Medellin Living

The Arepa’s Sept/Oct 2009 issue represents its fourth, and the first one in full color.  Congrats to Robin and his team for continuing to build a dynamic and fun English language culture and nightlife guide to Medellin. The cover story in this installment is Medellin’s skateboarding scene, which I think is a totally rad topic [...]

I met Jacob and his Colombian wife, Astrid, at Jaymar Colombian Breeze restaurant in Gaithersburg, Maryland.  He is currently working back here in the US, though their plan is to return to Medellin by the end of the year. Apparently the neighborhood was designed by the guy who made that spooky Jim Carey movie, The [...]

A great article was on the NY World Travel Examiner about the sailing trip you can take from various parts of Panama to Cartagena, Colombia.  This is an adventure I’ve had on my mind for a few years, but wasn’t in a position to take as my trip around the world winded down earlier this [...]

A few days ago, we went to the theater at Centro Colombo Americano to watch Waltz with Bashir, an animated war documentary. With the spoken language in Hebrew, and the subtitles in Spanish, I understood little of what was being said. I did already know what the movie was about, so I followed along the [...]

One of my goals in Medellin is to get some base jumping in.  Basically there isn’t any base here yet.  It’s going to be hard to get it started, but I can’t last too long without a jump. The things necessary for a base jump are pretty straight forward.  You need gear that is specific [...]

My roommate and I have been trying to get a few other people to go camping with us, but the plans keep falling through.  So, we were able to catch the antique car parade for the last weekend of the Flower Festival. The antique car parade was great, and it was nice getting to watch [...]

Getting back to salsa, we have Ojos Chinos by El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico

Camilo was not shy about pushing me to work hard at Dinamo, the gym a few blocks from Maira’s apartment in Envigado.  On the other hand, I’ve gotten several compliments since returning home, so apparently all the hard work has made a noticeable difference (at least in my shoulders). There are two gym chains in [...]

The Juan Valdez cafe adjacent the Fernando Botero museum in Bogota was the first place I enjoyed a cup of authentic Colombian coffee.  When I arrived in Medellin, the cafe in Parque Lleras became my favorite place to meet people because it was so easily recognizable to foreigners and locals alike.  Offering a Starbucks-style experience [...]

This is truly my first time traveling outside of the United States, so I’m noticing quite a few things that are different to me.  These things are definitely not bad, and mostly entertaining. The most fun, definitely, is: Most drinks are sold in bags. You can find water, juice, and milk sold in bags.  Actually, [...]