I don’t really like cars. I do not own one and have driven only a handful of times in the past 5 years. So when I found myself at the “Antique Car Show” in Medellin during their famous flower festival it might seem odd.

During my first visit to Medellin in August, 2007, my new Colombian friends brought me to the show so I knew what to expect. The show is hilarious!  So with my head turning pizza I walked a few blocks from my hostel (Black Sheep) in barrio patio bonito with a few new gringo friends from the usual places: Israel, U.K., etc.

We arrived early to rent a few plastic chairs for the best views of the parade when suddenly I spotted Miami Mike! That’s what this middle aged loud talking American called himself the first time we met in 2007. It was fitting that I would see him here considering how “nuts” and flamboyant he acts.

I remember the first impression he made when he compared the cute Colombian woman’s faces to little chipmunk faces. And then when the next day he took cornered me into visiting a market with him to scout all of the smuggled electronics and fake name brand jeans and watches. I learned of his troubles with his prepago (goldigger/whore) wife and the rest of his life story that included his profession as a professor in the United States and how he earns money trading stocks.  Seems the guy is still living here three years later and it was a sight to see him!

I mentioned the flamboyant car show before that tangent. Enough said.

And comical “cars”

They important nearly all of the cars from Miami by boat container and then send them right back afterward.

Even cars like these it seems.

For the kids

For the men

Some more photos to enjoy

Guess which film?

and finally stereotypical Colombia

Daddy Yankee is only the most popular reggaeton (kind of like Spanish hip hop-rap) star in Latin America and I saw him perform in concert. I made plans with a 19 year old Colombian guy through Couchsurfing to go together to the concert in Medellin. While Couchsurfing is great resource, I do prefer meeting people naturally but for something as desirable as this concert I wanted some company.

By the way, this took place in August after nearly a month in Bolivia and a few days back in Argentina when I flew from Buenoes Aires back to Colombia, making it my fourth separate trip to the country.

I tried to go see Daddy Yankee on the same tour in Bolivia but if you read my last post you will understand that Bolivia is business challenged and so the concert never happened. I never did get a refund for my concert ticket.

I digress.

I met Sebastian at the metro station along with one of his buddies. Together, the three of us met a few of their friends at the stadium and entered early enough to arrive before any of the opening bands were set to play.

Now usually my Couchsurfing meetup experiences are positive and hardly awkward. But in this situation I had a hard time feeling comfortable.

• All of them were really great friends
• Only Sebastian spoke any English and the rest spoke too fast for me to be able to participate in any conversations
• They all kept asking if I was okay because I was not saying much
• The girls kept wanting to grind but I had nothing to drink previously and have no Latin/African blood…I am a gringo after all
• The girls were not attractive
• When sitting down there were two skany women and 2 dangerous looking drug dealing men accidentally rubbing their asses on my head at time
• It was raining and we were outdoors

Now despite all of that I did enjoy the music. Daddy Yankee and the other band Aventura were great. At one point Daddy Yankee asked everyone to take pictures with the flash on at once making a really cool flash affect.

See the two girls wanting to grind

Passing around the aguardiente (anise flavored spirit). But not enough to feel anything continuing the string of awkwardness.

Now despite all of that there were flashes of good times especially when I was not being asked if I felt okay. I am also certainly grateful to Sebastian for inviting me along.

After the concert Sebastian’s brother drove me and him home. They dropped me off by the taxis as I was staying in a completely different part of Medellin. I think i made an even worse impression when I decided to get some street food as they waited for me to get in a taxi from their car. I happened to be in a dangerous area and ignored their hand motions to get in a taxi from the car as I waved them off.

At the end of the night I made it home safely and was glad to have gone to the concert but also overjoyed that it was over!

The video below is of Santa Fe De Antioquia, a small colonial town near Medellin, Colombia. As you can see it was pretty calm and relaxing as I described a few weeks ago.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I look back on this day as being one of the most adventurous I experienced. I wrote about this day back in early june, but I think recounting part of this experience is important. So after boarding the wrong bus about 3 different times I was ready to call it a day and head back to my hostel. The owner of the hostel I stayed at told me don’t leave later than 12 and I eventually left for El Penol on the correct bus at about 2 pm.

I was able to see we my destination, a huge rock, as we got closer. But I was unprepared when all of a sudden the driver stopped and pointed almost randomly in a direction. Well, the direction was basically a stone path that appeared to lead away from town and essentially nowhere.

This was not the first time I had no clue what I was doing and from my experience I went along with it anyways. I walked, and walked…for about an hour. At some point during that hour I did see the huge rock and I knew that I was on my way; the correct way.

The rock is the tourist attraction for this town. Without having eaten anything the entire day I began my hike up the hundreds of stairs to the top of this rock. My legs were uncontrollably shaking towards the top. It was okay, I thought. I heard that there was a nice restaurant to eat at the top. Not true.

Even so, I was rewarded with this panoramic view…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Getting back to Medellin was easy enough and pretty difficult to mess up. I waited on the side of the road for about 15 minutes until the first bus approached which i waved down to get on.

On the bus i met Joan, a student from Medellin.

For the rest of the week Joan showed me around Medellin and explained a lot of the history of the city. He also taught me about the traditional foods of Colombia as i tried a bunuelo and borojo juice.

Medellin

A cemetery in Medellin

A mock traditional town in Medellin

The nightlife in Medellin

Mirador of Medellin

On monday morning it was time to set off from Medellin after more than 3 weeks to meet my dad in Cartagena tuesday afternoon. The expected 9 hour bus ride turned into 15 hours and i arrived at 7 am after leaving at 4:30 the previous day. I met another student from Medellin on the bus ride whose girlfriend´s brother is Camilo, one of the most famous musicians.

The past week has been a blast. Pure fun and great new friends who i have been traveling with the past few weeks. Mark from Ireland and Iain and Dave from England. After touring a few coffee plantations we attempted the hike starting at 7 am the next morning. We took a different jeep down to the start of the trail and before we set off i met a big group of travelers who hired horses. I am lazy and I went with them instead.

Photobucket

The scenery definitely tops any I have seen before…beaches, mountains, etc. included.

Photobucket

Honestly, just look at that.

Photobucket

On the way back to Salento there was a bit of traffic. Fuckin cows!

Photobucket

In the afternoon i took a 2 hour bus alone to Manizales, a big city still in the coffee region. I met Mark there and the two of us relaxed outside at one of the cafe’s, admiring the beautiful women.

The following morning we traveled to Medellin, normally a 5 hour bus ride. I lucked out and secured the front seat of a van for a comfortable ride. Mark and I were the only two passengers in the van for the first few hours. But with the all of the rain the past few weeks we encountered many landslides, which translated to an additional 2 hours of driving.

Photobucket

Start your engines…vrrrrroom vroooooooooom!

Photobucket

We arrived just in time to head out for the night to a fun discotheque called Babylon and woke up just in time to see the city a bit with Iain and Dave who arrived late the past night.

Photobucket

The highlight of the day was taking a cable car up to the top of the city in the middle of a thunderstorm. After we got to the top they shut the entire system off for the next hour. We were stranded at the top. Its not such a bad thing for us but it must have been a big inconvenience to all of the locals who use the rail to commute to and from work.

Botero is huge in Colombia and is by far the most popular artist. He paints fat people.

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

Photobucket

I swear it rains every day.

Photobucket

It was another fun night at a salsa club with the four of us and Colombian friends we met the night before. I practiced my salsa a bit and made a fool of myself. But of course i won’t post a picture of myself doing that so here is one of a friend doing that instead.

Photobucket