Colombia: Medellin, Guatape and Curva Peligrosa

Marinela:

Finally, we cleared the car from customs. This night we had our first fight. My lovely husband counted for the first time my pants, shirts, and hats (y tres vestidos) in the bags of the trunk. Is every man in the world inclined to ask “Why on earth do you need 10 pairs of pants, countless number of shirts and 5 visors?” or this is just mine? But when everything was put out nicely and neatly in the car, the peace was restored.

To say the drive from Cartagena to Medellin is fun is an understatement.  For my Bulgarian friends,  this is Shipka, Hainboaz and Vitinia put together and 600 kilometres long. It was a day with 13 hours drive through unbelievable mountain passes, small hamlets, scattered around the roads, crazy truck drivers and elusive fog.  Buzzing motorbikes were coming from everywhere and disappearing between the trucks in no time, etc. If you have seen how a bus passes an 18-wheeler on a curvy road with 10 meters of visibility in the fog, you can get the idea.

I just want to take back my words from my first post. Colombians are amazing and very professional drivers.

Ivan:

I have to admit, I had some mixed feelings about Medellin. Some 15 years ago it was known as the most dangerous city in the world, famous for street killings, drug wars, guerilla wars, kidnappings and all the bad things one can think about. It’s unbelievable how all this got changed in less than 10 years. The president elected in 2002 started a war on all this using the “carrot and stick” method (more stick than a carrot). According to the locals, some hated him and some loved him, but everyone acknowledged the results achieved.

Today Medellin is one of the most vibrant and interesting cities I’ve ever seen. There are poor areas and places where you shouldn’t wander at night, but can’t we say the same for any city in the world?

Guatape, the city of the socles. Pictures say it all…

On the road to Medellin, there is a sign “Curva Peligrosa” (dangerous turn) on every other turn. My Bulgarian-speaking friends will easily understand why I started reading it out loud and laughing every time. For the rest, the Spanish word for “turn” sounds exactly like the Bulgarian word for “whore”. My immature behaviour brought another argument in the car, namely are all of them dangerous or not.  Finally, we agreed that some are more dangerous than others, just like the turns.