Medellin Metrocable

My friend Leslie, who I met at the language school in Cartagena, is here in Girardota and staying with us. We are a fabulous foursome now - Marcela, Dieter, Leslie and I. The neighbors are commenting how international M & D are becoming. It's really quite funny. A Colombian, a German and 2 North Americans are quite the hit around this rural area of Colombia. Most people here have never traveled out of their country so they are quite wide eyed with us visitors. In the next few weeks, another couple from Germany, that M & D met while traveling in Mexico on their road trip, might be coming as well.

There have been only a few colombianos that I have met that want to travel out of the country. They unfortunately find it very difficult and/or very expensive to obtain the necessary visas. The image of Colombia being an unsafe country - drug, gun and mafia/FARC infested - persists in two ways: one for tourists and one for residents wanting to travel. In my planning for my trip to Colombia, I experienced the many misguided "facts" based on fears and history from the 90's which were true up until Uribe took over 7 years ago. But I did not realize how Colombians are unfairly judged throughout the world by limiting their ability to travel, visit and move. We are very fortunate as Americans to be able to travel so freely throughout the world. So in some way, it is no wonder that Colombians stick to their own country. Plus, it is a gorgeous country!! It is similar to the US in that it has a variety of climates and regions - mountains, coastlines, deserts, cold and hot climates etc.

So since Leslie is here, I played hookie from school and we all went into Medellin. It was the first day without rain I have had in that city of nearly 3 million people. Remember how I had talked about there being a Metrocable (cablecar) line? Well I was incorrect, there are actually 2 and we rode them both today. They are like a transfer line when you ride a subway - as long as you do not leave the station, you can hop on another line. Well this line, instead of being another train, is a cable car. I took some pictures for you all to see. I intentionally included photos of the cities and murals people have painted on their buildings so you would not think I took them at an amusement park. The dark, odd shaped buildings you see in one of the photos are actually one of the cities library - El Parque Biblioteca Espana. I love how green and mountainous the city is.