Medellin, Colombia 2022 Taking off from Panama City. A ticket to Medellin costs about $125. The main airport is a ways south of the city. You go through an 8 kilometer tunnel to get to the city. The first look of the city after getting out of the tunnel. View of our part of the city from the 17th floor of the medical building where we got our dental x-rays. We are in that shorter darker building near the center of the picture. We got $760 worth of dental x-rays for $28.89. The view of our balcony from our living room. The view of our balcony from our bedroom Eating out on our balcony. When we first got to Medellin it seemed like there were fireworks near our apartment about every other night. There is a Whole Foods like grocery store only about a hundred yards away. We have a washer but no dryer. So we hang up clothes out on the balcony. This is a bag for groceries that we picked up in Bali. Beautiful flower along the road down to a shopping center. A apple shaped huge hedge in front of a shopping mall just a little ways down the hill. Girls just want to have fun. Grey is just not her color. I used to color her hair. It was not my cup of tea. I still trim her hair. But it is totally worth it to me to pay professionals to do the hair coloring. Medellin was once considered about the most dangerous city in the world. Run by drug cartels. Murders. Bombs. Yikes! Today a much different city. Notice that Medellin beats Jackson, Mississippi (where we lived for over 30 years) in every crime category. As we were driving through the city, this huge pendulum appeared over the highway. I asked about it. It is suppose to mark the center of the city. We took the free walking tour of downtown Medellin. This was a very international group. We were the only Americans. Germany, France, Belgium, Canada, Australia… A pretty, but rare bus. Much more likely to see the fleet of all electric busses. This is the Park of Lights. I think there are about three hundred of these poles. They light up at night. A new market has sprung up next to the Park of Lights (Parque de Luz). This market is for farmers in the area along the border with Venezuela. The new more socialist government has had it with the US inspired war on drugs and instead of rifles and poisons they are trying to incentivize the farmers to grow crops other than the one used for cocaine. The second oldest church in Medellin. Now it is the go to place for prostitutes. A cheap hourly hotel just down the street. A beautiful building. Used to be the Hall of Justice (a big jail). Bet it didn’t look like this back then. Now it is a unique shopping mall. Glass escalators in the Hall of Justice shopping mall. The house of the mayor. The original architect (the top part) had a style that didn’t really fit in with most of the city. The bottom part is where the building was remodeled to blend in a bit better with its surroundings. Probably the most famous sculpturer in South America, Fernando Botero has donated about 100 of these huge works of art to the city and they are scattered around the main part of town. One of his sculptures was recently sold for about 1.5 million dollars. The dog. Another huge sculpture in Plaza Botero More Fernando Botero. I think it was 1995. There was a huge crowd here for a concert. Someone had a bomb in a backpack by this sculpture of a bird. It killed more than 30 people and injured over 200. People insisted that the sculpture wreckage be preserved so this tragedy could be remembered. A new bird sculpture now sits next to the old one.