Our most successful day of laundry yet!

For a day with no forecasted rain, it sure has stormed hard.  Twice.... nope, four times.

Parque De Los Pies Descalzos

Take of your shoes and feel the planet's energy

On Saturday, after five days of going to school and doing little else, Matt and I had a chance to do some exploring with a friend.  We'd heard about Parque De Los Pies Descalzos, or Barefoot Park, from a few people and decided to check it out - primarily interested to know it it's name was literal or not (it is!).  Located in the middle of the city center, the park is surrounded by highways and administrative buildings.  The grounds themselves are spread out in a plaza directly in front of the headquarters of EPM - a public/private utilities service that has a hand in almost all of the public works projects in Medellin.  They have built many of the cities libraries, invested in the renovation of dilapidated public areas, and are also involved in many other environmental action projects.  This is their main office building.

With the help of companies like EPM, Medellin has created some really incredible (and free!) public places.  And the citizens of Medellin seem to take advantage of them.  The park was packed with families, couples on dates, and even a few tourists (though we were definitely in the minority).  At first the park was a bit underwhelming - just a scattered section of wading pools and sandy areas.  

After wandering aimlessly for a bit we saw what looked like a guided tour of the place.  We invited ourselves into the group and our whole experience of the park was changed.  The tour led us though each space of the park and asked us to focus on different sensations and senses.  At our first stop, we were all asked to make observations about this tree, smell its leaves and finally touch the tree (whose bark ended up being as soft as tissue paper).  Finally, our guide asked that everyone hug the tree.  The miraculous part was that everyone did - from the grandma and her grandchildren, to the young couple on a date, to us - the intrusive foreigners.  

Next, we were taken to a labyrinth and asked to think on a problem that we were having.  We were then told to close our eyes and walk through, trying to find our way to the other side.

This exercise provoked a lot of nervous laughter and genuine enjoyment as we fumbled our way through the maze, bumping into each other and the blocks as we went.  At the end of the exercise our tour guide drew a parallel between our problems and wandering around a maze with our eyes closed, explaining that the easiest way to solve the maze, like our own problems, is from outside.  Each station has a similarly didactic/motivational component.  

We left the sand pits to wading pools.  Here is our group, waiting for permission to get in the water.  

At this pool, our guide led us through a foot massage, asking us to note the difference in weight and color of our feet after the massage.  The next "station" focused on sound - the sound of the water vs. the sounds of a city, and the way the sounds changed as we moved into the center of the pool.  This is our wonderful guide explaining how we should move through the station.   

These guided tours are completely free and occur hourly each day.  We were so impressed, not only by their existence, but also by their quality.  This woman had 13 barefooted adults, in a crowded park in the middle of the city, closing their eyes, hugging trees, and giggling like children.  It was a really special experience.

Fruit Party Number 1

There are few things as mysterious as an Asian grocery store.  Shopping in Japan had me (Leah) permanently baffled and fed a deep seated desire to try all of the unknowns from fermented soy beans (not a good experiment) to seaweed wrapped rice balls filled with all kinds of surprises - tuna, mayonnaise, sour plum.  With that as my jumping off point, supermarkets in Colombia have been somewhat of a letdown - they are very well stocked, but most of the products are familiar and therefore do not compel me in the way an unknown and untasted dried sea creature might.  That being said, there is one culinary area in which Colombia trumps every other place that we have been to, and that is in their fruits.  Colombia's climate is perfect for the cultivation of fruit and the diversity found here is incredible.  They are an integral part of the Colombian diet, with fruit and juice vendors on every other street corner.  And each region seems to have their own fruits endemic to their particular environment, integrated into their particular culture.  Upon discovering this, our goal quickly became to try them all.

So far, we are starting small and choosing at random.  The first fruits we tried were Granadilla (left) and Pitahaya (right).

Both spoons and knife ended up being necessary in order to eat them.  The inside of the Granadilla:

While the exterior was hard as a rock, the interior had the consistency and appearance of fish eggs. The flavor was surprisingly nice - mild with a hint of citrus.  Spoons were helpful, but Matt ended up just slurping his up in one go.  The seeds are very, very crunchy.

The Pitahaya was my favorite.   

The predominant taste was sweet and, at least in the one fruit we tried, there was very little else to it.  It's consistency was like a kiwi's, but with many more seeds.  Here's Matt enjoying the fruit (and not grimacing).  

The aftermath of a very successful experiment:

We've heard that there are between 28 and 100 varieties of fruit native to Colombia.  We've got two more months (at least!) in Medellin, so we'll keep you posted.  

Jardin Botanico

Since we arrived in Colombia, at times it has felt like we've been sprinting from one thing to the next, checking things off a list to prove that we're really here, that were really experiencing Medellin.  It's a futile endeavor, as we're both congnizant that a place doesn't get understood by seeing as many things as possible (especially when the things we know about come to us curtesy of Lonely Planet or some other tourist-geared travel guide).  But, since we were in a hostel, and had little space of our own anyway, being out was also a better alternative to staying in.

This weekend, our pace has slowed considerably. While we're still very excited to continue exploring the city, we were also quite content to revert to our homebody selves and stay in a lot more too. Our one major outing took us to the Botanical Gardens.  We have been wanting to go here since we arrived but hadn't gotten around to it, but after we were told there was also a book fair happening this weekend, we couldn't put it off any longer, which, it turns out, was kind of a mistake.  (Note, if you will the absence of plants).

 The pictures don't really show it, but we went towards the end of the day on Friday and the place was overrun with children.  And while many, like the ones pictured below, were adorable, there were also some larger ones that were less cute and therefore just in the way.

Despite the crowds, both the book fair and the gardens were fun to walk through.  The fair itself was huge, incredibly well organized, and had everything from picture books to university publications.  Our favorite was a whole section of used books.  It was great to see how well attended the fair was (though if the school uniforms were any indication, quite a bit of that attendance might have been mandatory).

After the immensity of the fair, the gardens seemed small in comparison and we strolled through quickly, snapping a few pictures before calling it a day.

On our way home, we finally had our camera with us to take pictures of our neighborhood birds.  Our camera has no zoom and they are tiny little things, but the color (for us at least) is the best part.

Saffron Finch

Mystery red bird friend

New Apartment

We have a new home!  It's a shared apartment with our landlady, Lina, and until Sunday a great couple from Iran and Holland.  The neighborhood is called Laureles and it's comprised of mostly residential streets and one very large commercial street (La Setenta, if anyone wants to look it up). We're here for at least a month, but are already thinking about extending for longer.  Today is our first day and so far we are loving it.

Our bedroom:

Rooftop + View:

Kitchen and dinning room (only to be used in case of rain):

Porch:

Various decorations that make our new house feel like a home:   

(map of Bahrain, in case it's not clear)

Success and many failures, or, our first night out in Poblado

We've been here five full days, and at best, our comfort level can be described as fluctuating.  There are times when I (Leah) feel at ease - like learning Spanish and living here is something not only doable but also throughly enjoyable.  And then there are times, when it all goes to shit.  Often, these moments happen within the same day, if not the same hour.  Yesterday was a perfect example.  Most of the day was wonderful.  We relaxed at the hostel before visiting a few apartments in search of our new home.  At the last apartment, the one we would ultimately decide on, we met a fantastic couple who have been living there for a few weeks who had some great stories and advice.  We met our Spanish speaking landlady, who was not only kind but also talked slowly enough so that we could both understand her!  And the apartment has a roof!  Everything was coming up roses.  To top it all off, after leaving the apartment we were planning on having our first night out on the town with our new best friends, two Colombians our friend from Texas set us up with.


Things began to fall apart shortly after we left our new home, when Matt and I learned a new phrase, "horas picos," or rush hour.  Valuable lesson number 1, do not ride the metro during "horas picos".  The metro was packed, an easy rival to Times Square station at 5pm.  We had to wait for two trains and even then, only squeezed on.  However, we got there in perfect time for our appointed 7:00 meet up!  We don't really have phones yet, but no problem.  After waiting for 15, then 30, then 45 minutes, we finally decided to go in search of internet, to see if we got the time or place wrong.  We didn't, but our new friends were stuck in a meeting, so we had to reschedule.  By the time we figured this out, we had both shorted and were so far past the point of being able to make decisions that we wandered aimlessly for another 15 minutes vacillating between terrible restaurant options in the most touristy part of town.  We eventually decided we needed to range further afield and found a recommended middle eastern place a few blocks away.  There, we had decent food, and our first experience of Colombians being anything other than friendly - probably because the have to put up with people as clueless as us on a regular basis. Brain-fried and starving, we fumbled through our order and ended up with a hilariously huge amount of expensive food.  The below is just the pre-meal salads.

We ate under what felt like withering stares and in near silence, our desire to eat trumping our ability to converse.  After getting food, all we wanted to do was go home and forget.  This is when we learned valuable lesson #2.  In Colombia, do not slam car doors!  Matt and I, so proud of ourselves for hailing our first cab and giving directions, climbed in the car and immediately earned the hate of our our driver by banging his doors shut as he called out futilely, "softly."  I quickly and profusely apologized, he grunted, and we rode home in silence, ashamed.

When taking our language placement test today, our coordinator Juan asked what we had been up to. We had only begun to mention that we took our first cab ride when he cut us off and said  "A word of advice, don't slam the taxi doors here."  Only a few hours too late.  We still are not 100% why this rule exists, but man, we intend to follow it.  

More views from the roof

These next few were taken as a large rain storm approached:

As the rain was coming in.

Same direction a few minutes later.

Double Rainbow!!

Walking Tour

On the 16th, we began our day with a highly recommended walking tour of the city.  It lasted 4.5 hours and was the best history lesson on Colombia Matt and I have received so far.  The tour focused mainly on the center or the city or El Centro, winding through government buildings, pedestrian markets, plazas and parks.  Our guide, Hernan, was incredibly knowledgeable and friendly, and had clearly done this tour many times before.  Look how pretty (and overwhelmingly white) we are:

Our first stop was the railroad, which we did not take pictures of because we were listening attentively to the history of Colombia from Columbus to the Industrial Revolution.  The railroad is no longer functioning but was built in the 1850s to transport gold and later coffee (both still main exports of Colombia) to Spain.

We then took a short walk to a plaza with many governmental buildings.  For us one of the most impressive structures was a massive sculpture depicting a very idealized, and stylized, version of Paisa (the colloquial name for Antioquia) history from Prometheus to...heaven?  (We didn't really understand.)

Our guide then took us to La Plaza de Luces, or Plaza of Lights, and introduced us to the concept of "Democratic Architecture." From what we understood, the idea behind democratic architecture is to take unsafe or unused space and create public works projects for the benefit of the community they are housed in. There are many examples of this idea throughout the city, mostly expressed in large public libraries. This particular plaza was once a dangerous and unusable public space until it was taken over by the government, which cleaned it up, decorated it with public art, and built a large public library.

 

Although the space is now frequented by the public, most of its former inhabitants (homeless, drug addicts, prostitutes, and criminals, according to our guide) were displaced, and programs instituted to rehabilitate and/or shelter them were not successful.

From there we walked through El Centro and Plaza Botero (which you may recall from our very memorable previous post) and then to some crazy walking markets.  On one corner of the street you have a former house of justice:

Completely surrounded by a pedestrian street market on a street that was never intended to be pedestrian only.

One of the things our guide emphasized was the somewhat contradictory nature of Colombian society - something that could be applied to all places, but seems particularly visible in Latin America. The street the market is on was claimed by street vendors whose stalls eventually took over the streets, turning them into pedestrian walk ways. All this in front of a building symbolizing law and order. Eventually the House of Justice itself was taken over by commercial ventures, its office spaces becoming shops.

The second to last stop was at a public square with a beautiful church. Some travel guides (and many Colombians) claim that the church is either the largest church in the world, or the largest church in the world made of baked bricks, but actually neither is true. It is, however, very striking. And, in keeping with the theme of contradiction, this plaza is typically filled with drug addicts and alcoholics, while the area around and behind the church is a prime place for buying porn from street vendors (not pictured).

Our favorite stop was our last at Parque San Antonio, a large, flat plaza where concerts are sometimes held.

The bird on the left was blown up in an explosion during a concert, that killed 16 and injured many more.  According to our guide, during the 80s and 90s violence like this was fairly common place, and he told many stories that alluded to the dangers and senseless killings that predominated in the height of the drug years.

After this explosion, Botero, who created the original sculpture, called the governor to demand that the destroyed statue remain standing as a memorial to the victims. However, he also recreated the statue (on the right) as a symbol of hope and rebuilding. Not to be too ham fisted, but it did seem like an apt metaphor for the city itself.  While not able (or willing) to forget some of the uglier moments in its recent past, the city is completely invested in moving forward and it's innovations and investments in public works are on par with (or better than) any large city in the United States.