Chula Cholula: Colombia Travel Report 5: Medellín

Medellín. What a city. There are probably not many cities in the world with a worse reputation.

Finally found unripe guava... missed it so much since I left Thailand.

But guess what - Medellín has changed. In many parts it is a modern city where I felt pretty safe.

Talking about modernity: Actually, due to previous research and photos I had seen, my expectations regarding Medellín's state of development were not met. But yes, compared to other Colombian cities, Medellín is more modern and developed. It always depends on your point of view...

And more importantly: Cashews, which for some reason I had been craving the days before, were available in Medellín. Ok, it was in a premium plaza and you don't want to know what I was paying for them, but still... Cashews!

How to sickly violate a plantain: Mash it, fry it in butter...

... fry it once more, put a pound of butter on it (see that fat dollop on the lower left? That's how the whole plantain looks like below the cheese...), followed by loads of shredded cheese, sweetened condensed milk, sweet guava sauce. Guess what - I was filled up.

Despite the bad reputation that Medellín had gained some years ago, it felt surprisingly safe - this confirmed what I had read during my research, namely, that the situation has improved tremendously.

Actually, I even walked around alone at night. When I arrived at night, driving around in the taxi, I had seen a great light spectacle on the river and now I wanted to go there.

As I didn't know the name of what I had seen, it was a bit difficult to find. And surprisingly even after I had found out the name, many people didn't know what I was talking about. But in the end I arrived.

On the river were installed ships and oversized fish, greatly illuminated. While it felt slightly scary to go there - I barely saw anybody - suddenly there was a bunch of people, all visiting this unique light festival.

It was so impressive, and people even told me that it was a comparatively small version because of future construction works.

When I left the festival to catch the last skytrain, hundreds of blade night participants rolled by. Never let it be said Medellín was dangerous. Rather, people are dangerously attractive and sporty. Not kidding!