From Santa Marta we flew to Medellin the second largest city in Colombia and renowned party town. After several days of staying in a hostel we decided to upgrade to a bit of luxury at the Sheraton where our first night was spent indulgently ordering room service and watching cable tv in English !!! When we eventually left the hotel room there was a visit to the “Las Vegas” hospital for more x-rays, bandages and appeals to rest before we finally got out to explore Medellin.
It’s fair to say that we expected to see more widespread poverty, bad roads and poor infrastructure, but our experience defied our expectations. The city sprawled across the valley and up into many mountains and we were impressed to find a new network of cable cars and metros connecting the city. The photos don't do it justice, but Medellin is full of new apartment towers and office buildings, is very clean and modern. For example we could visit a Westfield-like shopping mall, drink the tap water and go out safely in the “zona rosa”, where all the bars and restaurants were. One night we saw a brilliant 20 piece band playing music on the side of the road and many couples salsa dancing on the street... but owing to the fact we were approaching Xmas the locals shared with us that the city and the nightlife was more quiet than usual.
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