Day 11: A Day Off in a Vacation

Today I have done absolutely nothing. I mean to visit anything new or worth sharing. In Medellin, there are a few more places on my list that I could have visited, such as Parque Arvi, it is a more outdoorsy destination, and it is located north of Medellin requiring a longer journey on metro train followed by cable car, but I had a feel for the cable car ride at Comuna 13 already yesterday. Another location I thought about visiting was Parque Explora, which is a complex of museums, aquarium, vivarium (I don’t even know what that is), and whatnots. But ah…I am feeling kind of lazy today, I have great room here, so I thought I would take a break from sightseeing and do nothing and, enjoy my room for a change. 

 

 

I have gone down to the pool at the 10th floor, I dipped myself in the water but the water was way SOOOOO cold to swim. Though the sun was very hot though, even my phone was complaining in a message: your phone was overheating, you cannot take any more pictures of those goddamn buildings and your legs at the moment. Yes madam! I turned my phone off, so it did not explode on me. I hanged by the pool for a while before I ventured out to find lunch. I was going to try the famous dish of region called bandeja paisa (https://impulsetravel.co/en/blog/25/colombian-food-the-story-of-bandeja-paisa). I walked all the way downhill to find this restaurant that serves bandeja paisa and they have a google rating of 4.6, but there was a huge line wrapping outside their door, it was almost 2pm, so definitely no gracias. Found an alternative online, darn it, it was back close to where my Airbnb is, instead of downhill, it is uphill for a few minutes. I managed to find an Uber that took me that. The Uber driver was so friendly, he also lived in US for a while. We talked about US culture, all money money money. He was not trashing the US culture, but more of a reflection after experiencing it. As a foreign born person now a US citizen myself, I saw where he is coming and shared part of his views too. Anyway, within that short ride to the restaurant, he also managed to change my mind, I was going to try bandeja paisa. He said it is good and unique to region, but that is a lot of foods, including 4 proteins on the plate! There is another regional dish called mondongo, which is a soup made from beef tripe with lots of mixed vegetable, served with rice, plantain and avocado. He praised this dish all the way and I have not tried it. Sold and I really loved it! I know the word tripe might off-putting to some people, it did not taste funky at all, it tasted delish!

 

I walked back to the Airbnb and catching up on my blog writing, listening to music. It was 7pm-ish, I felt like I should get some light dinner, it is Sunday, the nearby pizza place is closed. I was going to give it a try since I just wanted something not too far. I googled around and found a restaurant serving an octopus dish. The picture had my name written all over it. So, that was what I did. It was also good too. The best one out of the 3 times I have octopus in Colombia so far.   

 

Aside from some pool time, eating, blogging, I also spent a good amount of time chatting with different people to figure out what I am going to do with the COVID test I am required to take before coming back to US, which is next Friday. Biden Administration has a new requirement that I must take the COVID test one calendar day (some sites say one day) prior to my return flight, one day is kind of subjected to interpretation: one day can be strictly within 24 hours, or really one “calendar” day in a sense that I come back on Friday (midnight), then if I take the test on Thursday (even in the morning), it should be ok too. My flight is really late close to midnight, if it is counted as 24 hours, it would be more challenging, I would have to take very early on Friday morning and hope that I will get a result before my flight. 

I originally planned to take a test at the hospital Carlos worked at, however, the website said both antigen and PCR tests will take 2 days to get the results. The option is out. While I was looking for alternative, Synlab was my back up option, they can have the antigen result in 1 day. They even have a testing site at the airport, which based on their website, could produce the results as soon as 2-4 hours, I am just not sure whether this is true. If I treat that and get to the airport and they tell me, it will unfortunately take 24 hours, then I am fucked, what am I gonna do. A third option was offered to me surprisingly from a restaurant, I was making a reservation with this restaurant in Bogota for Thursday, turned out the owner was also from US and they was planning to go back to US for Xmas. He has a contact that collect the sample at your house, and they will produce the test results in a few hours. So, he totally went out his way to help me contact with this person. I talked to that guy as well, he thinks I best do the test on Friday morning, and he will be able to produce the test result later Friday early afternoon. The issue with this guy is, because he is bringing the test to someone’s home. He was listed on the US embassy list. Money is not issue, but whom am I supposed to trust is the part I am trying to sort out and also the timing of the test. But I still have a few days, I will make a final call when I get to Bogota.

Day 10 (Part 2): When the World is Ruled by a Chub Chaser

Since I have had so much to say about Comuna 13, there are also many pictures and videos today I want to post, so I have to break my Day 10 into two parts like Day 7. After Comuna 13, I took the metro train to Parque Berrio, the historic district. There are a few attractions I like to see. But as I got out of the metro station, it was very crowded everywhere, inside and outside of the station. It was a Saturday afternoon after all, I am not sure I felt particular comfortable with this big crowds, not so much with regards to COVID, but pickpocketing that kind of stuff. I put my day bag in the front, and my hand holding my wallet in the pants. I picked up my Asian pace and just headed to find the museum I came to visit - Museo de Antioquia. 

Parque Berrio Video 

All other photos from Day 10 in Parque Berrio area are here. 

 

 

I walked past some people who were playing guitars, some older folks gathered and started dancing. It was so much fun to look at. That is Latin Americana I had in mind, passionate people. I did not stick around to watch them more than a few minutes. I kept marching through the crowds. Avoided getting too close to anybody, it is when someone suddenly bumped into you that is when they tried to get something from you. Stay the hell out, hot Asian coming through. Haha… not so much the hot part, but you get the idea how I just zipped through the crowds. Got to Museo de Antioquia, it is located in the Botero Plaza. The plaza is very beautiful, there are many public sculptures by the most famous Colombian artist Fernando Botero. I have become a huge fan of his works. He is obsessed with fat, all his subjects are in plus size, fat mona lisa, fat horse, fat guitar, fat prince, fat prostitute. He is actually the reason why I wanted to visit this museum. 

 

 

The museum is free to enter today, but donation is recommended, so I put in 10000 COP, since I have no idea what I will be seeing really. 3rd floor is where I would find the works of Fernando Botero, unfortunately, no pictures were allowed. As I walked through to see his works, I found that I really like his stuff, an idea suddenly came to mind, I wanted to get a whole bunch of postcard of his works and then I get some IKEA frame to make art piece for my wall. I did not see fat Mona Lisa, I did confirm with the stuff that fat Mona Lisa does not reside in Medellin. I will try to Botero Musuem next week. I walked the 2nd and 1st floors as well, the museum were more of the contemporary and Latino modern artworks. I was really impressed and enjoyed the museum through and through. There were some some dancing and singing in the garden, I was not exactly sure what the event was, but I watched a bit. It was great. The energy of some of those dances was amazing. It is my 2nd great activity for the day. 

 

Videos in Museo de Antioquia: 1, 2, 3   

All other photos from Day 10 in Museo de Antioquia are here. 

 

After a quick pastry and coffee at the museum café, I left the area. Parque Berrio was too crowded for me, so I took the metro train back to Poblado, I did not take taxi, instead I walked through hills in Poblado see the neighborhoods during the day and partly I was also looking for an early dinner place. I walked past this ramen place called Sumo Ramen, google it, rated 4.5, ok I thought I would give it a try. As I entered, this Japanese guy (let’s call him Kaisei, I forgot his name really, but something like that) greeted me, he first spoke to me in Japanese, and then I said, I am Chino de Hong Kong. It is interesting, sometimes I introduced myself I am from Boston US, other times I would say I am from Hong Kong. I guess because he was Asian, unconsciously, I wanted to be relatable so I said I was from Hong Kong. I did explain that I now live in Boston. He actually started talking to me first, probably because I was Asian and he thought I was Japanese. We talked a little, he has been living in Colombia for 3 years now. I asked if he liked living in Colombia, he said it is ok, it is where his job is. I guess he is the manager or owner, he suggested me to try the Karaaga ramen, and I had some gyoza too. Be honest, the ramen was not that good, it had some Latino ingredients in it, like a slice of lime, and some zucchini and chopped lettuce as veggies instead of spring sprouts. That is so wrong. To me, those items are very out of place, but I am in Latin America, I eat what they eat. The heart was there, he specifically asked the server to give me some extra spicy oil. 

It was interesting to meet different people and have some small talks with them on the road. Like the two Florida tourist, or Stephan, or this Japanese ramen shop owner, through our brief exchange of conversations, I was trying to gauge why this person is being here, and we met and a very very brief glimpse into each other lives at least in my head. To them, probably I am just another gringo. Back to the Airbnb, I snapped a few more pictures of the views outside of my window. I want to remember this.  

All other photos from Day 10 in Poblado area are here.

Day 10 (Part 1): Comuna 13 and its Bloody History

Woke up at 6:30am, I tried to stay in bed longer, but my body just want to get out of bed even though my head you stay there a little longer there son of an itch. I pulled up the blinds, wow, the view from the Airbnb in the morning was amazing, there were some fogs along the hillside, the sky is cloudy but starting to break. I looked around online for my itinerary for today, I know I must visit Comuna 13 while I am in Medellin, so I looked and looked, most morning tours started 9:30am, it was a little tight for me, since I have walked the hill, struggled to catch a taxi to the metro station and take the metro to where the meeting point is. I could take a taxi straight to the meeting point, that would be my last resource I thought. 

I contacted the Zippy Tour, a friend recommended previously. Whatsapped the guy no response. Found their website and whatsapped another person at the same Zippy company, their walking tour start at 10am, I may have a chance if I move quickly. And I did, I did not even have coffee or breakfast, and just packed my bag and left the Airbnb. I walked the hill, trying to catch a taxi, finally one stopped for me, I said Poblado metro estación. Confirmed a few times, I hopped on his car, I said please meter, he said no, just 6000 COP (~USD 1.5). Sigh, whatever, I am in a rush. Got to the station, got my ticket to San Javier station where I will meet the walking tour at 10am, I arrived at 9:58am, and still had 2 mins to buy a crazy hot milk coffee in a plastic water cup, I can it milk coffee, it probably contains 70% milk, 20% water and 10% coffee, and I was amazed the cup did not melt. Yike!  

 

There were many people gathering around waiting for the Comuna 13 tours, there were at least 5-10 different tour companies all with different color shirts and umbrella, and many tourists were waiting. For Zippy tours, they had many people waiting too, but most of them were for the Spanish tour, only 3 persons including myself were for the English tour. My other two tour comrades were from Florida, the girl was Asian. Her name is Joy. I talked to them a little bit as we walked to the Comuna 13, they apparently are coming to work in Medellin for a month and plan to travel in and around Medellin. We did talk about the new variants and COVID test requirement coming to US, the guy had absolutely no clue, he thought they were just doing some rapid tests at the airport. I said no, you better check before going back to US. 

Our guide was named Stephen. His English was ok except at the end of each sentence, he added a “Yes” to it, probably because in Spanish, they may say Si, to see if you understand. That, at times, made it a little confusing. He told us that he only started to learn English 5 years ago though, that is amazing actually how much he spoke today, I would say I understood him 85% of the times. He grew up in Comuna 13, this neighborhood and this city Medellin have a very complicated history that involved drug trafficking, cartels, other terrorist groups, gang violence, and poverty. Like he said Comuna 13 was one of the most dangerous place in the world just 20 some years ago. Today it is filled with tourists. That transformation was fascinating. To read about the history of Comuna 13, you can check this website. 

 

In 2002, the government has a number of military interventions in Comuna 13, the last and biggest one was in called Orión Operation bringing in more than 1,500 officers, two helicopters and one tank brought to Comuna 13. The whole place was in lockdown for 3 days, Stephan was still a kid and was inside Comuna 13 while his mother was working outside and could not return home to reunite. He described even you hid in the house, it did not mean you are safe, bullets flew right in. He showed us exact pictures and pointed us the location we see in the picture. It was very vivid. And he also talked about his growing up. When a kid (himself included) got to teenager years between 12 and 15, the gangsters would start recruit them to sell drugs and become a gang member, there were some invisible zoning between different cartels, or gangs. At times, they would be told that they are from now on forbidden to cross to a certain region, he had to change school once to a different district. He showed us some personal photos of him as a kid, and another two kids in the picture, one of them was shot when he reached 15-16. He was almost brutally honest about what happened before, and now.

The cartels, in fact, did not disappear. They are actually still there, but they have had some under the table “unofficial” deals with the government that they would keep the peace, and the government would turn a blind eyes on the cartels’ business. In a way, it seemed that this city and even country is very much run by cartels. With the new found peace, Stephen said, now we have many businesses in Comuna 13 and tourism, there are government facilities built inside the Comuna 13, there are new and better school for kids, there are better role models for children to look upon. Under the surface though, they all still have to pay a share of the earnings to the cartels, not only in Comuna 13, but based on him, up to 80% of the businesses in Medellin city did similar things as well. That is scary. 

 

I did not like the fact the tips I would be rewarding Stephan for the tour (it is a free walking tour), 2% of that would go to the cartels. But Stephan said people at their community have had over half a century of violence, killing, and hunger, if someone came and said to you, if you pay 2% of your earning, you will be safe from now on. He said he would rather pay the money, especially when you have kids and family to look after. I see the attraction of that rationale. It is such a difficult problem to resolve. Part of me thought we really should not encourage this kind of illegal activities, but like he said, all they asked for is opportunities. If they don’t have the opportunities by means of earning some money via tourism or having a peaceful environment to allow more businesses to grow (hence providing jobs for people and safety to their children), what chances do they have. They would never uplift themselves and break out of the cycle of hardship. Very likely, they would have to continue working for the cartels to put foods to their children’s mouths. But then, we are supporting the cartels to run drug businesses. It is really a very difficult and convoluted situation. Only time will tell the fate of this community. 

 

Half of the tour was on history, the other half was actually us walking down the streets in Comuna 13 to see graffiti art, rappers, hip hop and breakdancing performing. Graffiti and so was rapping is a way of expression from people to express what they feel. There are a lot of amazing works in Comuna 13. I could probably spent another half a day there. As our walking tour finished at the top of Hill 1, I briefly strolled around to the hill 2, and then walk back, and take their outdoor public escalator down. Forgotten to mention, part of the government strategy to connect the poor communities with people in the richer communities, they built these cablecar system (there were 6 lines in Medellin) that go and down the hills. In addition, mimicking Hong Kong’s central escalator, an outdoor covered escalator system, Comuna 13 also had an outdoor covered escalator. I wish they did not tell people that it was built by China, since China had nothing to do with the central escalator, it was built years before British left. 

 

After I got back down hill and took a crowded bus back to San Javier Station, I took the cable car up the Comuna 13 hills again and back, just to see the neighborhoods from above. I have really enjoyed my visit to Comuna 13. I think it is totally worth it. You can see how much I have written about it. As a community, Comuna 13 have raised up and beyond. And as an outsider looking in, their drive to a better lives has reached people further deep inside. 

Comuna 13 Videos: 1, 2, 3 

All other photos from Day 10 in Comuna 13 area are here.  

Additional Note (added on Day 15): 

I think it may not be fair for me to say that this whole country is run by cartels. Maybe it is true for some specific area or region, but not the whole country. I think the cartels has very little to do the actual day to day lives of most Colombian people. From what I heard from my local friend is that the government may not have done enough for the people, and next year is going to be interesting, since they have an election coming. In any case, whichever party win, I hope it is for the benefit of the people.