Days 1-9: Warning loooong post!

I didn't write anything down for the first 9 days, so this is just a short, badly written summary of what our first  9 days were like here.


Day 1
Our flight to Medellin was peacefully (thank you Xanax) uneventful.  We had three 2 1/2 -3 hour legs with hardly any layover time in between. We arrived in Medellin, promptly got a taxi, and began our roller coaster of a ride to the hotel.  After what seemed like 2 bajillion hours (really 45 minutes) we came upon our hotel, The Hotel Plaza Rosa.  We were very impressed with the hotel, checked in, got to our room, and promptly looked at each other with "What now??" written all over our faces.  We decided to venture out and explore the area of Medellin called Plaza Rosa.  We found a phone place, walked around, and took in our surroundings.  After drinking a refreshing cerveza, we decided to go back the hotel and get a little rest before we went out that night.  As far as the night went, we checked out a few places in Parque Lleras, a spot near our hotel. Parque Lleras is kind of like Old Town Scottsdale, Latino style.  It was Wednesday night and raining, which apparently means that it is more of a quiet night.

Hotel room in Hotel Plaza Rosa

Day 2
Ok!  This was going to be the day we were going to make things happen.  After eating what was the most delicious free breakfast a hotel could offer (seriously, they were not joking around with the breakfast) we wandered out of the hotel in search of more permanent housing and a spanish school.

Many hours later, we still had not found a spanish school or a place to live.  We went to an area called Patio Bonito, where we found a nice hostel run by a new zealander.  We told him we were looking for a room and that we were going to be in Medellin for almost a month.  His immediate reaction was "No, you need to get a furnished apartment if you are going to be here that long.  You do not want to stay in a hostel for that length of time." What?!? A furnished apartment! Why didn't we think of that sooner!?  So we left the Black Sheep Hostel and began a new search for an apartment.

Many discouraging hours later we found ourselves back at our hotel with no apartment and no spanish classes.  We hit the internets to see what we could find in terms of an apartment.  We emailed a few promising choices, emailed a few spanish class choices, considered it a day, and went out that night to walk around Parque Lleras again.

Day 3:
We were most determined to find an apartment today.  We found one, but after a lot of broken spanish later it was not meant to be.  Walking back to the hotel to see if anyone had emailed us back yet, a glorious sight appeared before our eyes:  one the real estate companies we had emailed!  And it looked legit!  We went up, met John, a smooth talking Colombian that had grown up in NYC, which meant that he spoke english.  Great news for us!  He gave us an apartment to check out, we did, and then we signed on the dotted line. We moved into our apartment, nailed down some spanish classes to start on Monday, and considered it a very successful Friday. Until we made an epic fail to find a grocery store, which mostly resulted in us coming back with a few beers, soda water, and the local Colombian delicacy Aquardiente (an alcohol that is basically like a Good n Plenty melted down-it's not that good but it is made here so that's what they like to drink!)  Although we did find an amazing chocolate shop around the corner from us, so we also came back with some chocolate, which led to the discovery that Colombia has the most incredible chocolate on earth.

Results of epic fail of a trip to the grocery store

Day 4:
Our apartment is sweet.  Two bedrooms, two baths, pool, spa, great views, some ridiculous stairs that are going to keep us in shape, and our adorable guard Antony who I am almost positive sleeps only once every three days.  He is at the gate all.the.time.  We were able to find a grocery store, so we bought some food.  Hooray!  Something other than fried food!  After another long walk we found what appears to be the AJ's of Medellin.  Our lack of finding grocery stores the day before led us find two in one day, which was exciting for us.  We decided that tonight we would celebrate our first weekend in Medellin by going to a restaurant on Calle Buena Mesa, which is known for its delicious and wide variety of food.  Off we went, bellies rumbling, and we couldn't find it. It started to rain, so we stumbled into a hipster/punk area of the Poblado, found an interesting pizza place, and ate there instead.  We went out to Parque Lleras again, had some drinks, and Jay admired the never ending parade of beautiful women and their also seemingly never ending, um, assets.  I admired the good dancers, which is every Colombian.

view from our balcony

my bedroom

Day 5
Sunday in Medellin is very, very peaceful.  It is also very, very closed.  Our trusty realtor John had told us about a very popular breakfast restaurant for locals that is in a park where all the paisas spend their Sundays. We took a taxi to Parque Saboneta.  The restaurant had a very long, unorganized line out the door and around the corner, which was an unfamilar site to us so far in Medellin.  We were starving, so we went to another restaurant nearby and ordered the most Medellin-est breakfast of all, the bandeja paisa.  It is be rice, a fried egg, some delicious bun thing, some chicharron, plantains, arepas, a half of an avocado (YES!) a salad, and some bean soup on the side in case you are still hungry.  The restaurant was filled with rancher looking memorablia, which was funny in a charming way.  After, we walked/rolled ourselves around Saboneta, found a nice spot to watch the Euro, and had a few cervezas while we watched the game and people in the park.  It was really nice to be in a more neighborhoody section of Medellin for a change.

bandeja paisa

Parque Saboneta

Day 6
Yay!  Spanish lessons started today!  We ended up deciding to take lessons with Yadi, the wife of the guy that ran the Black Sheep Hostel.  She is adorable and nice and quickly got us working on our spanish.  We spent two hours with her, and both of us left a little dizzy after being pumped with so much information.  We also have homework to do.  We spent the rest of the day hanging out, doing homework, and booking our trips for the next couple of weekends.  We also wandered over to Palmitas, a Colombian restaurant that has an incredible view of Medellin, and it turned out to be delicious.

Day 7
More spanish class, more information.  After class we decided to go explore a little bit of Medellin, and went over to Parque Berrio.  It is located right in the center of downtown and is very different than the other areas of Medellin we have been in. People are everywhere, vendors are everywhere, and it is busier than anywhere else we have been. Before we found Parque Berrio, we accidently ran into Plaza Botero, which has many, many Botero sculptures just hanging out.  The Botero Museum is here too, and I make a mental note to return.  After wandering back over to Parque Berrio, we decide to head back, but not before getting some delicious guanabana juices first.

Plaza Botero

Parque Berrio

Day 8
Today we became truly Colombian and took a salsa class.  Our adorable, and muy guapo, instructor Andres taught us the basics of salsa.  I realized as a girl how easy I have it because all I have to do is follow Jay as Jay is trying to learn everything else.  Andres is constantly counting "1,2,3,5,6,7" and every time we mess up he smiles and says "Owwwwwch!" Every time we wants Jay to spin me he yells something that sounds like "Chuflo!" which is usually followed by an "Owwwwch!" until we finally have it down.  Andres whirls me around a few times and I have a slight daydream of being on So You Think You Can Dance. We have signed up for four classes, and it looks like this is going to be a lot of fun.

More spanish class, more and more and more information.  Yadi slows down for no one.  After class we went to the mall and did homework there, where I also decided to start my love for ice cream.  Jay and I get hungry and decide to get a "snack" of nachos.  Turns out to be the biggest plate of nachos ever, and while it is no AZ nacho plate, it is still pretty good, although hilarious.  Obviously, a great day of food choices, haha.

colombian nachos-sadly that guacamole looks bigger than it was

Day 9
Our last day of Spanish class for the week, and again Yadi shows us no mercy.  We leave with big homework assignments for the weekend, and go to a panderia down the street to do our work.  When we are done, we check out another mall, the San Diego Mall, which is not quite as nice as the Premium Plaza by us.  We head over to Palmitas again and have a great dinner looking out over Medellin.

Later than night we hang out with Jay's feisty Colombian friend, Angela. We were pretty excited to A)go out with someone from Colombia, and B)go out somewhere in Medellin we haven't been yet. We go out to Calle 33, which is a little more low key than Parque Lleras but still is lined with fun bars and clubs, and meet Angela for some drinks. After taking in some Ron, we head across the street to a bar/dance club and hang out there for awhile.  We danced and drank some more Ron and had a great time till the place closed.  I wish I had taken some pictures tonight, but I was too busy either dancing or gaping at the good (and by good I mean amazing) dancing by Colombians.

I wish I had more pictures.  Colombia isn't exactly what you would call a tourist destination yet, so there is not the usual crowd of people taking pictures of all the sights.  Or any crowd of non-colombians really.  I am starting to not care as much though if I am the only one taking pictures, so hopefully from now on there will be more.