Author: Naomi Stobbe

Today is a day to pack my suitcase, clear up my art supplies, use the last of the milk and sugar for a final cup of tea and enjoy the neighbourhood for the last time. Tomorrow we catch a plane to Bogota and then on Wednesday we are up early for our flight back to Winnipeg.

We wanted to have on last breakfast at our favourite restaurant but when we got there it was closed. There were no chairs or tables on the little patio and when we consulted google we were informed that it was temporarily closed. For how long? Would we not be able to say goodbye to the two young men whom we had got to know there (the ones we named Che Gueva and Ryan Plett) or the woman who cooks there (Tante Marie)? We were very disappointed. We headed to our to other neighbourhood place called Pan y Cafe. It is fine but larger and we are not recognized as beloved regulars there but rather just the bumbling foreigners who can’t communicate very well.

Back at our apartment Rudy worked on computer stuff and I did another self portrait. This one I did quickly to try to get a “feeling” rather than an exact likeness. I liked what I got and it was a good experiment.

For lunch we weren’t that hungry but decided the hole in the wall restaurant that we discovered the first day we arrived in Medellin was a fitting place to visit. Ug, it was closed and we ended up going to the mall to the food court and after some aborted attempts at ordering we managed to get a hotdog. Not only was it too expensive but it really was not that good. Rudy’s fountain drink was some sort of red sugary liquid that I am sure RFK would either tout as a vaccine alternative or as a symptom of big cooperation take over of the nation’s food choices. Either of these options seem a good way to characterize the disgusting drink.

In the afternoon I slept and finished my Isabel Allende book and Rudy caught up on the Severance series. Supper was another cup of cappuccino and a ham and cheese croissant. And then back home for more Severance. This TV watching was periodically interrupted by Gus and James house sale updates and then the final celebration of the sale of the Victor Street house that the girls bought together 11 years ago. It marks the end of an era but excitement for a new place for Gus and James and the boys.

The list of things that we did today are numerous, but nothing was really all that important.

1. There was a huge football match here in Medellin today between the two Medellin teams. This is a huge rivalry that goes way back and when they play each other in their home stadium (home to both teams) it is a huge event. We even looked into getting tickets or joining a tour event of the game but in the end Rudy’s lack of enthusiasm for the game of soccer and my penny pinching ways clinched the deal and we will not attend. And therefore  it wasn’t a very important event, at least to us.
2. At breakfast, at our favourite restaurant, the two waiters, each wearing the team colours of opposing teams were amicable with each other despite who they cheer for. So nothing exciting or important happened there unless you count our delicious cappuccinos not important. Well I guess I take that back. They were a very important. Especially for Rudy.
3. I planned a walk to the Parques del Rio today (as I had hugely enjoyed last Sunday in the park) but really nothing important happened there either. However, some annoying things did.  A jolly, but slightly drunk man harassed me about my drawing for way too long. Also there were way too many French Bulldogs around. (They seem to be the dog of choice here.)
4. The Jets played the Buffalo Sabres in the afternoon and that definitely wasn’t good and therefore I deem it unimportant. The Jets lost 5 to 3.
5. I had a million phone calls with some of my relatives (my sister and some of my offspring). Important to me. But less so to you, the reader.
6. And finally supper. We had pasta. Does anyone care?  (crickets) I guess it’s not that important.

And that was our day.

Today we have no adventure plans and it feels great to think of a whole day ahead of me to do whatever I want. I have a real slow morning cuddled up with a cup of tea and a pencil crayon drawing I have been working on. Rudy is anxious to go for breakfast and me, I have fallen into my happy space and don’t want to leave.. But luckily he gets busy with something and by the time I have finished the picture we are both hungry and ready to go.  There is some disagreement as to where we should go but in the end it is back to our favourite place, for our favourite breakfast, sitting side by side on the very comfy couch on the patio.

Once we are back in our place I settled in on my drawing experiment from yesterday.  I had attempted  a self portrait. Today I thought I should continue on. Trying to hone my observation skills, I approached the task from a different angle. It was loads better than yesterday but probably the best part was getting a critique from Rudy. He has a real talent for observing shape and line, and a great spacial awareness that results in photo-like reproduction of images.  As a result of these keen observation skills, he was able to point out inconsistencies in my drawings that I had not seen. I am definitely going to keep on practicing drawing portraits. It is a good exercise and my thought is that I can only get better. 🙂

After all that strenuous work I packed up my kindle and headed to Parques del Rio to read. I settled in the corner of a concrete bench and sunk into my Isabel Allende, A Long Petal of the Sea. I totally lost myself and before I knew it, it was time for supper. On my way home I ran into some live music further along the river walk and texted Rudy to join me. From there we searched out an eating place on the other side of the river and had Lemonade con Coco and Lemonade con Maracuya. We also shared a Colombian version of poutine (French fries, aioli, some kind of red sauce, cayenne pepper, mozzarella cheese,  and shredded pork). Mmm… delicious.

As per usual,  walking home through the cool, dark streets in our neighbourhood is magical.

Today we planned on going up to the top of the mountains that surround the city to visit a huge nature park. Parque Arvi is 16,000 hectares with loads of hiking and biking trails and lots of wilderness. We wanted to experience a bit of it  but Rudy had read some discouraging reviews the night before so wasn’t that keen. But we did some more research and decided that, despite apprehensions and perhaps feeling a bit lazy, we would venture forth.

It was a bit of a journey. First a 15 minute walk to the SurAmerica metro station. Then a ride down 3 stops and a transfer onto another metro line for a longer journey. At the end of this line we took a cable car to the top of a mountain. And then we boarded the last cable car to the Parque Arvi.

The temperature was cooler on top of the mountain but the sweaters we had brought along still were not necessary. Once we got down into the trees and along the trails the air was cool and fresh and everything felt a little damp. The trails were well marked and had English (as well as Spanish, of course) on most signs and so we were able to figure out what to look for. Basically the park is filled with 72 of varieties of butterflies, 70 species of birds, and 19 species of mammals. (Not to mention the coral snake which we did not see. I was very relieved about this.) Although we did not see all of these living creatures, Rudy sure did have a lot of fun trying to run around and take pictures of each of the different butterflies that we saw (he only got one  good picture). I also enjoyed watching him run, squat, and crawl around. 🙂

After our glorious walk through the woods, looking at and learning about all kinds of flowers (orchids, bromeliads, anturiums), we climbed back up to the park entrance.

Before our visit to the park, Rudy had read a review where the writer raved about a restaurant near the park that served the best Arepa con Choclo (corn arepa). After finishing our hike we got directions as to where to find this restaurant. It was a 10-minute walk out of the park, down the mountain. When we got there we were hot and sweaty and Rudy, true to form, tried to use his Spanglish to relay his wants. Usually the exchange is cringy and awkward, but today he ramped it up a notch or two. He initially tried to communicate to the waiter that he had read in a review that this restaurant served the best arepas in the world. The waiter clearly did not understand. Rudy took his phone and spoke into his translation app and handed his phone to the waiter. The look on the waiter’s face was priceless. He shook his head somewhat disgustedly, handed back the phone, and went to get our food. We were perplexed by the waiter’s reaction, so Rudy pasted the Spanish text back into the translator and got this message:: (click to read).
Wow, that truly explained the waiter’s confused look.

When we got home we showered and went out for a fine meal at an Italian restaurant a few blocks from our place. After we got back from dinner it was early to bed — it had been another long and interesting day in Medellin.

Today was a nothing day. We had an adventure planned but decided to just enjoy time around our place and push our activity to tomorrow.  So off we went  to our favourite breakfast place. Rudy has named the lovely old woman who cooks there, Oma. I call her Tante Marie. But despite disagreeing on her name we both agree that you could easily transport this woman to behind the deli counter at Main Bread and Butter in Steinbach and she would fit right in. Cafe Proyecto is a hot spot in the neighbourhood and is often full at desayuno and almerzo. We arrived to find one table free. We ordered our usual French toast and a cappucchino for Rudy and a chai latte for me.  On the way home it started to rain and we tucked in under a covered doorway and waited out the worst of it.  I absolutely love the fact that it rains almost every day. Some days the rain comes at night and other times just a few minutes (or up to a half hour) in the morning or afternoon.

The rest of the morning and afternoon was spent drawing and painting. Really nothing to report there. No masterpieces were made. But it was good to be doing it after a few days away from my sketchbook. Rudy read all the news in the world, did the Thursday crossword puzzle, and created banners for the blog.

We headed out early afternoon to have almuerzo. We had spotted a place that offered the menu del dia for 10Mil ($3.50 Cdn). I wasn’t feeling that hungry but Rudy ordered the lunch meal which consisted of rice, chicken, arepa, salad, baked beans, and a fried plantain.

In the evening I tried something new. I have a friend that I went to U of W theatre with years ago. Heidi has shifted her creative energies away from acting to visual art and writing. I have been on her emailing list for quite some time after I went to one of her art events and have always thought I should join in on some of her art challenges or zoom lessons. So… I plucked up my courage and signed up for a writing workshop and from 6:30 to 7:45 I wrote. It was certainly enjoyable and I may make this a habit.

So now, we are watching the Jets play the Edmonton Oilers.  Watching Jets hockey with Rudy is getting to be a habit. Mostly I can handle the stress and if I can’t I just pace around the apartment. So far the score is 2 to 2. I guess I will put this blog away and concentrate on the game.

 

Today was cleaning day at our apartment so we left at 8 am to go for coffee so that the cleaning woman could do her work. We sat in the sun in a coffee shop and talked politics and Augusta and her boys video chatted a bit with us. We arrived home to the smell of clean that we have come to associate with any Central or South American country that we have visited. LAVENDER! Or at least the smell of lavender floor cleaning solution. It is STRONG. But strangely when I am away from it and then catch a whiff of it I am always nostalgic. I think it always brings me back to our time in Guatemala (and then of course all the other times we have been in these southern countries).

Today we decided to venture to the Museum of Modern Art. It was about a 45 minute walk and we managed to get there without losing our way (at least not very much). By the time we we were there we were hot and thirsty so stopped for some freshly squeezed juice and shared a sandwich plate.

We didn’t know what to expect and was hard to appreciate some of the art. Is it really art just because it is in an art museum? Here are a few weird pieces that we saw. They are all some sort of comment on technology. The centre one is done by a Canadian. This is proof that we too produce strange art.

One massive room was totally dedicated to an artist named Juan Fernando Herran. He is a local artist and most of the stuff was interesting, but sometimes hard to appreciate. The exhibition was called materials (as in construction materials) and constellations. There was a huge structure that was all about stairs. Aside from the huge structures, there was a wall that chronicled the photos, drawings, and models that he made in exploring the idea. For someone like me it helped put context to the idea and actually made it much more accessible. I actually liked the concept and loved the exploration of materials and lines.

He also made a film about motorcycles and power and gangs. In it he interviewed individuals and they told about the allure of power and how they accessed it through motor bikes and drugs and violence. It was actually fascinating to get an insight into the adrenaline that comes from power. And then the addiction to that power.

Another gallery exhibition was about women and I found that interesting.

The last exhibition was art that was produced during one (of many) period of incredible government corruption.

After bettering ourselves and expanding our intellect :), we headed home. It was still early so we chose to continue our artistic education and watched the movie, The Brutalist. Adrian Brody won an Oscar for best actor and it certainly was powerful and also an education into Brutalist architecture and the social pressures of that time.

Tomorrow we will probably take a down day.

I feel like I should give a trigger warning before this post. It is not like I am going to go into great detail but there are certainly violent acts that I will write about.

Today we had a leisurely morning eating pancakes and fresh fruit at our place before we headed off to the House of Memory. This museum is a state-of-the-art place where the history of Colombia and of Medellin is kept. This huge building is three floors high and the top two floors are library and archives and study area. There was quite a bit of English (both written and subtitles) in this museum so we were able to follow a lot of it. Basically the idea behind this museum was keeping alive the diverse stories from the past. Although the museum went into the history of pre-colonial and colonial times (and this gave context to the present), it mostly focused on stories from the last 40 years. Both Rudy and I sat for a long time at a story slideshow that told individual stories about life in Colombia through the 70s to the present day. There were stories of activists and of regular people. The activists often told of the deaths of their friends and fellow activists but others told of random violent acts that occurred out of nowhere and the loss of friends in the everyday events of grabbing a drink  at a bar after a day of university. A woman told the story of her rape by paramilitary persons when she was 11 and when her mother went to the authorities to report it, the mother was shot to death. But there was an element of truth and reconciliation because in recent years when this woman was gathering stories in an effort to foster healing amongst all sorts of people she traded stories with a man who had been in the paramilitary and had committed those same crimes as she was victim to. I will certainly carry these stories with me when I leave this place. This memory museum is an incredible national project filled with so much pain and so much hope for the future.

Today we planned to go on a tour of Comuna 13, a district of Medellin that has experienced so much pain in the past and is now moving towards regeneration. It has only been in the last 20 years that things have begun to change. Not long ago the community was one of the poorest and most violent communities in Medellin. Originally, the people who moved to the hillsides around Medellin were displaced people, and the city of Medellin never recognized them as citizens. They were provided no services—no schools, roads, water, or electricity—and to this day there are no roads on the side of the mountain. The are just houses stacked one upon the other. In the past,  the people here had to deal with the narcotics cartel of Pablo Escobar. After he was killed in 1993, they were terrorized by guerrillas. In an effort to combat the guerrillas, the government supported a paramilitary group, which only continued the violence. Alejandro, our tour guide, was born in 1996 and at the age of 6 (in 2002) he remembers the paramilitary coming in with huge guns, helicopters, and hundreds of soldiers. Supposedly they were sent to kill guerrillas, but in actual fact they gunned down people indiscriminately (some who may have been guerrillas). The paramilitary effort was backed by the United States and the world applauded their “success”. Alejandro’s uncle was killed by them, as were two of his cousins, ages 6 and 7.  How could 6 and 7-year-old kids be ‘guerrillas’? Alejandro shared more about the many bodies of the dead that were never surrendered to the families (although it was promised that they would be delivered within 24 hours) and how, to this day, mothers carry pictures of their slain family members in cards around their necks.

But Alejandro also talked about transformation. In 2005  Mayor Sergio Fajardo started an initiative to change things in crime ridden neighbourhoods such as Comuna 13 through education and culture. Within 6 years (2005 to 2011) the city built library parks (10 of them) and lots of schools. Alejandro, who is from the neighbourhood, said that education changed his life from what it might have been. In 2009 (and completed in 2012) the city of Medellin built escalators up the side of the mountain in order for people to more easily travel  to and from work, etc. After studying the problem of how to make the community more accessible without demolishing many homes, the government settled on an idea (borrowed from Asia) and built numerous long  escalators up the mountainside.

Alejandro said that through art, music, and dance, the community was transitioning and away from its violent past and has been given a voice. Over the last 10 or so years, the changes, particularly the many beautiful murals, have attracted thousands of tourists; people come to visit Comuna 13 and see the rejuvenation of this area. Alejandro was passionate about telling the world about the transformation of Comuna13; he invited all of us to tell our friends and neighbours back home that Medellin, once the most dangerous city in the world, is that no longer.

On the way home we decided to take the metro as our first tour guide Juli had said that it was a “must do” in Medellin. She said that it was a huge object of pride for the people here, as one of the signs of the change that has happened in the city. And just like she described, it was pristine. No garbage, no graffiti, and the people were quiet and well-mannered. Quite something in this country where often the music blares loudly, the people interact enthusiastically, and the garbage is plentiful.

It’s Sunday and everybody is out in the park! The weather is gorgeous, It rained all last night as we slept and this morning it is fresh and green. This morning Rudy and I went off to a different cafe for a cappuccino and a hot chocolate and a chocolate croissant. The hot chocolate here is bitter and good. Not at all like the insipid sweet stuff at home (which I love as well).

After some painting at home I packed up my sketch pad and pencil and headed off to Parques del Rio. Wow, Sunday is the day to be there. It was hopping! I parked myself at a number of locations to do a bunch of drawing, and did actually get some drawings done, but mostly I people watched. It was delightful. Families were out in full force. Kids on push bikes and pedal bikes, scooters, and roller blades  and they rode up and down the walkways. At the “beach and bridge area” kids built sand castles and planted “trees” and climbed on the rope bridge.  Vendors with carts of limeade and ice cream offered their wares. People were friendly, greeting each other and stopping to chat. On the grassy areas there were people set up to celebrate occasions. A young man with heart balloons and some sort of present waited in the grass. At another place a momma set out blankets in a circle around a table that had a birthday cake and other items for a kid’s birthday celebration. There were sparkly gold and purple balloons set up for a baby shower. And my favourite experience was coming upon a couple of people dancing. It was a tango type dance and it appeared not to be an event but rather something that they just did in the park on a Sunday afternoon. Once the first couple was done, the man turned to another woman and they took off. She was wearing a crop top and a skirt with a slit for dancing and when I took in the scene further I realized that she was a brand new mom. She still had her post birth momma figure and her friend took care of the fresh baby and the toddler while the momma had a great time dancing. I was so thrilled to see this kind of community activity. It was a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

I arrived home late afternoon and Rudy was hungry. We packed up and headed for some delicious pasta and freshly squeezed lemonada cereza (lime juice with sour cherries). After a lovely relaxing time in the open air we headed home to plan our last week and a half of activities.

This morning Rudy said we had to go to the little cafe that he had been to yesterday to have his cappechino and French toast. So off we went. I can’t say enough how glorious the neighbourhood is that we live in. The trees, shrubs and flowers are so stunning but also so peaceful to walk through. The streets are quiet, when we have to walk on them. but mostly we follow the paths. We arrived as the place was opening and were recognized and ushered in. The people we have met in Medellin are so friendly and welcoming and we communicate in our limited Spanish and hand gestures. The food was fabulous. I really should have taken a picture of it to put in the blog. The French toast slices were thick with cinnamon and cream as well as loaded with fruits (mangos, a type of sour cherries, blueberries, strawberries,  and kiwi. We sat in the outdoor area amongst the plants and flowers and felt like royalty.

After this leisurely breakfast we sauntered back to our place, relaxed some more, and then headed out to downtown. The walk is about 30 minutes. We had a couple of things we wanted to see and do. The market streets were hopping. Wow, there are so many stands of knock off shoes, socks, hats,  underwear, every different kind of pants, t-shirts, and sweatshirts, not to mention the trinkets and food vendors. We wanted to go back to the Old Palace of Justice mall and wander the top 2 floors. Our guide had mentioned that they were filled with art and I had a hankering to purchase something if there was anything that caught my eye and suited  my pocketbook. In short, there wasn’t. It was interesting and some of it appealed to me but most of it was shlocky.  Lots of stuff (like horses and fruit) that looked like it should be on a velvet painting. But the building itself is beautiful and it wasn’t a wasted experience.

After that we headed to the Botero Art Museum. It is a massive place that used to be a government building. Most of is Botero’s private collection: his own works and works of prominent artists from  mostly Europe and the Americas. Luckily there was lots of English and I was able to read lots about how the political and social settings affected what and how art was made. I was really out of my depth but it was so informative to get a bit of understanding. I learned about Colombia’s reputation in the art world and some of the expositions that are internationally known that are put on here in this country. Rudy was not so much interested in that but totally loves Botero and walked around chuckling much of the time.

The top floor was all works by Botero but we were not allowed to take pictures of any of it. So my photos are of a variety of works from the 1st and 2nd floors.

By the time we were through the gallery we were ready for the long hot walk home. Once home we snacked on guacamole and chips and cold water. I had a nap and Rudy did…. I actually don’t know because I was sleeping. But for supper we headed to our favourite hole in the wall for a hamburguesa and salchi papas.