Leaving Medellin

We are leaving Medellin but not forgetting.  Some of the good tidbits worth recalling:

• Good packaging – The detergent bottle with a top dispenser – just put your sponge or cleaning clothe on top and press down on the spring-loaded dispenser and just enough to wash dishes from a meal for two come out on the flat boat-like top.

• Knock-offs – Boy do they have the here, especially high-quality knock-off shoes.  Everyone wears them and they look and feel like authentic name brands.  Who knows, maybe they are real but the price is much better.

• Widespread poverty – Although this is a city with plentiful poverty, everyone we saw, except the purely homeless, was very clean and well-dressed.  Shining hair and pressed pants!  Still, Covid has contributed greatly to a rise in the poverty rate, the first time in about 12 years.   Nine percent of Medellin’s population earns less than $45 per month or 171,900 pesos.  Think about it.  After paying rent, buying necessities, and food, how many trips on a bus or subway can a person afford to go to work?  If a person spent their income on NOTHING but bus and metro fares, they could only get 58 rides during the entire month.  To put this in a little bit better perspective, however, a C-Level executive here earns about $6,150 per month or $74K per year.

• Clean streets – In comparison to Panama City, Medellin has much cleaner streets.  As one travels outside affluent areas like El Poblado and Laureles, streets get dirtier and dirtier.   Like Panama City, people living in poor areas barely exist economically; trash pickup is an unaffordable luxury.

• Great public transportation –Medellin has clean, modern, efficient city buses, metro lines, tram lines, escalators and aerial cable cars! 

• Wonderful sidewalks – While still comparing Medellin to Panama City, sidewalks here are great very nice.  In Panama, even in affluent areas, sidewalks frequently had broken and missing pieces and missing manhole covers were a frequent sight.  Bags of dog poop littered the curb.  Stan and I called these things land mines.  Watch out!

• Weather – The first thing we noticed was a significant drop in temperatures.  No wonder they call Medellin the city of eternal spring!!!  But before we arrived, our Weather app indicated we’d have rain every single day during our stay.  We did the first few days but since then our weather has been glorious! 

• Food – Have we ever enjoyed the food here!  Yes, typical food here is very similar to traditional foods in Panama, but the taste is more flavorful in Medellin.  The empanadas here actually have plentiful filings, the sancocho is wonderful with corn, chicken, papas, plaintain, and spicy picante salsa is always available.  We have had a big huge tomahawk steak, bean cazulas, corn pudding Maicitos, puffy minced and spiced pollo empanadas, and Bandeja Paisa with beans, rice, salad, avocado slice, an arepa, chicharron, sausage, and a thin slice of steak.  Oh, and the street food is fantastic!  We’ve had some of the best fried chicken I’ve ever tasted and just yesterday, we had cerdo on a stick – grilled before our very eyes!  One of our favorite things, though, is the grilled ham, cheese, and fresh tomato sandwiches Stan makes for our breakfast/lunch.   One more thing . . . they love sweets here!  Donuts, ice cream, cakes . . .

• Fruit – I cannot leave without talking about the fruit.  As in Panama, the fruit is amazing. I hardly know why we attempt to eat tropical fruit at home.  There is nothing, nothing like having a pineapple or a papaya that never sat in a shipping container on a cargo ship or in a warehouse.

• The most amazing thing I will take away and never get out of my mind’s eye – the densely clustered houses that once made up remote villages, suspicious of each other that are now brought together in peace by innovative transportation.  These tiny houses, many of the shacks, are where most of the people of Medellin live.

• Dogs – Once the city in the valley is left behind to arrive in the countryside or even all the red-brick communities on the steep mountainsides, dogs rule.  They have a life our dogs did back in our childhood.  They come and they go and they have friends everywhere.

One last thought.  While we did encounter some unpleasant things like having Stan’s phone pick-pocketed, witnessing a drug bust, or seeing one of the hundreds of motorcycles in a wreck with a truck, we realize that Medellin is a big city.  Things happen.  It’s sad.  It’s alarming, but unfortunately, it’s life.  We are safe; we have renewed our diligence in being aware and we are enjoying learning another culture . . . we have met people from all parts of the world and we are still practicing Espanol!!

Cartagena manana!