Exploring Medellín

Thursday, May 17 - Arriving in Medellín

Medellín


Friday, May 18, 2018

View from breakfast room - Torre Poblado
After breakfast on the 10th floor of the Hotel-Aparta Suites Torre Poblado, we regrouped to explore our neighborhood.


View from breakfast room - Torre Poblado

Parque Lleras - in our neighborhood
We were so mistaken in our expectations that we would be staying in a quaint residential-boutique neighborhood (read: Recoleta in Buenos Aires)! Yes, El Poblado has tree-lined streets, parks, cute cafes and bars. It also has a lot of traffic and congestion!

Parque Lleras - in our neighborhood



Medellín is the only city in Colombia with an urban train system. It's also the first city with a gondola and modern trolley transportation network.


So, we then headed for the Metro Station, planning to explore the Centro (downtown). We did not realize (1) it is a hefty hike to the metro and (2) we don't have a good map of the city...
However, we qualify as mayores (elderly) or jubilados (retired persons), so we ended up paying a mere 80¢ per person, each way.
Note: The metro Linea A parallels the Río Negro.




Mujer con Fruta
We got off at the Parque Berrío station and walked a few blocks to the Plaza Botero (for more on Fernando Botero, see earlier post from Museo Botero in Bogotá) where there are 23 corpulent bronze sculptures that the artist donated to his hometown of Medellín.

Gato




Pensamiento (Thinking...)

Of course, we had to walk through the fruit-veggie market where I sampled both guayabas and lulo (a la the fruit tea I had in Villa de Leyva). 

We walked the Peatonal Carabobo (walk street). Missing were the many street musicians and street performers that we saw on the Peatonal Jimenez de Quesada in Bogotá.
Note: Medellín does have troups of young men who are amazing hip-hop break dancers.





Also along Peatonal Corobobo is the Palacio Nacional, designed by a Belgian architect and built in the 1920s, is now the domain of about 400 vendors of discount jeans and athletic shoes.







Perhaps the most stunning - even though it was daytime - was the Parque de las Luces. It is an artificial forest of 300 illuminated posts that is apparently spectacular at night (although not safe to walk there at night...)






We had lunch near the Parque Libertad which, in addition to some magnificent architecture, boasts an urban garden.

We hopped back on the metro to return to El Poblado (our neighborhood) and got horribly lost trying to find our hotel! Ned now has sympathy for my being desnorteada (disoriented...)! However, we did discover a nearby dodgy neighborhood with some magnificent graffiti-street art.


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