Medellin, Colombia

I am told the Colombian women in these regions are known to have extensive plastic surgery, hence…The Plastic City. Besides the Colombia pop star, Shakira, I didn’t really know of any Colombian women until now. Being here…has opened my eyes.

The hostel price is getting cheaper along with the quality of the place I am staying. I checked into the Black Sheep hostel after arriving in Medellin. I was kindly given a discounted room rate because I do not have a door in my 4 bed dorm. So instead of paying the standard rate of $7.86 I am paying $6.55 - what a…deal. At 7 am every morning I am happily awaken by the hammering and bits of the ceiling coming down, nicely adding to the waterfall from the wall behind me when it rains. As for the noise, to some normal people it might be a bad thing but to me it is an added bonus – I should be paying a premium for all of the extra dreams I am racking up. Yes, I have been sleeping in till about 9:30am recently. To attempt to justify this, I could say my body is still on the west coast time zone but it is really because I haven’t been getting to bed until 3 to 4 am.

They have two cats that roam the hostel, John Doe #1 and John Doe #2 – not their true names; I am just protecting their identities. These pets are quite popular amongst the transients – much much more popular than the chia pet in the shower from all the built up pubic hair in the drain. One of the cats will lie across me when I am on the computer and demands to disrupt productivity and be the center of whatever is going on – this must be an inherited disposition of a cat no matter the ethnicity.

Medellin is quite a happening city. Way back in the 80’s and the very very very early 90’s, it was the base for a well known export business headed by Pablo Escobar, earning himself enough money to be listed in Forbes Magazine as the worlds 7th richest man and in turn, helped make Medellin the center of Colombia’s drug trade. Even though Wikipedia states that Colombia still maintains 90% of the cocaine processing of the world, a large amount of law abiding citizens here in Medellin, mainly export flowers – the pretty ones…not the refined poppies. Since I don’t have anyone to buy flowers at the moment and I don’t snort, sniff or shoot the other flower, I am just here to take a moment to stop and smell the flowers before I move on.