km Flights, 9126Km Sailing, 22 438Km Bus, 250km Hiking, 36Km Horse riding, 150Km Train, 12Km Bike)