The Dry Weekend and a lil Boltero

Okay, first lets talk about this weekend. This weekend is the election, Uribe has been president in Colombia now for 8 years, super right wing and conservative. When he was younger his family was killed by the FARC and sense that time he has held a chip on his shoulder, using a lot of violence in the last eight years to reduce the number of FARC members in the country. THis includes legal force, and fighting with fire in the form of the paramilitary. Okay, so many colombians feel that now is a time for change in their country and don't want Uribe anymore, but Uribe didn't want to give up his presidency, so he made an effort to amend the constitution of Colombia so he could run for additional terms, this created a lot of protest among the public, and what happened? The supreme court said he would not be allowed to amend the constitution and run for another term, victory for the Colombian citizens.... for a couple of days. After Uribe was informed that that was not going to be possible, he went back and looked through the constitution and found that there is nothing that says he can't be VICE president. so, he and his vice president have simply switched roles and he is on the ballet again this weekend. Wow, and, in the country of Colombia the hold the elections of an entire weekend, which means for some reason the don't serve any alcohol in the ENTIRE COUNTRY at bars, or sell booze at stores, for the whole weekend starting at six o clock on friday night, sooo all the discos are closed and the city is quite (all though for some reason i saw a line two blocks long at a grocery store last night at two and my broken spanish couldn't quite figure out exactly why while i was talking with the taxi driver). It came on a good weekend because i have lots of work, but, i still think it is kind of lame. Also i threw up some pictures of Medellin for you to enjoy, awesome city, my favoirte in Colombia, these are some pictures from Plaza de Boltero, right outside of the Museo de Antioquia which also had an awesome Boltero exhibit. Take it easy!

Last Thoughts of Medellin

Monday morning and back in Bogota, couldn´t be happier... sort of. It is nice to be back in my own city, working (i really do love my job) and studying spanish again. Having said that, i prefer Medellin as a city to Bogota, without a doubt. First the weather, oh my lord, it was never unbearale hot, but i came back with a new golden skin color. And the public transit was so much easier, maybe it has something to do with 2.5 million people instead of the 8 million i live with, but it never seemed impossible to get from on place to another. My morning commute in a bus is an hour and half everyday, in a hot sweaty stop and go bus. In Medellin you just walk to the Metro and fly across the city, and because it is twice as wide as Transmileno, it never feels THAT crowded. I only had the good fortune of going out one night, but i had a wonderful time. I went to a club that had this egyption theme going, waiters and waitress in all egyption type stuff, pretty girls and buff dudes dressed like kings and queens on thrones, mummies walking around, belly dancers on the bar, and three different times there was live music with guys jumping around on the bar. My favoirte aguardiente comes from the area, which was also a plus and i have developed a strong taste for Pilsen as well. The night club felt a lot like Las Vegas (i have never been) in the sense i wasnt in a crowded Bogota club but this huge open area with a ton of people, and mobility! Medellin is known around the country for its plastic surgery and it was very evident at night in and around the clubs and bars. Women their have fake t AND a out of control, not really my thing (also a lot of highlights and blonde girls, hair dye capital) but if your in to it, really its the place to be. A word of warning though, a lot of women all done up with a lot of fake stuff going on are super high end prostitues, and more often than not they´re up in the club with someone who is affiliated with drugs. So, before playing the "i am going to date your girl game" cause it could, serioulsy, live you dead in a street. Other than that it´s all good and i am counting the time until i get to go back! Miss you Medellin, and everybody there!

Medellin First Impressions

One day in Medellin and i am so in love with this city. It is not quite as hot as Cali, but never the less warm, very warm. It is not quite as big as Bogota, no Transmileno, the Metro has so much more elbow room than those red buses. Speaking of the metro, the recently built new cable cars and it was interesting to see the economic status of the families change as we rode the cable cars up in to the mountains, where some young little man fresh out of school asked me if i spoke Spanish, i replied yes (tiny fib) and then he proceed to ask me how i feel about his neighborhood, good little guy. The city built this gigantic library, very modern and progressive, that the king and queen actual came from Spain to see it sitting a top the hills towering over the city in a poor (but not the poorest) neighborhood. In combination with the cable car, the library seems to draw all different types of people to the area and the neighborhood, to spend money and interact, and at least in the small radius between the cable car stop and the library you feel very much apart of a safe, vibrant, lively neighborhood, although its a small sample size. Plus the amount of people that use these cable cars is amazing, when we rode them back down it was the teeth of rush hour and the metro train stopped and everybody, everybody, got off the train and rushed up the stairs in an attempt to avoid the line, easily 100+ people, but the cable car moves constantly so the line doesn't take THAT long. It is interesting to see how it has changed people in that particular neighborhoods lives, no longer requiring the use of several different buses and traveling up the steep mountain side on long dangerous windy roads with crazy drivers. All and all the first day was wonderful, i am just touching on a couple of things, in an Internet cafe, more or less, and i have the city to see, so expect a more detailed account of events on Sunday evening. Ciao!