A fourteen hour bus ride overnight delivered us from the coast to Medellin. This mountainous city views red from a distance because of all the brick used in its creation. Once the home to Pablo Escobar's feared Medellin cartel, the city endured to become a proud and vibrant community.
We finally found ourselves situated in a good neighborhood at the Hostal Samán in the Pablado neighborhood. This neighborhood has become the lodo of the city offering nightlife, restaurants, and a plethora of hostels. The crowd, 20-40 years old, show up around 9pm every night in the neighborhood to hang out with friends and salsa the night away. Us two being on an early rise and early sleep schedule couldn't hang past midnight when the clubs really turn it up.
The other fellows in the dorm often come home late in the morning and grind their teeth all day sleeping for some reason I haven't quite pinpointed.
Medellin profited greatly from its illicit history as shown by its transit systems. Throughout the city exists a metro with multiple lines crisscrossing the city. Where they couldn't put the metro they got creative and employed the use of a machine I am all too familiar with: ski gondolas. They even installed thirteen outdoor escalators in a poor neighborhood as a public works project.
We took a very long gondola ride to Parque Alví outside of town for some hiking in the beautiful temperate forest. The evergreens rose some 90 feet into the air from a lush jungle floor. Streams with swimming holes were filled with kids screaming, cliff diving and splashing. After a fun filled naturalist day we started home just as a thunderstorm broke. CRACK, lightning was arching all around our swinging gondola cabin leaving us petrified and hoping the ride was over. We finally got to the transfer station and off-loaded. We were stuck in the station forty minutes while the deluge lasted. 
