Still Monkey-ing Around in South America (Part II)

MEDELLIN AND OUR ENCOUNTER WITH 827 STEPS, THE SMELLIEST FEET IN THE WORLD AND OUR NEW LIVES AS INSOMNIACS!

Medellin came and passed us by in a haze. We arrived early in the week and got down to business straight away while the nights were quiet and we woke up fresh faced and full of beans! The first day was spent milling about, getting used to the overwhelming number of guys in our hostal and orientating ourselves with the city. We weren´t very well rested as the previous night we had been rudely awoken at 3am by a fairly noisy and clumsy Dutch guy who came stumbling into our dorm. Thats all well and good, I am fine about being woken up in the middle of the night, we are in dorms after all and to be honest I dont have a leg to stand on as I have been known to be fairly on the noisy side myself. What wasn´t on, was him taking off his shoes, placing them right next to Beks and I bed (head end) and then proceeding to slowly gas us to death! The stench was unbearable (I have no idea how Beks survived the night, she was on bottom bunk!) I was hoping that I would be asphyxiated, just to put me out of my misery and the assault on my nose...but no such lucky break arrived and to add insult to injury the waft of rotten feet continued through the night! As a result of the horrendous night, we used it as a perfect excuse to spend the day chilling!

El Peñol - Guatape - Rionegro - La Ceja.

After a day of rest, relaxation and well needed recuperation, we headed out to conquer a few of the surrounding small towns in the area. Our first stop was El Peñol, the sugarloaf of Colombia. The rock (http://www.webcolombia.com/treasures/penol/Piedra_de_El_penol_1.jpg) was situated about 2 hours from Medellin. So all aboard a bus and away we went. Got there, climbed 827 steps (yes I counted!) and enjoyed a beautiful view of the surrounding area which was intentionally flooded (not actually sure why). They claim that there are 649 steps, but they fail to mention the 144 steps that you need to climb just to get to the rock, then once on top, the 60 steps to get to the mirador....oh and the other 34 step discrepancy...thats because i took a wrong turn (i too, am confused as to how that happened on a stairwell!) and climbed an extra section!

Once there, I asked to have my picture taken with a young girl sporting an "Im with Stupid" t-shirt. She was more than a bit scared as I propositioned her and didnt see the funny side in what I was trying to achieve! Once I realised that she didnt have a clue what her t-shirt actually said, i happily explained it to her and she was more than willing to stand by my side whilst the rest of her family looked on proudly!

From there we took to "10 min" walk to Guatape, "just across the bridge" -it was more like walking from Inverness to Lands End as we found ourselves walking along a highway in the blistering heat for far too long!
Once in Guatape, we had time to grab some chicken and jumped on board a bus to Rionegro. This was another pretty town, we walked around for a while, viewed another Betancur sculpture (they are brilliant!) and then moved onto our next stop; La Ceja. Another pretty town, another painful hour on the bus. A mango smoothie and a walk around the square later and we were ready to end our "little towns" experience and head back the sanctuary of our hostal!

Ordinarily the bus drivers are maniacs (i dont mind, gets me places quicker) Unfortunately, this guy was obviously totally mixed up about which pedal was actually the accelerator/brake and pumped away at the brake a painful amount! Eventually, we jumped off the bus at the first site of a metro station and put ourselves outta our misery.

A Day of Culture: Museo de Antioquía - Parque Berrio - San Antonio - Murals de Pedro Nel Gomez

We spent the day checking out museums, art galleries and public displays of art! El Museo de Antioquía is home to a fantastic collection of Botero´s (one of Colombia's most famous artists) pieces as well as some international artists and a temporary exposition of Santiago Cárdenas´ work. It was absolutely fantastic and i am now an avid Botero fan!
In the park in front of the museum, there are 23 huge, bronze Botero scuptures which are equally as fun! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Fernando_Botero-Roman_Gladiator.jpg)

We then head off to see some of Pedro Nel Gomez´s murals...an artist who was heavily influenced by The Mexican Revolution and Diego Rivera.

Our cultural expedition also included heading over to San Antonio (a short walk away) to see another Botero sculpture; El Pajaro de Paz, (Bird of Peace) which was damaged by a guerrilla bomb. As a symbolic response to the violent act, the damaged bird is left untouched and a new one has been placed alongside!

The attempt to be cultural and productive dies down as we hit the nightlife head on!

It was def a good thing that Beks and I had had our fill of cultural excursions as Weds night hit and thats the day that the party comes to town in Medellin! Lots of late nights, y´all know the score...bars, clubs, drinks, dancing....lovely jubbly!!

All madness....we represented in true form, night after night after night. Our new lives as insomniacs kicked in, as we head back to the hostal in the early hours and woke up after a mere 0-3 hours kip! Strangely I couldnt convince myself to nap either, and we couldnt shake the early-morning-body-clock-timer thing that we have going on, so after 4 nights of true mayhem, it was time to leave Medellin and try and get in a few early nights in the country's capital!

Check out the new photos online!

posted by Priya @ 10:37 AM