The New and Modern Medellin, Colombia

As some of you already know, the trip to Panama was on the return leg of our trip to Medellin, Columbia.  We actually landed in Columbia on January 1, 2014 (my birthday) and stayed for just over a week.  It was an eye opening trip.  Medellin is at an average elevation of 2500 to 3000 meters (8000 to 10000 feet) and has a very spring like weather, year around.  The airport José María Córdova International Airport (IATA: MDE, ICAO: SKRG) is the second largest airport in Colombia after the El Dorado International Airport of Bogotá.  This trip was exclusively to give us the opportunity to experience the city and the coffee farms in the surrounding mountains.  We were picked up by a young Colombian gentleman, Freddi, who held a sign with our names, but couldn't speak a word of English.  The 45 minute drive from the airport to our Diez Hotel Categoria

Address: Calle 10A # 34-11, Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia, Phone:+57 4 4481034, was pleasant and filled with smiling and gesturing, especially to his Iphone, which had a spanish translator app to aid us in our communications.

Front of Diez Hotel Categoria, Medellin

The hotel was very nice and we started out on the seventh floor, in a room that had a picture window looking out over the central district of Medellin.  It was a mountainous terrain and we could see clear across the river that transected the populous city.  It was gorgeous.

    Medellin from our 7th floor room looking NW

We were in Medellin, as mentioned, to learn more about the current state of affairs and about coffee farming in Colombia.  Our host and tour guide was the owner and founder of Cima Coffee Farms, who regretfully has passed away, in the mean time.  He was pleasant and very thorough.  He conducted tours of Medellin, which was still in its Christmas Season celebration, provided meals in popular, but not touristy, restaurants, and a tour of a pleasant tour of an orphanage where kids captured our hearts with their all engulfing, dark, eyes. 

On our first day in the hotel, we met a couple who had moved to Panama from Hawaii and who were taking the same tour we were.  Their names were Dusty and Carolyn Tubbs.  It was evening, on that day, but we decided to meet up and take a self guided tour of part of the city, the next day.  The coffee farm host had one of his employees drive us to the city train station.  We were headed for an elevated area of town that was served with public transportation in the form of cable gondolas.  The gondolas were entered, without stopping, by means of a moving platform that followed the gondola around its terminus allowing passengers to enter the small conveyance while it was moving.  

Entering the gondola while moving.

We were in an ideal position, above the steep slope of the mountainous city, to see the densely arranged residences and the crowds of meandering population as they went about their business of shopping or working.  You see, the cables and gondolas were built, not as a tourist attraction or for sight seeing opportunity.  Rather, it was an extension, the only one feasible with those steep slopes, of the public train system.  It provided public transportation for residents up and down the towering mountains.  It was far more utilitarian than touristy.  That was further evidenced by the number of locals who used the cable system to go to and from shopping areas and work and their homes.

A shopping plaza with gondola cable above

Upon arriving at the end of the line, or the top of the mountain, we sought out a nice little restaurant to have lunch.  I can't say I would recommend the restaurant, but we enjoyed the meal, anyway.  After having lunch, we went to a large (still somewhat under construction at the time we were there), dark gray, building that was called al Parque Biblioteca España (Biblioteca EPM, Plaza de Cisneros. Carrera 54 No. 44 - 48. Piso 2.
Teléfono: (+57-4) 231 7166), which doubled as both a library and a museum.  After that, we headed back to our hotel to relax for the remainder of the day.  That evening, we were to be treated to a tour by night of Medellin, in a Chiva (an old WWII all terrain vehicle converted to festive conveyances for hire).

Exiting our Chiva after the tour

We enjoyed a nice meal and cocktail party, after the Chiva ride and ended up going back to our hotel around midnight.  The next morning we actually had to check out of our room and meet up with the rest of the tour to head out to the coffee farms.  Our first stop was at Don Eduardo Zapata's personal coffee farm (finca) where we enjoyed a home cooked and native style breakfast.  Don Eduardo is the Colombian equivalent of the coffee icon Juan Valdez, with the difference that Don Eduardo is not just an actor, he is the real McCoy. 

Breakfast at Don Eduardo's

After breakfast, we got back into our bus and headed out to La Virgin Coffee Farm for a first hand experience.  We drove to the small town of Concordia, where we stayed the night in a room barely larger than the bed.  Although it had a nice courtyard, the noise from the Three Kings celebration, that went on all night long, was deafening (there were no window panes in the windows) and sleep was impossible.

Upon arriving in Concordia, we took our overnight bags into the courtyard and deposited them with the staff and went back to the street and climbed into another Chiva.  This one was larger and truly geared and designed for all terrain type travel.  The driver took us over roads (roads is an exaggeration) that were mere trails at the crest of drop offs on both sides of the vehicle.  A slight fear of heights was enough to set several of the passengers on edge with fear of dropping off one side or the other.  We arrived at the coffee farm in time for a very full and satisfying lunch on the large grass area, under some canopies. 

Lunch on the farm

After lunch we were driven to the area of the farm where they were growing seedlings and coffee plants of transplantable size.  We even got to plant our own coffee tree in an area where they were putting in new plants.

That evening we were back in Concordia, where we were fed a nice dinner and then moved to a table at the edge of the plaza where all the celebration was taking place.  The people were there from all over Colombia and even further away.  

The next morning, were treated to an organized parade of the locals and coffee growers and were fortunate enough to be able to watch it from the balconies of the hotel we had spent the night in, on the second floor.

Part of the parade procession

Roger Rollins, one of our tour guides

That afternoon, after having another lunch, we headed back on the tour bus to our hotel, where we checked into a new room.  The next day, we were offered a ride to a local shopping center by one of the Cima staff, Sandra Carrerra.  We were absolutely floored by how modern, comfortable, and complete the center was.  It was actually nicer and more accommodating than any of the shopping centers we were acquainted with in California.  The facilities for the kids were far more entertaining than anything we had seen, before.  There was a nice playground with a two story spiral slide, and there was even a zip line high above the open arena of the mall.  There were outside rides that were of carnival quality and views that were breathtaking.

Children's playground

Outside amusement park style rides

View of mall from second floor shopping area

View from the mall

All-in-all, we were very pleased, surprised, and happy with our visit to Medellin.  There were no signs of the drug lords or their activities.  There was a feeling of tranquility and a definite European feel to the populace and a modernness that was unexpected.  There were enough police present in the streets to give a feel of security without feeling like a police state.  I can highly recommend a visit to Medellin and the surrounding small towns and coffee farms.  If you have any questions, feel free to contact me at normre49@gmail.com.  The email address to which this blog is attached in old and, while I do check it, this email address is the more current and active one for me.