Fernando (SERVAS) has a sweet apartment that is filled with interesting pieces of art, photography, and artifacts.  On arriving, his son (Daniel) whipped up a tasty pasta and gave up his room for us during our stay.  It must be in the genes as Fernando too has some pretty mean culinary skills to boot.  We exchanged recipes as we couldn’t get enough of his eggplant dip.  Over the next couple of days we juggled our time between relaxing, necessary chores (i.e. bike maintenance and acquiring a new stove pump), and seeing a sight or two (none of which were in the Lonely Planet!).  We can’t thank Fernando enough for all his help with many mundane chores that we won’t bore you with and taking us to some of his favourite places to hang out in Medellin!

On one outing we managed to roundup another Panamerican cyclist by the name of Matt Kelly (http://www.pedalpanam.com/) and Fernando girlfriend, Berta Lucia and headed up to the tranquil town of El Retiro. This is a small mountain pueblo with cool old houses and uniquely hand crafted key holes. We had a ginormous meal, icecream cones and a good oldfashioned stroll around the main plaza.  It was rather a pleasant outing!  To boot, we got to check out the pad where Matt was staying that was set on a mountainside overlooking Medellin.  The air was fresh, the coffee delicious and the artwork in the house quite remarkable.  We hope to meet up with Matt and his other cycling comrades down the line. 

In the four days that we stayed in Medellín (the second largest in Colombia) we witnessed numerous accidents.  It’s one place we would not like to drive.  Infact, the neighbour of Fernando that helped us with finding a good bike mechanic collided with a drunk pedestrian and fortunately due to having his helmet on) he only had superficial scrapes on his face, arms and legs.  We left Medellín on a public holiday so there was much less traffic on the road, as well as Fernando following behind us in his car.  He also arranged a police escort so we were very well looked after.

The fun stuff:
  • Motorcyclists must (by law) wear vests with their license plate number on it.
  • You can buy yoghurt in plastic bags.
  • Colombians drink “Milo” but they pronunce it “Meelo”, which we thought was entirely a New Zealand favourite of chocolatey goodness in a mug.
  • Colombians just loves going uphills on bikes and they can really clip along at a good pace, leaving us in the dust!
  • Feijoas (Belinda’s all time favourite fruit in New Zealand) is also found here but it’s necessary to pronunce it as “Feihoas” otherwise no one will have any clue of what you are talking about.
  • Fernando has a great radio presenter voice.

Barrio Moravia: Community built on a landfill.

Please note:  These photos are a mix of ours and Fernandos.

Fernando (among many jobs) is currently commissioned by the City Hall to facilitate the compiling of a series of books about Medellín.  One afternoon, he needed to take some pictures of a suburb built on and around an old landfill for one of the books.

One initiative in Moravia that is seeing great results and cultivating a sense of pride is the community centre that was built about three years in the heart of the neighbour.  One of the reasons for its success is that the community had the opportunity to specify what the centre provided, looked like and needed i.e. daycare, internet service, dance and music studios, auditorium for special events and performing arts.  The community centre is a beautiful structure and very well maintained but we forgot to capture it on camera!

We had three teenagers eager to show us around the neighbour that is slowly shrinking as residents are being relocated to a more healthy environment through a government programme.  This neighbourhood had a real flavour about it and although it can be a dangerous place, it was quite invigorating meeting the people and seeing unique, beautiful and not so beautiful sights at every turn.  Also, the three boys lived and breathed break dancing and they weren’t shy to display their talents at every chance possible!

Just after I had asked Fernando if they were going to remove the hill made of rubbish, one of the boys boasted about how fortunate they were to  live in a place that has 360 degree views of the city.  Talk about perspectives!


 
 


Comments

Helen

Thu, 24 Jun 2010 20:52:57

Apart from Fab photos of you two I was very moved by the second bunch of photos - great to see people living happy lives in hard circumstances. Thought maybe the three boys need to come and demonstrate their break dancing in South Auckland NZ? I could imagine some fierce competition ensuing!

 

em

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 03:42:22

Nice one. Colombia. Almost like being on the home straight now before home. Pedal fast, strong and safe.

 



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