First Time in South America (Medellin Trip Report)

[Woody]

You can read a little background information here: http://www.planet-love.com/forum/index.php?topic=5047.0

March 4th, 7:15AM / Colorado Springs Terminal
I have been up since 5:30AM yesterday. Last night was hectic. Spent $1200 on clothes and gear. I have been up all night packing and making last minute arrangements. Dropped my car off at a friend's house and another friend dropped me off at the airport. Security was uneventful. I was wondering if I would have to pay a fee for my checked bag, but I didn't. I was allowed two free bags, I only had one to check. It was 57lbs but I didn't have to pay anything extra. I guess that is a perk of being active duty military. That is a definite plus for American Airlines. Flight is scheduled to depart in another hour.

What I have forgot so far: One of my 16GB SDHC Cards, Headphones (Both were left in my car).

I don't know if it is the lack of sleep, the coffee I finished an hour ago, or excitement. But man, do I have the jitters/butterflies. I'll probably sleep the whole way from COS to Dallas.

[fathertime]

Get your sleep on the flight and have a great trip.  First trips are usually pretty memorable.  Experience all you can. Don’t feel you can’t sew some wild oats during your Colombian adventure!  You should meet some adventurous chicas if you are going to do that wild outdoors stuff that you were talking about on another thread.

Fathertime!

[Jeff S]

Have fun Woody. Keep your wits about you but don't be paranoid. Above all else, take in what Latin America has to offer. It's a fascinating place, but keep in-mind, if you go this route - this is the culture you'll be living for the rest of your life.

[Woody]

Got settled and unpacked. I'll update tomorrow with details. I was typing notes throughout the trip. My uncensored observations. I'll post them up tomorrow.

[kontra]

Can't wait for the report

[raycjs]

Woody

Good luck with your trip, i look forward to your report, you deserve this trip and you should have the time of your life and never look back.


best of luck to you

Ray

[Woody]

The following are my un-edited notes. They were all typed in on my journey and will often refer to the present tense. I would go through and correct grammatical errors, but I want to keep these as real as possible:

4 March 2010
11:30AM CDT
Turns out that DFW is a T-Mobile Hotspot, I'm not about to buy a day-pass for the 30 minutes I have before I board my flight. I bought some headphones in Colorado Springs, so that helps. I realized while boarding my flight to DFW that I forgot an additional item, a watch(Too bad, since my watch would have worked well with most of the items in my new wardrobe.). I was in definite need of sleep on the last flight. I slept through takeoff and didn't wake up until we were at almost 35k feet. Woke up periodically throughout the flight, but for the most part, I was dead to the world for two hours. I still have trouble believing that I'm actually making this trip. Butterflies are pretty much gone, I've stopped looking at arriving in Colombia as a future, fantasy event and as just another place I'll be by this evening.

My final living arrangements are renting the master bedroom from a lady in Belen. $800k COP for the month, including breakfast and laundry! Maribel has been a fantastic help thus far. She even arranged for a taxi to be waiting for me by name(Apparently a taxi driver at  MDE will be holding up a sign with my name on it.). She'll confirm the driver's name and taxi ID via e-mail 30-minutes before I land. Given my, as yet, limited Spanish it is fantastic having the little details handled for me on my night of arrival. I'm sure I will be very tired when I arrive and in no mood to muddle through negotiations for a taxi ride.

I ended up dropping $30 on a 4GB SDHC card. Not great, but it will do just fine in my digital camera. Should be good for 1000 or so pics.


-----------------

4:30PM EST
No free WiFi at Miami either. How disappointing. Once again, one hour layover, so I'm not going to pay $10 for a day pass.

Miami is interesting to say the least. I have heard almost zero English since I arrived, other than the occasional announcement for passengers. Even that is sometimes in Spanish. Interestingly, I don't have to pass through any additional security or immigration.

The departure terminal for my flight is rather sparse. Looks like there wont be a lot of people on this flight. Have yet to see any of the 10s (or even eights for that matter) that people keep talking about walking through MIA.

The sleep I've gotten on the flights is sustaining me rather well. I'm tired, but far from dead tired. Hell, I don't even have butterflies at this point, and I'm about to make the last hop to Medellin.

I guess I dont really have to worry about giving off the gringo soldier look. My haircut seems pretty normal from what I am observing around me(Grown out a bit since my avatar pic, I'm sure I'll have some pics to post in the next few days).

-------------
8:15PM EST

Honestly, I'm confused at this point, going back and forth between timezones has me jumbled. I'm pretty sure that it is 7:15PM in Medellin, but I THINK my plane will land within the next 30 minutes or so, putting me in medellin an hour before I thought I would get there. --AHA! Well, turns out Medellin is on Eastern Time right now. Good thing I asked the stewardess. At this point I was getting concerned about the timing of everything. In fact, we just now started our descent.

What I said earlier about even a lack of eights, well. There are probably a total of 50 people on this 737. I would say that two of the younger (20-25ish looking) women qualify as eights.

63 degrees at MDE right now. I cant wait to soak up that mountain air.

--------------
10PM EST (This was typed on my iPhone while in the taxi on the road from Rio Negro)

Hilarious traffic. Passing on blind curves, motorcycles just pass no matter the situation. Right now my cabbie is stuck behind a bus and is debating internally whether to pass or not....never mind,, blind curve!

I can tell he is a lot happier now, going 90-100kph instead of 70. I'm just sitting back here smiling. I like hauling ass through the mountains and I don't want to make him think I'm concerned and slow down.

I must say, all the female cops and toll booth operators have been attractive so far. Even the greet sweepers are attractive. I have a feeling I'm gonna love this town.  Oh, if I ever move down here I'm getting a motorcycle. These mountains are awesome! An at least the mountain road from rio Negro is in excellent condition. I don't have any pesos, I'll be payiNg the cabbie in dollars. Gonna be slightly more expensive, but whatever.

Back tracking a bit:
Aha! Saw a definite nine going through immigration, I guess that she was in first class! Immigration was a breeze and they didn't even check my bag after x-raging it. I was given a sixty day stamp, so no worries there. The airport is a mess, they are actively renovating the
entire terminal. The whole thing is a big construction site.


Interesting how they do crosswalks on the mountain road. They are massive speed bumps.


Medellin is a very hilly town. I hope that there is a big flat area that is the original town center, otherwise the guy that decided to make this place a city was an idiot.

-------------
5 March 2010
10:30AM EST

Last night was good. Unpacked and took a cold shower. (It is fricking humid and hot in the apt right now. Much warmer than Rio Negro. Now I understand why hot water is a non-issue.) I talked with Maribel's friend David for about two hours. Went to bed, slept well and woke up at 8AM. Maribel cooked me breakfast. Croissant and scrambled eggs with ham. Some kind of red/pink juice, and coffee. Normally I like milk and sugar in my coffee, but the coffee was actually better without milk than with! Tomorrow she is going to cook arepas, should be interesting.

Well, time for a shower and to explore the city!

[robert angel]

Thanks Woody--(our man in Columbia) Very interesting, yet objective. Nice to see reports that aren't so biased and pro agency and nice to hear from someone in early stages of exploration and not punch drunk in love already!


Guess a motorcycle is about the only way, land and snow wise that you'll find to get down a mountain faster than boarding or skiing. From what I've heard about the mountains, traffic and knowing myself, I think I'll stay away from the murdercycles...
 
Carry on Soldier!

[raycjs]

Way to go Woody...

this is going to be a great report, with no agenda, i am looking forward to your daily report, well done and have a great time, enjoy all they have to offer colombia is a great place to visit,

Best of luck to you

ray

[winger]

  Good luck Woody. Enjoy your trip.

[Researcher]

   Sounds good Woody, Medellin was one of my favorite places to visit.You'll have a good time there.Good luck and keep us posted.


   Researcher

[Capstone]

Woody,
Have a great trip! I don't usually post on the Latin board but I always enjoy reading trip reports no matter what the destination may be. Good Luck!

[Jason1]

  Good luck Woody, keep us posted.

[kontra]

Go Woody Go 

[Jeff S]

Hey Woody - welcome to "you're not in Kansas anymore Toto"

[Woody]

5 March 2010 - 730PM EST (iPhone update)
Once again in a taxi. My driver is currently merging in the wrong lane. People always butch about the traffic here, but I actually like things. It's not like the states, where everyone is worried about getting a ticket or just not paying attention. I have yet to see someone text and drive. Hell, I walked around the streets of Belen and Laureles for five hours and I never saw a single car wreck.

I'm reminded how bad my Spanish is every time I attempt to talk to someone. "no entiendo, mi espanol es muy malo. por favor, puede hablar mas suave conmigo" has become a favorite phrase for me.

Segway: WTF, I just saw a field with cows grazing only a mile or so
from el tesoro on the way to Belen.

Back to the topic:
I spent the afternoon walking up to pueblito paisa. Interesting little old fashioned town. Vendors everywhere, but if that keeps the maintenance money flowing, who am I to complain. From the very top it had some great views of he city(see pictures) . On my way down I stuck to the bike paths. After that I walked through Belen and Laureles until 530pm or so, then I caught a taxi to el tesoro.

Ok, how is it that there are almost zero unattractive women in their 20's and 30's here? I mean seriously, in the US we have plenty of uggos, but very few here in Medellin. I'm not saying they are all hot, but I have seen very few that I would kick out of bed. I saw a definite 10 at the mall today too, the kind of girl that makes you stop dead in your tracks and stare, yeah that hot, yeah I did. She didn't notice though, oh well.

5 March 2010 - 1130PM EST
-----------------
Back at the apartment now. Taxi ride from El Tesoro to Maribel's place on the far west side of Belen was $11400, not bad at all! Especially considering it took about 20 minutes to cross town.

Tomorrow I'll be going to some kind of festival that Maribel and her room-mate are participating in. The festival is in Parque Lleras, so I'll finally see that area.

Here is today's timeline, since I have royally screwed the order of events by typing free-form:
1. Went with Maribel to an Exito that was connected to a shopping center in Centro (Unicentro?)
2. Got money from the ATM ($800mil)
3. Got a SIM for my cell(Comcel) and had data credits loaded(works great on my unlocked iPhone 2G, no configuration needed)
4. Got a color copy of my passport to carry instead of the real thing. (Ran into another gringo in the copy shop, it was his first time seeing another gringo in three weeks. He took a week down here last year and decided to stay. He told me I'll end up doing the same. BTW, the prefix to call international on Comcel is 00444. Maribel didn't know, so I asked him.)
5. Maribel dropped me off at the base of Cerro Nutibara.
6. Walked to the top(mostly on the road) to see Pueblito Paisa and some spectacular views of Medellin. (Paid to use a bathroom, 500 pesos. Not used to that, but it is such a small sum.)
7. Walked down (mostly on the bike trails) and wandered around Belen/Laureles(Completely lost, just wandering general cardinal directions, kept crossing Dg 75) until 5:30PM, when I hailed a cab. On a side note, I don't see why gringos are rare in Belen, I never felt unsafe.
8. Walked around El Tesoro for about an hour, that is when I saw the 10 and snapped the awesome sunset photo.
9. Had dinner in the food court(Yes, no lunch for me, wasn't hungry). Some shrimp, onions, cocktail sauce, and ketchup(at least it tasted like there was ketchup in it) dish. Served with a 6"x6" corn chip, weird. The shrimp wasn't bad or anything, but you eat at a mall food court, you pay food court prices for food court quality food, about $10USD with a bottle of Nestea(I didn't want cola products). They had Subway, Burger King, and McDonalds. Needless to say I didn't even consider looking at the menu. The only US chain I plan on visiting is Hooters. That is only because I hear they actually have good wings, and it should be great to see how the Hooters girls of Medellin look!
10. Walked downstairs in the mall, ended up walking through a row of furniture stores, then into some kind of supermarket. (I still don't know if I saw the entire mall)
11. Saw some interesting things at the supermarket. Powder laundry detergent that comes in plastic bags and 2.5 liter soda bottles. Then there was the grand prize. A international section. The had a section labeled Mexico, one labeled Spain, and another labeled Italy. Well, the picture of the Italy section is pretty self explanatory.  Picked up some listerine and a bottle of water.
12. Took a cab back to Maribel's place. Talker to her (and occasionally her room-mate) for 2-3 hours in a mixture of English and Spanish. Had another one of those red/pink juices(semi-sweet, yet tart, I like it).
13. Maribel and Priscila were very impressed by my panorama shot, even more so when I showed them how it was done. (MS Image Composite Editor, free and easy)  I have a feeling that I will be helping Priscila make one in the near future. Fine by me, I did bring four digital cameras after all. (Yes, to include my SLR, but that is not coming out till I need it)
14. Maribel asked me about my TV watching habits, since she had noticed that I moved the TV stand to the corner where I would not be able to watch from my bed. That would be because I had no intention of ever turning it on and moved it so that I could walk up to my window, unobstructed. She was delighted when I explained that to her, and was even happier when I told her she could have it back(Only TV in the apt). I rarely watch more than an hour or so of TV back home, so it really was a waste for me.
15. Typed this post.

Going back to earlier today, my bank card maxed out at $420 in withdrawals, so that was annoying. Next time I'll bring both of my cards when I want to take out large amounts of cash (I was taking out such a large amount so that I could pay Maribel the rent and deposit). Ended up using the cash advance on my credit card to draw another $400mil when I went to El Tesoro.

I apologize for the lack of continuity in my postings, but like I said, free-form and I'm trying not to censor any of my thoughts. I want to be able to reflect back on this moment and get a feeling for my state of mind.


Edit:
It might help if I put the pictures in.
Album is public, so it should work for everyone:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=17434&id=100000199957409

[Researcher]

     Woody,
       If you like adventure you might want to try La Ciudad Perdida near Santa Marta.I booked a trip there through a tour company in Santa Marta.It is a 3 day hike up and 3 day hike back but to me it was worth it.The place looked like something out of an Indiana Jones movie.Santa Marta is fairly interesting.Its about 500 years old and has some nice beaches.My wife and I spent our honeymoon there.


    Researcher

[JR33]

   Good huntilng Woody.It is so nice to hear about places other than BQ.You might want to look
mudd up while you are there.

[whitey]

Interesting read, Woody ... thanks for posting and keep it coming!

I'm thinking seriously of taking a trip with my novia to Medellin in April ... neither of us has been yet ... sure looks alot more beautiful than Barranquilla!  ;-)

Whitey

[Woody]

   Good huntilng Woody.It is so nice to hear about places other than BQ.You might want to look
mudd up while you are there.

Yeah, I thought about it, but he asks for 3 weeks prior notification and I only have 3 weeks left here.
Uploading todays photos and my update now.

[Woody]

Pics: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=17514&id=100000199957409

Update:
Ahh, so tranquil. No rushing, just a lazy Saturday. I'm sitting on a
bench near a small playground in Parque Lleras as I type this on my
iPhone.

Woke up at 8am, no alarm clock or anything. 8am was just a good time
for me to get up. I got clarification from Maribel last night before
going to sleep. Since she was preparing the jewelry that she makes, I
figured by festibal she meant bazaar, she did. I guess it is an
occasional flee market in Parque Lleras.

So, had breakfast with Mari el and Pricilla. Arepa and scrambled eggs
(potatoes, onions, peppers, I think there may have been cheese, but I'm
not sure. I like the coffee batter black, weird really. In the states I
hate black coffee, but the coffee Maribel makes is.....thick without
cream. Certainly miles better than McDonalds.

Before, during, and after breakfast we were all talking in a mix of
English and Spanish. We were listening to jazz and bob Marley all
morning, they asked about my preferred musical taste, so I put on some
brad paisley for them. They liked it; then again, it is brad. We were
still at the house at 1230, so we had lunch. arepa with home made
guacamole. We arrived at Parque Lleras a little before two. Pricilla
and Maribel set up their little stand in the bar and I have been
walking around since. Saw a couple places I had read about here and on
pbh. I'm not sure how far I walked. But I made q few circles and tried
to cover as much of Parque Lleras as possible. The pictures speak for
themselves. I ended up at a Pomona again, they had fruit salads. I got
one with mangos, pineapple, watermelon, and two other fruits I can't
identify. I then lazily made my way toward my starting location and
ended up at this park. Ate the salad at the park, and typed this!

Oh, what I said yesterday about not having uggos was wrong, I just never
saw any in Belen. Saw quite a few in Lleras. But I also saw plenty of
attractive women too. I really like this place so far. If my feet
are up to it, I might go to a club tonight.

Sitting in Peroni Italia right now. Drinking a beer. Decided to try something
different.  Club Colombia. Bad choice, very heavy beer. Taste is
decent, but it doesn't settle well. Aguila Lite sits well with me. It is only
730 so I'm debating going home, showering, changing and heading to
mangos or something.


-------------

Mangos won the internal debate, hence me updating now before I shower and head out to Mangos.

[Woody]

Lazy Sunday, just slept in so far(and talked to a few chicas on Colombian Cupid, I should have a few dates lined up for next week.).

Scratch that, I do have a date lined up for tomorrow evening, just coffee, but a date none the less. I guess we will soon find out if she uses Paisa time. 19, college student, may be a bit immature for me, but she seems pretty level headed from our chats. I'm not looking to get married on this trip an have made no promises what soever (I even told her that I cannot make any promises and I am not making any as far as where I will  be living in four years. She knows this is just a date, not a peice of some agency tour. Hell, it's not like I'm only going to be here for three days and date forty women. I may sit down for coffee/a meal with 10 or 15 different women, but I'm all about taking the slow approach in dating.

I may also have a date with another chick on Wednesday, but she has kids, so she would have to be something spectacular for me to pursue a seious relationship.

On an even better note, Maribel asked if I knew about El Penol. I've read quite abut about it and told here it was on my list of things to see here. She offered to drive if I would pay for gas and tolls, works for me. She has never walked up the big rock and wants to do that. I don't particularly care for the stairs, but I want to take a panorama picture from the top. So that is my justification for climbing all those stairs(besides, how are you going to get that close and not climb them. "Yeah man, I went to El Penol. Didn't go to the top tho, that was too much work at the pinnacle of my 7000mile trip!" Pics will be coming on Tuesday night.

Maribel bought some Obleas and made some Obleas con arequipe. Not super sweet, but still sweet. The weird thing, and it is the same with the arepa, is that you just nibble away at this massive circle(12" for the oblea, 8" for the arepa) while holding it like a sandwich. I wonder if I was supposed to do the same thing with the massive corn chip I had at the mall(I just broke it up into smaller peices.)

Also, my jeans are starting to get really lose. Combination of decreased food intake(I'm guessing that I have been consuming around 1000 calories a day since I arrived, just not hungry most of the day.), increase in exercise duration, and good old sweating.

[Dan Las Vegas]

Hey Woody,

Great trip report so far!  Glad to know that you are enjoying Medellin!  That is quite a walk up Pueblito Paisa!!  I was too lazy and took a taxi. If you want to see some more of Medellin, try taking the Metrocable. A new section just opened that takes you further up the hill past Santo Domingo and over the top if my memory serves me correctly. Great view of Medellin from the gondola. Have a great trip and looking forward to the next part of your trip report!

Dan

[Woody]

I typed most of this last night, that is why the tense may seem wrong of you look at the timestamp.


Ok, not gonna say much except that this little Paisa just did a number on my head. Things started off awkward enough, her trying to talk at a normal speed with no emphasis on pronunciation and me completely fricking lost. After 20 minutes of awkward and completely useless conversation, I grabbed a pen and paper to write some things. That got her to slow down, a lot. After that, we walked around Premiere Plaza for almost three hours, stopping for long periods at open air balconies. I used the dictionary on my iPhone for, maybe, 10 words during this time period, mostly I just talked around what I couldn't figure out. I was getting all the right vibes from her(maybe she just loved seeing me here, way way outside my element, but still able to laugh at myself and soldier on), so I used learning as an oportunity to initiate touching. Hands, fingers, arm, elbow([snip]ing codo, had me asking her how to pronounce it like 20 times, I finally had her write it and was like WTF, that is too simple!), shoulder, hair, head, neck, etc. Touching each body part as I went along. She caught on rather quickly and touched my nose, eyes, face, eyebrows, eyelashes, and ears, naming them as she went along. Later, when we were walking again I asked how to say fingers again(really, I kept screwing up......holy [snip], I just realized why. She has a slight castilliano accent because her father is a Spaniard. She was saying detho and cotho which was screwing me up royally! Well, now I understand a little more!) and took the opportunity to do a palm size comparison. Perfect oportunity to initiate hand holding. A bit later I asked her how to saw shoulder and took that oportunity to put my arm around her. She has to go to work at 4am, so I took her home(taxi). In the cab there was always some physical contact. Of course I asked how to say feet, legs, and knees.

So, we arrived at her place in centro Bello, kinda ghetto, but my place in the states is kind of ghetto. Got out of the cab, she walked up to me and I gave her a goodnight hug and kiss on the cheek. That got interrupted or something so we ended up going for a secong try. This time I decided to go for a simple kiss after the cheek, but she would have none of that. My intended simple kiss on the lips became a second one, then a third, then she initiated a full blown French kissing sesion that lasted for the next few minutes. I was seriously not expecting that.

Before you ask, no, the kiss is not the reason for my current feelings. The kiss just gave a ton of weight to feelings I already had. 

We agreed, with much dificulty in communication, that I would get online when I got back to my place. We talked for another hour or so on MSN(google thanslate made things so much easier, but I am relying on it less and less) and will be seeing each other tomorrow evening.

So there you have it. What started off as a coffee with a 7-8, ended with a passionate embrace from a 9. She is cute, seems fairly intelligent(21 and will have her bachelors in business administration in December), knows exactly what she wants in life(our goals don't conflict, but we never specified a timeline), smiles and laughs a lot(this one is really, really important), and hard working(fulltime student and has a job).

So yeah, I'm forcing myself to control my emotions right now, fuuuuuuck.....


Edit: Before I forget, she is also cool with extreme sports. In fact, she would LOVE to try paragliding. She claims that extreme sports may be scary, but she really wants to try them. So, I'll paraglide with her later this week. Huge check in her plus column. (Hell, right now I'm franticly searching for something to put in the negative column)

Also, as for her English skills, she claims zero, but that may just be a confidence thing. But, she said that at the same time I am learning Spanish with her, she could learn English with me. We'll see.

[raycjs]

Woody,

your trip so far sounds great, keep having fun and please try and take it slow, love is great and so are the women in Colombia, pace yourself and make sure you do all your thinking with your big head if you are looking for a future wife. If you are just looking to have fun then roll with it and whatever happens, happens. you will have no problem meeting women. But if you are looking for a future wife and you come across MRS WOODY. then go with your heart and do whatever makes you happy.

look forward to the rest of your trip report.and the photos look great.

Ray