As the plane descends through the heavy white cumulus clouds that drift over northwestern Colombia, you can see through a bright blue sky the green hills of Antioquia. Below, evergreen forests hide streams where brown-speckled trout swim freely and deer come to drink along the moss banks. The plane corkscrews around Rio Negro and prepares to land at Jose Maria Cordoba Airport in Medellin.
The drive from the airport, down mountain to the city, is spectacular. I don’t know how many times I have made that trip, but as soon as I roll down the truck windows, letting in the clean, crisp air filled with pine scent, I get excited.
Christmas time and the Medellin River, which cuts through the center of the city, is lit up in a blaze of sparkling lights and a floral display. Medellin is South America’s flower capital. Roses, gardenias, carnations, and other flowers are shipped from here to other parts of the world daily.
Mention visiting Medellin and you are sure to be met with a curious stare. Why would I want to spend Christmas in Medellin? For me it is the people or paisas, as they are affectionately called. Paisas are the backbone of Colombia, an unflinchingly honest, polite, and hospitable people.
To feel the energy of this city, head to the Parque de Llerras, where many of the bars and cafés are located, or Las Palmas, a strip of restaurants where four-wheel drive Jeeps are parked on either side of the cut road that wraps around the valley. Here, women dressed in tight-fitting denim jeans and wearing cowgirl boots jump up on tables and dance to the lyrics of “Hips Don’t Lie” by Colombian pop star, Shakira. Men wear sombreros and pass bottles of Aguadiente from table to table.
“For a long period of time, we have had to face accusations and all kinds of negative remarks regarding Medellin,” admits Medellin’s Mayor, Sergio Fajardo Valderrama. “We have had to struggle with the label of the most violent city in the world, the city of the cartels. It is true that we had to face the narco-business, an unpredictable phenomena no one could have ever foreseen. But we dealt with it and we still do, just like the rest of the country, and like the consumer countries do.”
Medellin is the second largest city in Colombia, after the capital Bogota, with nearly three million people. While Pablo Escobar, the infamous drug baron killed 12 years ago, continues to command much of the foreign media’s imagination, Colombians would prefer people to think of the Medellin of today and tomorrow. A greater Medellin where paisas are free to map their own destiny.
“We want the world to know Medellin not only because of our past,” continues Mayor Valderrama, “but also for the challenges we are facing, for what we have achieved and for the great opportunities the city offers today.”
And what does Medellin offer? There can be no doubt; a city of hope, a city of prosperity, and a city of passion.
-Robert Davis
Medellin, Colombia IL
