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The bus ride yesterday from Tulua to Armenia was fairly quick as expected and we got them to drop us off at the closest point to the airport, where we grabbed another bus there for $2 each and settlet in to share a burger while waiting. There was a full moon over the runway as we took off. I am sure that I took a photo inside the plane but it went to cyberspace I guess.
Our referred taxi driver, Jorge Betancur, was johnny-on-the-spot for us and the roundabout way to our strange hotel was truly mindbending. We will use him twice more on Saturday.
The hotel, Living Hotel, was expecting us, but then wanted to charge us more than quoted on Booking.com so I objected and asked what the extra fee was for... I guess it was extra commission to Booking, so the suggestion was to cancel the booking with Booking, and just do a new reservation... so we did that.
Then we get to our room, which has 3 fans but no air-conditioning as promised... So down I go again, ready to move out if they will refund our money because our friend Tony had advised we could stay free at his place... They apologized that the availability of air-conditioned rooms was slight, but they would move us to one Friday, so I relented.... But it was so warm that we opened the window wide, facing an apartment next door with automatice lights that kept going on over 3 floors with the wind... And the hotel is right next to an underpass so the traffice noise never quit. The temperature actually got cold at night, but it didn't help, I really didn't sleep a wink.
This morning we went down for the included breakfast and that was actually quite good andwe ate it outside onminiature picnic tables. Then weconfirmed that we would leave our luggage ready in our room and they would move it to the AC room later/
We had a city tour confirmed so we were waiting downstairs when this huge, beautiful bus came for us and we were the first pick-up from various hotels.
It turned out that a few of us at the front of the bus werenot fluent in Spanish, with Michael from Donegal, Ireland, and Dimitris and Rania from northern Greece. I offered to be an unofficial translator and we got through the day just fine as a loose-knit group.
We had a tour of a couple of parks, a replica of the early town, a good portion of downtown, stopped for a good typical Colombian meal, with most of us opting for the recommended chorizo sausage which was as good as advertized.
Then we were taken to the Metro (LRT) station that connects to the Skytram that covers a big portion of the city, mostly over the poorer areas. The views were indeed spectacular over this city of 2.5 million which has umpteen skyscrapers everywhere.
The we were taken to the section of the city called Comuna 13 which used to be the former gangs area and the wall of pictures of the murdered and missing people is indeed sobering.
Another sobering thing is the climb up the hillside of this area to this artsy, funky and alive rejuvenated area of thousands of vendors and entertainers. Even the walk back down is hard on the legs. But we took some nice shots of some very appealing art and bought a few gifts for some people back home.
Now it is time for bed as we have another tour tomorrow..... I sure hope this loads properly tonight. The connection must be crappy because not much has been working right until now.
I hope you enjoy the pictures. Of course they came up backwards and I am too tired to fight with it. That was the day’s excitement.
Al
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Chiva bus 
Chive bus with Michael and Dimitris 
Gotta love art like this 
Brave girl on bungee swing 
Loved this! 
Hills of Medellin 
and more hills 
and more hills 
OK, more hills 
and more again. 
I like... 
Frida Kahlo 
Cute 
Part of sad wall of missing and murdered 
Tree free of bark 
Cute gal I tried to match with Michael 
Dimitris looking down on part of Medellin 
Dimitris and Michael 
Medellin sprawl 
Tall buildings everywhere 
SkyTram 
Our great guide Malagy 
Good lunch included 
Castle downtown 
Rania and Cristina 
Rania and Dimitris 
High on a building 
Rania and Dimitris 
Michael 
Big dog 
Castle 
Castle 
Bolivar statue? 
Old guy with a local 
Cristina and Moana 
Looks wood, but yellow concrete 
Dumbo under construction 
Dumbo and Moana 
Big Inukshuk + Cristina 
Fascinating tree! 
Replica of the old town 
Cristina and unwilling guy 
Inside 
Replica church 
Old guy and unwilling girl 
Part of the city 
Statue there 
Sidewalk jewellery seller with child 
Painting on a shop front 
Big bus, just for us! 
Our little hotel 
Driving in at night 
Big city 
and this is a tiny part... 
Full moon over the runway at Armenia 
Looking out to the runway 
Bus to Armenia from Tulua
