Empanadas and Boteros
- Jill
- Nov 20, 2019
- 5 min read
Updated: Oct 30, 2021
Up and out the door to walk to the nearest metro station--Ayura--about a 10-12 minute walk away. Thrilled to find it without any problems :-) I went to the ticket booth with my request typed into my phone in Spanish: "I would like 10 metro tickets." They typed in the price--26000 pesos (about $8 or so)...then handed me 3 plastic cards with no explanation. I had no idea what was on the cards. I walked to the turnstile and kept trying...finally an employee had to show me. I found out later that they had loaded the rides onto the cards (no idea why they couldn't put all 10 on one card), and you tap them to use the turnstile (and it tells you how much credit is left) until you are on the last one, in which case you have to feed it into the slot and don't get it back. A bit confusing...but easy once you have someone explain it to you, lol.
Got to the Alpujarra station about 30 minutes before my Walking Tour was supposed to start...and no one was there yet, which as usual made me nervous that I was in the wrong place. I walked around a bit...across the bridge from the station was a sort of mall...but with local booths and stores where I bought something that looked like a bagel, but was a bit more chewy. I kept checking my email to make sure I was in the right place. Finally at 9 exactly, someone showed up with the umbrella. She was the one who explained my metro cards to me :-)
Sidebar...I've seen several solo female travelers while I've been in Colombia, which makes me happy!
The "Real City Walking Tour Medellin" is a great one. It is pretty long...almost 4 hours of walking and/or standing. However, the exertion and time is worth it. I learned a lot about the city and saw parts of it I'm not sure I would have been brave enough to see alone.
The Spaniards arrived in 1616 (Shakespeare's death year!), and things were good for the Paisas (the name the locals call themselves) for about 300 years. At the turn of the 20th century, they begin growing coffee. They realized that their temperate climate--the temperature averages 72 degrees year round--and no really cold or really hot weather--is apparently perfect for growing coffee beans. This, in addition to the Industrial Revolution made a lot of folks rich. They lived in the flat area of the city, while the poorer folks moved up into the hills.
In the 1950s, the government began taxing alcohol and tobacco, making them more expensive...so gangs begin smuggling them in. By the 1970s, cocaine is added to the smuggling list...and then of course Escobar comes into play in the 80s and 90s (Juan, the guide, refers to him as the "crazy man").
We begin the tour in the Alpujarra administrative center...a large square where most government buildings are located. Some folks were out there raising awareness of child trafficking. Then we head to Plaza Cisneros/Parque de las Luces (Square of Lights), where we learn the area used to be a quite dangerous market...and one of the things that happened when the city began to reinvent itself was they turned it into a area with really cool bamboo trees and tall lights. We are encouraged to try a drink made from sugarcane and lime juice from a local vendor (these things are SO cheap--1000 pesos, which is about 30 cents).
This plaza is an example of one of the pillars of transformation here: democratic architecture (the other pillar, btw, is education with dignity--and we see the Dept of Ed building in this square as well--photo above). Another example is the Palace of Justice--in the 1920s there were dungeons in the basement--and now it is a mall. As we were walking around, I ask Juan about the protests which are supposed to be happening tomorrow. He tells me not to cancel my tour of Comuna 13, but that there may be some delays on the metro. He encourages everyone else to stay home or head out of the city (for example to Guatape, where I'm going in a couple of days). A lot of roads will be shut down in the city and around the university, and some metro stations may be blocked by protesters.
We also pass the Veracruz Church, which is famous for being a prostitute hangout (hotel right across the street). The irony being that men can come hire a prostitute, then go into the church to beg for forgiveness. A one stop shop! And speaking of shopping...we also travel through the former Palace of Justice, which is now a shopping mall with mostly fake versions of name brand products.
Next we walked to Plaza Botero, where the Palace of Culture--a building begun by a Belgian designer that the Paisas thought was taking too long so they decided to finish it themselves (so there is a beautiful main facade, and then a really boring rest of it, lol)--and the Museo de Antioquia (the name of the region) are located, as well as several Botero sculptures around the square. We have a brief break, and one of Juan's suggestions is to try the empanadas at a small stand here on the square called Empanadas Envigadenas. They had meat ones and potato ones...DAMN delicious. Especially with the guacamole sauce. And cheap--less than a dollar each. I wound up going back after the tour and having another one.
We walked through a few of the MANY shopping areas here--both inside and out. We walked through the crowded Parque Berrio (where an older man came over to meet us and tell us that we had better not leave the city...or he would come and bring us back :-) Then we headed to San Antonio park where some people were rehearsing a dance...but the rest of the square was eerily quiet compared to some of the others we visited. This is because a bomb went off in this square in the 80s, destroying the Botero on the left, killing 23 people. The mayor at the time was going to remove the remains of the statue, but Botero called him and asked that it stay as a reminder...then he created a new one on the right. The two together remind everyone of the past and present of Medellin.
We also passed some great street art along the way.
Our guide Juan experienced the atrocities of the Escobar period first-hand. Two of his uncles were kidnapped by FARC in the late 80s and ransomed (they both made it back, thankfully, but it depleted his family's fortune), and he and his brother were both shot by gangs (his brother almost didn't make it). You meet a lot of folks here with stories like this. And again...they REALLY hate the show NARCOS, lol. Juan said about 10-15% of the show is true, and the rest is fiction being presented as true.
After the tour, I walked back to Plaza Botero for another empanada (yum) and to visit the Museo de Antioquia, one of the best museums I've ever been to. Of course, they had a lot of Boteros...but also pieces by artists he donated to them from his own collection--like Degas, Ernst, etc.
Headed home from here...stopped by Exito to pick up some ramen and something for breakfast (yogurt and OJ)...then more of The Crown :-)
MORE IMPRESSIONS:
Juan talked about the fact that despite the HORRIBLE things that the Paisas have been through, they remain optimistic. It is SO true--everyone you speak to has this positive outlook. Amazing.
Medellin was not what I expected. It looks fairly modern...offices, apartments, etc (especially in Poblado and Envigado)...none of the historic feel of Bogota or color of Cartagena.
a lot more McDonald's/Starbucks and malls, etc.
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