I'm migrating wrong this year. It seems I have a knack for finding bad weather to spend my summer in. Last time I went to India during monsoon season, this time I'm going to the southern hemisphere where it's the middle of winter. Luckily my first stop is La Ciudad de la Eterna Primavera, or The City of Eternal Spring.
Medellin lies nestled in a valley in the Andes at 5000 feet above sea level. Since the country is equatorial, its temperature is determined entirely by elevation, and 5000 feet just happens to correspond to around 75 degrees so it's basically the perfect temperature year round.
In the heart of Antioquia, possibly the most resource laden state in Colombia, the city is a major cultural and commercial hub. It's home to Fernando Botero, Shakira, and of course the late Pablo Escobar.
Luckily for me the famous Medellín Cartel is a thing of the past. Thanks to President Alvaro Uribe's aggressive policies and a lot of American drug war dollars, cocaine trafficking has been expelled from the cities and is now almost entirely in the south. With Escobar dead it's run by the FARC, a radical leftist guerrilla organization. They too, however, are losing ground, and with a constitutional amendment passed so Uribe can serve another term, they may suffer the same fate.
3 comments:
Let's not get too carried away with the viewpoint of our hosts and allow some room for doubt. You need to go up into the mountains above Medellin and look down on the city, watch the planes fly in below you, and notice the cloud formations, which can be unusual.
Just remember, EVERYTHING is still VERY DANGEROUS. (I believe I covered that in my admonitions to you before you left.)
El Tiempo still reports a daily count of war-related deaths. So... a little healthy fear can be a good thing. That said, Have A Nice (but not too relaxed) Day.
Don´t get me wrong, the drug cartel still exists, and there are still drugs in Medellín. The Medellín Cartel was the name of Pablo Escobar´s cartel, which ended when he died. I´m not adopting the opinions of my hosts, my hosts don´t really talk about Colombia´s drug problem. I formed this opinion from reading articles and watching Colombian news while I was in the U.S. And don´t worry, I´m excessively careful.
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