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Medellín, Colombia
6° 17' N 75° 32' W
Dec 26, 2005 05:35
Distance 533km

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Other entries in Medellín

Colombia welcomes you, come on in

Text written in: English

Alright, lets get some things out of the way. The rumors about Colombia are somewhat exaggerated. And I say somewhat exaggerated because while the entrance into the country was flawless, we have seen our fair share of danger. Ill get to that in a minute. We are in Colombia on the request of and because of the generous hospitality of my friend Marcela and her extended family. She and her cousin, Pedro, were waiting for us directly outside the airport in Medellin and they didn't need semi-automatics to protect and shuttle us to the car. And the country is absolutely beautiful. During our descent into the city, we were flying over lush green mountains and various fields of agriculture and livestock the whole time. On our way to her relatives' house, we drove through more mountains and didn't pass a single drug lord or even a store advertising their plethora of illegal substances. The ride was pleasant with windows down and a cool breeze welcoming us to this mountainous country. Marcela's relatives live outside the city up in yet more mountains. Their house is gorgeous and made me feel like I was transported back to sometime in the early 20th century. The house is Spanish architecture and inside is adorned with ancient pieces of furniture, sculptures, artwork, and to top it all off, they have a full time maid. She is basically like part of the family but just the fact that she is there to clean, cook, set up everything and otherwise serve just made me feel like we had gone back in time. I don't know a single person in the US who has a like situation. And the family, obviously accustomed to this for many years doesn't bat an eyelash when asking for more food, getting up from the table without clearing their plates, or just leaving rooms messy as all hell for Luz to take care of. This situation made me a little uncomfortable to have someone waiting on me hand and foot (although it has long been a lifetime dream of mine but I always thought it would be a future wife doing all these things) so I often clear the table or clean my room as best I can before the maid can get to it. But it does have many benefits, for one, when we arrived, the family had prepared for us a welcome feast of steak, creamed corn, arepas (flat, hard, bland flour tortillas that are best enjoyed with lots of butter, cream cheese, jam, and more chunks of cheese), and a drink of our choice. The meal was excellent and a sign of things to come from this family. After the late lunch, we retired for a siesta and woke up just in time for dinner. This time we had pork tenderloin, rice, a cheesy cauliflower dish, and an arrugula salad with mandarin oranges. Again, it met with my high Bleicher standards.

 

The day of our arrival also marked the 18th birthday of Pedro, the youngest of two sons in the family. 18 in Colombia, like in most other countries, is like 21 in the US so the family was celebrating in style. Pedro got a drink of his choice which we shared with him and then we were off to the bars to experience some of Medellin's night life. Unfortunately, Pedro was feeling somewhat under the weather so he couldn't join us but his brother, Camillo, took us out to see the city. We went into an area with a large number of choices. We tried to go into a bar whose attraction was that for every drink you order, they bring you three for the same price. When we got to the bouncer, he said that they didn't have any tables for us which was probably true but also could have been an excuse to not let us in as the last time that Marcela and her cousins went there, Marcela made her way off with some of the bar's property. So we went to another place that was just as fun and sat and enjoyed the night. The surrounding area was festively decorated with all sorts of Christmas paraphaneila and it had a very warm feel to it. The drink of choice in Medellin is called Aguardiente and really cant be classified under any other liquor's flag. It most closely resembles Jagermeister in taste but is clear instead of dark. At the bars you can order a bottle and if you don't finish it, can take it home with you. We didn't need to do that but it was nice to have that to fall back on. We met up with some of Camillo's friends including one very outgoing and overzealous guy named Santiago. He was very intent on making sure we enjoyed Colombia to the fullest and that fears about the country be dismissed. He was so nice that we were somewhat afraid of something happening not for our safety's sake but for fear that Santiago wouldn't be able to handle the disappointment. We headed home after a while and upon exiting the car at the house, Marcela made a bee-line to the bathroom and ended up square in the bushes. She was nice enough to lie there while we got our cameras out to document the fall and then she again rushed to the bathroom.

 

The next day we woke up to more great food and decided to take a tour of the city. We had time to kill until the evenings activities (Pedro's Birthday party) commenced. Medellin is a huge city of 4 million dropped in between many mountains. it is a modern city in every sense of the word and we felt like we could have been driving through any other major city in the world. But I did notice a few things that were different. For example, every significant modern building had a fence with barbed wire surrounding it. There is a high presence of policia on motorcycles running about the city and each is equipped with large assault rifles or semi-automatics. And of course all the signs and billboards were in German. Then we saw something extrodinary. We were driving through what seemed to be a regular part of town and as I was looking out of my window in the back seat, I saw two men approaching each other and all of a sudden, one of the men whipped out a pistol and robbed the other man. It happened very quickly, all in about 10 seconds but it was ridiculous to witness such an event. The victim's face was that of intense, terrified shock. He threw his arms up in the air while the robber aggressively grabbed one of the mans shoulders and stabbed the gun into his stomach. The victim grabbed whatever he was carrying in his waist area and the gunman ran off to a idling motorcycle. Then the pair sped off right past our car swirving between traffic and running stoplights. All 5 of us in the car sat there in disbelief of what had just happened. We also felt helpless as to what could be done. We looked to Marcela's cousin for what to do but he had no answer. He said in all his life he had never seen nor heard of anything like that happening. His hands were shaking. After that we cut the tour short. So while the most dangerous event in our short trip did happen on our second day in Colombia, I want to point out that this sort of thing happens every day in every major city in the world, and we just happened to witness to it. So mom, don't worry, by the time you read this, we're already on our way out of this country and if you keep reading, you'll find something much more worrisome. So enjoy!

 

The party that night was lots of fun. The family set up a tent outdoors in case it rained and all the young guests filed in at their leisure. Ive found that so far in latin America, people operate at their own speed and don't really adhere to time schedules. So while the party was set to start at 7, people didn't start showing up until 830 and the majority waited until 10 to make their appearance. The night revolved around drinking and eating. The parents provided the first wave of aguardiente and all the eats for the night and as friends trickled in throughout the night, some if not most brought more aguadiente or some sort of Colombian rum. And I have some great news for all of my male friends back home: youre not the only ones who throw parties where the majority of guests are guys. This too ended up being a sausage fest-ival. What I mean by that of course is that the provided food for the night was lots and lots and lots of great meat. Solomito, punta de anca, and many more meats that I cant name. it was all well seasoned and cooked to perfection by Santiago, an excellent grillmaster. Fatty, Marcela, and I all took up positions directly next to the fire so we were able to get the choice cuts of meat while they were fresh, hot, and described in detail by our chef. Here Santiago was able to show off his generous hospitality by making sure that our plates were never empty and that we were having a fantastic time. Once I was able to trick fatty into eating a piece of pure fat. I handed him a crisp, golden brown chunk of flesh and he happily accepted it; I then watched as he put it in his mouth and chomped into it and realized what he was eating. He smiled, looked back at me and told me of his obvious discovery. But he clearly enjoyed it. While we were outside eating all the BBBQ (the extra B is for bargain), everyone inside was beginning to feel the effects of the Guaro (what aguardiente is called here). Many people were up on their feet dancing and belting out lyrics to popular songs. Most of Pedro's friends were very outgoing and willing to talk slowly and patiently to the foreigners so we were very appreciative. Even the parents were out enjoying the fiesta until late in the night. I went to bed around 3 but apparently the birthday boy and some of his friends were up all night continuing the celebration. The next day we were headed to the Finca (literally meaning farm but is really the family's weekend house 3 hours away in the middle of the country.