Medellin, Colombia

We've just had a great week in Medellin including the arrival of Duffy. We flew down from Santa Marta and met Duffy In the airport in Medellin and checked into our hostel 'The Black Sheep', originally to stay for 4 days but we've now been here 7!! Medellin is an amazing city and we've learnt so much about it since we got here. From 20 years ago being the most dangerous city in the world it is now a vibrant city filled with culture and has a youth movement that is making it a very modern and extremely liveable place. It's no wonder that it won Wall Street Journal's 'most innovative city' award, ahead of New York and Tel Aviv. The city is surrounded by mountains but sprawls for miles as we saw our first day when we took a cable car to Parque Arvi which looks down on the valley area that Medellin covers. Another day we did a 4 hour walking tour and our incredible guide taught us so much about the rarely spoken about history and dark days of the city right through to the new hope and positive outlook that they now have for the future.

The next day we did the famed Pablo Escobar tour which prior to arriving in Medellin all four of us thought would be an homage to the man. But it is actually a brilliant and honest depiction of how brutal his regime was and how many people suffered because of it. His entire life was pretty crazy from his love of Palm tress and getting them flown in and planted all over Medellin, to having all his properties painted completely white to reflect his favourite colour (or as some people think, his cocaine empire), to at one stage living on a Hacienda where he had all types of animals flown in from all over the world to live there. Even today the property exists but it is completely abandoned except for some hippos that the authorities failed to capture. Originally seen as a hero to the locals when he was starting out, the bloodshed and evil that he inflicted has led to the majority now looking on the Escobar period as a very dark time.

We had some great nights out in Medellin which all consisted of a few beers in the hostel to begin with, followed by a few more at Parque de Lleras, an open park surrounded by bars and restaurants where locals and tourists sit around drinking and exchanging stories. One of the best nights out here was the dramatic Copa America quarter final between Colombia and Argentina where Argentina just edged it on penalties. The entire park and adjoining streets were rammed with people amid a festival like atmosphere. The four of us had no problem getting into the swing of things with the three lads sporting Colombian jerseys.

We also celebrated Duffy's 29th birthday during our time in Medellin that involved a crazy pub crawl the night before his birthday which is a little bit hazy but from all reports was a cracking night where somehow I a arrived home with a brand new Medellin hat and top while Alan arrived home without his flip flops!! The night of his birthday the four of us and Tom, a top lad from Cork who Alan and us had both met seperately in Central America, went for a slap up meal and drinks in a fancy restaurant in one of the new and trendy areas of Medellin.

Today having just had a delicious Bbq at the hostel to cure our dusty heads from another good night, we have made a plan to head south tomorrow...