Arvi

After inquiring about good places to do some hiking I was informed that I could go to Arvi and that the best way to get there was via the Medellin Metro. I grabbed a tourist map and walked down Calle 7 to Avenida al Poblado and consulted my map there. Yet another friendly local stopped her jogging to inquire if I needed any assistance and then directed me to Calle 10 to find the station. The station was very clean and quiet unlike the subways of New York for example. In Medellin the trains run above ground and the cables overhead. For 2,600 pesos I purchased a ticket. I slipped the small ticket into the slot in the front of the turnstile, the ticket was consumed, the light turned green and I walked through the turnstile. Signs everywhere were in Spanish and English. The cars were filled beyond seating capacity but not stuffed. In short order I got to my transfer station. The north bound portion of the trip was in a Gondola that seated about 6 people. We travelled up the side of the mountains, over the tops of the houses of the poorest parts of the city. More processions with people on stilts and carrying banners. When we got to the end of the line there was a short walk to an attached terminal that had cables that crested the mountain. An additional ticket was required, about 2,400 pesos I believe. The coordinator efficiently filled the gondolas. Groups of 4 were topped off with groups of 2 for instance. The ticket was a plastic card. After a half hour wait (this is a very popular destination on the weekends) I approached the turnstile. The attendant performed a proximity scan on my RFID card and took the card. Strange system indeed. Maybe they were recording queue times.


As the gondola approached to summit, the wind, unabated by the surrounding terrain picked up considerably. After crossing the peak the cable descending and ascended a small number of times and at the 23rd tower we arrived at the terminal exiting into the park for no additional charge. The park itself is small, less than 2 hectare (5 acres) with a large paved road winding through it. This was a bit of a disappointment but after following the road for a bit I found a trail that led off into the forest and spent an hour looking at a great deal of lichen in what appeared to be a deciduous forest.

The trail ended back on a two lane road that I walked for a bit and I took another trail that exited on what was evidently, once again the same road. Walking further there was a large boisterous party with people evidently having a great deal of fun, excitedly singing along with the band from time to time. I found an opening in the fence but it was guarded by a private guard bearing a break action single shot rusty shotgun. Despite having no great respect for the quality of his munitions I acceded to his insistence that this was a private affair. I walked a bit further down the road and then doubled back and exited on yet another trail, near a river. The trail followed the river and after a short time I encountered the party again, this time on the far side of the river. A couple of kilometers later I climbed a steep hill. I heard a voice behind me. I turned and there was a tall, slender young man at the base of the hill. I attempted to reply, but due to the distance there was no communication, just a brief period of shouting between us. At the top of the hill was a large gravel road that went both left and right with no indication as to the correct direction. I guess the correct direction would be based on your intended destination, I just wanted to return to the road from which I came, hopefully a bit closer to the cable station.

The young man came to the top and I asked him which way to go. His mastery was absolute. "We go this way, if we find no bus, we backtrack." I was done hiking but I liked his attitude. His English was better than my Spanish, by a long shot but he apologized for it anyway. "Mi habla solo Espanol su comprende nada." "I understood that." We hiked for a while and finally reached the end of the lake I haven't told you about and crossed the dam which was obviously hydroelectric. At the far side of the dam we were on forbidden territory passing the administration building we headed for the gates that were obviously locked. The chains could be seen from over 40 meters away. Two more private guards were with two women. They were folding up a tent. Don't ask me I'll never know.

They allowed us to pass and said something in Spanish which Juan said meant that I obviously was tired. A few kilometers down the road we passed a hotel and Juan asked me if I wanted to visit it. Now, why in the name of god, would I want to visit this hotel? "No, gracias." A minute later... "Cerveza su vende hotel?" "Possible" We backtracked a little bit. Yet another private guard with the substandard armament was visible. A bus pulled up and we attempted to scurry past the gate while he was checking out the bus but were intercepted. "Necessito comprare dos cervesa aqui." Yeah, I'm the master of Spanish. The guard looked at us and just gave us a nod. I don't know what I could have said that would have denied us entry. "Tenemos que ver a las chicas jóvenes que están lejos de su padre" would probably have worked, but I didn't google translate with me at the time.

We each had a quick beer. I found out that Juan was an attorney fighting for the rights of the workers and defending himself from entering into a pact with the devil by not over exerting himself. I explained how big law firms work in the US, turning idealist young men into soulless sources of income promising that if they could suck enough cash out of enough people by working 80 hours a week at 1/4 the rate they were being paid they could in turn abuse the next generation while taking the profits of their labor.

Invigorated we returned to the trail and found a large queue of buses ready to take the revellers back to the gondolas to begin the reverse trip to Medellin. The lines extended into the forbidden territory and I just didn't want to deal with it all, getting more and more frustrated. I bid him goodbye and started to walk back.

By now I was pretty tired and I stuck out my thumb as I walked but I don't think that hitch-hiking in Columbia is a fruitful exercise no matter how bedecked one is in Gringo attire. Full bus after full bus passed me as I marched on.

At one point a bus passed me and came to a stop and a head emerged from the rear door. I ran to the bus and saw that it was Juan who was standing at the rear door. He had evidently boarded the bus and caused it to stop and wait for me. I shook his hand warmly and he directed me to the front so that I could pay. The bus was silent during my walk up the aisle but after I gave my money some guy whispered something to the guy next to him about the gringo. I turned and said "Gringo apreciar bus alto" which probably translates into "shove a plate up your ass" but there was quite a bit of laughter and peopled started talking about Juan stopping the bus for the overheated gringo.

A bit further down the road a tall, slender attractive woman whose hair was an improbable shade of red boarded the bus bearing a bouquet of flowers and a bag and indicated that she wanted to sit next to me on the seat. I was on the front seat of the bus so I had to fold my feet underneath me to get them behind the rise that separated the passengers from the driver. She tucked her flowers on the far side of the partition that separated me from the driver. The partition bore an image of a Spanish Christ, (nobody down here seems to think he would have looked Jewish or Ethiopian) and I turned to her and said "No necessito flor pora mi" and pointed at her flowers. She gave me a bemused and confused look and turned her direction gaze straight forward. Two other men boarded right behind her and secured proximate positions to this lovely woman, blocking the traffic from others who wanted to board the bus.

The old man who sat on the hump and faced backwards quickly read that the woman wasn't with me and engaged her in a protracted conversation. Juan walked back up the aisle and apologized for me not understanding that there was a bus that would take me directly back to Medellin and took a seat behind me. I watched the beautiful scenery as we wound our way up and down the hills on the way back to Medellin. Finally my legs couldn't take being folded back any more. I asked the woman to extend her legs to the right of the partition and to the left of the man giving her the attention so I could have room to rotate and pull my legs out from under the seat. The man pointed to her legs and his shoulders. I stifled a laugh, she laughed out loud. I thought this old guy went from being a complete peckerhead to a pretty cool guy and she was very well humored. Juan and I exchanged email addresses once before boarding the bus and I had him enter his address on my itouch while we were on the bus. He told me to write him if there was any way he could help me. The people here are very friendly and helpful.

We got off the bus in the middle of the city. Juan wanted to make sure that I could make it to the metro to get home, but I told him I would just wander around for a while and then get a cab. An hour later I hailed a cab. This was like crosstown traffic in Manhattan with Panamanian taxi drivers. We went nowhere and horns blasted all the time. Maybe Medellin isn't Nirvana after all. I told the driver "This is crazy. Fuck this, I will walk." He looked back at me, I couldn't even get out of the cab unless I rolled down a window and crawled out of it. After a while he got to a cross street and got us out of it and we proceeded apace to less hectic sections of the city.

I got back and wrote a big blog entry on this while hanging out with the exceptionally attractive receptionist and the incredibly built cleaning woman while the residents all changed clothes into "I'm going to go out and get me some" attire. Then the whole draft went away.

So that's what you get, more than what you wanted anyway.