This morning we woke up early ish and decided to check out the metrocable. One of the fascinating things we learnt on our walking tour is how proud the people are of their metro. In fact they look at the metro as a sign of development, built in a time of violence and despair in the early 2000's and so it's their symbol of hope. As a result they are also extremely protective of it and there is not a spot of grafitti to be seen on the carriages or the station. Not a sticker, not a wrapper, not a coffee spill in sight. It's very amazing and heartwarming to see all of this. Bernie and I didn't even dare to open a window incase we mistakenly broke it and caused another revolution.
The metro costs 1,900 pesos for a journey (Usd $1) so it's affordable for all the residents; however Medellin faced an issue with the people staying up in the hills. Roads were not great, buses were worse and these people commuted 2 hours one way everyday to work. So Medellin built the first metrocable to connect the hills and the 2 hour journey was cut to 10 minutes. The metrocable is a part of the metro line so it's great for us tourists to just travel around looking at the sights.
We went up one of the metrocables which has 3 stops and goes above the 'slums'. If Medellin was once 'the most violent city on the planet', this slum was the most violent place in Medellin. They've seen so much pain and heart ache that the government is building a huge library right in the middle of this area, HUGE. Again, trying to bring hope to the most devastated areas of the city.
We took a second metrocable to Parque Arvi and this one was more than 15 minutes long and went over a jungle. Honestly, they could have charged 5 times the ticket price and that ride would be so worth it! At the end of the metro, we got off as we'd heard we could bike around. Unfortunately the bike rentals were not to be seen so we took a shuttle to the main park. We walked through and though there's a lot of jungle around and it looks very beautiful and untouched, the park itself was extremely manicured. In fact there were so many kids play areas that it felt like a kids park. We played on the most high tech swings ever - we had to wear a safety harness - and watched a short film in a 4 D cinema (my first, I was screaming with joy, never had such a cool experience) before we went to the zip lining area.
This was really cool, like an obstacle course where you had to climb rope ladders and cross bridges and zip line. We got our harnesses and had a short training course on using the safety clips and ropes and then we were off. We completed about half the course before deciding to stop from exhaustion. Definitely a super fun day filled with activities.
Once back at the hostel, we excitedly went to Hooters (again!!!) for hot wings. Felt good to have been super productive all day!
Metrocable
Overlooking the 'slums'
Metrocable over a jungle, such lush greenery
Swinginggg
Bernie in a log slide
Look how high up we were zip lining
No comments:
Post a Comment