Medellin – The City of Eternal Spring.

We escaped the heat and humidity of the tropical Carribean and crossed over into Medellin, wedged in a narrow valley between the Western and Central Cordillera of the Andes at a more pleasant 5000 foot altitude. The weather is Goldilocks beautiful; not too cold, not too hot, but just right all year round.

Medellin was settled late by the Spanish because it’s tough to get here. The earliest settlers were Spanish Jews escaping the Inquisition headquartered in Cartagena. Unlike the rest of Spanish South America that depended on massive imported slavery, they set up haciendas that they worked themselves. This streak of independence survives and Medellin is a modern city with real infrastructure and competent government and tons of local pride.

The recent history has been marked by the violence of the drug cartels. These guys amassed enormous wealth and here they even started to propose local public works investments and new political parties. That didn’t go down too well and the Colombian and US militaries pursued Pablo Escobar until his assassination on a Medellin rooftop in 1993. Now the city is one of the safest in the world – a fashion, industry, and party capital.  There are even Pablo Escobar themed tour operations.

That’s not to say that the drug business has gone away. The communist rebel army in the jungle (FARC) has been taking over where the cartels left off. This month the Colombian government signed a deal with the FARC to end violence that has been ongoing since 1946 but this still has to be ratified by a vote of the people.

In the face of all these troubles, the people here have a saying “Los buenos somos más” – We good guys outnumber the bad guys. Great advice but It sounds better in Spanish.

Another favorite son of Medellin is the sculptor Fernando Botero and there is a lovely park in the center of the city with a large number of his bronzes. You could call them Rubenesque but I think Botero deserves his own “esque” – these are all Boteroesque statues. It is interesting that you can see where people have been tempted to touch the statues and lightened the metal – Fonz and couldn’t help ourselves do the same thing.

One more comment about the safety and wealth in Medellin: this is the first city in South American where I have seen people cycling for recreation; mountain and road bikes and riders with all the neon lycra gear all over the city.