The R&R Big Adventure

Bogotá’s rougher, edgier sibling

No, we haven’t been abducted, or been in a cocaine coma since we arrived in Medellin – I won’t necessarily be blogging everyday, so please subscribe if you want to get automatic alerts when the next post arrives!

Before we flew to Medellin (Colombia’s second city) yesterday, we drove out to the Termales Santa Rosa de Cabal about 45mins north of Pereira. We didn’t go for the hot thermal pools, which besides from being decidedly green, had signs up saying ‘please don’t pee in the pool’ (why do you need to put a sign up, unless….?), but for the spectacular waterfalls which are in their grounds. R loves a good waterfall – memories of Mahon Falls in Ireland.

We awoke this morning to the sound of a bell ringing in the distance, getting progressively louder. In our half conscious state, we discounted it being the child catcher, or the ‘shame’ scene from ‘Game of Thrones’, but got up to see it was the refuse truck, ringing a bell half a street away, to ensure (no doubt) that everyone had put their rubbish out in time. Good luck trying that in W14 at 6.30am on a Tuesday.

We decided to explore downtown Medellin, and see the cathedral (of course) and various squares and buildings, including the Plazas Bolivar, and Botero, housing more works from the eponymous sculptor whose works we saw and liked on our first day in Bogotá. We also saw a fair few shops selling (highly flammable, by the look of it) erotic lingerie: it seems Medellin has a reputation for sex tourism, given discrete signs in the upmarket bars and restaurants here saying ‘no al turismo sexual‘. Even the man selling wooden handicrafts by the side of a road had clearly seen the market fall out of cooking spoons and chopping boards, and gone for highly polished wooden dildos and love beads instead. At least, any buyer would hope they were highly polished. We first experienced this side of Medellin last night after leaving a cool brasserie in the zona rosa (or nightlife area, i.e. their Soho) and turning a street corner, were asked if we would like ‘very nice women’. Not the actual noun used, but I don’t want to offend anyone reading this. Either brothel owners don’t believe in customer segmentation, or R and I look like very straight tourists. Albeit sex ones.

Having seen enough of downtown Medellin we returned (by a very modern and efficient metro) to the zone rosa, near our hotel, which is very Hoxton / Shoreditch. Lots of trendy cafes, coffee shops and restaurants, with the macbook crowd in attendance. We decided to try local food in a modern Colombian restaurant – empanaditas, followed by arepas – corn flat bread with pulled beef, sour cream and avocado. Yum. As in Bogota, every Colombian we have been in contact with continues to be super smiley and friendly. This afternoon we decided we would treat ourselves to a couple of (alcoholic) drinks. I don’t usually get bitten by insects, but I have a few bites, and R quite a few more. Clearly not enough tonic water, mixed with either gin or vodka, being consumed by us on this trip.