Dienstag, 10. Februar 2015

Medellin

In Medellin I was invited by former students of mine, Petra and Hannes, who have been living here for 1,5 years. They are lovely persons.
They picked me up from the airport and took me to a very beautiful place called Penol, it is a huge rock (orr hould I call it mountain?) about 200 m. high were stairs were build to go up that steep rock. We went up the 670 stairs although it was raining and at least got some view of the gorgeous lake and islands down there.

these stairs are an amazing acomplishment. 
and in the background on the right you can see how steep this rock is.
and what amazing colors it has
Hannes and Petra live in a pretty house in a condominium. When we went for a ride Hannes showed me how waste separation works in Colombia. Instead of the people separating it at home, putting plastic in one garbage can, organic waste in another etc., tere are men who empty the big garbage bags where all the garbage is inside and separate it. Can you believe that? Well, may be this could be a solution for unemployment in Europe. You could keep millions busy with that!
Hannes works in the export of coffee. He took me to a place where coffee is roasted to show it to me. For small samples of coffee, to see if it is good, they use this cute machine, where you can roast your own coffee. I loved it.
Next we went to Plazza Botero, where there are lots of beautiful Botero statues which the artists donated his home town.
and here 2 policemen, taking someone in handcuffs, Hannes said it was probably a drug dealer, and that the prisons were so full they had no place left for the little dealers, they kept them for the big ones. 
10 years ago Medellin was the most dangerous city in the world. 1 out of 1000 people were murdered each year. Figure out how many these are in a populaation of about 2,5 Million people! Now Medellin is on place 49 of the most dangerous cities in the world. Isn't that fantastic? Still- ALL the shopowners in downtown Medellin have to pay protection money to one of 2 gangs! one businessman went to the police and they sent him a policeman to guard in front of his shop. After few days the businessman and the policeman were killed, so no one dares complain to the police. Unbelievable but true. 
One place I loved in Medellin was the botanic garden. By the way, have you ever seen a redtailed squirrel? aren't they adorable?
and this flower grows out of a tree trunk!
that's how the bud looks.
For all passionate gardeners, here some creative ideas I loved:
Take a few buckets, make a round hole in the bottom of each, put a round long piece of wood in the ground and order the buckets as you see in the picture, with earth inside and holes on the sides, then you can plant there strawberries or anything you like. Isn't that a great idea?
and look at these cute plant containers!!! They are so creative in using things we throw away in Europe. 
I also liked this use of old tires to plant all kind of plants inside. So simple and such a good idea. 
By the way, you find those cute iguanas in many places in Ecuador and Colombia. 
This was a little one.
They have beautiful cacti
a pretty lake with birds
and look at that guy! Isn't he beautiful? Or is it she? Looks more like a he. 
and pretty birds on the lake, resting on a lotus leaf
and cute insects enjoying the good tropical fruits. 
I loved the mariposario, the butterfly house. 



just couldn't stop photographing them, they are so beautiful. 
There is an excellent Metro in Medellin. The city lies inside a reelatively narrow valley so it has grown to a length of 30 km. The rich people llive mostly in the valley, the poorer on the mountain slopes. There are neighborhoods where there were no roads to go up and the police couldn't reach them and there was so much crime there, so they built a cable car up the mountain from one of the metro stations and made "order" there. You can go up with the canle car with yourr metro ticket and enjoy a wonderful view o the city, and it is also interesting to walk around in the neighborhoods on the mountain slope.

most of the houses are unfinished. Reminds of Peru, where they don't paint them on purpose because as long as the house isn't finished they don't have to pay ttaxes for it. Wonder if it is the same here.


Have a good night.


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