Medellin

Cesar, being holy for Christmas.

On the balcony in Medellin. Notice I'm wearing a light sweater, my favorite kind of weather!

Our Christmas tree, located just outside of the hotel.

A view from the balcony.

Cesar, enjoying the view as well.

What can I write about Medellin? Nothing but good things. Cesar put it best when he said he "fell in love with it." The Lonely Planet guidebook, our not so accurate bible throughout the trip, said something about how Medellin may have formerly been known as the infamous home of Pablo Escobar and his regime, but is now one of Colombia's most organized and safe cities. It also said something about how you can look in any direction in Medellin and see a gorgeous view. This was definitely true, both statements. The pictures do not give it justice, it really was just gorgeous. The constant Spring-like, minus the rain, perfect weather didn't hurt either. It was so great to spend Christmas in Medellin with my boyfriend. I'd recommend it as a romantic getaway to anyone.

We stayed in a very affordable hotel suite. We wanted to have access to a refrigerator and kitchen since we knew we'd be there for Christmas and would probably want to cook a meal or two. Cesar is an awesome cook (and I have no interest or knowledge in that arena) so it works out quite well. We stayed in a really nice neighborhood called El Poblado, where there are tons of restaurants and boutiques, and a grocery store down the street that supplied many of our snacks and meals. The best part, though, was our balcony, overlooking the city. We took a million pictures of the view from up there, but none of them are as satisfying as it actually looked.

The other thing that Medellin is famous for is their hometown famous artist, Botero. There is a whole plaza dedicated to his voluptuous sculptures (I'll post pictures of that next time) and there is a museum housing many of his paintings. To get there, we got to hop on a metro train, which was fun. I believe it cost about $0.75 each way. I don't know why, but I get a real thrill out of taking another cities' public transportation, so that was a highlight for me. The people were overall some of the warmest and friendliest people I'd ever encountered in my life. There was a group of ladies standing behind Cesar and I on the metro, listening to us speak in English. They told Cesar (in Spanish) that they wanted to practice, but I think that was our stop, so it didn't actually happen.

We loved Medellin so much that we stayed an extra night, four nights in all. Much to the delight of my lazier side, we spent all of Christmas day watching a marathon of Rock of Love 2. Cesar had never seen the show, so who was I to deny him of such a treat on Christmas?