Magic Medellín

In Medellin the younger family members liked our home and swimming pool so much that they refused to join a walking tour to the famous comuna 13 - once the most dangerous area in Latin America with 6-8 murders/day, but today filled with tourists admiring the graffiti and break dance. It was really interesting to hear about the journey the area has gone through, and wonder what we could learn from that in Sweden.

More art was admired downtown, with Botero’s overweight sculptures. Another example of Medellín’s rough history was the left bird - which was damaged in a terrorist attack at a concert where 23 people were killed 1995. Botero then made a new, with the condition that it should be placed next to the damaged original, as a memory of those who were killed.

Downtown Medellín was crowded and overwhelming, and even if it was also quite a large amount of drug addicts it never felt threatening.

One high light in this city with 4.5 M people was spending an afternoon with two of Alma’s CISV friends from the camp this summer.

 Another was joining the evening party of Christmas lights and street food where the favourite was doriloco - a nachos plate to go in a Doritos bag.

Junia is sometimes ordering in Spanish - she does it really well - but usually I do the talking. Justus has occasionally tried the ”surprise me” strategy - with less successful results. 

We all had a feeling that we easily could’ve spent more days in Medellin - but there are still so many places to discover in this wonderful country… we just need to come back.