Things that were not immediately obvious to me

Editorial Note: In April, I took a month off in Medellin. For me, this meant an interesting and diverting month. For you, this means 30 days of posts about my vacation. I’ll try to make them somewhat amusing.

One of Medellin’s little oddities (shared with Colombia as a whole) is the prevalence of casinos in ordinary commercial districts: I recall seeing 3 or 4 along the Avenida El Poblado alone. These aren’t Las Vegas (or Indian gaming) -style monstrosities, or even mega-cardrooms; they seem to be more modest, storefront operations.

Now, this item is a little weak because I didn’t actually condescend to enter any of these establishments (I didn’t feel like gambling, and had forgotten some basic strategy corner cases at any rate), but they’re definitely there. Next time I visit, I’ll return with a report on their blackjack rules.

Editorial Note: In April, I took a month off in Medellin. For me, this meant an interesting and diverting month. For you, this means 30 days of posts about my vacation. I’ll try to make them somewhat amusing.

Parque Lleras is a center of nightlife in El Poblado. It is also gringo central; there are a zillion hostels in this neighborhood, and this is where many of the Lonely Planet types wash up when they come to Medellin. As a result, prices are a little higher and businesses are a little more touristy. This is also the only part of the city in which I heard English spoken with any regularity.

If I were to pick a synecdoche for Parque Lleras, it would be the street with the Thai restaurant on one side and the Hooters franchise on the other. It’s a weird combination of backpacker-friendly businesses (Thai food) for the tourists and a US theme park (Hooters) for the Colombians. I did have some good Unagi here (though, really, there’s no such thing as bad BBQ eel), as well as a large number of tasty steaks. Also, Il Forno does pretty good Italian dishes.

As a point of minor interest, I ran into these fellows one night when returning from Parque Lleras. This was the only political thing I saw in Medellin, and I have no idea what they were upset about. (Their signs seemed to say something about “monopolies”, but my Berkeley training kicked in and I skedaddled before enquiring into their specific grievances.) They were a pretty ineffectual group, probably less than 100 strong, and they quickly moved on from the streets I wished to pass.

Editorial Note: In April, I took a month off in Medellin. For me, this meant an interesting and diverting month. For you, this means 30 days of posts about my vacation. I’ll try to make them somewhat amusing.

A word about money. The good news is that the major credit card networks (e.g., Visa) work just fine in Colombia. You can pay for stuff with a U.S.-issued credit card and withdraw money (i.e., pesos) from Colombian ATMs with a U.S.-issued ATM card. The exchange rate you get seems to be great. The bad news is that you’ll pay (modest) fees for the privilege, and that the “debit” features of your card won’t work.

Fees

My bank (Wells Fargo) likes to charge me fees both for withdrawing money from ATMs and for making credit card purchases. The ATM fees were a flat $5.00 irregardless of how much money I withdrew, while the credit card (foreign transaction) fees seemed to be about 3%. So, if you wanted to minimize your fees you might try withdrawing $500 at a clip. (Of course, then you’d be walking around with $500 in cash, which might not be such a great idea.)

Safety

An unfortunate reality of travel is that one risks becoming the victim of crime. For this reason, it is prudent to create and use separate, travel-specific bank accounts and credit cards while on the road. As an additional precaution, one should keep only the bare minimum of funds in these accounts, transferring money in as necessary via a laptop or smartphone.

The rationale behind this is that one wishes to minimize the risk of kidnapping. Kidnapping for ransom isn’t actually that much of a problem, as it’s an enormous hassle for a criminal to extort money from a foreigner’s family; he’d much rather deal with his own people, who are easier to contact and negotiate with.

Your biggest risk of kidnapping lies with those enterprising criminals who have their eye on your credit cards, and who wish to, ah, “persuade” you to hand over your PINs so that they can withdraw money from your accounts. Since your bank will only allow them (or you) to withdraw a certain amount every day, and since they won’t want to leave money on the table, guess what you’ll be doing while they spend days getting your money.

For this reason it’s best to have no more money in your account than can be gotten in one go. This will give your (theoretical) abductors no incentive to detain or injure you. The best option is to avoid such situations altogether, but the relevant concept here is “defense in depth”.

Practicalities

One cautionary note: Make sure that your PIN is 4 digits long. I like a nice, long, 8+ digit PIN myself, but the international networks reportedly aren’t too happy with such things. So stick to standard 4 digit codes if you want to minimize problems during your travels.

Also, you should probably set up two travel accounts, each with its own ATM card. That way if one is lost or stolen, the inconvenience will be minimal. (Obviously, you don’t want to carry both with you at the same time.)

Finally, any time you pay with a credit card here you’ll be asked a question. I think that question means something like “how many transactions do you want this charge broken into”. In any event, the right answer always seems to be “uno”.

Editorial Note: In April, I took a month off in Medellin. For me, this meant an interesting and diverting month. For you, this means 30 days of posts about my vacation. I’ll try to make them somewhat amusing.

In my opinion, the best way to think of Medellin’s terrain is as a piece of jungle lifted 5000 feet into the air. The altitude mediates and softens almost all of the jungle unpleasantness, but the place still has a lushness that can be just a little disturbing.

For instance: Medellin has almost no annoying flying insects. I saw no mosquitos, and very few stinging insects of any kind. It does, however, have some impressive flying beetles. What they lack in numbers or aggression they make up for in size. One of these guys got into my apartment, and for a moment I thought a small bird was flying around in there. Furthermore, at night the racket from the local variety of cricket can become a little intimidating.

I like Medellin, but my time there has pretty much convinced me to avoid any part of Colombia lower than Cali. (Including Cartagena: even though its terrain is probably more coastal than jungle, I bet it’s still brutally hot and humid.)

Editorial Note: In April, I took a month off in Medellin. For me, this meant an interesting and diverting month. For you, this means 30 days of posts about my vacation. I’ll try to make them somewhat amusing.

In Colombia, I had the best food court meal of my life. That may sound like damning with faint praise, but it’s not.

On the 5th(?) floor of the Santa Fe Mall (basically one gigantic food court) is a little establishment with the bewitching name of “Steak Station”. Not only did the smidgen of English warm the cockles of my gringo heart, the word “Steak” set my tummy a-gurgling. Now, Colombians in general do more elaborate food court victuals than we do in the US, but this was really neat: An actual carne asada steak, cooked to order, with a side of baked baby potatoes and your choice of fresh juice (with actual metal utensils!) for less than $10.

If there was a Steak Station in CA, In-N-Out would never see a dime of my money again.

Editorial Note: In April, I took a month off in Medellin. For me, this meant an interesting and diverting month. For you, this means 30 days of posts about my vacation. I’ll try to make them somewhat amusing.

Just to give you a slightly different look at Medellin, let’s turn away from the green hills and aggressive vegetation, and take a gander at a main drag. Over to the right you can see a shot taken along the Avenida El Poblado, which is a major artery in the El Poblado section of Medellin. (Actually, looking at it now, I realize that the plants are attacking this part of the city as well.)

Architecture

At any rate, this part of El Poblado is pretty dense, and thickly planted with malls and office buildings. Here are some exciting shots of commercial real estate.

Roof

The Santa Fe mall is a pretty impressive structure; it’s about 5 stories tall, and stands on top of several levels of my favorite thing in the world: ample underground parking. It’s also got a retractable roof, which is something I haven’t seen before on a mall.

Editorial Note: In April, I took a month off in Medellin. For me, this meant an interesting and diverting month. For you, this means 30 days of posts about my vacation. I’ll try to make them somewhat amusing.

While I’m in Medellin, I’ve taken the opportunity to study a bit of Spanish. (I only devoted 20 hours to it, but a little is better than nothing.) I studied with Diego Trujillo. Diego was a very good sport, and a patient and knowledgable teacher. His school is located in Parque Lleras, so he’s quite convenient if you’re doing the backpacker/hostel thing, or staying in many parts of El Poblado generally.

Diego’s rate for 1-on-1 tutoring is (or was) COP28,000/hr. I’m not sure if that’s a good deal or not, but by way of comparison: EAFIT wants to charge you $445 for a 38 hour group class. Right now, the (ever-weakening) dollar buys 1765.50 COP, so EAFIT would charge you COP20,675/hr.

Diego charges about 35% more, but it is 1-on-1 vs. group, and he’s a lot more flexible than EAFIT. (I understand that he also offers group classes at a reduced rate, but you’ll have to ask him about the details.)

Editorial Note: In April, I took a month off in Medellin. For me, this meant an interesting and diverting month. For you, this means 30 days of posts about my vacation. I’ll try to make them somewhat amusing.

Here’s my recommended packing list for a month’s stay in Medellin. This is long and (probably too) detailed, but I looked at a lot of lists like this when deciding what to bring. So: Clip-n-Save!

Incidentally, I fit all this stuff into one carry-on and one “personal item”, i.e. a laptop backpack. The carry-on is a biggish duffel bag that exceeds the allowable template, but which fits nicely lengthwise (perpendicular to the plane’s aisle) into an overhead bin, and which I’ve never been hassled about.

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Editorial Note: In April, I took a month off in Medellin. For me, this meant an interesting and diverting month. For you, this means 30 days of posts about my vacation. I’ll try to make them somewhat amusing.

There’s no getting around it: Colombia has a violent past. The interesting thing is that while the nice parts of Medellin today seem just as tranquil as a city can be, there’s a much greater emphasis placed on highly visible security than I’m used to. The house to the right, for instance, is typical of what you see here. Everything is locked, guarded, and/or barred, and very serious-looking gates, fences, and barbed wire are the norm.

Also, private security is everywhere. Most are (apparently) unarmed, but the little strip mall where I take my shirts does have a guy with a shotgun on patrol. This level of security in the US would only be warranted if you were living in some sort of dystopian urban hell, with gangs running riot in the streets. That’s just not the case here.

Finally, however, I think that this picture sums up the Colombian approach to security. Security girl is holding a mirror used to check the undersides of vehicles, presumably for explosives. The first thing is: There are a lot of other entrances to this structure, and only one of them had mirror-girl in front of it. The second thing is: I wanted to get a shot of her using the mirror, but she out-waited me: She kept jawing with the other girl in frame as car after car drove past, and I eventually got bored. (The mirror was used as I describe, but other girl showed up before I got my camera out.)

Editorial Note: In April, I took a month off in Medellin. For me, this meant an interesting and diverting month. For you, this means 30 days of posts about my vacation. I’ll try to make them somewhat amusing.

It’s a lot cheaper to spend a month in Colombia than you might think. There are really only two expenses: A flight, and lodging. (There are a bunch of day-to-day expenses, too, but they’re basically covered by the money you’re not spending on the normal day-to-day expenses you’d have at home.) A reasonable flight (1-hop: SFO-MIA-MDE) from Silicon Valley to Medellin cost me $715. That just leaves lodging.

Apartment

I rented an apartment through “The Apartment Medellin“, specifically this one, which costs $1350/mo. That brings the total bill to just over $2K, which, frankly, I can drop over a long weekend in Las Vegas. So this international travel thing is really quite the bargain.

One final note about the apartment: This is the underside of the office area next to the bedroom. As you can see, the construction is a little different from the rest of the apartment. I strongly suspect that in the original plan the bedroom above was open to the living area below, in a conventional loft arrangement, and that some enterprising Colombian decided to build out the usable square footage by closing off and enlarging the second floor. Clever, even if it does creak alarmingly.