I got a late start from Puerto Boyaca, leaving around noon. Just south of town, the road south from Barracabermeja met the road coming north and west from Bogota, and I turned right, crossing the Magdalena River and headed west towards Medellin.
40 km outside of Medellin I rode into Rionegro, thinking of possibly staying there one night, but the town didn't grab me and I couldn't find a hotel with good parking for the bike, so I decided to continue on to Medellin, even though it was late in the afternoon and I wouldn't have much daylight left in Medellin to find a hotel.
The road loops into Medellin from the northeast, dropping down out of the surrounding mountains and offering superb views of the city sprawling along the valley and surrounding hillsides as you approach. Medellin lies at an altitude of 4800 feet and is known for it's pleasant year-round climate (21 C). On the way into town I passed one of those "love hotels" and stopped to check the price since they often have relatively cheap prices. But this one wanted an outrageous amount, so I kept going and found my way to Park Bolivar in the city center where the cheap hotels and residencias are located and parked along the street to check my guidebook for the addresses of cheap hotels. It was already getting dark. If a hotel with parking was nearby, I was just going to get a room there for the night, and then call Carmenza, the woman I had met in Bogota, later.
A guard at a nearby bank building came over and gave me directions to several nearby cheap hotels, but said I'd have to park the motorcycle in one of the nearby parqueados (sp?) which were open and guarded all night. My guidebook also listed only one hotel with "safe parking nearby". I decided to try calling Carmenza first, and got ahold of her at the 2nd number she gave.
The guard helped give her directions to where I was and she said she'd be right over. She did say that there was no parking where she was at and suggested I park the bike in a parqueado for the night and tomorrow we'd move it somewhere else. That didn't exactly thrill me either but it looked like no mattter where I stayed tonight the bike would be in a parqueado. I ride the bike to a parqueado a block and a half away which is just for motorcycles. There are more than 50 motorcycles parked inside. Mine is by far the largest bike there. I take the gear I need, lock and cover the bike, and return to where the guard is waiting.
In about 15 minutes Carmenza arrives in a taxi, along with her cousins Alex and Dianna who are brother and sister. Carmenza now says I can park my bike in the garage at Dianna's father's house, which is only 8-10 blocks away from Carmenza's mother's house where I will be staying, in the bario of Manrique on the hillside east of the center of town. So we all pile into the cab, along with my gear, and drive to the parqueado where I retrieve my bike after paying a nominal fee. Then I follow them in the cab to Dianna's father's house, about a 10 minute drive away. After the taxi has left, I realize that in all the confusion, one of my small bags got left in the taxi. The chances of getting it back is basically nil, what with over 30000 private taxis in Medellin, which you just flag down on the street. Fortunately it is just the bag with my bath and shaving stuff in it and the only thing of real consequence in it was the battery-powered beard trimmer.
After parking my bike in the garage, we walk to Carmenza's mother's house. It is on the 3rd floor of an 8 floor apartment building and has a great view down the hill towards the city center and across to the barios on the far hillside. Actually her mother, Lucia, who I was to meet tomorrow, doesn't stay here too much any more because of leg problems and difficulty in climbing the stairs. I meet two of Carmenza's brothers Jaimie and Gabriel, though the latter only briefly, as he appeared to be sleeping off a hangover. Alex asks if I'm hungry and goes downstairs and buys me a burger from a street vendor across the street.
Dianna wants to be a flight attendant but needs to learn English better before she can get a position with an international carrier. She has studied in college a bit but is very self-consious about it and rarely will use it.
Carmenza calls a friend and in about an hour Beatrice comes over. She has lived in several US cities including New York and Los Angeles and speaks about as much English as I Spanish. Beatrice is a stereotypical Colombian bombshell, if there is such a thing, very pretty with a great figure, wearing clothes which are seemingly painted on her. I think she likes to party a lot and she and Carmenza suggest we go out and "walk the streets" which apparently is local slang for doing some bar hopping.
About 11:30 Carmenza, Beatrice, Alex and I go out, first walking over to Beatrice's apartment 10 blocks away where she needs to get something, then hailing a cab for a ride downtown to Carrerra 70 which is one of the main drags in Medellin with lots of nightclubs and discos. We go to one where Beatrice seems to be a regular and get in for free. We hang out there until it closes at 1am. Beatrice insists on dragging me out on the dance floor for 2 songs. Fortunately they aren't typical Colombian or Latin Ammerican tunes and don't require any sophisticated dance steps so I don't embarrass myself too much.
Back at the apartment at Manrique, I get assigned a bed in one of the 3 bedrooms, Jaimie has the other bed in my room, Gabriel is in the 2nd beedroom, and Carmenza and Alex in the 3rd. Dianna had left earlier in the evening.
In the morning, Lucia, Carmenza's mother, and Rodrigo, her brother who is a lawyer, and his son Estephan come over. Later, Carmenza's father stops by. He and Lucia are now divorced but it still seems to be one big family. This is a large extended family, and over the next several days I was to meet more than 20 members, and there are 4-5 houses in various parts of Medellin. With all the people coming and going in the different houses, I never was quite able to keep straight the relationships between everyone. Sleeping arrangements seemed to be fairly fluid in that whose ever house you ended up at at the end of the day, some kind of sleeping accomadation would usually be available.
In the afternoon I go shopping at a large mall with Rodrigo, Estephan, Carmenza, and Dianna. I replace the bath items (soap, shampoo, hair brush) I lost when my bag got left in the taxi, including buying a new beard trimmer. It then turns into a grocery shopping trip to restock the Manrique apartment and I'm wondering to myself how did I end up pushing a huge cart of groceries in a supermarket in Medellin, Colombia. But it was interesting to observe the similarities and differences in the products on the shelves. There were many products that you find on the shelves in the US.
The most interesting purchase of the day was having yellow underwear bought for me by Carmenza and Dianna. It's evidently a custom in many Latin American countries to wear yellow underwear on New Years Eve in order to bring good luck in the coming year. I don't know anything more of the history behind (pun not intended) it than that. At any rate many stores would have large bins full of assorted styles of mens and womens yellow underwear. Rodrigo, Carmenza, and Diana picked out underwear for many in their immediate families, more than 8 pairs. Mine were a stylish pair of bikini briefs with the words "Suerte, La mia no la tuya", which I think means something like "Good luck, mine, not yours" and a horseshoe printed on the front.
That evening, Rodrigo, Estephan, Lucia and a friend of hers, Jaimie, Alex, Carmenza, and I drive up to Parque Nutibera on a hill overlooking Medellin. On the way we drive along the Rio Medellin which is aglow in huge, brightly lit Christmas decorations for many blocks as it passes