Medellín

I've spent the last three days in Medellín, which is Colombia's second largest city. For a period in the 1980s and 1990s Medellín was known as the most murderous city in the world, but that all changed after the death of the drug lord Pablo Escobar in 1993, and today Medellín is a thriving modern city and you'd never know about its violent history. It even has a modern metro system, which is the first I've seen since Buenos Aires at the very start of my trip.

Most of Medellín's colonial architecture has disappeared, although the old cathedral still exists, as does a new one. These days the city is more dominated by modern architecture, in particular the Coltejer Tower, which was built in the late 1960s.

On Saturday I visited the Museo de Antioquia, which is Medellín's most important museum, and one of the best that I've been to in South America. On the ground floor there was a temporary exhibition about Latin American music and dance, which was a lot of fun. There was also a large permanent exhibition of works by Fernando Botero, who's one of Colombia's most famous artists. He's known for his depictions of comically exaggerated figures, as you can see for example in these two pictures. Even his still lifes and sculptures are 'fat', for example this bronze sculpture of a guitar.

Outside the museum, in the Plazoleta de las Esculturas, there's a collection of 23 large bronze sculptures by Botero, including Perro (Dog) and Hombre a caballo (Man on a horse), which I took a look around. Later that day I also visited Medellín's botanical garden.

On Saturday night I went to see Toy Story 3 in 3D, at the cinema in the vast El Tesoro shopping mall. Animated films tend to be dubbed into Spanish here, so having found what I think is the only daily showing of Toy Story 3 in English in the whole city, I took my chance to go and see it. I hear grown men have been reduced to tears by the ending, so just for the record, I didn't cry (although the girl sitting next to me did). It was a great film though.

On Sunday I spent the morning updating my blog and the rest of the day wandering around the city centre, and this morning (Monday) I went for a ride on the Metrocable, which is Medellín's cable car, where there were good views from the top (here and below).

Best of all, a trip in the cable car doesn't cost £10 like the TelefériQo in Quito does. It's part of the metro system, so I was able to go all the way to the top for the price of a single metro ticket (1550 Colombian pesos, or about 55p).

Having been here for few days now, I'd say that out of all the South American cities I've visited, and with the possible exception of Buenos Aires, Medellín is probably the city that I could most imagine myself living in. Judging from the number of people in the hostel that I've heard are looking to buy or rent apartments here, I'm clearly not the only person to feel that way.

OK, I'm right up to date now. I'll be leaving Medellín shortly on an overnight bus to Mompós in northern Colombia.