Medellin – 5/8/2013
May 10th, 2013 by rallyadmin
The southern part of Colombia is just beautifully verdant tropical jungle. Palm trees and banana plants dot the steep hill sides. The road is often canopied with flowering trees and amazingly tall bamboo groves. Lush is an understatement.
And Colombia is known for its mountainous terrain. We have been driving up and down since we entered Colombia. The roads are two lane and narrow and steep. The Panamericana is also the only north south link between the ports in the north and the rest of the country.
That means that the narrow steep roads are also the only way the 18 wheelers carrying the cargo containers, gasoline and everything else tat has to brought from the ports to the rest on the country have to travel on this road and they travel 24 hours a day.
Making any speed on these mountain roads is just hopeless. On the rare flat autopistas, you can average 60-65 mph. On the mountain roads, you can do maybe 35 mph without truck traffic but maybe only 10 mph with the truck traffic. And if you’re feeling overly brave, he precipitous drops and lack of effective guard rails bring you back to your senses quickly.
So when we finally get down out of the mountains and reach the flat agricultural plain, it’s a very welcome relief. Not much traffic on a great road is just what we needed after days in the mountains of Ecuador and Colombia. We cruise in the bright sunshine.
We pass through the drug-war famous Cali, a large, dirty city. We accidentally meet an English couple while looking for an ATM. They steer us to the train station where we load up with millions of Colombian pesos (in the neighborhood or COLP 2000 = $1.) And then back on the road again.
And so much for the flatland. The road out of Cali literally spirals up out of the plain. The road itself is an engineering master piece of vaulted concrete flyovers. In one place the road actually circles back on itself through a tunnel to climb out of the valley. And the view is magnificent.
But the road also foretells the rest of the drive to Medellin, our stop for the night. There will be no more flat roads today. Climb and descend will be the order of the rest of the day. For the rest of the afternoon the road curves uphill and downhill but there”s not much truck traffic so we make decent progress. But first the sun disappears and replaced by a dull gray overcast and then as we go higher, the rain starts and tings really get gruesome.
We had stoipped for fuel outside of Cali and John took over the driving. When we restarted, the GPS said that we had about 2 hours to Medellin arriving around 6PM. As we creep along on the dark, wet road, the GPS starts making the arrival time later and later. First 6:15, then 7:00, finally 8:30.
The road is too narrow for some of the trucks to actually pass each other in some of the truns. When the meet each other, the have to jockey a bit so that they can clear each other. Meanwhile, traffic in both directions stops. Occasionally, a truck will misjudge the turn and catch a set of rear wheels on the side of the road as it tries to negotiate a turn. When that happens, the traffic behind the truck has to some how back up, no mean feat in bumper to bumper traffic on a steep mountain road in the rain, in the dark. But they get it worked out and we eventually get to the top of the mountain and start the descent.
John’s been driving in this nightmare for a couple of hours and we discuss stopping and changing drivers. But there’s nowhere to stop so he keeps plugging along down the very dark and very poorly marked highway. Mercifully, we get to bottom and head into Medellin.
Medellin is famous for being the home of Pablo Escobar, once the head of the Medellin cocaine cartel. At one time, it was the murder capital of the world the most dangerous city in the world. But those days are long gone and Medellin is a thriving vibrant city that is trying to live down its past.
We were hoping to stay in the Ibis in Medellin but its booked solid. We turn to the GPS which shows a hotel a couple of kms away in the same direction that the girl at the registration desk of the Ibis suggested. We wander about the one-way streets a bit but the GPS successfully leads us to the Hotel Floriesca near the El Poblado square, supposedly a very happening part of town.
The hotel is a recent complete renovation and it’s very nice. Since they’ve just renovated, there’s almost noone there and they have indoor secure parking. Sold. The rooms is small but very nice and everything is new and has a “new” smell about it.
We ask the manager at the desk for a restaurant recommendation and he sends up to El Problado which is swarming with people and bicycles. We stop in an open air restaurant and have some beer and dinner while the crown in the park continues to grow.
Then at 10PM, everyone gets on their bikes and starts a ride around part of Medellin. The city closes off one of the autopistas for the ride which is a weekly event. There are hundreds of bikes, possibly thousands. The ride is one of the attractions of Medellin. From drug murder central to happening biking center. Who’d have thought it could happen.
Obi-wan