S.S. Part 2 - Bogota

On Saturday night we strolled through the streets and managed to eat the most delicious crepe I've ever come across before the tramping through the rain back to our hostel.  Sunday morning we woke up early and eagerly set out to explore the city once more.  Since we were staying in the Candelaria, which is the historic district, it really didn't take much to come across something of interest.  Every block had something exciting to offer and every street greeted us with new shops, beautiful churches and outdoor markets.  Since I don't really know what most of what we saw was, and we had no real objective for the morning I'm just going to throw up a few pictures and let you browse through the sites at your leisure.

These little guys were scattered all about the neighborhood in various poses.

Once we'd got our fill of street sweeping, we found a lovely vegetarian restaurant where we had a tasty 3 course meal before heading off for the Museo de Oro (Gold Museum).

Which has to rank in the top 3 museums I've ever been to (but I'm not sure I could tell you what the other 2 are).  The whole exhibit was immaculately laid out, with short but informative descriptions leading you through the history, forming processes and significance of gold in pre-Colombian society.  You'll have to visit it yourself to get the real feel of the place, but since they let you take photos, here's a few to tantalize your appetite.

 

On the top floor they had a special surprise....
You wandered through dark corridors with dimly illuminated displays of treasures that had been purposely returned to the earth to enable the completion of their cycle of use.  At the end of this section a museum attendant ushered the crowd into a dark, circular room.  As the doors slid closed, low chanting commenced, beautifully timed with spots of light that faded in and out alternatively illuminating and obscuring an impressive array of gold artifacts.  As the chanting reached it's peak, the full extent of the display became evident and before us was a jaw-dropping presentation of immaculate craftsmanship.

Of course, on the way to and from the museum, we also saw a few good sights.  The best of which was definitely the hamster races!

 Although, the bamboo covered car that acted as a cafe was pretty sweet too!

And we wouldn't want to neglect the people watching...

All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable day. 

Monday morning was wasted waiting for my visa extension, which thankfully went through without a hitch.  That afternoon we visited the National Museum of Art, were we saw in incredibly large number of very fat people painted and sculpted throughout a building that had to have been an old villa or palace of some kind.

Having had enough culture for one day, and excited for the neg leg of our journey we grabbed our gear, caught a bus across town and found our way out to Suesca where some friends met us and drove us up a VERY bumpy road to what would be home for the rest of the week.  However, that's a whole 'nother story, so stay tuned!

Graffiti

One thing that was impossible to ignore while walking the streets of Bogota was the profusion of graffiti.  Nearly every available surface was utilized, whether it be for ugly scrawls of random statements or for serious works of art.  Here's a quick collection of some of the more impressive samples.

Semana Santa, Part 1

This week held all sorts of excitement.  There's no way I'll get to it all tonight, but there's so much to tell and so many pretty pictures to show that I figured I should get rolling asap.

It all started last Saturday when I hopped on a plane and sailed above the rolling green carpet of Colombia to arrive in the capital city, Bogota.  Since I wasn't entirely sure how to get from the airport to the hostel where we'd be staying for the next 2.5 days, I watched a good number of buses zoom by before getting a general gist of which ones were headed in my direction.  Flagging down one, I asked the driver if he passed anywhere near where I wanted to go and got a perfunctory nod.  Well, this was bound to get me closer at least, and at 1400 pesos, rather than the 22,000 a taxi would run, I figured I couldn't go too wrong.

I was very excited to see what Bogota had to offer, but must admit I was rather turned off at first.  All the major city streets are entirely torn up at the moment, as the city is currently in the process of installing a bus system that more closely resembles a metro, with separate lanes running down then center of the highways and raised platforms with sliding glass doors sheltering the passengers.  Unfortunately, at the moment, this leaves a rather dusty and not so appealing first impression upon the eager traveler.  When we had to turn off the main road due to the construction, I began to get a little nervous as the streets narrowed, the graffiti got uglier and more pronounced, and we rolled through what was clearly not the best neighborhood in town.  Luckily none of that lasted very long, and we were soon cruising down bustling streets lined with wide walkways and markets of all varieties. 

As we turned in what I was sure was the wrong direction for where I wanted to be going, I looked around and realized I was the only person left on the bus.  Whoops.  I asked for directions again, got a slightly more articulate answer, and jumped off.  I was only about 15 blocks from my destination, according to my very rough calculations and rather hazy memory of google maps.  However, the city's laid out on a numerical grid, so it's pretty hard to get really lost, and the streets were full of people, so I decided I could handle a nice meandering stroll on the way to my destination.  This choice was well rewarded.

The hostel we had chosen is situated in the heart of the Candelaria district, which is also the historic core of the city.  As I wandered through the streets, I stumbled upon a book fair overflowing across a cobblestone, pedestrian only street.  Not long after I found myself amidst a jumble of stalls selling everything from toys to showers.  As a rounded another corner and picked up a snack of fresh mango, I was greeted by a magnificent square framed on all sides by spectacular buildings.  I later learned that this was the governmental and judicial square, but at the time I simply wandered into a beautiful plaza and watched the clouds pour down the mountain as children fed the birds and begged for llama rides.

Since the rain was clearly imminent, and I couldn't be more than 4 blocks from my destination, I slurped up the last of my mango and headed off.  I ended up taking the long way around, but was once again rewarded for my meanderings, this time by an impressive candy-striped church.

When I finally came upon the hostel, I was already in a state of awe.  This area of the city held so many beautiful buildings it was hard to take it all in at once.  On top of which, the streets rose steeply on these blocks, providing breathtaking vistas of the city below.

Once I'd checked into my hostel and dropped of my bag, I headed back out to see what other lovely surprises this new city might have to offer.

As I wandered about, awestruck by the tightly packed, but intensely individualized structures around me, I thought I heard the low beat of drums in the distance.  Not entirely sure my mind wasn't playing tricks on me, I weaved back and forth through the streets occasionally thinking I heard strange sounds, only to have them disappear around the next corner.  Suddenly, the sound was unmistakable, and a break in the street showed the edge of a large crowd.  As I stumbled closer, I was surprised to see men and women dressed in red and black leather, leaping about on stilts and doing their best to inspire devilish imaginings.

Apparently I had found my way into the theater district.  Once the performance was over, and the crowd dispersed, I discovered that the square where I was standing was also hosting an arts fair and happened to be the entrance to the 2 main cafe/bar streets, both of which were narrow cobblestone pathways, tightly jammed with revelers.

There is much, much more to tell, but alas, work begins again tomorrow morning, so that will have to be all for tonight.

Thriving Cultural Beat

Just in case any of you might be worried that I'm not getting my fill of intellectual and cultural stimulation down here near the equator, I thought I'd go ahead a relate this evenings events. 

After a morning's discussion of the political implications of WikiLeaks, I spent the afternoon translating an article analyzing the role of public architecture in the city.  At 3pm, right on cue, a deafening peal of thunder shook the building and the skies let loose a torrent of rain.  Luckily, for all the fury of the moment, these afternoon showers rarely last long and by 5pm the skies were beginning to clear.  This was perfect, since I had seen a poster advertising a dance performance at 7pm and wanted to make it out to dinner in El Poblado before the show started.

I met up with D amidst the last few sprinkles of rain and we hopped in a cab and headed up the hill.  Getting off at Park Poblado, I remembered that one of my housemates had previously recommended a restaurant nearby whose name had something to do with fire...well actually not at all, but luckily there weren't that many possibilities on that particular street, and after sampling the food, I'm pretty positive we found the right spot. 

As we sat down, both D and I were thrilled to discover that this particular place had not only the usual watery version of what they consider beer down here, but also had the apparently one and only microbrew available in Colombia.  Unfortunately, they were out of the specialty dark version, but they did have the other 3 varieties, and we had our first tast of 3 Cordillas.  After a month of nothing but the equivalent of Budlight, this stuff was delicious!   Once the food came, we were in heaven. 

La Fiambrería, the restaurant we had chosen, had a specialty menu of the day that came with 3 courses, so we opted to split that and get an appetizer to round it out.  The appetizer definitely stole the spotlight.  I couldn't understand every word in the description, but I knew there would be parmesan and ceviche, which was good enough for me.  When the plate arrived, it consisted of four small cups shaped out of fried parmesan and stuffed with ceviche and diced mango.   ooooh so yummy!!!!  The next to arrive was a blended soup of carrots, squash and orange.  Equally tasty and wonderfully refreshing.  The main course was chicken smothered in some savory creamy sauce with a side of fried veggies wrapped around a smooth center of something googy and vaguely resembling cheese, but with a sweet tinge to it.  All that was topped off with a salad of thinly sliced zucchini, carrots and a fruit whose name I can't ever remember.

With all that deliciousness, we nearly forgot about our plans to see the dance show, but managed to skip out just in time for a lovely walk down through a series of terraced parks that eventually brought us back to EAFIT.  We arrived just as the doors were opening and filed into a medium size auditorium where we were lucky enough to get second row seats.  As the lights dimmed, the announcer informed us that we were about to be treated to performances by 3 different dance troops from 3 of the major universities here in the city, and that we were to receive a full repertoire of Latin American dances, including several traditional Colombian pieces.  We were not disappointed.  Although the dancers occasionally let show that they were not necessarily practiced professionals, we were treated to demonstrations of everything from salsa to tango to Colombian folk dances to belly dancing! 

The performance only lasted an hour, but between a full day of work, a few beers at dinner and a long walk, I was pretty beat and happy to head home.  Not wanting to postpone our trip, we flagged another cab and headed back across town.  It was still a nice night, so rather then get dropped off at our door, we disembarked on the other side of our neighborhood park and strolled right into a massive book fair!  So much for going straight to bed.  In addition to the usual jugglers, trinkets and food vendors that often line the walk home, tonight there were at least 20 large white tents set up sheltering row upon row of new and used books.  Of course we had to peruse as we meandered towards our apartment and I ended up picking up a book of Latin American short stories.  Looking forward to testing my language skills on some literature over the next week!

Now, after a bowl of my favorite new snack, diced mango in sweet yogurt, I am still be serenaded by a musician singing across the street in the style of traditional traveling revelers.  However, I'm afraid I may be cultured out for the day and will have to get some rest in order to dully absorb all the splendors that I am sure tomorrow shall hold.

More than a Month

I've now been living in Medellin for over a month, and life has taken on something of a routine.  Last week consisted of lots of working, a little climbing, plenty of good food, and a copious amount of rain.  In fact, today is the first truly nice day we've had for over a week, but it's still early.  The thunderstorms tend to arrive around midafternoon, so I can't officially count today as a clear day just yet.  That said, it's been a gorgeous morning.  Unfortunately, my office doesn't have any windows to the outside, so I don't get to really enjoy the change, but I generally have a few excuses to go walk across campus each day, and I thoroughly enjoy those brief moments of strolling through the immaculate gardens and passing beneath the now abundantly flowering orchids.  The rumor is that urbam will be getting their own house just outside the official boundary of the university sometime in July, but I'm not sure I'll believe that til I see it.

In any case, since last week (and this week) have revolved fairly heavily around work, I suppose I should say a few words about that.  Overall, I am quite content with my tasks and have been thoroughly enjoying both learning more about Medellin and getting a chance to play a role in the future of this amazing city.  Just a few minutes ago I wrapped up my work on the urban planning portion of a social housing project outside the city.  The organization in charge of that proposal now has lots of work to do in order to get all the players on board and all the correct gears turning.  Urbam will not officially be involved with further stages of the project, but I've asked to be kept informed, and may get a chance to see that develop, outside of my hours at the office.  At the very least, I've been promised a site visit as soon as we return from Semana Santa, which is a big holiday spanning all of next week. 

Beyond the social housing, I'm still working hard on defining and structuring a network that will hopefully serve to connect individuals and organizations striving to create positive change through socially oriented urban development.  It's a rather vast topic, with a myriad of different players, so it's been a little tough getting a firm grip on the process, but after our most recent meeting, I think I've worked out a fairly strong plan of attack.  I'll keep you all posted on how well that process works out.

The third component of my current workload is to collect, organize and eventually analyze an enormous quantity of information relating to the Integrated Urban Projects (PUI) that have been planned and executed in the city over the past decade.  The end result is to hopefully synthesize the process, successes and failures, in order to allow other cities and future generations to learn from the experiences of Medellin.  All in all, a wonderfully interesting project for me, as I get to read all the nitty gritty details of how to succeed in creating real, lasting change through a combination of design and social enterprise.

Between all of these tasks, I've also been attending various presentations at EAFIT and other universities regarding 'Social Urbanism' and other interesting topics.  This morning I managed to make it to a talk about WikiLeaks and the relationship between journalism and politics.  Not exactly on topic, but working at a university, especially one as involved and active as EAFIT, certainly has it's advantages!

Next week is a holiday for the university, but I need to extend my visa in order to stay here for the duration of my contract, which can only be done in the capitol city.  Fortunately, government offices are open until Weds, so on Saturday I will be flying down to Bogota in order to make it to the Ministry of External Relations as soon as the open on Monday morning, with a little time for sightseeing beforehand.  If all goes well, I should then be headed off to Suesca on Monday evening for a week of climbing in what is supposedly the best site in the country (assuming it doesn't rain the whole time).  After 2 weeks of hard work and very little play, I'm excited to get going on another adventure.  Will not be taking my computer with me, so you'll all just have to wait til I get back for a full report, but rest assured there will be plenty of good stories to go around!

El Peñol....in the rain

So, after sending D off with my friends for a fantastic day of climbing on Friday, I was all psyched to head out and enjoy some stunning routes myself on Saturday.   However, there were celebrations to be had on Friday night, so the 7am departure that had been planned for Saturday didn't quite happen.  Instead, we ended up on a bus at 11:30 while my housemate and her boyfriend headed off on their motorcycle to meet us in El Peñol. 

About an hour later, we rounded a bend in the mountain and were greeted with the rather majestic sight of an impossibly large sheer granite block rising up over the lakes in the distance.  When we told the driver where we wanted to get off, he slammed on the breaks and told us to get out.  Luckily we were only a few yards past our destination, but if we had waited any longer to inform him we would have been in for quite a hike.  As it was, we got off at the base of the monolith and strolled over to the hotel/restaurant owner with whom D and J had already negotiated for a room.   Looking up at a couple people clinging to the rock face, it was hard to resist the urge to join them.  However, since the rock is covered in a black patina, and the sun burns fiercely this close to the equator, we didn't want to make the trek just to scorch our fingers in the afternoon heat.  Besides, we had friends waiting for us in the small town down the road, which we had heard was quite remarkable.

We caught a ride in a 3 wheeled motorbike/truck kinda thing, and headed downhill to the town of Gautape.  Sitting right on the shores of a vast lake, every house in town was decorated with brightly painted painted motifs and the main drag was a mass of touristy restaurants.  We found our friends, strolled for a bit and then sat down to a yummy meal of fresh fish.  After lunch we lazed about by the waterside, enjoying the warm afternoon.

Having had our meal and a nice little siesta, we figured it was about time to work it off and go hike up the numerous stairs that cling to a large crevice on the side of El Peñol rock, inviting tourists to climb up to a restaurant that must have one of the best views in the region.  Unfortunately, it wasn't quite as easy to get out of town as it was to get in.  Every vehicle we flagged down wanted 5 times what it had cost us to get there, despite asking to return to the exact spot where we had started.  Luckily, one of the drivers was kind enough to mention that there was indeed a cheaper option if we were willing to wait for a shared truck.  As we went looking for said truck, we got a chance to see a little more of the town, which was really quite beautiful.  Finally encountering the correct street corner for our reasonably priced ride, we waited a few minutes and were soon bouncing along.  We got dropped off at the turn off, where the road banked steeply upward and started walking.

Not 5 minutes into our journey, we felt the first rain drops.  Glancing back over our shoulders, it was clear that we were about to get drenched.  Just as we were about to duck into a conveniently located restaurant to wait out the storm, we met up with our friends again.  They had seen the clouds too, and turned around without starting up the rock, as they had to ride all the way back to Medellin.  Disappointed that we had missed our opportunity to explore together, we said our goodbyes, ordered a beer and sat down to wait.  Luckily, the view was outstanding, and the weather brought a nice rainbow, but by the time the storm broke, the stairs were closed and we

had to content ourselves with a cloudy sunset from the base. 

It poured down all night and well into the morning, so there was no climbing for me this weekend. =(  Will just have to go back again at the first available opportunity!  Was still a rather magnificent sight to behold, even if only from below.

Rionegro Part 2

After our talk with the mayor and tour of the city, we all piled back into the bus and headed for an auxiliary campus of EAFIT in the nearby countryside.  The ride out was beautiful, as we wound alongside the river, which, for the most part, is blanketed on both sides by open countryside.  The city hopes to turn this area into a city park that will run the entire length of the valley, which is exactly what our class about to discuss. 

In an inspiring demonstration of interdisciplinary thinking and real world application (exercises which I'm coming to understand are more of the norm than the exception around here), the political science class I was traveling with were shown a presentation outlining a proposed urban development plan for the city.  This plan had been put together by A's office at the request of the city several years ago, but for some logistical reason has been shelved despite major interest in the proposed outcome.  After a brief discussion of the merits of the plan itself, the professor posed the question to his students, "If the mayor's office is interested in putting this plan into action, how should they go about doing so, from a political perspective?" 

The students broke up into groups, discussed their ideas and came back to present a variety of viable options.  Already quite impressed by the whole process, I was further elated to find out that the next part of the assignment was even more exciting.  Over the course of the next week, the students were to research, provide examples, and write up their solutions, not as essays for the class, but as formal proposal to the mayor's office.  Talk about some class action!


One of the things that drew me to Medellin in the first place was the fact that through a series of cross-disciplinary actions and public/private ventures, the government managed to completely turn around a city that had some of the most depressing statistics in the world.  I, like many other people, was incredibly curious how exactly they had managed to bring together all the right players and come up with just the right mix of endeavors to have a real impact.  I'm still quite far away from understanding that entire process, but this week has brought some serious insights.

Unlike the mentality that is often evidenced in the United States, where every stakeholder wants their piece of the pie, regardless of the expense to their fellow constituents, there seems to be a genuine sense of camaraderie and community among the players here in Colombia, or at least in Medellin.  It might just be that I'm working for an institute who has made it their mission to advance cross disciplinary dialogue and ensure well rounded perspectives, but I'm beginning to get the feeling that these sentiments run a little deeper than that.  It seems to me that in everything from everyday interactions to government policy, there is a constant concern for the health and well being of everyone, and not just oneself.  There don't seem to be many lines drawn between people, or organizations, or topics.  So far, it seems as though people here have a much more innate sense connectivity than I have become accustomed to.  Overall, quite refreshing and thoroughly inspiring.

HOT Water!!!!

K, just had to get this out there.  I don't know how many of you have ever had to live without hot showers for any length of time, but if you haven't, believe me, warm, running water is a fantastic luxury.  Having been without a working water heater for the entire 4 weeks that I have been in Colombia, I first tried to grin and bear it, but had to give up on that when it left me shivering and unhappy on repeated occasions.  After another week of studiously avoiding washing whenever possible, or racing home from the gym to ensure my body temperature was already up, I started boiling water and mixing a bucket's worth to bathe in.  This was definitely an improvement, but the logistics of bucket showers leave little room for relaxation.  Today, all that changed.  For the first time in 4 weeks, I took a shower in HOT, RUNNING water!!!!  Yipeeeee!

Am a much happier camper now. =)

Rionegro

It's been a rather hectic week, so I apologize for my recent silence, but as usual, life here has been full of exciting endeavors.

After all the strenuous excitement of last weekend's competition, Monday was welcomely mellow.  Just another day at the office until about 5pm when we had our weekly meeting.  During that session, I learned about several projects that I had not known urbam was involved with, but was very excited to hear about.  One of these discoveries involved a new urban plan for the city/suburb/municipality of Rionegro, where the international airport is located, about 40mins from downtown Medellin.  By the end of the meeting, I had been invited to accompany a class of political science students on a trip to the local government office on Wednesday, and was excited to see more of the region.  The timing was slightly inconvenient, since D would be flying in on Tuesday, and I would have to go to Rionegro to pick him up, and then return again on Weds with the class.  Luckily, it's a very pretty ride up the mountains, so I really didn't mind too much.

I spent Tuesday morning waiting around at a government office to get my tax deduction number (at least, that's what I think I got), before hightailing it across town to catch a bus to the airport.  D's flight was an hour late, but the people watching was rather phenomenal, which made the time pass quickly.  As soon as he arrived, we hopped back on the bus, enjoyed the scenic ride into the city and got settled back at our apartment.  That evening we tried out a restaurant directly across the street and were very pleased to discover they offer some fantastically delicious fare.

Wednesday morning I had to be at the university by 7:20am to catch a ride with the class, so I left D in my housemate's very capable care and raced off to 'work.'  I arrived in time and was soon seated in a minibus winding my way back up the mountain.  This time, instead of turning off towards the airport, we meandered through narrow streets lined by neighborhoods in various stages of development until we reached the town center.  The center consisted of a nice city park dominated by a beautiful church on the far end.  We stepped off the bus and made our way into a 4 story, freshly painted building, which housed the government offices.  We were all ushered upstairs to a rather small conference room, given hot coffee, newspapers and several pamphlets before the mayor came to speak with us.  We spent an hour or so listening to his methods of governing, which were emphasized as being very different from the norm.  To the best of my understanding, Rionegro has been working very hard to create an inclusive government process and to empower local communities to create change on their own.  The government is also very much aware of the potential of this particular municipality due to the existence of the international airport, and a history rich in culture and tradition.  Hence, they are very keen to ensure that as the city develops, it does so in a well planned manner.  We spent the rest of the morning in the planning office, hearing about what they've been doing and what they're hoping to achieve for the future of the city.

Once we'd had our fill of politics, we took a nice stroll through the city, and for once I had my camera with me, so I finally got a few pictures of the city streets.  Here's a small sample.

Our afternoon was incredibly enlightening, and I want to write quite a bit about it, but have to get to work, so I'll save that for another entry.  In the meantime, I'm very excited to go check out our newly refurbished hot water heater, to find out whether it actually works.