Murder capital of the world.
In the 80/90s, for as little as $30US you could hire a Sicarios (Hormone ravaged teenager) to settle a score in Medellin. Drug gang warfare had escalated to the point that Medellin had the dubious honour of being given the title of murder capital of the world. I think it avaraged something like 7 murders a day.
Times have changed a bit and although the drug trade still makes up 25% of Colombia's GNP, Medellin is the friendliest place we've been to on the entire trip. Understandably, tourists seem a little reluctant to come here still and maybe that's why the locals are so generous and kind. They've not grown jaded to the visitors yet and they're excited about the evolution of their city into something they can be proud of. To be fair, we did stay in what appeared to be a posh part of the city, El Poblado, but we had bike friendly accommodation here, food that wasn't rice and chicken and decent coffee available just around the corner. Oh and did I mention all the lovely, lovely bike shops - with motorcylce kit for women, in my size! Mike fell in love with a Kawasaki Ninja 1400 too! I wonder if he'll let me have a ride!
Of course the BMW shop wasn't just around the corner with all of the other bike shops, but they made up for it in being the best BMW dealership place I've been to. I don't even own a BMW and I got given decent coffee, free Ruta 40 (name of the dealership) and Colombian flag stickers (which I proceded to stick on upside down - doh!) and a free t-shirt. And the owner, Mauricio, who had some very cool photos of his own TransAmerican Adventures on the walls gave Mike a free rear brake light lens cover for free. The guys there, including some of the other customers, couldn't have been nicer.
Also nicer, were the Suzuki guys, where I bought a rather cool (litterally) new bike jacket. My ever faithful old red jacket had seen better days and with the heat and humidity of Central America looming, with no ventilation in it, the jacket was just too hot. It was a sad farewell to a jacket that had seen me through several winters in the UK plus protected me all the times I fell off the KLR in Wales and the scrap on Ruta 40 in Argentina, but needs must and my nice new very CLEAN jacket will hopefully serve me just as well. So look out for the new black jacket in the next lot of photos.
Times have changed a bit and although the drug trade still makes up 25% of Colombia's GNP, Medellin is the friendliest place we've been to on the entire trip. Understandably, tourists seem a little reluctant to come here still and maybe that's why the locals are so generous and kind. They've not grown jaded to the visitors yet and they're excited about the evolution of their city into something they can be proud of. To be fair, we did stay in what appeared to be a posh part of the city, El Poblado, but we had bike friendly accommodation here, food that wasn't rice and chicken and decent coffee available just around the corner. Oh and did I mention all the lovely, lovely bike shops - with motorcylce kit for women, in my size! Mike fell in love with a Kawasaki Ninja 1400 too! I wonder if he'll let me have a ride!
Of course the BMW shop wasn't just around the corner with all of the other bike shops, but they made up for it in being the best BMW dealership place I've been to. I don't even own a BMW and I got given decent coffee, free Ruta 40 (name of the dealership) and Colombian flag stickers (which I proceded to stick on upside down - doh!) and a free t-shirt. And the owner, Mauricio, who had some very cool photos of his own TransAmerican Adventures on the walls gave Mike a free rear brake light lens cover for free. The guys there, including some of the other customers, couldn't have been nicer.
Also nicer, were the Suzuki guys, where I bought a rather cool (litterally) new bike jacket. My ever faithful old red jacket had seen better days and with the heat and humidity of Central America looming, with no ventilation in it, the jacket was just too hot. It was a sad farewell to a jacket that had seen me through several winters in the UK plus protected me all the times I fell off the KLR in Wales and the scrap on Ruta 40 in Argentina, but needs must and my nice new very CLEAN jacket will hopefully serve me just as well. So look out for the new black jacket in the next lot of photos.
A sad farewell to my beloved jacket
Despite selling me a jacket, the Suzuki guy also told us of a cool place to go see. And sent his secretary out to buy us a map of Colombia (with more accurate squiggles indicting twisty roads).
Next stop then, Rio Claro.
posted by Michelle at 7:17 pm
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