I'm a Compañero!

Thursday and Friday, Sept. 8 and 9, 2017--Medellin

Both yesterday and today I went out to see some of the significant sights in the city.  Neither day was I impressed much.  Medellin is a city that was built rather cheaply and has worn badly through the years.  I started yesterday at Parque de Bolivar its Cathedral Metropolitana.  The square is old with crumbling sidewalks.  It is filled with poor and homeless people (and maybe an addict or two).  It has a nice fountain on the end in front of the church, but the steps up to the church and the pavement in front are also crumbling.  The church is large and impressive, built of handmade, sun-dried bricks, but it is nothing special compared to what I have seen elsewhere.  The shops on the streets around the plaza have faded signs from decades ago and cheap merchandise.

From there, I walked down a pedestrian street that continued the feel of being in the downtown of a border city like Laredo at home.  Filled with poor people from across the border shopping at cheap stores with music blaring, hawkers shouting, etc.  It wasn't attractive.

From there, I went westward to see Plaza Botero--a large plaza that has maybe 30 of his sculptures.  The scupltures were impressive.  There were hoards of people there--tourists taking photos, locals trying to sell to them, and a few bums.  There was a nice garden area there, but it was hard to appreciate it.  What was most impressive there was the Palacio de la Cultura building, a beautiful, well-constructed, and well restored building--one of only 4-5 impressive old buildings I have seen in the whole city.  I wandered through it to see its architecture and the art exhibits that filled most of the first floor.  I visited for a few moments with 4 young Catholic seminarians who asked me to take their photo and who are here to see the Pope tomorrow.  I ended my tour by checking out the Hotel Nutibara which was the "grand dame" of hotels here for decades.  It is far from that now; imagine the building in those glossy photos with layers of grit on the stone and the plexiglass on the front.

I shopped at a supermarket and brought everything home around 14:30.  I just stayed inside the rest of the day doing some travel planning.  I completed reservations for 4 of my next 5 stops on my trip.

Today, I headed further south from where I was yesterday.  I found the major pedestrian shopping street in town, but it didn't seem like ones I have seen elsewhere.  Again, many of the buildings are ones that were cheaply constructed.  The shops ranged from cheap merchandise to average things--nothing special.  The people were the same mixture ranging from homeless men sleeping on the sidewalk, to filthy laborers collecting cardboard or going through trash, to poor people, to office workers, to tourists.  I found another impressive building there--the Palacio National which is now a mall specializing in sporting goods stores and cafes and restaurants.  (Both it and the Palacio de la Cultural building I saw yesterday seem to be former bank buildings which have been restored and converted to their present uses.)

I stopped at a square called Centro Administrativo de Alpujarra.  Even the newer office towers around it have a thick coat of grit from traffic.  It's horrible to see new, well-designed buildings look bad because of a layer of dirt.  One that has golden metal paneling really showed up as dirty.  While at the square, I saw the exhibits inside the Biblioteca Central.

From there I headed to Parque de los Pies Descalzos (Barefoot Park).  It was designed for people to take off their shoes and enjoy nature and is a popular luncheon spot for office workers.  It has water, sand, grass, trails with soft clippings, etc.  It's a nice idea for a park.

No one was there to walk barefoot or to eat lunch today.  A dark cloud was headed toward the city.  I left quickly, but started getting hit by sprinkles soon.  I managed to make it back to the library where I sat and read for mayb 30-45 minutes until the rain became light, then I made my way home quickly without getting too wet due to awnings in fronts of buildings.  The rain stopped completely for the rest of the day about 5-10 minutes after I got here.

This evening, I went to a concert.  The Lido Theater facing Plaza Bolivar has programs of some kind almost every night.  I had seen the program, and for tonight it said, "Musica. Concerto de Confluente."  I didn't know what style of music it would be or what the cost would be, but I decided to go.  I went there early and wandered around the pedestrian street which was alive with shoppers, entertainers, etc.  I got a sandwich for a quick dinner, because the concert was to start at 18:30.  I joined the ticket line as directed by a lady at the theater who said we would be admitted at 18:20.  As I rounded the corner for the box office with my money clip in my hand, I noticed everyone was handing the man their ID which he scanned.  He saw me and my money and first said, "Plaqueta."  But then he just motioned for me to go past him and into the theater.  The theater was a typical 1940s looking modern cinema with plaster walls in the form of curtain waves.  The band was Edo B y su Banda who played adult contemporary music.  Click on the link for some of their videos on YouTube.

Notes: 

1.  At least twice here in Medellin I have been addressed as "Compañero."  In this area, it tends to be a term that came from the socialist/communist movements to reference a friend/colleague who was against the Big Man and Big Business.  Today, I guess it is just used to be friendly rather than distant with someone.

2.   I know most of my entries have complained about Medellin.  What I find most beautiful about it is the lights at night.  The city is located in somewhat of a bowl-shaped valley.  As it has grown, people have built houses up the sides of the mountains--all the way to the tops!  It is so pretty to see the outline of the mountains formed by the street lights.