Medellin 8/1/12 - 8/6/12

After our first night settling in, we went on the Pablo Escobar tour.  Short description:  a van picked us up, drove us around the city, showed us one of Pablo's many houses (see picture below- yes, this was a house for just his family), his grave, etc. and informed us of how life once was in Colombia during the drug wars.  Pablo Escobar happens to be the face of what many know about the drug traffic scene of the 80's and into the 90's in Colombia; however, he is just the most famous face.  There are many more who stayed behind the curtains and also had a big hand with the drug trade.

That evening we went to the Santa Fe mall with Aaron and Tracie (met in Salento) to see the Batman movie.  Yes, we love our movies!  This mall was amazing!! It was only 2 years old and was huge. The roof could be opened and closed, just like the roof at Reliant Stadium in Houston.  We had a pretty good food court dinner, then ended with some cinnamon rolls or greatness known as Cinnabon (Matt's favorite part of Medellin).  Of course we got the 2 large drinks with 1 large popcorn combo for the 4 of us (along with empty cups to share the popcorn- a Heider tradition).

The next day, we took it easy and then headed out with our favorite Aussies on the Metro (public transit rail) to the cable cars that take you to the top of Medellin and offer great views of the city.  The cable car ride was insightful to a whole different, poorer, part of Medellin in the mountains that we wouldn't have seen otherwise.

On our way back, guess what we were all hungry for again?  Cinnabon!  Thus, we went back to the mall and indulged again.  Even the Aussies agreed upon the greatness of Cinnabon :-).

The next day we took it easy until evening when we went out with some people from the hostel, including Oliver and Linda (friends we met in earlier cities) to go out to a Colombian salsa concert for the Flower Festival.  The Flower Festival took place in Medellin from August 3- 10 and is a pretty big deal in Colombia.  Parades, concerts, flower exhibits, parties, etc.  The outdoor concert we went to was quite the experience.  To say we were fish out of water would be an understatement.  Nonetheless, we both enjoyed the people watching available at the concert.

Our next day we took a bus out to Guatape.  Matt was so excited that we took a bus to basically climb a big rock in the sky to see a big lake (sarcasm).  We climbed over 700 stairs to the top of the rock to be able to see a 360 degree view of the lakes all around us.  Kristin thought it was quite beautiful!

Our last morning we finally went to the Flower Exhibit at the Botanical Garden because we actually wanted to see some flowers during the festival!

Once back at the hostel, we convinced Oliver he needed to know what Cinnabon was all about.  Thus, we went to our favorite place for the third time!  Delish.  We headed to the bus terminal later that night.

While in Medellin, we had great accommodations at the Black Sheep hostel.  Due to the festival and demand, prices for our four bed dorm were actually around $14 a night.  Still, a great place to stay.