Medellin - Zoom

Lots-o-fun. I set off for Medellin 10pm Friday night on bus. The trip was smooth

except for when a car rear-ended us. Everyone was fin…as far as I knew. I slept through all of the waiting and well, through the entire night. So as I arrived to the terminal there was some scattered phone tag going on as the phone number I had for Rev. Ernesto was incorrect and the one he had for me was also incorrect. So between Lucho and Deacon Edgar Everyone got hold of the right person in time to be picked upfrom the transportation terminal by Rev. Ernesto at 10:15 am. My stay was short but rewarding. I had the opportunity to attend the Sunday service, participate in the children’s catechumenate and teach the bible study. I had such a lovely time at Rev. Ernesto’s home getting to have lively discussions with family members including Luz Elena, his wife and Yovanni, his son. It was a wonderful time for me to have fun and catch up on some reading, I even got in three days of running and a day at the gym. Sunday night a big group of us went to walk River Medellin where there was at least two or three miles of lights and fountains. Lot’s of pictures:

Monday Alejandro, a friend I had met during the convention, took me out to get the best out of Medellin. We road the Metro to both extremes of the city, this included the tele-cable carts that took us up down and around the mountainsides. Our day was rounded out with amazing strawberry juice. The next day we met up at 10:30am to catch the planetarium show. We then had hours of fun in the

discovery zone. We walked through the aquarium and spent hours hoping, jumping, pulling and squealing in the interactive center. Theday carried into evening when we walked through the botanical gardens to watch the lighting of the Christmas decorations as it became dark. We rounded off the day with some much-anticipated cappuccinos in the bare-foot park. The intention of this park, as its name suggests, is to go about bare-foot between foot pampering textures including a segment of pebbles (like a foot massage) and water. Hey, anywhere I am encouraged to go around bare-foot becomes a favorite. I was exhausted and totally satisfied with the day.

A little about Medellin. First if you haven’t seen the episode check out Anthony Bordain’s food show in Colombia on Youtube. Less than ten years ago Medellin was considered the most dangerous city in the world….IN THE WORLD, with some 3500 murder at the height of the Medellin Cartel reign. This city was the epicenter of the South American drug cartels, with its oh so infamous Medellin Cartel ring-leader Pablo Escabar. Now, Medellin is known for having some of the happiest people on the earth and is called the land of the eternal spring because the weather rarely changes and is always a perfect 65-78. Although the irony is that the locals always seem to be complaining about the heat or the cold. Just have to laugh that one off. This is a culture, like all of the Colombian cities, distinct with a flavor of it’s own. The main food of choice is pork, principly the fattiest portions. People are simply very pleasant. Generous and not afraid to be children at heart….well, my view of Medellin was built around the discovery play zone, hehehe. The metro is clean and efficient. The metro alone made me think about moving there.