So here I am in Medellín. It is strange how quickly I have become at home in my new surroundings. Alonso, my host, is away a lot at work, which gives me a lot of time to walk and explore on my own, and later in the day spend time in the apartment to work on various projects.
And, some good news... this morning my confiscated luggage arrived at the apartment, everything intact, nothing missing or broken. So much for Aeromexico or Aero Pendejo (you'll find pendejo in Urban Dictionary). And now I am wearing a clean shirt, plus deodorant, and I could even shave, finally. And Alonso has the gifts I brought him.
I imagine I could write a bit about Mexico City. Still as bright, colourful, chaotic huge and unrestrained and crowded and mad as ever. They now have double decker buses, red ones, like the ones in London. Yep. There has also been a proliferation of Starbucks cafés in the last seven years since my last visit in 2014, which is never a good sign. And also, Chilangos (what the people in Mexico City call themselves ) have taken up jogging. Not an aficionado myself of that solitary antisocial and narcissistic sport, but I understand that people want to be fit and healthy during the pandemic, even if that's not necessarily going to help them. Kind of like whistling in the dark, methinks.
I had forgotten how huge that city is, and how great the distances, and I could only fit in so much walking this time, since I was there for just a day and a half. People generally are friendly and helpful, and I was sometimes, asking directions from as many as ten kind strangers in a row. Plus an enjoyable chat with a waitress in a coffee shop in both Spanish and English, dinner at El Péndulo, which is a cafe and restaurant inside a huge bookstore.
The hotel is no hell. Reasonably priced, but the guy at the front desk was quite unwelcoming, even the way he said "Welcome" and the security guard seemed to take his job a little too seriously, if you know what I mean. But I did have a decent sleep, so what's there to complain about really.
Sunday, I hung out for three hours with my friend David who lives with his wife in a northern suburb. We did lunch then went for a walk. I already told you about my ride to the airport yesterday.
I seem to be having an interesting time in Medellín so far. Yesterday, after grocery shopping, Alonso and I went home, then he went to work and I went down for a nap. Then I did a walk in the surrounding neighbourhood for more than an hour to help orientate me to the area.
There is quite a poor and hardscrabble neighbourhood nearby where I went walking for quite a while. Then, on my way back to the apartment I found a monarch butterfly on the sidewalk. I bent down and reached out to the butterfly which crawled onto my finger (I am not making any of this up). he fell off my finger and fluttered back to the ground, so I reached over to him and he climbed back on my finger. Then, this local guy, perhaps around forty or so, saw me with the butterfly and we got to chatting a bit in Spanish. Then I offered him the butterfly, which he gladly accepted on his finger, and the butterfly seemed very willing to go with him. I told him that it is a symbol of blessing.
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