Colombia (Part 6)-Medellin-our driver agrees to help us enter the world of Pablo Escobar
When we arrived in Medellin, our driver was waiting with a sign. He was a friendly chap. His name was Germán. He knew a few words in English and seemed to welcome the chance to practice with us even though his vocabulary was quite limited.
The drive from the airport to our hotel was about 45 minutes so we had plenty of time to talk with Germán about our plans for the next day in Medellin. We needed to maximize our time in the city because our flight would leave for Cartagena at 6 p.m. the next day.
You probably know that Medellin was previously the drug capital of the world when Pablo Escobar was alive and ran the famous Medellin drug cartel. Before we had left OKC on our trip, Jay and I had both just finished reading the book “Killing Pablo” by Mark Bowden. It is a riveting story about the life of Pablo Escobar and how they finally tracked him down and killed him. Colombia has a violent history, and reading certain parts of the book made cold chills run up my spine. But, it also made me want to learn more about this fascinating story. As luck would have it, guess who had met Pablo, knew his story well, and also knew many of the places that Pablo had lived? You guessed it……our very own driver…..Germán!! At that instant, Germán became our designated driver for the next day in Medellin. He agreed that he would not only take us on a tour of Medellin but would take us on the Pablo Escobar tour of Medellin!! What a stroke of luck! We were elated.
It was already 8 p.m. when we checked into the Park 10 hotel in the El Poblado area which is supposedly the best area in which to stay. The weekend rate is $100 per night and includes a buffet breakfast. As you can see from the photos it is a very nice hotel.
By now, it was dinner time so we got directions to a popular restaurant area in a park near the hotel. We walked about 8 blocks through some fairly dark streets, but never felt unsafe because there were a few other people out on the streets. Around the park were tons of open air restaurants and bars. We found a table on the sidewalk and just sat there and watched the people. It was Saturday night in Medellin!!
To celebrate surviving Bogotá we decided to splurge on the food. We both had steak and dessert. The steak was about $18. After dinner we walked back to the hotel in the dark in a light rain. We had a big day ahead of us. The excitement was building.
Next-Medellin, the Pablo Escobar tour.
Colombia (Part 5)-The flight to Medellin and meeting Dr. Olga–
In the Bogotá airport there are 2 terminals which serve Avianca Airlines. The larger one is for international flights and the smaller one for domestic. You need to make sure you arrive at the right one otherwise it is a hassle to change terminals. Fortunately, we had done our homework and checked in at the smaller one for our Medellin flight.
The small terminal is much older and very basic. Check in was much easier than we had anticipated so we had plenty of extra time to visit a number of shops in the airport. I bought some post cards and then tried to find a t-shirt that said “Bogotá” on it. Huh uhh…no t-shirts that said Bogotá. Can you believe it? Our Avianca flight to Medellin was a continuation of one from Cali, but it was late so we now had another hour to wait in the airport. However, our wait turned out to be fortuitous.
While waiting for our flight, we met a woman who spoke almost perfect English. Her name was Olga and she was one of a family of Colombian doctors that had all previously lived in the U.S. for a short period of time. She was traveling to Medellin where she lived. She seemed intrigued by our travels through Colombia and told us her family had a weekend getaway that she called a “farm” located outside of Medellin. She asked us if we would like to come out to visit her and her family and see Colombia from a different perspective. Now, my last promise to Carol when she dropped me off at the airport in OKC was, “I promise I will heed the warnings of my Colombian friends and not travel out into the countryside”. But, my memory was fading fast when offered yet another opportunity to travel off the beaten path. Remember…..”it’s all about the journey”.
Olga gave us her cell phone number and asked us to call her the next day when we were leaving Medellin. She said we could come by their country home on the way to the airport and have coffee with them. We said we would call her. Jay and I agreed it was something we should talk about before just venturing into the countryside to spend time with a strange woman and her family. You will get more of this story in a later post.
After the delay our flight finally departed Bogotá. I was a little concerned because the hotel in Medellin was sending a driver for us and I knew he would be waiting for our flight that was late.
Next-Medellin, our driver agrees to help us enter the world of Pablo Escobar
Colombia (Part 5)-The flight to Medellin and meeting Dr. Olga–
In the Bogotá airport there are 2 terminals which serve Avianca Airlines. The larger one is for international flights and the smaller one for domestic. You need to make sure you arrive at the right one otherwise it is a hassle to change terminals. Fortunately, we had done our homework and checked in at the smaller one for our Medellin flight.
The small terminal is much older and very basic. Check in was much easier than we had anticipated so we had plenty of extra time to visit a number of shops in the airport. I bought some post cards and then tried to find a t-shirt that said “Bogotá” on it. Huh uhh…no t-shirts that said Bogotá. Can you believe it? Our Avianca flight to Medellin was a continuation of one from Cali, but it was late so we now had another hour to wait in the airport. However, our wait turned out to be fortuitous.
While waiting for our flight, we met a woman who spoke almost perfect English. Her name was Olga and she was one of a family of Colombian doctors that had all previously lived in the U.S. for a short period of time. She was traveling to Medellin where she lived. She seemed intrigued by our travels through Colombia and told us her family had a weekend getaway that she called a “farm” located outside of Medellin. She asked us if we would like to come out to visit her and her family and see Colombia from a different perspective. Now, my last promise to Carol when she dropped me off at the airport in OKC was, “I promise I will heed the warnings of my Colombian friends and not travel out into the countryside”. But, my memory was fading fast when offered yet another opportunity to travel off the beaten path. Remember…..”it’s all about the journey”.
Olga gave us her cell phone number and asked us to call her the next day when we were leaving Medellin. She said we could come by their country home on the way to the airport and have coffee with them. We said we would call her. Jay and I agreed it was something we should talk about before just venturing into the countryside to spend time with a strange woman and her family. You will get more of this story in a later post.
After the delay our flight finally departed Bogotá. I was a little concerned because the hotel in Medellin was sending a driver for us and I knew he would be waiting for our flight that was late.
Next-Medellin, our driver agrees to help us enter the world of Pablo Escobar
Colombia (Part 4)-Bogota-Seeing Monserrate but time is running out.
At the base of Monserrate there is a funicular or as they call it the “teleferico,” which is basically a little railway car that goes almost straight up the hill. They also have a cable car as well, but it was closed until after 12 noon. In the interest of time we decided to take the funicular up the mountain and the cable car down. We had to wait in line for about 40 minutes before we could catch the car up the hill.
On top there is a church, a little village, a market, a couple of restaurants, and one incredible view of Bogotá!
I had seen a picture of Bogotá in a book over 6 years ago and promised myself at that time that someday I would make this trip. It was an incredible feeling to see the skyline from a point that was probably the same spot from where the picture in the book was taken.
Bogotá is a city of 8 million people and is surrounded by mountains on all sides. Often times there are clouds hanging around the mountains which can obscure the view. Fortunately for us, the clouds cleared and we had a great view of the city below. From up high you get a feeling of how really large this city is. Check it out:
It was lunchtime and we were right on schedule. The plan was to eat lunch and be off the mountain by 1:30 because we had to be back at the hotel at 3:00 for our ride to the airport. We got a window view in the restaurant that sits right on the edge of the cliff. We both had “Ajiaco” which is the special soup dish of Bogotá….incredibly delicious and very filling.
We started down the mountain around 1:30, this time in the cable car. On the car we met a woman who could speak a little English. She wanted to know what our plans were and I told her we were going to try to at least see the Zona Rosa which is the upscale area I referred to in an earlier report. She validated our choice but insisted we not hail our own cab. So, what did she do? She gets one of the many soldiers standing around at the cable car station and asks him to hail a cab for us!! She waited with us and told the cab driver where to take us and the rest is history.
Here is the cable car ride down the hill:
When we arrived in the Zona Rosa area we knew we were in the big money part of Bogotá. Very nice looking condos and hotels in the area. The Lonely Planet guide had suggested visiting an enclosed mall. The mall was full of high end shops. We walked through it, and then strolled outside through the myriad of sidewalk cafes filled with people. We finally stopped, had some dessert and Colombian coffee, and watched Bogotá walk by in their designer clothes. Life was good!!
By this time it was 2:30 and time to head back to the hotel. We had a 30 minute taxi ride back to the hotel and knew our airport driver would be waiting for us. We had seen a lot of the city in a short time and in a fun and exciting way. When we arrived at the hotel, they gave us our bags and signaled our driver we were ready. The hotel staff was very pleasant, asked us to return someday and wished us luck in our travels the rest of the way through Colombia.
Next –the airport in Bogotá and meeting Dr. Olga
Colombia (Part 3)-Bogota-is it possible to see it in 10 hours?
The next big question is……is it possible to see everything we wanted to see in Bogotá in 10 hours of daylight? The answer is yes, but you have to have a plan. I knew from the beginning that a trip of this magnitude would require precision planning if we were to accomplish everything. Staying on schedule would be imperative. I had used the Lonely Planet guide to plan the days in Bogotá and Medellin. I tend to like their books the best.
That morning we were up by 6 a.m., at breakfast by 7 a.m. which included an impromptu English lesson with our waiter, packed, and ready to be on the streets at 8 a.m… A final check with the desk clerk assured me our travel plan was sound. We left our luggage at the hotel and they arranged for a car to be ready to take us to the airport at 3 p.m. when we returned in the afternoon for our 6 p.m. flight. Great service at the Hotel de la Opera!
For me, there is no greater excitement than to step into the streets in any city in Latin America and start walking! It must be a combination of the language, the colors, the street vendors, the people, and the music that makes it so exciting. It makes my heart race!! For those of you that have traveled to Latin America you will know exactly what I am saying. This is the scene as we left our hotel:
While our hotel neighborhood may have been a little spooky at night, there was plenty of activity on the streets in the a.m. Our first stop was the Plaza Bolivar which is a famous landmark in Bogotá. We hung around the Plaza taking pics, talking with street vendors, asking directions and in general just being tourists. There was not another gringo in sight!!
From there it was off to what I was anticipating to be one of the highlights of my Latin American travels…….the world famous El Museo del Oro (The museum of gold). The regular museum was closed for renovation but they had a lot of the collection on display in a temporary location. It was incredible. This photo will give you an idea:
The goal was to be out of the museum of gold by 10:45 a.m. so we could take a cable car up the 2,000 ft mountain by the name of Monserrate. The Plan was to have lunch in one of the two restaurants at the top that were supposed to offer an incredible view of Bogotá. Since it was a little rainy and cloudy that morning we wanted to make sure we made it up to the top while there was still a decent view of the city. Fortunately it just a short cab ride to the base of the mountain. We took our first stab at hailing one of the street taxis ourselves. At least it wasn’t the driver that was doing the stabbing!!
The system of taxis in Bogotá is interesting because they have a meter that counts the number of units they drive and there is a chart in the back seat that cross references the fare to the number of units. The taxis don’t expect tips in Colombia and the other Colombians don’t want you giving them tips either otherwise it spoils it for them. Marino had told me that if you give a tip in a taxi you are immediately tagged as “the gringo”. I’m gringo enough; I didn’t need to add to my reputation.
next–Bogotá-Seeing Monserrate and time is running out.
