CouchSurfing and paragliding in Medellin

I ended up staying quite some time in Medellin, mostly due to my sweet CouchSurfing hosts that showed me what real Colombian hospitaliy is, took time to show me the city and told me many stories about Medellin, such as the famous drug kind Pablo Escobar and the more famous plastic surgeries.

The first picture is of my very first CouchSurfing host (ever!!), Silvia, the born and bread Medellin chica, who is a  TV producer, university teacher, mother of two cats, diver and traveller. The picture is from the Minorista market in Medellin, THE place to go to when buying your groceries. It was one big market and I ended up buying so many fruits that I have never tried or seen before. Colombians, are notorious for their juices and I think every household has it´s own juicemaker as everyone seem to have delicous fruit juices for breakfast. I got to try some very very very good fruits and juices that I would just die for if we had it back home! Silvia and I had a lot of discussions around plastic surgeries as Medellin is famous for all its fake boobs, asses, lips, faces, you name it! Girls start as early as 15 years old to adjust their boody parts, sad but true. I have no idea why these women and men have plastic surgeries as Colombians are beautiful people. They defintely do not need it! One day on the metro I was guessing which girls had fake boobs and which did not. Think I counted tons more fake ones than real. So no I am all boobed-out! .....not to mention assed-out!

My second CouchSurfing exeprience was with the lovely and sweet couple Ana (the actress and teacher) and Jesus ("Chucho") (the arcitect and music collector). The picture is from downtown Medellin outside a typical Colombian restaurant, where they took me for dinner. Here we had the most food I have had in a long time and the most delicious Colombian "tipico" food I have tried so far! Colombians, as all latin Americans, tend to eat a lot of rice as well but what is famous in Colombia is their arepa, a sort of tortilla looking flat bread that is made of corn or flour, taste like nothing but is eaten daily as a bread with their food. I have gotten use to the arepa and today i bought some for myself to eat with a fried egg and cheese. Not so bad at all! Chucho has the most amazing music collection that I have ever seen. He simply just have the best world music ever, hence, we ended up talking a lot about music and of course dancing. He made me a very good DVD with the mest music and he took me to some salsa hot spots in town where we dances until late and where I got to try the famous Colombian "aquardiente". This alcoholic drink you drink as a shot with a glass of water. It was one damn strong shot!! you just have to have that glass of water afterwards otherwise u will get smashed drunk in seconds! Chuco also took me around the city of Medellin on his motorcycle and that was one good experience as well! Weeeeiiiiiiii, he drove fast!

He also told me the stories about the drugs in Medellin and the famous Pablo Escobar, who is worldly known as the biggest drug king on the planet. Well was, as he got killed about 20 years ago by the Colombian government. Ever since he got killed the city of Medellin has done a massive job in trying to remove the drug-city stamp from its pavements and invested billions of dollars in the city and its people. Now Medellin is more famous for its fashion and medical tourism than drugs. However, the drugs haven´t dissapeared from the city it is just dealt with more smootly and underground. As for me, no one offered me anything so I think the city has done a good job - not that I look like the want-to-be drug addict anyway..well...yet. LOL!

My last day in Medellin, me and Ana went Paragliding! Medellin is also famous for paragliding and it was just a must for me to try as it has been on my list for so long! We took the local bus up to the very top of one of the mountains surrounding the city and got ourselves two Colombian paragliding pilots! It was a tandem flight, thank God. We were quite excited and scared for the big jump but when looking at the others flying it looked so peaceful so the nerves calmed down quite a bit. The take off went smooth even though you run towards the edge of the mountain and you have no idea what is going to happen! But seconds later you are softly gliding in the air with the birds around you. It was one tranquilo, relaxing and peaceful moment :) I truly enjoyed it!! and the views of the mountains, the landscape and the city was just amazing! This must be how it is to be a bird :)