So we've had a fun and relatively relaxing few days in Medellin, such a shame we're leaving tomorrow because there's so much more of the city to see!
Yesterday we rode the metro in the morning, they've extended it so that it connects to a cable car system because Medellin is so steep that previously some of the poorer parts were completely unreachable and meant that a large part of the population couldn't make it into the centre to work. The cable car ride is such a lesson in the lives of these poorer people and is so close to their houses you feel both fascinated and embarrassingly voyeuristic. The houses are largely quite ramshackle, with corrugated iron roofs held down by bricks or anything the builders could find including old bikes and tyres. People dry their clothes on their roofs and play football in the streets, every house is higher than the other and many are painted bright colours in true Colombian style so the effect is really beautiful. We ate our lunch next to the big, black, asymmetric and curiously out of place library that towers over everything else at the top of the mountain. Every day here at 3 it rains and yesterday was no exception- we got caught in a torrential downpour that more or less continued all evening. Went out to a bar where you pay an entrance fee (girls a third of what the boys pay!) then get your alcohol free all night - but have to pay for mixers! Was very good fun and have had problems getting over the hangover today..
Didn't manage to sleep it off this morning because I had an 8.00 appointment with our friend catherine's dentist for some teeth whitening! Trying to converse with her in my terrible Spanish was absolutely hilarious and ridiculous- she obviously thought I was completely loco coming to Medellin with extremely scratchy Spanish! But appointment went well despite us being 30 mins late (hey, this is Colombia of course!) then continuing our self improvement mission we went to have pedicures and I had some eyelash extensions. Totally vain but so much fun and SO much cheaper than England! Next stop- padded butt pants! We've seen quite a few girls with the surgically enhanced butt here and my god Jennifer lopez eat your heart out! They are mesmerising!! The consequence of which means we're going o have to try out those padded pants... Watch this space! Photo is of keo with a random wizard at the shopping centre earlier- little cherub got very excited!!