Medellin

We checked out of our Airbnb after a week and took a short flight to Medellin. The bus takes 13 hours but the flight is about an hour and costs $60 even the day before. Even still we spent most of the day not doing much. Checkin times for hotels are at 3pm so arriving early in a city poses a problem with the luggage, so we chose an early afternoon flight, and so we went to the airport around 1040am and hung out in the avianca vip lounge thanks to our priority pass cards. We had some sodas and snacks and watched the last half of ET. 

Medellin is situated in a valley surrounded by mountains. The airport is in a different valley and accessed by a long tunnel. Medellin is famous for being the second largest city in Colombia and home of Pablo Escobar's cartel in the 1980's and 90's. But that's old news and it now a hip home for digital nomad and tourists. There are skyscrapers perched on the steep hills and good roads and sidewalks and beautiful malls. There is money here for sure. 

We checked into our aparthotel and took an Uber to a mall in the El Poblado area to shop at Decathlon. Decathlon is a French outdoor retailer that we happen to love for it's low prices and sometimes good deals. We have visited them in France, Italy, and Taiwan. This branch was one of the smaller ones, but the malls was massive and crowded with shoppers and their well behaved dogs. Benches and seats were filled with patrons. There were Christmas decorations up and an ice skating rink and a massive dragon inflatable obstacle course. The kids wanted to do the obstacle course so we paid for two 30-minutes sessions ($17).

Everyone was starving after that and we ate at restaurant right above the obstacle course. Dd wanted pizza. Ellie wanted Chinese food. Christine wanted a steak place. The kids split a burger, and Christine and I split a steak and soup ($32). Delicious. The steak places are great. 

We took an Uber back while a big soccer match was playing in town. In fact we could see the opening fireworks from across the valley at dinner. The driver said it was the two rival Medellin teams playing each other. As we drove home people were watching the game at every bar and on sidewalks.