Medellin

Medellin
For those of you who don’t know anything about Medellin or don’t remember Medellin the movie from Entourage it is the Cocaine Capital of the World pretty much. It was the home of Pablo Escobar and the Colombian Cartel for many years until he was killed ten or fifteen years ago. Pablo Escobar was the all time Godfather. This is another city that has many traveler warnings for safety from the US government. However, today the city is safer than most US cities that I have been to. There are lots of people who have money and work hard but of course many who don’t have anything.
I stayed at Casa Kiwi in a neighborhood called Poblado which reminds me of San Diego or Los Angeles. It is full of beautiful women, small boutique clothing stores and tons of outdoor restaurants and bars where everybody goes to eat, socialize and on the weekends, party. Medellin is called the “city of eternal spring” and the temperature is about 70 degrees all year long. While describing the women of Medellin and beauty sleep my young friend Willy said “damn, these bitches must sleep a lot!” We had a beautiful river flowing right by our place that you can hear from bed, an outdoor gym and nice basketball court with lights to play all night long. The only problem with the court is that the Colombianos always want to take over the court to play “football”. Apartments in this posh neighborhood go for about $400 per month for a big place and you can probably buy a house in the neighborhood for less than $200,000. The people of Medellin are supposed to be some of the hardest working people in the country and it is pretty hard to find a place to go out from Sunday to Wednesday. Medellin is also known for its plastic surgery since it is very good and very cheap compared to the US.
Last Saturday I went to a club called Carnival for a party with a bunch of Gringo friends and it turned out to be one of the best parties that I have ever been to in my entire life. It was literally impossible to find an ugly girl in the entire place. It was a huge club with a roof that opens to let the moonlight in. At about 6:30 they closed the roof as it started to get sunny then at about 7:30 they opened it again to the beats of the electronic DJ as the daylight came pouring in to the cheers of over a thousand people who were still dancing and had no intention of going home any time soon but maybe make it to the after party at around 10 am. I was beat, had enough and went home to rest my legs.
The night before I was at a small club in the neighborhood with my English friend John who is stuck in Medellin, Trystan the electronic music writer from England and Craig the 22 year old Scottish kid who just likes to have a good time and a bunch of other friends from the hostel. There was a German DJ playing and it was supposed to be a big night but when we got there everyone was watching the DJ and no one was dancing so I asked my buddy if I should do the worm. He willing said that he would pay me 40,000 pesos (about $15) to do it so of course I did. I actually was going to do it for free anyway. Dumbass. Later in the night a group of Colombians requested that I do it again for them (for free of course) so I had to oblige. It is too bad that I don’t have any other dance moves to go with the worm. I really need to start working on my backspin and windmill.
The people in Colombia are great. Everywhere that I have been the people have welcomed me with open arms and treated me as if I was an old friend or family. If someone has a drink or food they share it with whoever is around whether they know you or not. I met a bunch of good travelers in Medellin including a group of 5 “kids” from Portland who just graduated and are traveling South America for 6 months. They remind me of all of my friends from home and school and make me feel young and old at the same time. One of them thinks that I look like his uncle so they started calling me Uncle which turned into Tio naturally in Colombia. They actually like to listen to all of my bullshit and are so young that they actually think that I have a clue what I am talking about  Jon, the tall goofy one (no not me) bought what he thought was a porno named “sin tetas no hay paraiso” which turned out to be a Colombian novella. I’m not sure where the hell he got the idea that it was porn. I mean, yes they are more sexual in Latin America but there weren’t even any naked women on the cover. Either way, I’m glad that we sat on the couch for 20 minutes scanning through the DVD looking for the naked scenes because it gave me a good business idea. It is a good thing that I met them though because they got me out of Medellin and up to Cartagena and with them I could have been stuck in that town for a very long time.