Medellin is an incredible city! After staying at the finca, Marta invited me back to her home in Medellin. She lives on the 16th floor in a beautiful apartment with views in every direction.
Medellin is the 2nd largest city in Colombia with a population of over 3.5 million people. It lies in the large Aburra valley at an altitude of 1500m, making it considerably warmer and more tropical than Bogota. It really felt like Singapore weather on a cool day. With year round constant temperatures, Medellin is known as “La Ciudad de la Eterna Primavera” = “City of Eternal Spring”.
Medellin has a troubled past, being the home of drug cartel Pablo Escobar and the site of much violence between cartels. Now it is a very livable and deserving of its 2012 nomination as most innovative city in the world. It was clear to see why, even though I only got to see a fraction of the recent developments aimed at improving the life of its citizens. I will simply have to go back one day!
Marta was a wonderful host and Oscar a great tour guide and took me to the Museo Antioquia, but will write about that in a separate post. I also met Isabella, who was Gilberto’s assistant. She is an amazing lady, both an engineer and a GP. Isabella took me to see some very interesting places, including taking me on the Metro and Metrocable. She jokingly said lets see if this compares to Chicamocha! I was surprised at this amazing innovation that provides much needed transport for this low socio economic area. The Metrocable goes up the side of a mountain to a steep part of town that began life as a shanty town but is now more established in size and facilities. The area is called San Cristóbal and I was impressed with the cleanliness of the streets and the friendly atmosphere of children playing everywhere and groups of people socializing outside.
The photos show the some city views, crossing the bridge built and named in Marta’s husbands honour, including the amazing views from Marta’s apartment, inside the apartment, including the room I stayed in and the trip on the Metrocable with Isabelle.We visited the public library: Parque Bibliothek (Park Library), another great contribution to the people, and one of a series set up throughout Medellin in strategic places to provide modern facilities and technology to everyone, with a focus on disadvantaged communities. 
The one in San Cristóbal looks very impressive, situated right on the mountain side, near the last cable stop. All the Park Libraries in Medellin feature modern architecture. This one is the largest and was opened by the King of Spain. I walked through and visited each floor – from toddlers to teens and adults, ALL on computers playing games! 
Oops….probably not what was meant by “transformar la mentalidad barrial de las comunidades menos favorecidas” (to transform the mentality in areas of neighbourhoods in disadvantaged areas).
On another day we went to the top of the mountain and took the second Metrocable down to San Cristóbal from the large National Park. One our way home Oscar stopped at the police stables and we had a tour of the modern facilities based on a Canadian design, complete with building materials specifically made to keep the temperature at a suitable temperature for the horses. The horses were all beautiful and in excellent condition and several were Argentinian horses.
All in all my trip to Medellin was wonderful. I also got to visit the German School in Medellin and speak with the music teachers about their program. They have a very extensive music program plus an excellent centre for music complete with a splendid auditorium (that is too small – why do schools always make the same mistake!). The school itself was very interesting, running in English, German and Spanish, plus they do the IB PYP and Diploma.
Thanks so much to Marta for hosting me and to Oscar and Isabelle for being such great guides and teaching me so much.
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