But the city is actually quite nice, friendly and so green! In the 12 hours or so that we have been here there's been a permanent blanket of cloud over the city and the surrounding hills. It all looks very European. A tropical version of the Lake District perhaps? Rolling, lush green hills covered in dense cloud and hanging in the valleys.
We arrived in Colombia following a bumpy flight from Quito. The city itself is fairly affluent with nice bars and restaurants and it's also really clean. There's none of the half finished buildings of Bolivia and rubbish strewn in the city suburbs.
It's also connected with mega-drug cartel Pablo Escobar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_escobar), who was killed here in 1993 and once bank-rolled most of the city. Medellin seems to have had quite a troubled past. It wasn't accessible to foreigners until fairly recently, which might explain why people seem generally nice to gringos here. The taxi driver even said goodbye with a handshake and a pat on the back!
Shame to have only night here. But there will be no sad farewells as we are off to Santa Marta on the Caribbean coast now. Every cloud...
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