Colombia (Lonely Planet, 5th Edition) - Jens Porup [167]
True to its paísa roots, Medellín affects an indifference to the rest of Colombia, and puts on metropolitan airs – the traffic officers wear Italian-style round boxy hats, many discos prefer techno to salsa or vallenato, and the city looks overseas for inspiration for its next great public works project. The popularity of mullet haircuts among the young male inhabitants, however, reveals the city’s true nature – an ambitious country town whose ambition masks a great anxiety about its place in the world.
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History
Spaniards first arrived in the Aburrá Valley in the 1540s, but Medellín was not founded until 1616; early development started in El Poblado. Historians believe that many early settlers were Spanish Jews fleeing the Inquisition. They divided the land into small haciendas, which they farmed themselves – very different from the slave-based plantation culture that dominated much of Colombia. With their focus on self-reliance, these early paísas had little interest in commercial contact with neighboring regions. For these reasons, they came to be known as hard workers with a fierce independent streak – traits they’ve exported throughout the Zona Cafetera and, increasingly, the rest of Colombia.
Medellín became departmental capital in 1826 but long remained a provincial backwater, which explains why its colonial buildings are neither sumptuous nor particularly numerous. The city’s rapid growth began only at the start of the 20th century, when the arrival of the railroad, together with a highly profitable boom in coffee production, quickly transformed the city. Mine owners and coffee barons invested their profits in a nascent textile industry, and their gamble paid off. Within a few decades, Medellín had become a large metropolitan city.
By the 1980s the city’s entrepreneurial spirit was showing its dark side. Under the violent but ingenious leadership of Pablo Escobar (Click here), Medellín became the capital of the world’s cocaine business. Gun battles were common, and the city’s homicide rate was among the highest on the planet. The beginning of the end of the violence came with Escobar’s death in 1993, and today Medellín is among the safest cities in Latin America.
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Orientation
The city sprawls north and south along the valley floor. Slums hug the upper reaches of the hills. The city center is a compact grid around Parque de Bolívar, but the de facto center has shifted 4km south to El Poblado and the so-called Milla de Oro (Golden Mile), which stretches along Av Poblado, an area crammed with upscale shopping malls, exclusive hotels, casinos, high-rise condominiums, and many of Medellín’s best restaurants and bars.
For a less-sanitized taste of the city, walk down Pasaje Junín in Central Medellín, the long pedestrian mall full of bakeries and bars, clothing stores and spruikers touting their wares, flower stalls and CD stores, juice bars, girlie bars and dens of gambling and vice.
Medellín’s modern metro system runs the length of the valley and can take you to most tourist sites.
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Information
INTERNET ACCESS
There are plenty of internet cafes in El Poblado and the center. Most charge around COP$2000 per hour.
Comunicaciones La 9 (Map; 266 2105, Calle 9 No 41-64) You can also make phone calls.
gamespot (Map; 266 7723; www.gamespot.com.co; Calle 7 No 47-10) Attracts the online gamer crowd. Fast connection, loud music.
Llámame (Map; 352 4783; tecnimovil@gmail.com; Carrera 43A No 70-36) Right near Parque Linear.
PC Genius (Map; 311 5296, 300 353 5831; pecegenius@gmail.com; Carrera 36 No 8A-33) Four computers in this secondhand computer store.
MEDICAL SERVICES
Staff at both clinics speak some English.
Clínica Las Vegas (Map; 315 9000; www.clinicalasvegas.com; Calle 2 Sur No 46-55)
Clínica Medellín (Map; 311 2800; www.clinicamedellin.com; Calle 7 No 39-290)
MONEY