From our Lonely Planet information we understood that there were regular buses north which would take us to Medellín, a twelve hour journey. In reality we had to take a 3 hour bus to Cali and then a further one from there. We turned up at the bus station bright and early and were inundated with offers from bus companies all promising to leave in 20 minutes. We took the cheapest offer and then waited an hour and a half for them to round up more customers to fill the bus. In response to the shouts of !Vamanos! (Come on, lets go!) from several passengers, the driver apologised but said it was out of his control: it was up to the ticket sellers. Eventually we had more passengers than seats and we set off.

A guy with an official looking pass around his neck stood up at the front and launched into what seemed to be public health education about healthy diet and avoiding diseases of various kinds. We were quite impressed until it gradually became apparent that it was actually a compex sales pitch for a sachet of dried nani fruit which was going to be a cure-all for cancer, urinary tract diseases and anything else you may encounter. We declined the offer.

Some hours later we arrived in Cali and scouted around for a bus to Medellin. Our info was partially correct: there were several buses departing each day but most of them were night buses and it was currently coming up for midday. Ho hum. Eventually we found a bus claiming to depart in half an hour, bought our tickets, stocked up on snacks and water and prepared for our next 9 hours (which we now know means about 12 hours by the time we've added in a few meal stops, police searches etc). Departed Popayan hostal 7am, arrived Medellin 10pm....but we had seen some beautiful countryside, everything much greener than further south, as we passed thorugh the coffee growing region

Medellin, The City of Eternal Spring, is Colombia’s third largest city. Today it is a lively and fairly modern place. In the past it was notorious as the centre of country’s drugs trade and was quite a dangerous place to be. Pablo Escobar, one of Colombia’s biggest drug barons, and his cartel used to be based here. Throughout the 1980s there was a big war against the drug trade, with the government confiscating nearly 100 mafia-owned properties and announcing new extradition laws. Eventually, following lengthy negotiations, Escobar and the remaining cartel bosses surrendered.




However, he then escaped during attempts to move him from his luxurious prison to a more secure site. The 1500-man hunt for him lasted 499 days until he was tracked down and killed in Medellín. Since then there has been further action to eradicate the drug production and trade in Colombia, with mixed results. Whilst the cities and inhabited areas have become much safer places to be, the drug growing areas seem to have moved out to much more remote areas of the country, creating hotspots that are still advisable to avoid (so we won’t be heading into those places!).

Kris, a German friend from our Galapagos boat, took the Escobar tour of Medellín, including a visit to meet Pablo’s brother in his apartment. Apparently he assured the tourists that Pablo was at heart a good guy who did a lot for the poor. He obviously just gets a lot of bad press.  

Much of the development in Medellín has taken place over the last ten years, since nowadays not all of the finances and energies are going in to drug wars. The infrastructure is generally well developed and in good condition. Most travellers head for Poblado, an area famed for its many hostels and trendy clubs, bars and restaurants. We avoided this and took a room in an apartment in Envigado, a suburb a little further out of town, owned by an American/Swiss guy called Peter.

It is an area untouched by tourism, where everyday life goes on and locals were amazed to discover that we were visitors. On Friday night the main square, Parque Envigado, filled with snack stalls and musicians whilst the bars and restaurants around the square filled with local people drinking from bottles of the local spirits. All the bars played old tango, salsa and rumba music to which everyone, old, young and even passing taxi-drivers, sang along. As we walked back to the apartment later, many families were sitting out in the street chatting with friends and enjoying the cool of the evening. It was a lovely atmosphere and one of the few places in South America where we’ve said we could actually live.

In the centre of Medellín a plazoleta full of large sculptures by Colombian sculptor Fernando Botero celebrates the larger figure.  

















From here we found our way to the Modern Art Museum which promises changing exhibitions by contemporary artists. We saw some work by Hernando Tejada, mostly wooden sculptures which originally had moving parts but now are old so we weren’t allowed to play with them. Our favourite peice was a human-size reclining mermaid whose hand was a telephone receiver and whose breast opened to reveal the dial.

This was the only current exhibtion so we called an end to the cultural events for the day and headed to Parque de los Pies Descalzos (Barefoot Park). Here the signs encouraged us to kick off our shoes and feel the earth’s energies by paddling in the pools and fountains. We also felt the rain on our heads!

Next day we walked uphill to the Pueblito Paisa, a replica of an Antioquian village, and then down through the sculpture park in the hillside woods. The latter was not so well kept as the former. It would have been good in its day but now most of the sculptures are covered in grafitti and surrounded by weeds, the signs broken or disappeared completely. Nevertheless, we enjoyed our stroll and saw a lovely, tiny, bright red bird. Sometimes it’s the little unplanned and unexpected things that are the high points.