Medellin Day 1

January 22-26, 2016

So I made it to Medellin.  After decades of being a dangerous cartel city run by Pablo Escobar, it's cleaned up and another big metropolitan city now.

I started my first day the usual way, with a walk around the historic center, some churches, and some museums.  It meant my first ride on their nice easy metro system, and the bar was set high when I found this lovely building right outside the station.

Palacio de la Cultura Rafael Uribe

From there it was Botero Plaza, and lots of fat sculptures with uninspired titles.

Fat horse, probably titled Horse

I've discovered that I don't really have proper appreciation for Botero, which is unfortunate since hes Colombian and his work is all over Colombia.  Some of the animals are a little better though.

My guess is it's titled Dog.

And there was this harpy, which I thought was a bit more interesting than the rest of the fat people.

I visited the Museo Antioquia, and was rather underwhelmed.  Along with Botero, I don't have a very big appreciation for modern art either, which was a lot of this museum.  Also lots of portraits of important men from a hundred years ago.

I did however like this tapestry and couch from the 1800s

This was one of the installations that I thought was interesting, even if I didn't quite understand it.  Lots of clipboards on the walls.

They seemed to be all affirmations from kids(?) to grow a plant, name their plant, and each had a picture of the plant next to it.

This was one of my favorite pictures.

These photos on the other wall were artsy and pretty.

This is one of the ones I didn't get.  Boardwalks to corners of the room, and TVs showing footage (unremarkable footage) of docks and boats.

One of my favorite exhibits was all about pottery.  There were handmade bird whistles.

Videos showing the different pottery making techniques.  The piggy banks were from Raquira, which you'll remember I visited with Taryn earlier.

And this style of artwork from the small town of El Carmen de Viboral, which I intend to visit now. (Hint I did, and it was cute!)

I liked this painting.

And this one.

From what I could find with some internet searching, its not based on a real fountain, which makes me sad.  I would have liked to go see it.

The birds of Botero are some of the only ones I actually like.

Fat little birdie...

And though there were a whole lot of video installations that I didn't get at all, the one I found interesting and watched all 20 minutes of showed the carving of a marble column, from the quarry until it was finished.

They did it on a giant cargo ship, as the ship went I don't know where.

I admit, the one Botero thing I had a blast with, was the photo booth in the interactive kids area.

This is my 'getting attacked by fat demons' face...apparently

Luckily there were no other people around at the time to judge me.

I went past the Iglesia de la Ermita, which was built in the 1800s using funds from European immigrants.  I came back later at mass to see the inside.

I really liked the detail on the columns

I found this church when I got lost.

When lost, its easy enough to find a tower or dome and head towards that.  Lots of times it helps you figure out where you are, and if nothing else you get a pretty church out of it.

And the Cathedral after a big rainstorm that made me hole up in a mall for a bit.  I never actually went by when it was open, which was a bummer. From a google images search, its got some impressive brick arches and columns inside.

I liked the fountain out front a lot, it had fun designs on the bottom of it.

Last was a ride up the teleferico, just for funsies.  Its part of the metro system, so I just had to wait in line for a bit, since I went right at rush hour.  I went up it again later to check out Parque Arví, a large park at the very tippy top. (That post comes later)

There were some really pretty views of the city at sunset, though taking pictures through the scratched up plexiglass of the cable car was kind of difficult.

Walking around, I also found my favorite gangster hat ever.  I saw it on some guy in Ecuador once, and was so excited to find it again.

I asked.  There is no special meaning in Spanish.  So I'll continue to assume it's baking glassware.
Gangster glassware.