Viva Colombia Day 7 - Gira caminando of Medellin (8/4/16)

Head towards the train station for our free walking tour of the city and stop at a little corner cafe for breakfast. Some of the food is tasty, but the donut was meh and Eric did not like the coffee at all. Get to the train station and find our guide to check in. Get on the train towards the main government building area and start walking as we arrive into the terminal. After 5 or 10 minutes, we stop, take a seat on the steps of some building where we get an overview of the history of Medellin (geography, political, etc.). After she wraps that part up, we stand and walk into the area with all the current government buildings and a huge statue in the center of the quad.

So nice to have a train system. I can see why this is their pride in Medellin. 

Pretty expansive metro system. Why Houston doesnt have anywhere near this awesome of a system, Ill never know.

On of our first stops on the tour was in this quad of government buildings with this statue in the middle. Very intricate.

The backlight kinda ruins the perception of the statue, but it is huge.

Some of the depictions in the statue.

This city has some interesting architecture.

Stopped in front of a public library (impressive building) for bathroom break (not so impressive facilities) with this pole garden out front.

They had a little farmers market going on as we walked through.

Streets had some pretty impressive buildings as we walked around. This was the corner of a mall we are about to walk into.

The mall.

Plenty of natural light in the mall.

Stopped for lunch and then noticed this really cool building in the distance.

The walkway to the cathedral was lined with these statues of disproportionate people/animals.

Such a cool looking building. Both in the brick color alteration and the construction.

Cute fat dog.

In all its glory. There are a few statues in the bottom right.

Not as elaborate of a church but still pretty cool looking.

Then we walk over to a park that was littered with homeless people just chilling on benches. I believe I remember the guide saying this park at night is filled with drugs and what not.

Other end of the park with a massive church.

The Bolivar statue in the center of the park.

The end of the tour was on this plaza where on of the big pigeon statues had been destroyed during the conflict.

After the tour, we got on the train and made our way to the cable cars up the mountain.

In line waiting for the lifts.

City goes on forever.

Made it to the top of the cable cars and realized if we wanted to take the cable cars to the tippy top, it was a lot extra so we didnt go (didnt have much time to enjoy it).

They go out and then just drop out of sight.

One last view of the city from near the top of the mountains.

We just came from that area. I guess its time to go back.

Waiting for the train, decide to work on my modeling career.

Gringo standing on the train back to Poblado.

As we walk around, she'll stop, talk about the "most famous local criminal" or some recent occurrences in the peace talks or whatever is significant about that particular place/organization. She has a friendly and funny personality which helps the tour have a lightness about it. Find a parade with people protesting the war on drugs and wanting them to seek peace. Walk around for a few hours with some nice weather before we end our tour at a destroyed sculpture of a pigeon. Take a group pic then everyone goes on their own way. We take the train to the cable cars in the north to get a birds eye view of the city below (built in a valley) and realize there is no observation deck up there in the gondola station. On top of that, the cars themselves are tinted (probably a good thing for when the sun is beating on you) so pictures from there are also impossible. Get back to poblado stop and grab lunch at the exito as we were grabbing some money and were hungry. Head back to the hostel to make some plans and change our room for the last night. Hang around the hostel having drinks with some people before heading to the party area (parque Lleras) with a big group from the hostel. Bounce around to a few different places (difficult with such a large group) before winding up in a bar where one of the guys who has been in Colombia for a bit has us take this shot that came with a lemon that was coated in sugar and ground coffee; was actually really good, but dont remember the name of it. As the group had dwindled as the night went on, those of us remaining head back to the hostel, stopping to grab some food on the way for a little late night snack. Get back to the hostel and we just hang out on the patio with our new found friends convincing them to join us tomorrow on the epic day :).

Apparently we picked a good night to go out. People everywhere.

I wonder what this bar has happening on a regular basis to have something like this just hanging there in the open.