Days 4 & 5: Parque Explora y Communa 13

DAY 4: Parque Explora

By day 4, the ramifications of 650 stairs up two days earlier, not getting sleep for a 3rd night in a row, and a sore throat were all hitting me at once. But no time to be in pain, agony, and misery!! There are adventures to be had with the Shermanos esta dia!! We met at Starbucks, where I met 3 other worldschoolers. Scott (the husband of Jamie, who is another moderator on the Worldschooler board and moved in directly across the hall from Allison last month!), and their two kids Courtney and Cameron. Starbucks is a short walk from both of our places, and is right on Avienda Poblado- a main street in this area that is closed on Sundays for Cyclovia. On Sundays, you can take a relaxing stroll, bike ride, or run down the avenue along with hundreds of other people out enjoying the weather of Medellin. And this is where I will pause to talk about the weather. It is literally perfect. There’s hardly any humidity (which shocked me when I got off the plane!), and the temperature runs in the mid-high 70’s, getting a bit warmer in the afternoons. There’s been a rainstorm (with INSANE thunder) every late afternoon, and our timing of finishing adventures has perfectly coincided with this! And the really weird thing is that even though Allison lives like a mile away, I’ll facebook message her and say “It’s POURING!!” and she’ll reply that nothing is happening over there. But we do commiserate clap-by-clap about the insane thunder together! Anyway, so we all (minus Haley, she would join us later) started walking down the avenue, trying to not get run over by bicycles. There were so many people out walking dogs! Zoe and Brian would get along famously, because neither have ever seen a dog they could resist petting! It was so cute to see Zoe walk up to people and ask them in Spanish if she could pet their dogs. 🙂

After our walk, Scott and Cameron went off on their own adventures, and Zoe, Courtney, Allison and I went back to meet Haley at Starbucks. A 16 year girl old that is alone and right on time?? AMAZING!! 🙂 We then walked down to the Metro to meet her friend Manuela (from Day 1 at the school), and we all headed off for our adventures. Now, let me tell you about this Metro system in Medellin. I am in LOVE! I’ve done metros in Los Angeles, New York, Singapore, France, Italy, Germany, and England. While Singapore wins for cleanliness and politeness of people, I am loving how the Metro here isn’t a subway- it’s elevated train. You can see the scenery as you whisk between stations! And the metros are cheap and clean with good signage and a lot of staff to help out if you get mixed up. 5 stars Medellin Metro! While we were waiting for the metro, a girl strikes up a conversation with me- in Spanish. I swear, it was totally that first chapter of my 11th grade Spanish textbook! She said “Me llama Maria”, I replied with “Me llama Mary!”. She said “Soy de Venezula”. I said “Soy de Los Estados Unidos!”. C’mon, ask me what color shirt my cat is wearing- I am so ready!! 🙂 But instead of that, she broke out into a bunch of words I didn’t know which included “policia”. I really tried and tried to understand, but couldn’t. So I invited Zoe over to translate for me. Apparently she’s from Venezuela and the police had taken all of her things and she was trying to get home. I thought she wanted cash, and had Zoe explain that all I had was a credit card (I NEVER give anyone cash), but apparently she just wanted to use my Metro card to get on the train. Ok, that I can do. I went through, handed Maria my card, and she followed. Who knows what the story is there, but I wish her the best.

We got off at Universidad to go to Parque Explora. Where the main highlight would be an aquarium!! I am ALWAYS up for a foreign acquario! And this would be a special aquarium trip, because Haley and Zoe both took a full year of Marine Zoology online with me. From that experience, Haley became fascinated with sharks and does a lot of her own research on them even now that the class is over. I was really excited to get into an aquarium with someone who was a) excited to be there and b) excited to hear me excitedly yap about all kinds of things I know a lot about! The aquarium itself is pretty small, and mainly focused on freshwater (which makes sense because the Amazon, duh!). In fact, it has the largest freshwater aquarium in all of Colombia. Fortunately, I’m not only a marine goddess, but a freshwater one as well from my days of working in and owning a pet store (30 years ago? Seriously??!!). Haley asked SO. MANY. QUESTIONS. And they were all GREAT questions! And I knew the answers to most of them as was thrilled to death to transfer some of that knowledge! OMG, I’ve never been in an aquarium with someone who cared so much about what I had to say (and I have a lot to say in an aquarium!). Seriously, we became one and everyone else just kind of faded away- literally. We lost Zoe, Courtney, and Manuela to much more (in their minds!) interesting endeavors! Who knew some people didn’t like to stand at every single display for 5 minutes talking about fish?! Well, we may have lost three of our party, but we gained a new one. One of the staff members. He spoke English, and overheard me talking, and then started following us around from tank to tank listening and learning! #worldteacher

After the aquarium, we found the other members of our party in the hands on science exploration center. I’m telling you, this Parque Explora is a science teacher’s DREAM! Hands on physics experiments everywhere, mathematics in biology exhibits, the aquarium….seriously, I could film an awesome class here! In fact, Allison has volunteered to travel and film for me, but Haley said she’ll be better. As soon as I find out who works cheapest, I’m hiring one of them. 😉

People, I have to tell you. By this point, I was one hurting unit. My legs were killing me. My throat hurt really bad. And I knew I had to go back to the room and work until I went to bed. I was a wreck. But I was a hungry wreck. So we strolled down a little sidewalk thing lined with food vendors and got some kind of pork on a stick with a couple of potatoes. Those were GOOD. That little piece of bread. Eh.

We took the Metro back. Manuela and I got a cab together so she could  make sure I actually got to where I was going. I came up to the room and worked non-stop until I went to bed that night. I was seriously completely exhausted mentally and physically and whined to poor Brian about my sad sorry state. It sucks to not be 100% when you’re traveling, especially when you have to work on top of it. 🙁  But even with my wrecked self, it was still a great day! I’ll never forget bonding with Haley over fishes in the aquarium! I need to get that girl to a place that has sharks!! 🙂

DAY 5: Communa 13

Today, I woke up a brand new human being!! First of all, I slept for the first time. I took two Nyquils, shoved my ear plugs in, and fortunately Sunday nights are quiet in the restaurants downstairs. I first realized I was a new human being when I got out of bed. Wait! What? I’m not hunched over like a 90 year old, hobbling to the bathroom? Legs are working and pain free!! Woo-hoo!! Then I swallowed. No sore throat!! I’ll attribute that to the vast amounts of Airborne I had been sucking down the last 2 days and a good night’s sleep. Ok world, I’m ready for you! And thank goodness, because Allison had planned a wonderful trip to a local neighborhood called Communa 13, where we were going to do a walking tour. We met at the park and walked to the metro. We work that metro like we own it now! Went to the San Antonio station and transferred to the B line to San Javier. Our free walking tour with Zippy Tour met there.

Our guide for the day was Laura, a woman who was born and raised in Communa 13. I’m sure you’re saying, “What is Communa 13?”. So glad you asked! 🙂 It was once the most dangerous neighborhood in all of Medellin- at a point in time when Medellin was one of the most dangerous cities in the world. In other words, not a vacation destination! Why so dangerous? Well, I mentioned Pablo Escobar in an earlier entry, and I mentioned that I don’t know much about him. The short version is that Escobar was THE drug lord in the 1980’s and early 1990’s. As in supplying the US with over 80% its cocaine (70-80 TONS per month!!). As in the richest criminal in the WORLD (worth almost $60 BILLION US dollars in 2018 terms). Those stats alone are mind boggling. For christ’s sake, I can’t even get a damn can of Diet Dr. Pepper from London into the US and this yahoo is getting that much coke into the country??? Anyway, when you’re that powerful, it’s for a reason. You are controlling EVERYTHING around you. And everything around him was the city of Medellin, his hometown and base of operations. Anything that wasn’t falling into Escobar’s line, was eliminated. That included the police, politicians, rival cartel members, anyone that posed any kind of a potential threat to Escobar’s empire. Of course, Escobar wasn’t out there doing all of this dirty work himself. No, he hired hitmen. And many of them came from Communa 13. Why here? Several reasons. Remember how I mentioned in the Day 3 blog that the favelas had been cut off from all opportunities because there was no easy access to the city from the steep, steep hills? This was the situation in Communa 13 as well. There were lots of young people looking for money and opportunity- things Escobar would provide them with in return for “favors”. Another reason Communa 13 was so important was its strategic location- on the main highway out of Medellin to the north. All those drugs were passing right through here, and they needed protection. Control the highway, control the flow of goods.

In 1993, Escobar was killed. So you would think things would improve for Medellin and Communa 13 at that point. Not by a long shot. It got even worse. Rival cartels and their gangs fought for who would be the new cocaine empire. Gangs, guerillas, paramilitary all ran rampant- destroying anyone who got in their way. It was utter chaos of the most dangerous kind. Even small children, who were least expected to be dangerous criminals, were paid to kill the police. By the late 1990s, Medellin had become the most dangerous city in the WORLD, and Communa 13 was its most dangerous neighborhood. What can good people do in the face of all of this violence? Nothing. Too poor to escape. Tortured or killed if you try to report any crimes. I can’t even imagine.

The government initiated two different operations to gain control over Communa 13. The first one, Operation Mariscal in May of 2002, failed. The second was Operation Orion, conducted on October 16, 2002 (yes, that short of a time ago). The goal was to defeat all of the different rebel factions in the area. The military stormed in with over 1500 soldiers and Blackhawk helicopters. The fight on the streets lasted for 4 days. Innocent people couldn’t dare leave their homes, but even their homes weren’t safe from the rain of bullets. This wasn’t so much of an operation as a war- in the middle of a densely populated neighborhood. Of the hundreds who were killed or injured, they lay where they fell- there was no hope of getting any medical attention. The citizens had had enough. Any white cloth they had- bedsheets, towels, shirts- they began waving them, in a plea for the violence to stop. Many people completely disappeared- Laura told us it is believed that their bodies were dismembered and thrown into the landfill area on the mountain, La Escombrera, easily seen from the Communa. In fact, it’s thought to be the largest urban mass grave in the world. Victims are still trying to get answers to where their loved ones are. Women have united into one of the most vocal groups for justice- called Women Walking for Truth.

After Operation Orion, things were still not peaceful in Communa 13. New factions began to take hold. But after the siege of their community, the ordinary citizens started to take matters into their own hands to change their community and futures. Communa 13 isn’t perfect, no place is, but it has undergone a STUNNING transformation!! In fact, Medellin was named the most innovative city in the WORLD in 2013!! Imagine that, going from the most dangerous city to the most innovative in less than two decades. That says a lot about the people there! There are three things that have been the crucial factors for this change in Communa 13:
1. Street Art: A vibrant reminder of the Communa’s past, present, and optimistic future. And what’s amazing about it is that you do NOT see graffti on the pieces of well known street art by the major local artists. It is respected by all.
2. Escalators: 47 houses had to be removed to build this vital piece of infrastructure- a 384 meter series of escalators- that would finally allow the residents of Communa 13 easy access to the city, and its opportunities, below. What used to be the equivalent of climbing a 28 story building is now a quick 6 minute trip! These aren’t just transportation, they’re an equalizer.
3. Community solidarity: The people of Communa 13 are strong and proud. It’s evident everywhere you look. Together they strive to control their own destinies, and never again allow the criminal element (while it is still very much present, don’t doubt that) to control their lives.

I think I’d add a 4th. Tourism. Once a place where outsiders, even those from Medellin, would never have thought to venture, now there is a constant flow of tour groups (and their money) into this once isolated place.

And that is the ridiculously simplistic story of an extremely complicated neighborhood and it’s people. A neighborhood with as many layers of history as layers of houses. Laura guided us through the streets, showing us the art, giving us time to shop at local stores and galleries, to watch local entertainers, and even took us to her home (yes, she still lives there!). What a fantastic, interesting, and unique tour- I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone visiting Medellin! It didn’t have that same “human zoo” quality that Langa Township had in South Africa, which I appreciated. Here now, are the pictures. 🙂

First, the art…these were taken from all over the neighborhood.

The escalators! Such a game changer! And such a unique solution to a difficult problem! They were very clean, and there was a strong police presence.

And the art wasn’t just of the street variety! There was a breakdancing crew at the top of the escalators that was just so much fun. I couldn’t take my eyes off that little boy! He was sooooo cute, and man he had the MOVES!

While taking some pictures of the neighborhood, I spotted some more art high above me on a balcony in the distance…

And just to prove that I wasn’t just taking pictures of cute boys on balconies, but really WAS taking pictures of the neighborhood, here you go…

This is Laura, telling us all about Operation Orion. This was on the rooftop of her house, where she lived during Operation Orion- seeing people being shot in the street outside of her window, and where she still lives today. We had to walk quite a ways from the escalator, up a hill and up and down steep, narrow stairs to get to Laura’s house. Allison and I tried to imagine what life would be like if you were old or had a broken leg. You just wouldn’t be able to go anywhere. 🙁

About halfway through the tour, we stopped for a break. There was an ice cream shop on one side and a coffee shop on the other. I headed straight for the ice cream! And it wasn’t really ice cream. It was HEAVEN. Oh my god. I got a coconut one and it was frozen coconut pieces and maybe coconut milk all together in this amazing concoction! Best thing I had in Medellin, no lie! And after we left Laura’s house, we bought tiny potatoes from a street vendor- roasted to perfection! An income and an opportunity for a man that would not be there without the escalators and a neighborhood that has become peaceful enough to allow for tourism.

Allison and I left the tour a little early to walk back down on our own. It had seemed so EASY, our mile and a half walk up with Laura. We should have left a trail of arepa crumbs, because finding our way back was not as simple as we originally thought! And as soon as google maps sensed our uncertainty, it pounced. It saw its chance to try do the thing it does to me in EVERY country- lead me completely astray in an attempt that I am convinced is to kill me. (Case in point: making me walk into the middle of a freeway in Malaysia!). As we wandered further off the main road, I could see Allison’s face get a little nervous. We (by we, I mean Allison!) asked a guy where the metro station was. He gave us directions. Google maps laughed at his attempt to save us and turned us down yet another off the beaten path street. When it was basically trying to send us down a creepy darkish sidewalk thing between two buildings with a lot of men walking around, Allison and I gave the middle finger to Google maps and turned our white gringa asses right around. We then saw two other younger gringas up ahead and decided to follow them. Well, apparently they were using Google maps as well, as we kept going down the same not-so-tourist-friendly looking streets together. They were dressed a little (lot) more scantily than us, so we figured they would get kidnapped first at least! Allison was so uncomfortable. I just saw it as another grand adventure! I also don’t have children to take care of! We eventually made it back to the main road and Allison’s relief was palpable! I don’t think she’s used to such things! Hopefully she can chalk it up to a grand adventure now in hindsight! 🙂

Took the metro back to Poblado, and went to a store called Exito- a lot like Super Target where they have EVERYTHING you could ever possibly want. Allison had to pick up a few things, and I wanted to look for Dr. Pepper. Apparently Exito has everything you could possibly want EXCEPT Dr. Pepper. 🙁 Got a cab back to the room and worked my fingers to the bone until bedtime again. I have 4 new classes starting WHILE I AM IN EL SALVADOR (didn’t know I was going to be here when I scheduled that nightmare), plus grading, and a lesson plan, and emails…Oy. But I got most of it done and went to bed, knowing my last Medellin adventure would be tomorrow.

Today’s wildlife…Colombia, your wildlife game is WEAK SAUCE.